J. Hastings.
PROGNOSTICATOR.-In Is 47" the ' monthly prognosticators' (Cv'^J" D7"'id, AVm 'that give knowledge concerning the months') are mentioned along witii the 'astrologers' and the 'star-gazers' as unable to help B.iliylon in her hour of need. The meaning of c';h-'- is probably ' at (the) new moons,' the reference being to the forecasts which it was usual to make at that season of what was likely to happen during tlie coming month. The lucky and unlucky days of each month were duly noted in the Assyrian and Babylonian calendars, and reports were given in monthly by the official astronomers and astrologers (cf. Sayce in 2'SBA iii. p. 229, and see also art. ASTROLOGY in vol. L p. 194'). The LXX has nothing answering to ' miinllihj proiinosticators,' the text reading in such a way that the 'astrologers' are called on to stand forth and save their votaries, and the ' star-gazers ' are challenged to make known (avaY/eiXiTuaav, representing somehow o-yniD) what is going to happen. J. A. Selbie.
PROLOGUE.— The Book of Sirach opens with a preface by the author's grandson, which bears in BA the title irpbXoyoi (C irp. ~ipix< S om.). For its contents see art. .Sirach. The opening verses of the Fourth Gospel are also frequently called the Prologue to that Gospel. See John (Gospel of).
PROMISE. — The word 'promise' is used in Scrip- ture with the same latitude as in language gener- ally, but the present art. takes account only of
• Cf. Ezk 4220 ' to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.'
t Cf. Tj-mnie's tr. of Calvin's (JenegU, on iV ' ^^^len Jacob il 8ai<le to blesse the kin^, Moses ther<:'by meaneth not a coDimon and prophane salutation, but a godlie and bolie prayer a t th«. servant of God.'
PROMISE
PEOMISE
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the technical or semi-techaical sense of it wliich comes into view when we read of 'the promise' without any qualification. God is tlie autlior of the promise, and it is spontaneously put forth on His part ; this is what is signihed by (Ta~c/i\\ta6ai as opjiosed to uTi(rx''"<^S<", the latter signifying to come under an obligation, as part of a contract. The promise was originally given to Abraham ; and though, in its largest scope, it covers the whole future guaranteed to him by God, it is delined at ditlerent times in ditt'erent ways. Some- times the thing promised is the possession of a country — Canaan is ' the land of the promise ' (He 11"); sometimes it is the birth of a son or of a numerous posterity, a seed like the stars of heaven or the dust of the earth (Gn 13'« 15')— Isaac is the first of 'the children of the promise' (IloSJ") ; more generally it is a divinely-secured greatness and felicity ho conspicuous that all nations will make it a standard of congratulation (Gn 12-'). The OT, though the promises of God may be said to be the contents of His covenant (so that St. Paul Bpeaks of ' the covenants of the promise,' Kph 2'^), dx)e8 not make much use of this category to inter- pret the experience of Israel. The future of the nation does depend on God, but it is seldom related to His 'promise' in the technical sense with which we are here concerned. There is an approach to the general idea in Jer 29" ' I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.' This conception of some good unrealized, but to be realized tlirough faith in tlie sure word of God, is what is meant by the promise. But there is a nearer approach still to the technical sense in I's 1U5" ' He remembered his holy word, and Ahrahiini his servant.' The whole future of Israel, all tlie deliverances wrouglit for it, are here con- ceived as bound up in sometliing which God said to Abraham ; the history of the nation is tlie revelation of what was involved in the primitive proi ise, and not only its revelation but its fullil- nieiit. It is a witness to God's faithfulness to His word.
It is at this point that the NT takes up the idea. We see in the Magnifcnt and in the llcm-i/iittis how pious souls in Israel were preoccupied with it : ' He iiath holpen Israel his servant that he might rememher mercy (as he spake unto our fnthrcs) toward Ahrahmn and his seed for ever' (Lk 1^'-, cf. v." ' the oath which he sware unto Abraham our father,' eU:.). In NT times, however, the signih- cance of the promise was determined ex eventu ; it had been at last fulhlled in Christ, and it was by lookin" at Christ that men discovered what it meant. ' For how many soever are the promises of God [the sejiarate ble.ssinL'S into which the one all- embracing f7ra77«\(a can lie resolved] in him is the Yea,' that is, the Divine conlirniation and fullil- ment of them all (2 Co l**). The substance of NT teaching on this subject can be arranged under the.se heads: (1) the contents of the promise; (2) the heirs of it ; (3) the conditions of its fullilment. (1) The contents of the promise are always re- lated to Christ, but they are dehned in various ways under the influence of various 01' ideas. Sonietinies the original idea of a 'country of our own' reajipcars, a liind in which we shall not be strangers and pilgrims as on earth, 'a city with foundations,' rather 'the city with the founda- tions,' a rest like the Sabbatli rest of God, into which we may enter after we have traversed the wildLrness, an eternal inheritance. This may be said to be the asiicel of the ]promise which |iervades the Epistle to the Hebrews. See He 1 1"'" 4",l'». In the preachiii'' of St. I'eter, as we find it in the early chapters of Acts, it is the Uisen .(esus, made by God ' both Lord and Christ,' in whom the promise