Sons of the Prophets

Prophets in ancient Israel were not solitary figures. There was not a single individual who was the prophet in the modern sense that members of the Church of Jesus Christ use the word today. This is no more evident than in the biblical phrase “sons of the prophets.” Rather than referring to actual children of prophets, this phrase refers to groups of prophetic disciples primarily associated with the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. These “sons of the prophets,” however, are part of the broader evidence for groups or guilds of prophets in ancient Israel. For example, Saul encountered a company of prophets immediately after being anointed as king and prophesied among them (1 Samuel 10:10–12). During the reign of Ahab and Jezebel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Obadiah saved one hundred prophets by hiding them in a cave (1 Kings 18:3–4).

Related verses

Numbers 11:29
1 Samuel 10:5–12
1 Kings 18:4
1 Kings 20:35
1 Kings 22:6
2 Kings 2:5–15
2 Kings 3:13
2 Kings 4:1, 38
2 Kings 6:1–2
2 Kings 9:1–7
2 Kings 23:2
Jeremiah 14:13