Lives of the Prophets
The Lives of the Prophets is an ancient apocryphal account of the lives of the authors of the Ketuvim from the Hebrew Bible. It begins by explaining its basic purpose to provide: "The names of the prophets, and where they are from, and where they died and how, and where the[ir graves] lie."
Although the Bible says very little about most of the biblical prophets, there was a growing tradition around the turn of the Common Era that some had been martyred. Among the deaths described in the Lives of the Prophets are those of Isaiah by being sawn in two, Jeremiah by stoning, and Ezekiel by a similar execution.
The work survives only in Christian manuscripts, but some of its stories are repeated in Jewish midrashic and Talmudic accounts. Stories of the martyrdom of the prophets appear to have been popular among the Jews of the first century CE and are referred to several times in the New Testament.
The text
The text of the Lives of the Prophets appears to have been compiled from various oral and written sources. It was probably composed shortly before the beginning of the first century C.E in Hebrew or Aramaic/Syriac, possibly in Jerusalem, but certainly by someone familiar with that city, as well as with the geography of Judea and the Galilee. Much of the material is legendary, and it is difficult to know its origins. Some commentators suggest that the Jeremiah material originated from Egypt.
The current text betrays several Christian additions indicated later scribal tampering with the text. Some of the content of the work appears in later Talmudic references, although this may indicate a common origin rather than rabbinic familiarity with the text itself. Similar, the implied knowledge of legends from the Lives in the New Testament may derive from oral tradition, but could also indicate that the New Testament writers, earlier Christians, or even Jesus himself were familiar with the work.
Summary
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