V. The prophetic office of the Ascended Christ. — We must not conceive of the prophetic office of Jesus as ceasing with His ascension ; for it, no less than the priestly and kingly, belongs to His essential activities as the Redeemer of men. Error as well as sin blights human life, and truth as well as righteousness is needed to restore the fallen, and therefore from the right hand of God He still teaches the world He loves.
1. His prophetic work is carried on by Him through the instrumentality of His Church, which is inspired by His Spirit. It is not that He has transferred His teaching office from Himself to the Church, but that He Himself still teaches the world through her. When the earliest preachers of the gospel proclaimed their message, He, though en- throned, worked with them and confirmed the Avord with signs following (Mk 16'") ; and it was His Spirit — ' the Spirit of Jesus ' — that prevented Paul the missionary from entering Bithynia (Ac 16''), and that thus directed his steps as a teacher to Europe. In a word, the Church in her teaching office is taught, confirmed, and guided by Jesus Christ, her ever-living Prophet.
2. Sliortly after the Church started on her career, the inherent prophetic power, which she possessed by her union with Christ, exhibited itself in a recognized order of prophets, — men and women who preached under the influence of direct inspiration, and who at times were able to foretell the future. These prophets were placed by St. Paul second in his list of Church ministrants (1 Co 12-s, Eph 4"). Their natural tendency towards independence by and by brought them into collision with the Church's authoritative organizations ; and their ministry of enthusiasm, under the pressure of tlie more regular and constant ministrations, gradually fell into disuse.
3. But the many movements claiming inspiration throughout her history tell us that the prophetic Spirit is ever present, though perhaps slumbering, within the Christian body. It is difficult to see how such a gift as prophecy, which by its spon- taneity refuses to be bound by fixed rules, can coexist, without confusion, as a power along with the stilted ministry ; but not the least need of the present life of the Church is the discovery of means whereby she may develop her organized existence as a community, and at the same time permit the free utterance of those direct spiritual com- munications which she may receive from Christ her Prophet.
Literature. — (1) On the Messiah as Prophet : Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah, pp. 126, 293 f. (2) On Christ's Prophetic Ortice : AJartensen, Chr. Boymatics, p. 295 ff.; and esp. Uorner, Syst. of Chr. Doctrine, vols. iii. and iv. passim. (3) On distinctive niarlis of prophet : Oehler, OT Thenl. ; A. B. Davidson, OT TheoL, also his art. ' i'rophecy ' in Hastingfs' DB; Ottley, Aspects ofOT, p. 275 ff. (4) On Christ's didactic jtrophecies : Edersheim, LT ; Weiss, Life of Christ INeander's Life, though not modern, is very useful] ; Bishop D'Arcy's liulinq Ideas of our Lord (Hodder) is succinct but full and valuable, see also his art. Ideas (Leading). (5) On Christ's predictive prophecies : for those regarding His death see Schwartzkopff, Prophecies of Jesus Christ [Eng. tr. T. & T. Clark] ; but for conservative standpoint, Denney, Death of Christ ; for those regarding His Return see Stevens, NT TheoL pt. I. ch. xii. ; Briggs, Messiah of Gospels, ch. iv. and passim ; S. Davidson, Doctrine of Last likings ; Schwartzkopff, as above ; Muirhead, Eschatology of Jesus ; art. ' Parousia ' in Hastings'
Charles T. P. Grierson.
DB
PROPHETESS.— Among OT prophetesses may be named Miriam (Ex 15^**), and esp. Deborah (Jg 4f.) and Huldah (2 K 22", 2 Ch 34-''). The prophetess Noadiah opposed Nehemiah (Neh e'''). While it was the exception for Avomen to be called to the prophetic office, they were by no means excluded from it, and it is manifest that Deborah and Huldah made a deep impress upon their contemporaries. The only mention of a pro))hetess in the Gospels is that of Anna, who recognized the infant Messiah when His jiarents presented Him in the Temple (Lk 2^8). She was of the tribe of Asher, and had lived to a great age, being probably a good deal over a hundred years old. She si^oke to the pious worshijipers in the Temjjle concerning the work of Jesus. See Anna. John K. Sampey.
PROPITIATION.— The idea of propitiation is directly expressed in the NT by the words i\d<TKOfj.ai, iXacr/iidi, and Waar-qpiov , which occur but six times. The verb is found in Lk IS'^, He 2", the substan- tive in 1 Jn 2- 4"* ; iXaarripiov, be it adjective or substantive, in Ho 3'^^, He 9^ As the ground of reconciliation and atonement, it is the innermost trutli in reference to Christ's redemjjtive work.
The word lXa.(rxcif^oLi came down from classic usage through the LXX into the writings of the NT. As used in the latter, it refers to the relation of Christ's work to sin. We are interested chiefly in this article, therefore, in tracing the meaning it had in the LXX in reference to the sin- and guilt-offerings. It was used to render the Heb. kipper, ' to cover.' That which consti- tuted the emblematic cover which hid sin from God so that He could act as though it did not exist, was the shed blood (or life) of the sacrificial victim. In the narrow limits of this article it is only possible to refer to the conclusions reached by eminent scholars with whom the writer ventures in general to agree. He would mention especially Prof. W. P. Paterson's art. ' Sacri- fice' in Hastings' DB, where the conclusion is reached that 'the expiation of guilt is the leading purpose of Levitical sacrifices,' and that the expiation is accomplished through the sacrifice taking the place of the offender, and its death being accepted in place of his. While this seems the manifest import of the Levitical sin- and guilt-offerings with which we are in this dis- cussion concerned, it is pretty certain that this was the view of the Jews in our Lord's time. As Holtzmann says (Aeutest. Theol. p. 68), ' Everything pressed towards the assumption that the offering of a life substituted for sinners according to God's appointment, cancelled the death penalty which had been in- curred, and that consecjuently the offered blood of the sacrificial victim expiated sin as the surrogate for the life of the guilty.'