ings of the promise are those which Christ brings (' fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gosjiel ' [Eph 3"]). They who receive the blessings are those who belong to Christ : ' if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise' (Gal 3-'"). Eaith is the general condition of receivinjj: 'the scripture hath shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe' (Gal 3--). Particular emphasis is laid on the fact that the promise is of grace, and not of works of the law ; ' for this cause it is of faith, that it might bo according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed ; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all' (Ko 4'"). Tin' term 'promise' is itself a witness to the spontaneity of I he grace of God. Among the Messianic bh^ssings the promise is sometimes identified with the gift of the Holy Ghost : ' that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus ; that we might receive the promise of the Si)irit ' (Gal S" ; also Ac 2-"', Eph 1'^). The forgiveness of sins is also regarded as included in the promise (Ac
(3) The Messianic promises of the OT are not only fulhlled in Christ, but out of His work many other promises are referred to, as ' whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises' (2 P 1''). Among these we must include 'life' (2 Ti 1'), 'eternal life' (1 Jn 2=»), ' the crown of life ' (Ja 1'^), ' new heavens and a new earth' (2 P 3", etc.).
Literature. — Art. ' Promise ' in HDB (J. Denney) and CE (J. F. DriscoU) ; J. Orr, The Problem of the OT, 10(17, jip. 36 £f.,
12. John Rkid.
PROPERTY.— See Wealth and Community of Goods.
PROPHECY,PROPHET, PROPHETESS.— Chris.
tianity produced a revival of the ancient gift of prophecy, which was so marked a feature of the religious life of Israel. It was the spoken utter- ance of the man of vision and inspiration ; it was a declaration of the ' word of Jahweh ' ; it was a revelation of the Divine will not so much in the sense of prediction — an aspect of prophecy not original, but subordinate — but rather in the sense of spiritual instruction involving a special degree of religious and ethical insight. John the Baptist, the herald of Christ, may be called the last of the older prophets. Christianity did not supersede the earlier revelation but fulfilled it, as the hrst and greatest Proijhet of the new order declared (Mt 5'*) ; hence Christian prophecy is continuous with the prophecy of Israel, and tlie functions of both Jewish and Christian prophet are substantially the same. It was the content of the jirophecy which was changed with the new revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Christian prophecy was born on the Day of Pentecost, the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which seemed to St. Peter to be a direct fulfilment of ancient prophecy (cf. Jl 2-"-).
1. The office of prophet. — It is natural to look for the prophet in the earliest environment of Christianity ; and, as a matter of fact, we find projihets and prophetesses from the very heginning of the early Jewish Church. Christian prophets are referred to in the context of Ac 2'°, where ■irpo<p7]Teijaov<ni' is not part of the original quotation ; and the gift which developed at Pentecost in the Church at Jeru.salem was destined to spread wherever a Christian society came into being. To take the word ' prophetess ' first, we find in Lk 2"'' Anna described as a prophetess, in Ac 21" the four
2S0
PROPHKCY, PROPHET
PROPHECY, PROPHET
daughters of Philip the Evangelist, and in Rev 2^ Jezebel, 'which called herself a ])ro|)hete.ss.' It was evidently a function in which women mi^^ht share, as we gatlier from 1 Co 11°, where puldic prophecy and public prayer are associated as gifts of Christian women. I'l-ophcts are mentioned in the Acts — Agabus (U-'^l'"), Syineon Niger, Lucius of CjTene, and Manaen, in addition to liarnabas and Saul (13'), and Judas and Silas (Ifr'-). We have evidence of pronliecy not only in tlie churches of Jerusalem and C;csai'ea. but also in Antioch (Ac U-'' 13'), in Rome, Corinth, and Thessalonica (Ro 12«'-, 1 Co 14^-'-, IThS-'").
'The three members of the Christian group — apostles, prophets, teachers — were already to be met with in contemporary Judaism,' but ' the grouping of these three classes, and tlie special development of the apostleship, were the special work of the Christian church' (Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity-, Eng. tr., i. 334). The ' apostles ' were the itinerant mission- aries of the Christian Church ; they were also by nature of their office propliets and teachers (ef. Eph 2-", 'the foundation of the apostles and prophets,' where the two are virtually identified ; also 3" and 4", where ' classes of functions rather than persons ' are indicated ; see Hort, Christian Ecclesia, p. 166). ' Prophet ' stands second in the list, but there is a wide sense in which this term could be applied to each of the three classes. The prophet in Did. xi. 10 is called a teacher, and teaching was undoubtedl}' an element in the pro- phetic gift (cf. Polycarp, ap. Eus. HE IV. xv. 30, SiSatr/caXos a.Tro(Tro\iK6s Kal irpo^riTih'ds). But thougii all three were speakers of the word (XaXoOi'Tss rbp \6yav [Did. iv. 1]), prophecy was a distinctive xApiTfj-a (see Gifts), distinguishable from that of the 'a|>ostle' and the 'teacher.' While the ' apostle ' is a wandering missionary, the ' pro- phets ' and ' teachers ' were in general attached to a local church ; e.g. Silas and Judas, prophets of the Church of Jerusalem, are described as riyov/ievoi. (Ac 15--) ; and in He 13' such riyou/xenoi or leaders are described as speaking 'tlie word of God.' Neither the 'prophet' nor the 'teacher' was appointed by the apostles, as were 'bishops 'and ' elders ' ; their gifts were an endowment of the Spirit, and both fulfilled the function of speaking in the spirit {\a\eli' ev Trvevfiari).