Bible Study · Counting The Voices

How Many Prophets Are In The Bible? It Depends Who Counts

Sixteen wrote books. The rabbis counted fifty-five. Scripture names dozens more and leaves many unnamed. Here is how every number gets built, and why the list never closed.

By Pastor Johnny Ova · Sound of Heaven · 9 Min Read

The Short Answer

Sixteen, Fifty-Five, Or Far More

Straight Answer

How many prophets are in the Bible? There is no single number, because it depends on what you count. Sixteen prophets have books named after them, four major and twelve minor, and the Talmud counts forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses.

Add the prophets who never wrote a book, the unnamed ones and the New Testament prophets, and the total runs past a hundred. And the list is still open, because the Spirit still gives the gift to the church.

Online lists usually hand you one tidy total, after making choices about who counts without telling you. Here are the choices, one at a time.

For the role itself, start with what a prophet is in the Bible. This page is the roll call.

Count One · The Writing Prophets

The Sixteen With Books

The number most people are after is sixteen. These are the prophets whose names sit on books in the part of the Old Testament that Christian Bibles call the Prophets.

The Major Four

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Long books written around the crisis of Assyria, Babylon and the exile.

The Twelve

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Short books, some only a page long.

Major And Minor

The labels are about length, not importance. Micah is minor, and his call to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God is one of the most quoted lines in Scripture.

What About Lamentations?

It sits after Jeremiah and tradition ties it to him, but no prophet's name appears in its text, so it does not add a seventeenth name.

The Jewish Bible arranges these same books differently, and it does not come out to sixteen either.

Hebrew BibleNevi'imנְבִיאִיםThe Prophets

Former Prophets

Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. History books on a Christian shelf, prophetic books in the Hebrew canon, because the story of Israel is itself read as a prophetic word.

Latter Prophets

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve, with the Twelve copied together and counted as a single book, the Book of the Twelve.

Daniel

Placed in the Writings, not the Prophets. Jesus still calls him "the prophet Daniel" in Matthew 24:15.

Sixteen is a count of a bookshelf. Some of the most important prophets in Scripture never wrote a line.

Count Two · The Prophets In The Story

The Ones Who Never Wrote A Book

Moses, Samuel and Elijah are among the biggest prophetic figures in the Old Testament, and none of them has a book in the prophets section. They show up inside the story.

Genesis 20:7

Abraham

God tells Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet who will pray for him.

The Exodus

Moses, Aaron And Miriam

Moses is the pattern for every prophet after him. Aaron is his prophet before Pharaoh in Exodus 7:1, and Miriam is called the prophetess in Exodus 15:20.

The Judges

Deborah

A prophetess judging Israel under a palm tree in Judges 4:4 and 5.

The Early Kingdom

Samuel, Nathan And Gad

Samuel anointed kings. Nathan told David to his face that he was the man. Gad advised him.

The Divided Kingdom

Ahijah, Jehu, Micaiah And More

Ahijah tore a new cloak into twelve pieces to announce the split of the kingdom (1 Kings 11). Jehu son of Hanani rebuked a king. Micaiah stood alone against the court.

Ninth Century BC

Elijah And Elisha

Confronting Baal worship in the northern kingdom.

2 Kings 22

Huldah

When the Book of the Law turned up in the temple, King Josiah's officials took it to her, and her word shaped the reform that followed.

“Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.’”

2 Kings 17:13 (ESV)

Plenty have no names at all. An unnamed prophet speaks to Israel in Judges 6:8. A man of God from Judah confronts Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13, and an old prophet in Bethel lies to him. Obadiah, the steward of Ahab's house, hid a hundred prophets of the Lord in caves, fifty to a cave (1 Kings 18:4). Fifty men of the sons of the prophets watched Elijah cross the Jordan (2 Kings 2:7). Isaiah never names his wife, the prophetess of Isaiah 8:3.

And do you count the four hundred court prophets who told Ahab exactly what he wanted to hear (1 Kings 22:6)? Or Noadiah, the prophetess who tried to frighten Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:14)? Scripture calls them prophets. They were not speaking for God. That question matters more than the total. See what the Bible says about false prophets.

Takeaway

Every head count leaves somebody out, and the Bible does not seem bothered by that. Which tells you the count was never the point.

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Count Three · The Rabbis' Number

Forty-Eight Prophets And Seven Prophetesses

The most famous fixed number comes from the Babylonian Talmud, in tractate Megillah 14a. In the English translation posted with the daily page study at Hadran, the line reads: “Forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied on behalf of the Jewish people, and they neither subtracted from nor added onto what is written in the Torah.”

The seven women are named: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther. The forty-eight men are not listed in that line, so anyone who tries to rebuild the list has to make judgment calls about who is in and who is out.

Called Prophetess In Scripture

Miriam, Deborah and Huldah. The Bible gives each of them the title in plain words.

Added By The Rabbis

Sarah, Hannah, Abigail and Esther. Scripture never uses the title for them. The rabbis read prophetic insight in their stories, like Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2.

Here is the part that usually gets left out. The same passage admits its number is a selection. It says many more arose, double the number of Israelites who left Egypt, and that only the prophecy needed for later generations was written down.

Which of these women is on the Talmud's list of seven prophetesses?

Ruth

Esther

Rahab

Megillah 14a lists Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther. Ruth and Rahab are not on it, and of the seven, only Miriam, Deborah and Huldah are called prophetesses in the text of Scripture itself.

Count Four · After Malachi

The New Testament Prophets

Many assume prophecy stopped with Malachi. Then Luke opens with a burst of it. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and Zechariah is filled with the Spirit and prophesies (Luke 1:67).

John The Baptist

A prophet, Jesus said, and more than a prophet (Matthew 11:9). All the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. See how John the Baptist died.

Anna · Luke 2:36

A prophetess of the tribe of Asher who spoke about the child Jesus to everyone waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Agabus · Acts 11 And 21

Warned of a famine that came in the days of Claudius. Later he bound his own hands and feet with Paul's belt to show what waited for Paul in Jerusalem.

Antioch · Acts 13:1

Prophets and teachers in one church: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul.

Judas And Silas · Acts 15:32

Prophets who encouraged and strengthened the believers with many words.

Philip's Daughters · Acts 21:9

“He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.” Luke mentions it in passing.

Then Paul writes as if a single congregation could hold several prophets at once: let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said (1 Corinthians 14:29). At that point counting names stops making sense. The gift has spread across the church.

Not every Spirit-given word came with the title, either. Joanna and the other women at the empty tomb are never called prophets, yet they carried the first word of the resurrection to the apostles (Luke 24:10).

The Prophet Like Moses

Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like him (Deuteronomy 18:15). Peter says that prophet is Jesus (Acts 3:22). He is not one more name on the list. He is the Word every name on the list was carrying.

Saying It Plainly

Why The List Never Closed

Here is the view we disagree with, stated as strongly as we can. Many careful Christians see prophecy as a foundation gift. Ephesians 2:20 says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and a foundation is laid once. On that reading the list of prophets closed with the New Testament, and anyone claiming the gift now is either mistaken or competing with Scripture.

The Closed List

The prophets were a set group. Count them, close the book, and treat anyone after them as suspect.

The Open Gift

Scripture is complete and Jesus is God's final word. The gift of prophecy continues, it builds people up, and it always gets weighed.

Where We Stand, Plainly

At Sound of Heaven we believe the gift of prophecy is active in the church today, and we think the closed list reading is wrong. We agree that nothing gets added to Scripture and that Jesus is the final and full revelation of God. But Paul never describes prophecy in the church as writing Scripture. He describes it as upbuilding, encouragement and consolation (1 Corinthians 14:3), and the church has never stopped needing those.

This cuts the other way too. A prophet today is a function in the body of Christ, not a title or a rank. Nobody's word goes unweighed. Anyone using "the Lord told me" to decide whom someone marries, where they move or what they give has stepped outside the gift. That kind of pressure lands hardest on new believers and on people who are hurting, and it is wrong.

“Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Numbers 11:29 (ESV)

At Pentecost Peter said that wish had come true: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. A list that stops at sixteen, or fifty-five, cannot hold that.

For the gift itself, how it works and how a word gets tested, read what prophecy is in the Bible. For the role in the body, see the fivefold ministry, and for the direct question, are there prophets today.

Takeaway

Sixteen wrote books, fifty-five made the rabbis' list, and dozens more speak in the story. The gift itself never came with a closing date.

Where This Lands

Every Voice Was Pointing At One Person

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Hebrews 1:1 to 2 (ESV)

Those last days were the writer's own days, the closing years of the old covenant age before AD 70. And he sums up the prophets by many times and many ways, not by a number.

That is the real answer. The prophets were never a club to be counted. They were God refusing to go silent toward His people, through shepherds and priests, a judge under a palm tree and an old widow praying in the temple.

Then the Word they carried became flesh. Every prophet, named or unnamed, was pointing at Jesus, and He is how we read all of them. Where an older word seems to show God differently than Jesus does, Jesus is the one who shows us the Father.

And the Spirit who spoke through them now speaks through His church. To build ordinary people up. If you sense God saying something to you, you are not strange, and you do not need a title. Bring it to people who love you and let it be weighed.

For related reading, see the spiritual gifts, how many prophecies Jesus fulfilled and what we believe. If you want someone to pray with you, send us a prayer request, and if you are on Long Island, come visit on a Sunday.

The Whole Thing In One Line

Sixteen prophets wrote books, the Talmud counts forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses, Scripture names dozens more and leaves many unnamed, the New Testament spreads the gift across the church, and every one of them points to Jesus.

Wondering If You Have The Gift?

You do not need a title to hear from God. Send us a note and someone at Sound of Heaven will pray with you and help you take the next step.

Questions People Ask

Questions About The Prophets

How many prophets are in the Bible?

There is no single official number, because it depends on who you count. Sixteen prophets have Old Testament books named after them: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve minor prophets. The Talmud, in Megillah 14a, counts forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses. Scripture also names prophets who never wrote a book, like Elijah, Nathan and Huldah, mentions many unnamed prophets, and adds New Testament prophets such as Anna, Agabus and Philip's four daughters. Counted together, the total runs past a hundred.

Who are the 16 prophets of the Old Testament?

The sixteen writing prophets are the four major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, and the twelve minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. They are the prophets whose names are on books in the Old Testament prophets section. Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Elisha are major prophetic figures too, but their stories are told inside other books rather than in books named for them.

What is the difference between major and minor prophets?

Length, not importance. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel wrote long books, so they are called major. The twelve minor prophets wrote shorter ones, and the Hebrew Bible counts all twelve together as a single book, the Book of the Twelve. Some of the most quoted lines in Scripture come from the minor prophets, including Micah's call to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. The labels describe the size of the scroll, not the weight of the message.

Who were the women prophets in the Bible?

Scripture calls several women prophetesses: Miriam in Exodus 15:20, Deborah in Judges 4:4, Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14, Isaiah's wife in Isaiah 8:3 and Anna in Luke 2:36, and Acts 21:9 says the four daughters of Philip prophesied. Noadiah in Nehemiah 6:14 is also called a prophetess, though she opposed Nehemiah. The Talmud adds Sarah, Hannah, Abigail and Esther to make its list of seven. At Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Are there still prophets today?

Yes. At Sound of Heaven we believe the gift of prophecy is active in the church today. Nothing is added to Scripture, and Jesus is the final and complete word of God. But Paul describes prophecy in the church as building people up, encouraging them and consoling them, and he tells the church to let others weigh what is said. A prophet today is a function in the body of Christ, not a title or a rank, and every word is tested by Jesus and by Scripture.