Who’s the Audience?

(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, “Come, and let us go to the seer”; for he who is called a prophet now was formerly called a seer.) 1 Samuel 9:9 NASB

Prophet/Seer – Once in awhile, if you are paying attention, you run across a sentence like this that clearly indicates that the audience of the story is not the characters in the story. When the story took place, the particular person in question was called a rōʾeh, but now, when the story is being told, this particular person is referred to as a nābîʾ. We hardly notice this. We read right over it, simply assuming that the author is providing us with some interesting historical background. But if we do not stop and consider what is being said, we will naively assume that the verse was written so that we would understand the change. That would be a mistake.

Unfortunately, it is a far too common mistake. Over and over we encounter people whose interpretation of the text is really a product of their own culture and historical period. Rarely do we find people who actually fret over what the words meant to the original audience. And in this case, as in so many others, the original audience is not the people who were present during the time of Samuel. If they were, there would be no necessity of explaining the change in title. In other words, we should date this text after the word rōʾeh evolved into the world nābî’.

First we need a little background. What’s the difference between rōʾeh and nābî’?

A name for the nābîʾ (prophet) is rōʾeh (seer) suggesting that the act of seeing God’s message (by dreams or visions) was so important that the spokesman (nābîʾ) might be called one who sees (divine things), that is, a “seer” (I Sam 9:9, 11, 18, 19 and at least seven other times in the ot). This feature placed certain limits on prophetic communication about the future and prophetic interpretation as God was careful to point out (Num 12:4–8) and as the prophets regretfully acknowledge (Dan 8:27; 12:8). The vision often needed further interpretation.^[1]

“Since, quite obviously, the same individual can be designated by the three terms, what if any, is the distinction between them? … The word nābîʾ … stressed the objective or active work of the messenger of the Lord in speaking forth God’s Word. The terms rōʾeh and ḥōzeh, translated seer on the other hand emphasized the subjective element, namely the receiving of divine revelation by seeing. In Isa 30:10 the rebellious Israelites say to the seers, ‘See not.’ The term prophet emphasized the prophet’s utterances, rōʾeh and bosʿh indicated his method of receiving divine communication” (Hobart E. Freeman, An Introduction to the OT Prophets, Moody, 1968, pp. 40–41).^[2]

With this in mind, it appears that the two are almost synonyms, the real difference being the method rather than the person. But this is even more curious. If the terms are interchangeable, then why does the writer bother to tell us that there has been an evolution in classification? The answer must be that his intended audience used to classify these actions as actions of a “seer” but now they call them actions of a “prophet.” And this tells us something else about the way we read the Bible.

The audience is not always the same. Some texts are written to one group of people, some to another. So it’s not simply a matter of culture and historical period. It is also a matter of the sub-group of the culture. What particular group of people does this text address?

You’re probably wondering why we would even bother with things like this. Isn’t the message pretty much the same no matter who it was originally given to? What does it really matter? Ah, but then we come to the account of the triumphal entry of Yeshua into Jerusalem. The people are joyfully shouting and praising God. However, it seems as if just a few days later they have completely reversed themselves, now crying out for his execution. Here is an example of not noticing the sub-group of the audience. Those who opposed Yeshua were not singing with joy one day and hurling accusations the next. No, the ones who were singing were not the same group as the ones who wanted him dead. This was not a mass reversal of affection. It was two different audiences in the same city. And this helps us resist the anti-Semitic charge that the “Jews” rejected the Messiah. The “Jews” make up many different sub-groups. Some believed.   Some didn’t. When we want to investigate the stories, we need to know who’s doing what to whom, down to the details.

And when it comes to Paul’s letters, oh, how important it is to know which group he is addressing. Maybe we wouldn’t have such arguments if we spent more time figuring out this problem before we started telling each other what the text really means.

Topical Index: seer, prophet, nābî, rōʾeh, exegesis, 1 Samuel 9:9

^[1] Culver, R. D. (1999). 2095 רָאָה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 823). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.