(5) The Apocalypse. — Here the prayer for ven- geance (Rev 6'°) is an echo of Lk IS'"", but it is the jirayer of the dead (ef. Bar 'i*). In Rev 5" and 8' the prayers of the saints are ottered to God, but this is tlie prayer of the living which ascends from the earth. Tliis prayer is mediated, being ottered in one case by the elders, and in the other having incense added to it by angels. For this idea (common among the Jews) cf. To 12'^- ". The pas- sages in Revelation are clearly symbolical, aiuf do not warrant man in addressing angels for such a jiur- pose. The mistranslation of Vulg. (Job 5') luob- ably encouraged the error. For the connexion of prayers and incense see above, p. 39''. Lastly, the Apocalj'iise ends with a prayer from the highest level of Christian faith and hope befitting the place assigned to it at the end of the Canon. It is a tlireefold prayer. It is tlie prayer of the S[)irit, which animates all faithful prayer under the NT (22"). It is the prayer ot tlie Bride, i.e. the Church (ib.). It is also the prayer of the indi- vidual, the WTitcr of the book (22-"). All other prayer resolves itself at la.st into prayer for the coming of the Lord Jesus, which will accomplish all desires.
LiTi!R.\TCRK.— JeruB. TaXamA, Daakhoth, tr. Schwab ; OriRen,
de OratUmc LWeltta ; the artt. in Herzog on 'Gebet,' 'Gebct bei den Hebruern ' ; Bp. Monrad, Warld 0/ Prayer, tr. Banks. The staiid.ird wortts on Biblical Theolo<;y, e.g. Ochler, Schultz, Beysrhla^, liave ver.v scant}' references to Prayer. .Modern works on the efficacy of Prayer are not mentioned, beinj; out- side the scope o( the present article. E. R. BERNAKD,
PRAYER OP MANASSES. — See AUnasses (Prayeii of).
PREACHER.— See Ecclesiastes.
PREACHING (Heb. .w-1,7, Jon 3=, from K-Jij'cry out,' 'proclaim'; Or. idipvyii-a, 'the message pro- claimed,' from Krjpvaaoi, 'declare as a herald,' 'preach'; in NT used in marked distinction from oiSaxi), 'teaching,' and iiSivKw, • teach,' and always preserving in some degree the idea of the root-word n-fipvi, ' herald '). — Strictly speaking, Christian preaching is the proclamation of the gospel, which is to be followed by the more elaborate but less startling process of teaching. This limita- tion is observable in the NT accounts of our Lord's ministry where He first apjiears preaching, i.e. proclaiming the advent of the kingdom of God {e.g. ftit 4"), following on the preaching of John the Baptist {e.g. Mt3'-'), and then proceeds to teach the nature and laws of the kingdom (e.g. Mt 5'). The word ivayyM^a is frequently used for Chris- tian preaching, as the declaration of glad tidings {e.g. Lk 3'»). But although the NT words rendered 'preaching' have this limitation of meaning, it would be undesirable to confine the consideration of the subject of preaching to the cases in which they are strictly applicable, that subject, as we now understand it, including all instruction in religion which takes the form of iiopular discourse, ami esiiecially that which is associated with public worship.
i. Jewi.iii Preaciiino.— Of the two streams of religious life and practice that are seen in the history of Israel — the priestly and the prophetic — preaching attaches itself to the latter. The sumptuous pageantry of the sacrifices spoke to the eye and taught by (Iramatic representation. The prophet was empliatically the preacher. In the earlier periods, indeed, his teaching is usually by means of the brief oracle. But the great 8tli cent, prophets composed and delivered elaborate discourses. They were preachers before they were writers, falling uack on the ]ien only when the living voice was silenced : in the case of Jeremiah, for the preservation of the wamint^s which his
46
PREACHI^^G
PREACHING
contemporaries refused to Iiear (Jer 30-) ; in the c.iso of Ezekiel, because the circumstances of the Kxile compelled the prophet to resort to literary channels tor making his message known. Still even Ezekiel's prophecies may have been originally spoken (see Smend, Der Prophet Ezerhiel, xxii.). t)n the other hand, Ewald held that Ezekiel wrote his oracles instead of speaking them because he felt a decay of the prophetic spirit (Prophets of the OT, iv. 2, 9). For the most part, at all events, the projihecies contained in OT are written discourses which had been preached or which were intended for preaching. Still there are two important did'erences between this preaching of the prophets and what we understand by the term to-day. (1) The jjreaching of the prophets was not a normal function of public worship taking its place in the ritual of the sanctuary. It was an utterance demanded by special crises, or prompted by a special revelation, and spoken in tlie court or the market-place, wherever the prophet could find the audience he was urged to address. (2) For the most part it dealt with public questions, national sins, judgments, and deliverances, rather than ■n-ith individual conduct and need (see W. R. Smith, Prophets of Israel, Lect. II.). In Ezekiel, on the other hand, more personal preaching appears (see Comill, Der Propliet Ezcchiel, pp. 51, 52).
For a closer approach to what is commonly understood as preaching, we must come to the period of the return from the Captivity. The law is now the centre of the religion of Israel, and the law is now popularized in public teaching. The very meaning of tlie word rendered law (n-iin in- struction) points in this direction. Accordingly, the Divine instruction given through priests or prophets at an earlier period is called by the same name (Hos 4*, Am 2* [see Driver's note]). With the rise of the synagogue, preaching becomes a recognized function of public worship. The need of translating the Heb. text into the vernacular introduced the interpreter, who followed the reader sentence by sentence in the case of the law, but with a division into longer passages with the prophets (Schiirer, HJP II. ii. SI ; Megilla, iv. 4, 6, 10). The Targum thus originated prepared for the more lengthy exposition. WhUe the Halaeha is didactic and suited to the schools, the Haggada contains the le"ends and allegories which would be more acceptable to the popular audience in the synagogue service. In tlie time of Philo the popular discourse was the chief part of the service (see Schiirer, II. ii. 76). There was no one appointed preacher. According to Philo, ' some (ns) priest who is present (6 wapiiv), or some one of the elders, reads the sacred laws to them, and expounds [iiriycnai) each of them separately till eventide' (Fragm. in Euseb. Prcep. Evang. viii. 7). Indeed we learn from the same authority that any com- petent person (6.va(jThi rtj tCiv (ixireipoTdTuv) could take this part of the service (de Septcntario, c. 6, Mang. ii. 282). From the latter passage it would seem that the preacher stood up to speak, the word ivaardt being used. But possibly Philo is thinking only of his act of rising to present him- self before the people and offer his discourse. In delivering his sermon the preacher was seated in an elevated place (Lk 4'-'" ; Zunz, Die goltcsdienst- liclten Vortriigc, p. 337 ; Delitzsch, 'Ein Tag in Cajtemaum, p. 127 f.).