Prophetic Symbolic Actions

Principal Texts

The Bible has no specific word for "symbolic action." Scholars use the term to group together certain actions of the prophets, such as gestures, the use of objects, and decisions made in everyday life.

• Isaiah: He walked naked and barefoot for three years. The action portrayed how the Egyptians and Ethiopians would be led away captive by Assyria (Isaiah 20:2-4).
• Jeremiah: He hid a linen girdle and later retrieved it rotted (Jeremiah 13:1-11). He broke a potter's earthen bottle (19:1-13) and went about wearing a yoke (chs. 27-28). While Jerusalem was under siege, he bought a field at Anathoth, foretelling a day when fields would again be bought and sold in the land (32:6-15).
• Ezekiel: He portrayed Jerusalem on a clay tile and staged a siege against it, and he lay on his side for a prescribed number of days (Ezekiel 4). He shaved his hair and divided it into three parts (ch. 5), and he packed an exile's baggage and dug through the wall to go out (12:1-16).
• Hosea: His marriage to Gomer and the names of his children represented the relationship between God and Israel (Hosea 1; 3).
• Other examples: Ahijah tore a new garment into twelve pieces and gave ten of them to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:29-31). Elisha had the king shoot an arrow and strike the ground (2 Kings 13:14-19).

Background and Original Language

The texts refer to such actions with the Hebrew terms ot ("sign") or mopheth ("wonder," "portent") (Isaiah 20:3; Ezekiel 24:24). The action does not replace proclamation; it is usually accompanied by an interpreting word. The false prophet Zedekiah also made horns of iron as a demonstration (1 Kings 22:11), and Hananiah broke Jeremiah's yoke (Jeremiah 28:10-11). Scripture thus also shows that the form of an action alone does not guarantee true prophecy.

Continuation in the New Testament

In the New Testament, Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle to foretell that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem (Acts 21:10-11). Many interpreters also read Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple, and the cursing of the fig tree in light of this tradition. In particular, Mark is commonly interpreted as framing the temple episode with the fig tree account on either side, thereby depicting judgment on a fruitless temple. Some interpreters also connect the breaking of bread and sharing of the cup at the Last Supper with symbolic action. Denominations differ, however, on whether the Lord's Supper is understood as a memorial or as something more.

Interpretation and Issues

• Were the actions literal?: Interpretations differ concerning Ezekiel's lying on his side for an extended period, Jeremiah's journeys to the Euphrates, and Hosea's marriage. Some read them as actual actions just as the text describes; others regard some of them as visions or literary expressions. Another view takes the "Euphrates" of Jeremiah 13 to be Parah near Anathoth (Joshua 18:23).
• Distinction from magic: Some scholars compare these actions with magical rituals of the ancient Near East. The prevailing interpretation, however, holds that in the texts the power that brings events to pass lies not in the action but in the word of God.
• Application today: Some charismatic circles hold that "prophetic acts" remain possible today, whereas others regard them as limited to the prophets of the biblical era. This discussion is treated in the article Cessationism and Continuationism.