PROPHECY, PROPHET
PROPITIATION
281
himself is to participate, not practising what lie teai'lies) suggest a lower tj'pe of spirituality both in prophet and people. There is further the obscure proviso tliat he is not to ' make assemblies for a wurMly mystery '(or to 'act for a worldly mystery of the cluucli '), but the difliculty of understanding the plirase as it stands forbids any deduction as t;o the diaracter of this test. Again, the prophet when he speaks in ecstasy is al)i)ve criticism : to criticize one who ' speaks in the spirit 'is the unpardonable sin. He is to receive 'the first-fruits': for 'the prophets are your high-priests.' Both 'propliets' and 'apostles' hold a higher rank in the Didachc than iiishops and deacons (presbyters are not mentioned), con- cerning wliom the warning is given not to ' despise ' them. The apocalypse with which the Didache closes has many phrases that recall Mt '24, e.rf., the warning against false prophets, and the predic- tion of lawlessness and persecution and of the appearance of the world-deceiver (6 KoafiowXavo^). Thus it would appear that the authority of the prophets was already beginning to be undermined by the appearance of false and covetous prophets. In the Apostolic Fathers ' prophets ' are not mentioned ; when Ignatius speaks of prophets, they are OT propliets : at the same time, he claims to receive revelations, lofty and incommunicable (Trail. 5), and waits for such (Eph. xx. 1), while Polj'carp is to pray for them (Polyc. ii. 2). Hernias considers himself to be a prophet com- missioned by God to comfort and persuade his hearers and to sound the call to repentance (Mand. XII. iii. 2-3). Harnack's suggestion that the silence of Hernias as to prophecies is due to the fact that he reckoned himself a prophet is not jconvincing (o^?. cit. p. 340). In Mand. XI. he refers to false prophets as mere magicians practis- ing on people of wavering faith who apply to them cjs (7ri ixafTif. If the Didache represents the situa- tion immediately after the Apostolic Age, the Shepherd of Hennas may be reasonably regarded as Hxing the time when the authority of Christian prophecy was beginning to decline. Ecstasy in either its orderly or irregular forms was gradually to die under the development of the Church Order as represented by bishops and elders. We have to wait for the rise of Montanism in the 4th cent, for a revival of the extemporaneous enthusiasm and unconventional apocalypses of individual Christians. But it is more likely that the decline of prophecy was due less to Church organization and discipline than to the fact that the gift was so open to abuse. Even the apostolic safeguards could not save it : these depended on a high ideal of Christian conduct for their efficacy. Prophecy disappeared because its spiritual dignity and jiower were difficult to maintain in a community where the degrees of spirituality differed so widely, and where the mystical elements of the faith had necessarily to be subordinated to the practical in the evolution of Christian character. On the other hand, prophecy in its less reputalde forms became a barrier to Christian progress and lent colour to the criticisms of outsiders like Celsus (see Origen, e. Cels. vii. 9), whose intellectual tastes were offended by the excesses of certain types of prophet, and who had not sufficient insight or tolerance to estimate the spiritual value of prophecy as a whole.
Literature. — In addition to the Literature named under artt. Gifts, and Tongues, Gift of, the following may be consulted: A. Harnack, The Rfis.tion and Expansion of Chrlstianily'-. Enp. tr., 1908; E. von Dobschiitz. Christian Life in the Primitive Church. Eng. tr., I!in4 ; E. C. Selwyn. The Chritttian Prophets. lOOIl ; P. D. Scott-Moncrieff, Pa^atu^m. and Clirig- tiaiiity ill K[iypt, 10i:i ; F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 1897; C, von Weizsacker, The Apostolic Aqe, En<r. tr.,
1894-9.5. li. Martin Pope.
PROPITIATION. — Propitiation occurs in the apostolic literature of the NT only four times : (1) Ko 3^ as the rendering of Waarifpiov : ' whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, hecause of the jiassing over of sins done aforetime, in the forbear- ance of God'; ('2) as the rendering of IXaa/ids, 1 Jn 2^ : 'and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world ' ; (3) I Jn 4'" : ' Herein is love, not that wo loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to he the propitiation for our sins' ; (4) in KV it is also used in He 2" as the translation of t6 IXda-Kcirdai : ' Where- fore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people ' ; IXaa- rripiov also occurs in He 9°, rendered 'mercy-seat' (RVm ' Gr. the propitiatory'). These, with the verbal form Wdadnn in the story of the I'harisee and the Publican (Lk 18'^ ' God he merciful,' llVm ' be propitiated '), and the use of the adjective i'Xfws twice (Mt 16--, He 8'-) constitute all the guidance aflbrded by the NT in seeking the meaning of ' pro- pitiation,' a term of much importance in apostolic thought. Consequently we are largely dependent for help in its interpretation upon what we know of the use of cognate terms in the LXX, and upon the ideas associated with their Hebrew equivalents in the OT ; for the classical use of the Greek terms from Homer downwards helps mostly by contrast, presenting a usage different from that found in the LXX and the NT. (For details and discussion of Heb. and Gr. usage see art. ' Propitiation ' by Driver in HDB ; also for Gr. usage B. F. Westcott, Epistles of St. John^, p. 85 f., and an interesting dis- cussion in T. V. Tymms, The Christian Idea of Atonement, p. 191ft'. ; and for the opposite view, maintaining the classical and pagan use of the Gr. term in the apostolic literature, see G. Snieaton, The Apostles' Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 455 ft".) H. Bushnell also maintains that the language of Scrip- ture accords with the pagan idea of propitiation, but he rejects the idea itself on ethical grounds, suggesting that the apostolic writers did not really mean what their words mean — an evasion which creates an exegetical impasse (cf. The Vicarious Sacrifice, London, 1866, p. 447 if.).