Mark J. Boda, «Freeing the Burden of Prophecy:Mas%s%a4) and the Legitimacy of Prophecy in Zech 9–14», Vol. 87 (2006) 338-357

Prior to the 1980’s the definition of the Hebrew term mas%s%a4) as a reference to prophetic speech or literature, was largely dominated by etymological argumentation. However, Richard Weis, in his 1986 Claremont dissertation leveraged form-critical categories and evidence to argue that this term was a formal tag defining a particular type of literature, an argument that has been applied and developed by the subsequent work of Marvin Sweeney (Isaiah, FOTL; Book of the Twelve, Berit Olam) and Michael Floyd (JBL 12.1 [2002] 401- 422). This paper offers a critical review of this history of research with a view to its impact on the interpretation of Zechariah 9–14. A new proposal is put forward for the use of this term in Zechariah 9–14, one that reveals the influence of Jeremianic tradition and highlights concern over certain prophetic streams in the community that produced these texts.