in a conscious process of reinterpreting the prophets for the apocalyptists’ own age. The apocalyptists understood themselves not as prophets but as inspired interpreters of prophecy.49 The process of reinterpreting prophecy was already a prominent feature of post-exilic prophecy, but the post-exilic prophets were still prophets in their own right. The apocalyptists, however, lived in an age when the prophetic spirit was quenched (1 Maccabees 4:46). Their inspiration was not a source of new prophetic