What is a Prophet? I have asked several religious sects this question. Most of them say a prophet is anyone whom speaks God's Will. A dictionary defines prophet as, Prophet: 1. One who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of god is expressed. 2. A soothsayer: predictor. 3. The chief spokesperson of a cause or movement.

Through studying the Scripture, I would have to say a Prophet or Prophetess is a person that can inquire directly to God and or a host of God. I suspect they are mostly of the tribe Levi. Levi is the tribe in which the Major Prophets come from. Levi was also the most proven people to God, Num3:6-12. So there exist a people on this earth in which God Himself has said to be their inheritance, Num18:20. So to say a prophet is anyone who speaks the will of God is too vague of a description. The vague description fits the definition of a priest or minister of a religion. I suspect the definition of prophets has been generalized as to make it easier for one to support their own fancy. If you call Jesus or any of his apostles a prophet; then as prophets are depicted in the OT, their work would be legitimate. The only problem with this is I personally have yet to find any new prophecy by Jesus or any of his apostles. Most of the prophesy in the NT I have found in the OT. The only thing about the NT is they have been reworded or mixed in with fantasy writings. Thus the NT does not hold the work of prophets, it holds the work of ministers of Jesus; the Son of God. Those ministers are called apostles and they are nothing more then men. Out of all of the writing of the NT Jesus himself only said about seven percent of it. So how has man come to all of these conclusions about the Son of God unless it is only through the words and theories of other men. If you account these men as Holy or Divine then so be it. I personally must adhere to what God has said, Jer17: 5. The first steps one must take to deal with a curse is to become aware of it.

In my study of the bloodline of prophets, I set out to see if one could indeed tract the bloodline of the prophets back to the tribe of Levi.

One unique prophet/mediator is Moses. Moses' lineage can be traced back to Levi, Exo2:1-10. Moses was a pure bred Levite.

Isaiah: the son of Amoz, 2kgs19:2. Amoz; not traceable as it is spelled here.

Jeremiah: the son of Hilkiah, Jer1:1. Hilkiah can be traced back to Levi. 1chro6:33-44 shows one of the branches from Levi. It is the branch of Kohath which is the Kohathites of Levi, Num3:27. Hilkiah is found in 1chro6:45.

If I was not a true study and desired truth for my self, I would end my search for Jeremiah's bloodline at this point. All I would have done is imitated what people of certain religions do today. And that is; support their own fancy by showing only one-line references to what they want you to believe. If you use the OT in that method, then all things, theories and fancies can be supported. It is a method of deception.

In reality with the Bible we have been allowed to look upon, one can not trace the bloodline of most individuals. It appears the reason for this is several people in the OT used the same first name and along with this the Scriptures cover an enormous amount of time.

To specifically find the bloodline of Jeremiah, whose father is Hilkiah, we would have to find the name "Hilkiah" enclosed between Jeremiah and Hilkiah's father like so; "Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah the son of __________". I did a search for the string, no hits. The objective is to find Hilkiah's father and his father and his father all the way back to a tribal name.

One father of Hilkiah would be Shallum, 1chr6:13. Another father would be Meshullam, 1chr9:11. I suspect Shallum and Meshullam to be the same because of the similarity in names. To test the suspicion we have to look for the father of both and see if they are the same.

The father of Meshullam would be Zerubbabel, 1chr3:19 or Elpaal, 1chr8:17-18 or Hodaviah, 1chr9:7 or Shephathiah, 1chr9:8 or Zadok, 1chr9:11 or Meshillemith, 1chr9:12 or Meshullam was the son of the Kohathites which is of Kohath which is of Levi or Bani, Ezra10:29 or Berechiah, Neh3:4 or Besodeiah, Neh3:6 or Joed, Neh11:7.

As you can see it gets extremely complicated and confusing, even with a computer. Most of the individuals in the Scripture have this type of confusion in tracing their bloodline. We had to go through all of this to trace the bloodline of Jeremiah and it continues to be unconfirmed. When the Bible makes a reference to an individual if it does not specify their father and their father all the way back to a tribal name then that person can not truly be traced. You run into to many possibilities. As you can see Nehemiah is one story. Just in it alone we run into three valid possibilities for a father to Meshullam.

I have done this to show you a point. If the Bible is setup like this, then how did they trace the blood line of Jesus in Genealogy? I have tried to trace the bloodline of Jesus as it is recorded in Genealogy and I run into the same problem as I did in this study. And due to the respelling of names in the NT, things get even more confusing. It all becomes assumptive work.

David and other tribes were not prophets. They used a mystical object that is very obscure in the Scriptures. It is referred to as the Oracle of God, 2Sam16:23. Unless Jesus had this Oracle or he was of the tribe Levi, he could not have been a prophet. I suspect the Oracle could be one of the precious stones referred to in Zech3:9. The writers of Revelations also seen the references to the Stone, Rev2:17. The man that will be given or discovers the Stone, just might be the true Messiah. Also in that verse, Jesus himself is confirming he is not the Messiah.

Conclusively: Due to the fact Hilkiahs father is not mentioned in the same passage, as being Jeremiah's grandfather, most of the references on the name "Hilkiah" are valid. I tried to eliminate by time frame but one finds most of them existed in the same time frame. I might further this study using the Assyrian Hebrew text. Maybe with the removal of the viol system the names are more accurate. With the KJV it is a futile attempt.

Word search results on Meshullam and Shallum.
Meshullam:
2Kgs:22:3: And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

1Chron:3:19: And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and Shimei: and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam, and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister:

1Chron:5:13: And their brethren of the house of their fathers were, Michael, and Meshullam, and Sheba, and Jorai, and Jachan, and Zia, and Heber, seven.

1Chron:8:17: And Zebadiah, and Meshullam, and Hezeki, and Heber,

1Chron:9:7: And of the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hasenuah,

1Chron:9:8: And Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephathiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;

1Chron:9:11: And Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;

1Chron:9:12: And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;

2Chron:34:12: And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick.

Ezra:8:16: Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding.

Ezra:10:15: Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

Ezra:10:29: And of the sons of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth.

Neh:3:4: And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.

Neh:3:6: Moreover the old gate repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.

Neh:3:30: After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another piece. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.

Neh:6:18: For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.

Neh:8:4: And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Neh:10:7: Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

Neh:10:20: Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

Neh:11:7: And these are the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jesaiah.

Neh:11:11: Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, was the ruler of the house of God.

Neh:12:13: Of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;

Neh:12:16: Of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

Neh:12:25: Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates.

Neh:12:33: And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,

Shallum:
2Kgs:15:10: And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

2Kgs:15:13: Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria.

2Kgs:15:14: For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

2Kgs:15:15: And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

2Kgs:22:14: So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.

1Chron:2:40: And Eleasah begat Sisamai, and Sisamai begat Shallum,

1Chron:2:41: And Shallum begat Jekamiah, and Jekamiah begat Elishama.

1Chron:3:15: And the sons of Josiah were, the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.

1Chron:4:25: Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.

1Chron:6:12: And Ahitub begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Shallum,

1Chron:6:13: And Shallum begat Hilkiah, and Hilkiah begat Azariah,

1Chron:7:13: The sons of Naphtali; Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.

1Chron:9:17: And the porters were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren: Shallum was the chief;

1Chron:9:19: And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren, of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: and their fathers, being over the host of the LORD, were keepers of the entry.

1Chron:9:31: And Mattithiah, one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, had the set office over the things that were made in the pans.

2Chron:28:12: Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,

2Chron:34:22: And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

Ezra:2:42: The children of the porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all an hundred thirty and nine.

Ezra:7:2: The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

Ezra:10:24: Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.

Ezra:10:42: Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.

Neh:3:12: And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.

Neh:7:45: The porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, an hundred thirty and eight.

Jer:22:11: For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:

Jer:32:7: Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.

Jer:35:4: And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: