Literary but Noncanonical Prophets

Not all of the literary prophets, however, found themselves as authors of works that would later be gathered together in the canons of the Old or New Testaments. At least eight literary but non-canonical prophets are mentioned by name in the Old Testament. Jasher was the first, in the fifteenth century B.C., perhaps a mere 40 years after Moses’ time. Although the Book of Jasher is mentioned in both Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, this book was not included in the Old Testament.IRWHW 73.6

For-and-one-half centuries later, “Nathan the prophet” and “Gad the seer” wrote books ^{101 Chronicles 21:9; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 29:25.} during the reign as King David; but while the latter’s psalms were incorporated into the Old Testament, the books of the former were not. About two decades later Ahijah the Shilonite authored prophetically inspired writings, ^{112 Chronicles 9:29; 1 Kings 11:29; 14:7.} and another 20 years later along came the prophet Shemaiah ^{122 Chronicles 12:15.} and Iddo the Seer ^{132 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22.} as literary but noncanonical prophets. Then some 20 years afterward, Jehu wrote an inspired prophetic book ^{141 Kings 16:1, 7; 2 Chronicles 19:2; 20:34.} and the last of the literary but noncanonical prophets (at least as referred to in the Bible) was Elijah ^{152 Chronicles 21:12.} in the early ninth century B.C.IRWHW 73.7

The question immediately comes to mind, if these men were truly inspired, why were their writings not included in the Old Testament? Some have suggested a ready solution: Their writings, though inspired, were not as inspired as those of the biblical authors. This idea of degrees of inspiration has a long history in Adventism; a variation of the theme has surfaced in our own time. ^{16The efforts of contemporary polemicists to disassociate the new “degrees of revelation” from the discredited “degrees of inspiration” position instinctively brings to mind Shakespeare’s observation: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene 2, Line 43).}IRWHW 73.8

One hypothesis of equal (if not superior) validity is that the messages of these literary but non-canonical prophetic writers were of a local nature: They were written to meet an immediate situation in their own day. The Holy Spirit in His infinitely superior wisdom felt that it was unnecessary to preserve those messages for later periods in history.IRWHW 73.9