LECTURE XIX.

THE HISTORY OF THE PROPHETICAL ORDER.

THE life of Samuel is so marked an epoch in the history of the Prophetical Office, that this seems the fittest place for the consideration of an institution, which, though it bore its chief fruits in the periods following on that just brought to a close in the foregoing Lectures, may yet be viewed as a whole in this critical moment of its existence.

It will accordingly be my endeavour to describe, first, the Prophetical Order or Institution, in its original historical connexion; and, secondly, the nature of the Prophetical Teaching in its relations to the moral and spiritual condition of the Jewish, and indirectly, of the Christian Church.

I. Before entering on the history of the order, the meaning of the word 'Prophet,' in the two sacred languages must be exactly defined.

The word.
PROPHET.

Nabi

The Hebrew word Nabi is derived from the verb Naba, which, however, never occurs in the active, but only in the passive conjugations of the verb, according to the analogy of the deponent verbs in Latin :-loqui, fari, vociferari, vaticinari, where the passive form seems to indicate that the speaker is swayed by impulses over which he has not himself entire control. The root of the verb is said to be a word signifying 'to boil or bubble over,' and is thus based on the metaphor of a fountain bursting forth from the heart of man, into which God has poured it. Its actual meaning is to pour forth exciting utterances, as appears from its occasional use in the sense of raving. Even to this day, in the East, the

2

'See Gesenius, in voce, Nabi. Comp. Prov. i. 23.

2 1 Sam. xviii. 10. Comp. 2 Kings ix. 11, and the connection of μávris and μaívoμal.

ideas of prophet and madman are closely connected. The religious sense, in which, with these exceptions, the word is always employed, to which the peculiar form of the word, as just observed, lends itself, is that of speaking' or 'singing 'under a divine afflatus or impulse.' The same seems to be the general sense of the Arabic nebi. It is this word that the Seventy translated by a Greek term not of frequent usage in classical authors, but which, through their adoption of it, has passed into all modern European languages; namely, the word πρоþýτηs, 'PROPHET.' The sense of this word 'Prophet.' in classical writers is not less clearly defined than that of Nabi in Hebrew, and, though not exactly the same in sense, is sufficiently analogous to justify its employment by the Alexandrine translators. It is always an interpreter or medium of the Divine will. Thus Apollo is the Prophet of Jupiter, the Pythia was the Prophetess of Apollo, and the attendants or expounders of her ejaculations were the Prophets of the Pythia. It is possible that the Seventy may have derived their use of the word from its special application in Egypt to the chief of the Sacerdotal order in any particular temple. His duties were to walk at the close of the sacred processions, bearing in his bosom an urn of sacred water; to control the taxes, and to teach the sacred books. It was probably in this last capacity that the Greek name of 'Prophet' was applied to him, and that we hear of the office being held by Sonches and Sechnuphis, the reputed masters of Pythagoras and of Plato.1

The Greek preposition pro (πpò), as compounded in the word Pro-phet, has, as is well known, the threefold meaning of 'beforehand,' 'in public,' and 'in behalf of' or 'for.' It is possible that all these three meanings may have a place in the word. But in its original meaning the second and third predominate 'one who speaks out publicly the thoughts of 'another.' As applied therefore by the Septuagint, in the Old Testament, and by the writers of the New Testament, who

:

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1 Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 15, vi. 4, and Valesius' notes on Eusebius, H.E. iv. 8.

This appears clearly from the words

πρόμαντις and ὑποφήτης used synony mously with it (see Liddell and Scott, in voce).

have taken the word from the Septuagint, it is used simply to express the same idea as that intended in the Hebrew Nabi : not foreteller, nor (as has been said more truly, but not with absolute exactness) 'forth-teller,' but 'spokesman,'1 and in the religious sense (in which it is almost invariably used) 'expounder,' and 'interpreter,' of the Divine mind.

Modern use

The English words 'prophet,' 'prophecy,' 'prophesying,' originally kept tolerably close to the Biblical use of the word. The celebrated dispute about 'prophesyings,' in the of the word. sense of 'preachings,' in the reign of Elizabeth, and the treatise of Jeremy Taylor on The Liberty of Prophesying, i.e. the liberty of preaching, show that even down to the seventeenth century the word was still used, as in the Bible, for 'preaching,' or 'speaking according to the will of God.' In the seventeenth century, however, the limitation of the word to the sense of 'prediction' had gradually begun to appear; 2 founded partly on a misapprehension of the true meaning of the Greek preposition, partly on the attention attracted by the undoubtedly predictive parts of the prophetical writings.

This secondary meaning of the word had by the time of Dr. Johnson so entirely superseded the original Scriptural signification, that he gives no other special definition of it than 'to predict, to foretell, to prognosticate;' 'a predicter, a fore'teller ;' 'foreseeing or foretelling future events;' and in this sense it has been used almost down to our own day, when the revival of Biblical criticism has resuscitated, in some measure, the Biblical use of the word.

A somewhat similar divergence of sentiment has sprung up in the Mussulman world. The Sonnites or orthodox Mussulmans still use the word in its original sense, as a divinely instructed teacher, whilst the Shiahs or heretical Mussulmans

1 Thus in Exod. iv. 16; vii. 1: 'Aaron shall be thy prophet,'-' instead of a 'mouth.

2 It is true that Clement of Alexandria occasionally dwells on the word (Strom. ii. 12) as equivalent in poleσтíšeι and προγινώσκειν, whence it would seem that he took the preposition as signifying be

forehand. But there is hardly any appearance of this usage either in the LXX. or the New Testament. The nearest approaches in the Biblical use of the word

Prophet' to the sense of prediction are in the speeches and Epistles of S. Peter. (Acts ii. 30; iii. 18, 21; 1 Pet. i. 10; 2 Pet. i. 19, 20; iii. 2).

use it as equivalent to one who has the power of prediction. It is even said that this difference as to the meaning of the Prophetic office, far more than the dispute respecting the succession to the Caliphate, lies at the root of that great schism in the Mussulman community.

How far the modern limitation of the word is borne out by the unquestionable prevalence of Prediction in the Prophetical Office of the Jewish Church, will best appear in the next lecture. Meanwhile it is important at the outset and in the history of the Order, to adhere to the ancient and only Biblical use of the term, the more so, as the contracted sense in which it is now popularly employed would exclude from our consideration the most remarkable and characteristic instances of it, -Moses, Samuel, and Elijah, in the Old Testament, John the Baptist and S. Paul in the New.

THE PROPHET, then, was 'the messenger or interpreter of 'the Divine will.' Such is the force of all the synonyms employed for the office. The Prophet is expressly called 'the 'interpreter,' and 'the messenger of Jehovah.' 2 He is also called 'the man of spirit,' 3 and 'the Spirit of Jehovah' enters into him, and 'clothes' 5 him. These expressions thus correspond almost exactly to our words 'inspired' and 'inspiration.' The greater Prophets are called 'men of God.'6 Their communications are called 'the word of Jehovah,' and a peculiar term is used for the Divine voice in this connexion, chiefly in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the New Testament this meaning is still continued. The detailed descriptions of 'prophesying,' by S. Paul, are hardly distinguishable from what we should call 'preaching;' the word 'exhortation,' 9 or 'consolation,' is used as identical with it; and the same stress

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as in the Old Testament is laid on the force of the Divine impulse, whence it sprang. Prophecy came not in old times 'by the will of man; but holy men of old spake as they were 'moved by the Holy Ghost.'1 'God spake by' (or 'in') 'the 'Prophets' whence the phrase in the Nicene Creed, 'The 'Holy Ghost . . . spoke by the Prophets.'

...

Two points thus distinguish the Prophets from first to last. The first is their consciousness of deriving their gift from a Divine source. No other literature so directly appeals to such an origin. The impulse was irresistible.3 'Woe is me if I preach 'not the gospel." Secondly, the Divine communication is made through the persons of men. The rustling leaves of Dodona, or the symptoms of the entrails in Roman sacrifices, were thought' oracular,' or 'predictive,' but would never have been called 'prophetic.' The Urim and Thummim' on the High Priest's breastplate might be the medium of a Divine Revelation, but whatever intimations they conveyed were not made through the mind and mouth of a man, and were therefore not prophecies.'

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II. Such being the meaning of the word, I proceed to give a brief history of the institution in the Jewish Church. The life and character of each individual prophet will belong to the period in which he appeared. But a general survey of all is necessary to a just understanding of each.

Strictly speaking, the name and office of a Prophet was not confined to the Jewish people. Not to speak of the origin of the name as derived from Greek and Egyptian heathenism, the Bible itself recognises the existence of 'Prophets' outside the pale of the true religion. The earliest and greatest instance of

Nabi shortly after Samuel's time, is 'Seer' (Roeh), 1 Sam. ix; 1 Chron. ix. 22; xxvi. 28; xxix. 29. 3. Another antique title was Gazeh' (Hozeh), 1 Chron. xxv. 5; xxi. 9; xxix. 29; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 19; Hab. i. 1; Isa. i. 1; ii. 1; xiii. 1; Amos i. 1. The last trace of the seer is in Hanani 'the 'seer' in the reign of Asa, 2 Chron. xvi. 7 ; the last of the gazer in the reign of Manasseh, ibid. xxxiii. 19.