Freeing the Burden of Prophecy 347 g) History of Prophecy Weis believes that his work contributes to our understanding of the history of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible: This suggests that, near its end, the prophetic movement had become fundamentally a movement of the tradents of the prophets. It further suggests that the locus of revelation had shifted from the living encounter of a prophet with YHWH to the recorded or remembered words of an earlier prophet who had had such an encounter – which words could, in some way or other, still be seen to have validity in human affairs. In this context the ‘dying out’ of the prophetic movement may not be due so much to the ‘failure’ of prophecy as to the fact that the locus of revelation was no longer living persons. We may do better to speak of a transformation of the movement (25). 2. Evaluating Weis a) Possibilities At first sight, Weis’ theory appears to have possibilities for the study of Zech 9–14. Over the past half century, scholars have struggled over the issue of the relationship between Zech 1–8 and 9–14 and Weis’ theory offers form critical evidence that Zech 9–14 is intimately related to at least Zech 1–8 and possibly also Hag 1–Zech 8. This conclusion echoes that of many who have worked on the book of the Twelve as a whole over the past decade (26). Furthermore, scholars have often highlighted the density of innerbiblical allusion in Zech 9–14, allusions not only to Zech 1–8, but also to most of the latter prophets. Weis’ theory would establish that the intention of the writers of these texts was to explicate these earlier prophetic utterances in a time of crisis. But can this theory be exploited for the study of Zech 9–14? Is there any foundation to Weis’ theory? There is little question that Weis has provided the most intense study of the term ma¢¢˝’ and its attendant texts. His presentation of the history of debate is accurate and his analyses of the texts are sensitive (25) Ibid., 365. (26) M.J. BODA, Haggai–Zechariah Research. A Bibliographic Survey (Tools for Biblical Studies; Leiden 2003) 29-31; cf. A. SCHART, “Reconstructing the Redaction History of the Twelve Prophets: Problems and Models”, Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve (ed. J.D. NOGALSKI – M.A. SWEENEY) (Symposium; Atlanta 2000) 34-48; P.L. REDDITT, “The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Review of Research”, Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve (ed. A. SCHART – P. REDDITT) (BZAW; Berlin 2003) 1-26.