2. The above general idea is the l)asis of the Hebrew ^'^'yi, prophet. The prophet is a divinely-inspired seer, and, as such, he is an inteqireter and preacher of the divine will. He may either be directly called by (Jod, or have been prep?.r„'d for his office in the schools of the prophets (comp. Knobel, Der Propketisinus der llehriier volLilund>;j ddrrjcstdlt. Bresl. 1837, i, 102 sq. ; ii, 45 sq.). See Seei{.
However, the being filled with the Holy Ghost was the most prominent feature in the Hebrew idea of a Ijrojihet. Tliis is even implied in the usual appellation X"^z;, wliich means a person in the state of divine in- spiration (not a prcdicter of future events). Prophet- ism ceased altogether as soon as Jehovah, according to the popular opinion, ceased to communicate his Spirit. See I'hoi'iiet.
3. The Hebrew notion of a X"'23 appears among the Greeks to have been split into its two constituent parts of fiavTK:, from fiaivi(j9<u, to ram (Plato, Phndrus, § 48, ed. Steph. p. 244, a. b.), and of I'Oiyijriic, from i^rj- ynaOai, to expound. However, the ideas of j.uivric and of t'^ijyijrljr could be combined in the same person. Compare Hoissonnade, Anecdota Grceca, i, OO, Adi^nruiv iO)yiiT>ir, i-iavTtc yap t/v Kai XP'/'^Moi'C tinyuTo (com- l)are Scholia in Aristophanes, Niibps, 33G), and Arrian, Kpirtitii.'i, ii, l.Tov ^tdvriv tov i'^ijyov^Kvor tu (!7]iit'ia\ Plato, hi' Lenibus, ix, p. 871, c, Mfr' tir]yi]Tiuv Kai /xdr- Ttwi/; Euripides, yV«a>nMsa',v. 1018, 'O ^idvri^ t^ylpra- ro, and Ip/iir/enia in Aulide, 1. 529. Plutarch {Vita Nnmn; caj). xi) places tKnyil'rnc a"fl irpo(p)'iTi]i: together ; 80 also does Dionysius Halicarnassensis, ii, 73. Tlie first two of tiiosc examples prove that t^tjyiirai were, ac- cording to the (ireeks, persons who possessed tlie gift of discovering the will of the Deity from certain aji- pearaiices and of interpreting signs. Jul. Pollux (viii. 124) say»,'E'^tiyT]rai vf tKaXovvTO o'l rd -iiii rwv cin- (Ttfttiiov Kai Ta T(ov dWiov itpwv viSdrrKovTfc. Har- pocration says, and Suidas repeats after him, 'liknyiirijc:, 6 iEtiyni'^nviiij r.i iipd. Comp. IJeckcr, Anecdota Grd- ca, i, ISb,' E'£.iiy(n<vrai oi timtinoi. Crcuzcr defines the li,i]y}]Tai, in his SymhoUk inul Af;/tholof/ie der altcn ViJlker, i, 15, as " persons whose high vocation it was to
bring la_\Tnen into harmony with divine things. These i-^riyijTai moved in a religious sphere (compare Herod, i, 78, and Xenophon, Ci/roprndia, viii, 3, 11). Even the Delphic Apollo, replying to those who sought his ora- cles, is called by Plato i^tjyr)r>]g {Polit. iv,^ 448, b.). Plutarch mentions, in Vita Thesei, oaiwv Kai 'itpujv it- t]yr)Tai ; compare also the above-quoted passage of Dio- nysius Halicarnassensis, and especially Kuhnken {ad finueum Lexicon, ed. Lugd. Bat. 1789, p. 189 sq.). The Scholiast on Sophocles {Ajax, 320) has t'^i'iyiitng tiri Twv Biitxiv, and the Scholiast on Electra (42()) has the definition t^rjyijffig Siaadcpijmg Oaiaji'. It is in connec- tion with this original signification of the word it,r]yi]- Tiif: that the expounders of the law are styled t^)]yr]rai ; because the ancient law was derived from the gods, and the law-language had become unintelligible to the mul- titude. (Compare Lj-sias, vi, 10 ; Diodorus Siculus. xiii, 35 ; Kuhnken, as quoted above ; the annotators on Pol- lux and Harpocration ; and K. Fr. Hermann, Lehrbuch der Griechischen Staats-Alterthiime?; Marburg, 1836, § 104, note 4). In Athen;ieus and Plutarch there are men- tioned books under the title t^r]yr)TiKd, which contained introductions to the right understanding of sacred signs. (Compare Valesius, ad Ilarpocrationem Lexicon, Lipsise, 1824, ii, 462.)
4. Like the Greeks, the Romans also distinguished between vates and interpres (Cicero, Fragm. ; Hortens.) : "Sive vates sive in sacris initiisque tradendis divinas mentis interpretes." Servius {ad Virgilii ^En. ii, 359) quotes a passage from Cicero to this effect : " The sci- ence of divination is twofold ; it is either a sacred rav- ing, as in prophets, or an art, as in soothsayers, who re- gard the intestines of sacrifices, or lightnings, or the flight of birds." The aruspices,fuIguriti,fulrjuratores, and anr/iires belong to the idea of the interpres deorum. Comp. Cicero, Pro dome sua, c. 41 : "I have been taught thus, that in undertaking new religious performances the chief thing seems to be the interpretation of the will of the immortal gods." Cicero {I)e Dirinaiione, i, 41) says: ''The Hetrusci explain the meaning of all re- markable foreboding signs and portents." Hence, in Cicero {De Legibus, ii, 27), the expression "interpretes rehgionum."
An example of this distinction, usual likewise among the Greeks, is found in 1 Cor. xii, 4, 30. The Corin- thians filled with the Holy Ghost were yXwaffaig \a- Xovvreg, speaking in tongues, consequently they were in the state of a navrig ; but frequently they did not com- prehend the full import of their own inspiration, and did not understand how to interpret it because tliey had not the tp/t?;i'ci'a yXwo-triii', inteipretation of tongues: consequently they were not t^TjyTjrai.
The Romans obtained the interpretaiio from the Etruscans (Cicero, De Dirinatione, i, 2, and Ottfried Miiller, Die Etrusker, ii, 8 sq.) ; but the above distinc- tion was the cause that the inierpretatio degenerated into a common art, which was exercised without inspi- ration, like a contemptible soothsaying, the rules of which were contained in writings. Cicero {De Divina- tione, i, 2) says : " Supposing that divination by raving was especially contained in the Sibylline verses, they apjiointed ten public interpreters of the same."