According to several Old Testament experts, the pattern for prophets in Ancient Israel included gathering into several groups. There were independent prophets who went about, there were prophets attached to temples, civic-economic centers, or palaces (as seen with Huldah, Anna, and Deborah), and there were those who united into guilds. These last were similar to monks as they moved into together, trained, prayed, and communed with God apart from others. These often opened schools were they taught others and trained upcoming prophets in understanding and using their gift of communication and discernment. Some excellent sources include: Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Fortress, 1962); Israel's Prophetic Tradition ( Cambridge, 1982), Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel ( Fortress, 1952); Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech ( Westminister, 1967).
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