ADVENTIST HISTORY
the words of the book.’”4 Te next year, he wrote a much more detailed account based on the erroneous KJV translation “in the college”: “Here was, in Jerusalem, a college, or school, in which ‘dwelt’
the prophetess. Tis at once shows this school to have been a school of the prophets, because that which made those schools the schools of the prophets was the fact that a prophet dwelt with the school, and was, under God, the head of the school. Tis fact is revealed in the two other instances in which they are mentioned: in 1 Sam. 19:20 ‘the company of the prophets’ was seen, and ‘Samuel standing as appointed over them.’ In 2 Kings 6:1-6 we meet again ‘the sons of the prophets,’ and Elisha the prophet is dwelling with them; for they said to Elisha, ‘Te place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.’ “Tus we find three schools of the prophets in three widely
separated ages,—the age of Samuel, the age of Elisha, and the age of Josiah,—and in each instance a prophet is dwelling in the school. Tese three passages were written to give us information as to the schools of the prophets. And first, they show why these schools were called schools of the prophets—because a prophet was the head of the school; they show also that the college, or school, in Jerusalem, in which dwelt Huldah the prophetess, was a school of the prophets as certainly as was the school where dwelt Elisha the prophet or Samuel the prophet.”5 Te writings of Loughborough exhibit a similar curiosity,
although with less embellishment. In 1899, he wrote of “Huldah the prophetess, [who] seems to have been connected with the school at Jerusalem, and was sought for counsel.”6 But in 1903, he more generally stated that “Huldah was a prophetess who dwelt in the college at Jerusalem,” and he cited 2 Kings 22:14. In a later book (1911), he repeated almost verbatim his statement from 1899. Tree 20th-century Adventist books include brief references
to Huldah, at least two of which imply her role in an educational institution: • Missionary and editor Stephen N. Haskell noted that Huldah
was “married and dwelt in the college.”7 • Long-serving General Conference president Arthur G.
Daniells mentioned that Huldah “was living, probably as an instructor … in the college.”8 • Roger W. Coon, a former associate director of the Ellen G.
White Estate, indicated that Huldah “dwelt at Jerusalem, in the College.” His capitalization of “college” (KJV) suggests that he understood it as an educational institution.9
22 AD VENTIS T T OD A Y A Review and Herald article in 1948 by William A. Spicer, a
former General Conference president, represents a change in acknowledging the origin of the “college” reference associated with Huldah. Aſter the heading “Associated With College Work,” Spicer continued in his article: “Te few brief words of the text about Huldah, the prophet of the Lord, give little information about her work, save as we find her receiving counsel for the king on this occasion. She dwelt ‘in the college’ quarter of Jerusalem. Te Revised Version would render it, ‘in the second quarter.’ But the comments by the rabbinical writers and the Talmudists hold to the school idea.”10 He quoted from the Jewish Encyclopaedia, reporting the traditional notion that Huldah had some role in a school.
Adventist Bible Commentary No doubt this is the background for the more definitive statements in the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary and Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary. Te commentary on the text of the KJV in 2 Kings 22:14 reads: “College. Heb. mishneh. Literally, ‘second,’ that is, ‘second part’ or ‘second quarter.’ Te reference is probably to the new or outer city—the expansion of Jerusalem to the north of the old city, which had been enclosed by the wall of Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:14; cf. Zeph. 1:10, where mishneh is translated ‘second’). According to Neh. 3:9, 12, there were two ‘half’ parts of Jerusalem. Te translation ‘college’ is the rendering of the Targums, which take mishneh in the sense of the later mishnah, ‘instruction,’ from the idea ‘to repeat,’ hence ‘to teach’ and ‘to learn.’”11 Tis is echoed in the Dictionary: “Te translation ‘college’ in
2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chron. 34:22; KJV, appears to have been based upon an assumed connection between the Heb. mishneh, ‘second,’ and the later Heb. mishnah, ‘instruction.’”12 Before discussing the most comprehensive treatment of
Huldah in Adventist literature, we should note Ellen White’s position on these issues. She was clearly the identified or implied focus of the many Adventist references to Huldah among other Old Testament prophetesses. Yet, White seems not to have participated in those discussions or ruminated on the possibility that Huldah lived and worked in a school. She was silent on Huldah until near the end of her life. In what
was likely her last published article in Review and Herald, she noted that “the prophetess Huldah was living in Jerusalem, near the temple” at the time.13
Ellen White had died six days earlier. Te last page of this issue announced her death on July 16. Te
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