Noadiah the Prophetess

Scripture: Nehemiah 6:10–14

The verse (Nehemiah 6:14), "Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid." This is Nehemiah's prayer after a chapter documenting the opposition's final campaign against him before the wall was completed. Noadiah is not described further. She is named by Nehemiah alongside Tobiah and Sanballat as one of those who worked against the building project, and specifically against his resolve.

The context: Shemaiah's prophecy (Nehemiah 6:10–13), The verses immediately before Nehemiah's prayer describe Sanballat and Tobiah hiring the prophet Shemaiah to deliver a false oracle to Nehemiah: "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night." Nehemiah recognized the oracle as false and refused: "Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in." His perception: "And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me" (6:12–13). The same pattern, using prophetic speech to manipulate behavior, is what Noadiah is described as doing.

What is known and what is not, The text tells us her name, her title (prophetess), and her intent (to make Nehemiah afraid). It does not tell us what she prophesied, whether she was affiliated with the Temple establishment, who employed her, or what became of her. The name Noadiah (נוֹעַדְיָה) means "YHWH has met" or "appointed by YHWH", a theophoric name that would ordinarily suggest prophetic credentials or priestly lineage. The name itself is neutral or positive; the text's characterization of her function is not.

The women called prophetess in Scripture, Four women in the Hebrew Bible are explicitly called prophetess (נְבִיאָה, neviah): Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 34:22), and Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14). Isaiah's wife is also called this in Isaiah 8:3, though the context there is disputed. Of the four clear uses, three are unambiguously positive figures in the narrative, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah. Noadiah is the fourth, described as working against the covenant work of rebuilding Jerusalem.

The question of false prophecy, The restoration period was one in which the prophetic office was live and contested. Nehemiah's encounter includes Shemaiah (male prophet hired against him), Noadiah (female prophet named against him), and the rest of the prophets (unnamed). The discernment question, how to recognize a prophet sent by YHWH from one who is not, is exactly the question Deuteronomy 18 and Jeremiah 28 engage. Nehemiah's answer in Shemaiah's case was: this prophecy, if I followed it, would cause me to sin; therefore YHWH did not send him.

Noadiah holds the prophetic title and works against the rebuilding of Jerusalem. She exists in one verse of Nehemiah's prayer and raises questions that the text does not resolve: what did she say, who employed her, how did Nehemiah discern against her as he did against Shemaiah? The Sanctum holds her as the study in the contested prophetic office, the title that can be carried by someone working against the covenant work, and the question of discernment that Nehemiah had to answer without any further information than what he felt in his bones: this is not from YHWH.