Seemiller, Skbastian, a Roman Cathf)lic doctor of divinity, was born Oct. 17, 1752, at Yelden, in Lower Bavaria, and died April 25, 1798. He wrote, Exercitt. PhiloL-theologiccp. ad Illustranda et Vindicanda qufedam Primi Capitis Geneseos Loca (Nurerab. 1776) : — Herme- neutica Sacra (Augsburg, 1779) : — De, Greeds Bibliorum V. T. Versiouibtis Dissertatio JJistorico-critica (Ingolst. 1788): — Septem Psalmi Pcenitentiales (ibid. 1790): — Quiiidecim Psalmi Graduales (ibid. 1791). See Fiirst, Biblinth. Jud. iii, 307 ; Winer, Handbuch der iheolog. Li- teratur. (B. P.)
Seeney, Robeut, a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, was born Oct. 12, 1797. He graduated at Columbia College in 1817, and soon afterwards united with the Church. In 1820 he was received on trial in the New York Conference, and labored with great ac- ceptability in its most important stations. In 1852 he was placed upon the supernumerary list, but continued to preach until he received a paralytic stroke in the left side. On July 1, 1854, he was attacked by a more violent stroke upon the right side, from which he could not rally. As a preacher, Mr. Seeney was chaste, clear, and forcible ; as a Christian he was artless, affable, and faithful. See Minules of Annual Conferences, 1855, p. 545.
Seer is the almost invariable rendering in the A. V. of riTn, chozeh (which is otherwise translated only in Isa. xxviii, 15, " agreement ;" xxx, 10, " prophet ;" xlvii, 13, "gazer;" Ezek. xiii, 9, 16; xxii, 28, " that see," etc.), and occasionally (1 Sam. ix, 9-19; 2 Sam. xv, 27: 1 Chron. ix,22; xxvi, 28; xxix, 29; 2 Chron. xvi, 7, 10) of nx"l, roeh; while the tantamount and technically used prophet is usually denoted by "^33, nabi (on the meaning and etymology of which see Hartmann, 3(/ Excurs. to his Uebers. d. Michna, p. 219 sq. ; Paulus, Exe- get. Conservat. ii, 122 sq. ; and the different views of kedslob, Der Ber/r. d. Nabi [Leips. 1839], Ewald, Proph. i, 6 sq., Hiivernick, Einleit. ins A. T. II, ii, 6 sq.). All three names are used, though applied to different per- sons (I Chron. xxix, 29); and the Chronicles hold this distinction throughout — calling, e. g., Samuel 7-ul>h. Gad chozeh, and Nathan nabi — a distinction, to a great ex- tent, lost in the A. V., where the first two are confound- ed. According to 1 Sam. ix, 9, roeh was the older name for prophet, and it is especially applied to Samuel; nabi is the most usual word ; chozeh perhaps passed from the ritual language into that of history. It is found almost solely in Chronicles.
These words were applied, in Hebrew antiquity, from Samuel's time until after the return from captivity, to men inspired by God (comp. Amos iii, 7 ; 2 Pet. i, 21, by thQ spirit of Jehovah ; Ezek. xi, 5; xxxvii, 1, expressed in different forms; iii, 14; 2 Chron. xxiv, 20; comp. Gesen. Comment zu Is. i, 338; Thesaur. ii, 742) who comprehended the principles of the theocracy, and were devoted to them, denouncing in energetic terms all that tended to undermine them ; though in earlier days the name of prophet had been given to those who stood in re- lations of confidence with God (Gen. xx, 7 ; Exod. vii, 1 ; XV, 20, etc.). Of the activity of these prophets among foreigners but one example is given (Jonah i, 2 sq.). At first they appear but occasionally, where the welfare of the people is in danger, or as counsellors of the theocratic kings (1 Sam. xxii, 5; 2 Sam. vii, 2 sq.); but when the kingdom was divided, a wider field was open to them (2 Kings xvii. 13 sq.). As the fate of the people drew near, they raised their voices the more earnestly — re- buking now idolatry, religious affectation, immoralitv;
now the wicked and selfish government, and the false policy of the king and the grandees of the realm ; now warning or threatening the thankless people with the judgments of Jehovah ; now casting a glance to the en- nobled form of the theocracy again arising from this ruin of the national welfare and honor. Public places — markets (Amos v, 10; Isa. xxix, 21), streets, the courts of the Temple (Jer. vii, 1 ; xix, 14 ; xxvi, 2 ; comp. xxix, 26) — w^ere usually the localities of their action (xxv, 2). But they also went, though not welcome then, to the palaces of kings and tlieir noblemen (Isa. xxii, 15), shunning no danger or repulse (Ezek. xiii, 5). Thus their order formed a beneficial balance against the mis- use of the royal power, the narrow symjiathies and (kil- ness of the priests, the untheocratic tendencies of the people themselves, and accomplished a portion of that which is expected in modern times from representatives of the ]ieople and the free press. It would be proper to call the prophets demat/orives, in the original and best sense, as popular leaders (De Wette, Chi-istl. Sittenl. II, i, 32). Since in the theocracy religious and political elements were mingled, the subject and the aim of the efforts of the prophets belonged sometimes to the one class, sometimes to the other; but was never merely po- litical, since a religious reference is found in all. Their views could not be limited to the present, but extended to the future whicli should succeed it (comp. Von Raumer, Vorles. liber allijemeine Gesch. i, 1.53; Ewald, Proph. i, 24) ; but usually not to a distant future, severed by cen- turies from the present. This we learn by an unpreju- diced examination of the prophecies yet remaining, and a comparison of their contents with the historical stand- point of the authors. Indeed, tlie minute prediction of very distant events, overleaping the immediate future, would have had no purpose for the generation then liv- ing, nor would it have furthered the interests of the theoc- racy as a holy community. Yet Eichhorn has pressed this view too far {De Prophet. Poes. Ilebr. Paralip., in the Comment. Soc. Gotting. Rec. v). The image of the_/i//ii/?-e suggested by the prophets is naturally connected with the present of the author; hence we can often, as in the Chaldee period, trace a chronological progress from the indefinite and general to the definite and special. Only in one group of prophecies did they leave the relations and circumstances of their own times and direct the people to a distant ideal future, when, not satisfied with the imme(Hate future, they speak of the Messiah and his blessed kingdom to come; and it was this hope of the Messiah and the renewal of their kingdom under him, set forth and cherished by the propliets, which gave the religious life of the nation that new, peculiar impulse which secured them so important a place in tiie history of religion and of man (comp. Cr\isiu><, Bibl. The»l. p. 39 sq., 67 ; De Wette, Chrisll. Sittenl. II, i, 34). The form of the prophetic representations was simple and artless; sometimes in dialogue (Jer. xxviii), yet never without the rhytlim which is so natural to the rajiid speech of the Orientals; never without imaginative el- evation (comp. Ewald, Aiisfuhr. Lehrb. d. Ilthr. Sp7: p. 138 sq. ; Umbreit, De V. T. Prophetis Claris. Antiq. Temp. Orat. [Heidelb. 1832]; Ewald, Propheten, i, 49 sq.), and often was poetical (Amos v, 1 si). ; Isa. v, 1). The early prophecies seem to have been accompanied by music, which was used as an aid to religious feeling (2 Kings iii, 15), and all of them by energetic gestures; and often symbolic actions were connected with them (1 Kings xi, 29 sq. ; Jer. xix, 1 sq. ; xxviii; xxxv; xliii, 9 sq. ; Ezek. iv; xii, 3 sq.; xxiv, 3 sq. ; xxxvii, 15 sq.), or symbolic costume (Isa. xx, 2 sq. ; comp. Stiiud- lin, N^eue Beitr. znr Erldut. d. bibl. Proph. ji. 123 sq. ; see Jahn, Einleit. ii, 395; Gesen. Com. zu Is. i, 645). It should be borne in mind that tiie inhal)itants of warmer climates are more prone to such off- hand oratory by their active imagination. Yet the comparisons sc'me- times instituted between the Hebrew prophets and the Italian improvisatores or the Greek seers (/xairfic; Ritter, in Scherer's Schriftforsch. i,372 sq.) are worth-