Several passages within the OT itself
are often thought to reflect either prophecy’s decline in prestige or its
disappearance. Ps. 74:9 is one such text:
We do not see our signs; there is no
longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.
This psalm is often thought to have
originated during the Maccabean period and to reflect the Seleucid capture of
the temple (Ps. 74:3-4). Yet it may reflect the situation which attended the destruction
of the Solomonic temple in 586 B.C. when the temple prophets may have lost a
great deal of their credibility. Ezek. 13:9 and Zech. 13:2-6 are thought to
reflect the decline in prestige of prophecy during the exile and postexilic
periods. Yet both authors refer, not to the general deterioration in the credibility
of prophets, but to the eschatological elimination of false prophets.
Similarly, Dan. 9:24 probably refers, not to the historical cessation of
prophecy, but to the eschatological climax of the predictions of all the
prophets up to and including Daniel. (David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early
Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1983], 105)
