This collection of fourteen essays on various aspect of prophets and prophecy in the Hebrew Bible (3 essays), Judaism (1), the New Testament (9) and early Christianity (1), of widely varying length and quality, is the product of an international conference on ‘Prophets and Prophecy in the Old and the New Testament’ held in October 2006 at the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj. In the foreword the editors assert that the volume is held together by the fact that the ‘authors have been looking for traces and evidence of continuity and discontinuity’ (p. v), though there is little evidence of this in the contributions. The focus in this review will be on those essays that make the most significant contributions to their subject. In ‘Samuel: ein Prophet?’ (pp. 1–18), Walter Dietrich deals insightfully with the enigmatic figure of Samuel, deftly sifting through the variegated facets of the presentation of Samuel in 1 and 2 Samuel, the problem of parsing through historical and fictional aspects of this presentation and even explores the reception of Samuel in modern music and literature. Ulrich Luz presents a masterful critical synthesis of the ‘Stages of early Christian prophetism’ (pp. 57–75), after highlighting the many critical problems that block the way to an adequate historical understanding of this important religious phenomenon. Tobias Nicklas focuses on ‘Paulus: der Apostel als Prophet’ (pp. 77–104), carefully interrogating the sources for data relating to Paul's prophetic self-understanding (though Paul never actually calls himself a prophet) and the ways in which this self-understanding interfaces with his self-conception as an Apostle (perhaps itself a Pauline construct based on the idea of the sending of Old Testament prophets), centring on several passages including Galatians i.15–16, Romans i.1–2, 1 Thessalonians i.4, 1 Corinthians ix. 14–18 and the Pauline conception of mysterion (particularly 1 Cor. xv.51 and Rom. xi.25). Korinna Zamfir explores the ‘Jeremian motifs in the Synoptics’ understanding of Jesus' (pp. 139–76), arguing that the image of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels and the interpretation of his ministry were shaped by drawing on the image of Jeremiah, particularly useful in finding a prophetic precedent for Jesus' rejection and for his critical attitude toward the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. In ‘Calling Jesus a prophet, as seen by Luke’, Joseph Verheyden carefully examines the passages in which the term prophet is associated with Jesus, concluding that Luke neither wanted Jesus to be called a prophet nor to be presented as one. Urban C. von Wahlde examines ‘The role of the prophetic spirit in John: a struggle for balance’ (pp. 211–42) and deftly traces the emphasis on the redactional levels in the three editions of the Gospel of John and 1 John (written by the Elder, who introduces apocalyptic elements in that letter and the third edition of John). Finally, in ‘Prophetie und die Offenbarung des Johannes? Offb 22,6–21 als Testfall’ (pp. 253–93), Beate Kowalski mounts a complex investigation of the Apocalypse of John, which she correctly regards as a work that should properly be placed in the context of early Christian prophecy. She examines the close links between the author's language, literary forms and allusions to the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.