I believe they were all schizophrenic . Like Joan of Arc . But that ' s not the point of your question . Prophets had interesting stories , but you ' re right , they weren ' t intrinsically special other than the fact that they were chosen by God . Or crazy , either way . Jesus was supposedly born of a virgin . It wasn ' t a sign , it was fulfillment of prophecy . Depending on how loosely you interpret that prophecy . It was also a repeat of the earlier Mithras birth story . But it wasn ' t a sign , it was proof . Subtle difference , but still . Jesus also wasn ' t chosen by God . Mary was chosen . Jesus was God incarnate . God descended to the form of man . And yet still somehow separate , since he ' s also the intermediary between man and God in prayer . I ' m not saying any of this makes sense , or is even internally consistent , but I ' m trying to point out some flaws in your original thesis . Particularly . 1 . God did not speak with his people , only his prophets . 2 . The intermediary was always necessary , previously in the form of a prophet . Now we have no prophets , but rather the bible the Word instead . 3 . We also used to have priests , which were how we talked to God as opposed to God talking to us , which was the job of the prophets , but now we have no priests unless you ' re catholic , and instead of them , we have Jesus . End result being , old testament , God talked to us via prophets , and we talked to God via priests . New testament , God talks to us via the bible , and we talk to God via prayer . Of course some people pentacostals , charismatics believe God talks to them directly , and other people catholics , episcopalians believe God is still talked to via priests . There ' s a flavor of Jesus for every flavor of batshit . Whatever you ' re into , religion ' s got you covered .