Whether it can be proved by an investigation of Holy Scripture that this relation between divine announce- ments for the future and certain present events does so exist as to constitute a law, and whether, if the law is proved to exist, it is of universal or only of partial ap- plication, we do not pause to determine. But it is man- ifest that the existence of a primary sense cannot ex- clude the possibility of a secondary sense. The ques- tion, therefore, really is, whether the prophecies are ap- plicable to Christ : if they are so applicable, the previous application of each of them to some historical event would not invalidate the proof that, they were designed as a whole to find their full completion in him. Nay. even if it could he shown that the prophets had in their thoughts nothing beyond the primary completion of their words (a thing which we at present leave undeter- mined), no inference could thence be drawn against their
secondary application ; for such an inference would as- sume what no believer in inspiration will grant — viz. that the prophets are the sole authors of their prophe- cies. The rule Nihil in scripto quod nonprius in saip- tore is sound ; but the question is, who is to be regarded as the true author of the prophecies — the human instru- ment or the divine author? See Hengstenberg, Chris- tology, appendix vi, p. 433. See Double Sknse.
(d.) Miraculous Character.— It is probable that this lies at the root of the many and various efforts made to disprove the predictive power of the prophets. There is no question that if miracles are, either physically or morally, impossible, then prediction is impossible; and those passages which have ever been accounted predic- tive must be explained away as being vague, as being obscure, as applying only to something in the writer's lifetime, or on some other hypothesis. This is only say- ing that belief in prediction is not compatible with the theory of atheism, or with the philosophy which rejects the overruling providence of a Personal God. See Mait- land, Argument from Prophecy (Lond. 1877) ; Row, Bampton Lecture for 1877, p. 219. See Miracle.
Tor a copious list of treatises on Scripture prophecy in general, see Darling, Cyclopaedia Bibliographiea, col. 1785 sq. ; and Malcolm, Theological Index, s. v. Comp. Knrtz, Gesch. d. Alten Bundes, ii, 513 sq. ; Hard wick, Christ and other Masters, vol. i, ch. iii. esp. p. 135 sq.; Smith, (Bampton Lecture) On Prophecy (Bost. 1870, 12mo); Brit, and For. Ev. Rev. 18(53. art. viii ; Bibh | Repos. p. 11, 138, 217 ; Westm. Rev. Jan. 18(18, p. 106; Kitto, Journ.of Sac. Lit. xxx, 1 sq., April, 1853, p. 35; Aids to Faith, essay iii; Fngl. Rev. viii, 181; Fisher, The Beginnings of Christianity, p. 8, et al. : Stanlev, Lectures on the Jewish Church. 1st series, lect. xviii-xx ; Fairbairn, Prophecy Viewed in respect to its Distinctive Nature, its Special Function, and Proper Interpretation (Edinb. 1850) ; and for the vast field of German litera- ture on the subject, see Keil, Introd. to the Old Test. (ibid. 1809), i, 265 sq.
PKOPHECY, Jewish Interpretation of. The Hebrew and the Christian alike recognise the reality of the predictive element in the chosen oracles of the great / am. The two religionists, however, differ widely in their manner and sense of interpretation and in the ap- plication of the oracular utterances. This difference regarding a portion of Scripture accepted alike by both is easily accounted for. The divergence is in the two religions themselves, and is called out by the question whether the predictions for a Messiahship to the "chosen race" have ever been fulfilled. Upon this query all turns. The Israelite, refusing to recognise in Christ the long-promised divine messenger, either de- clares it a vain attempt to decipher the prophetic im- ages, if he be a rationalist; or, if he be more faithfully wedded to the canon of the synagogue, patiently sits back, awaiting the final solution of the problem of God's salvation of his people. See Jews; Messiah; Phari- see; Rationalism.
In the early and mediaeval days of Christianity, the Jews did not deny the facts of the Christian miracles, but explained them away, and so nothing remained for settlement hut the verity of the prophecies and the question of their fulfilment. The first of these (he Jewr conceded to the Christian, but on the last point a some- what rich literature of polemics is preserved to us. It begins with the New Test, itself. Paul and other apos- tles were frequently called upon to argue the Messiah- ship of Christ. We have the same phase of the contest in the apology of Justin Martyr (q. v.) against Trypho, to which a new kind of objection expressive of preju- dice is added in the discourse which Celsus, as pre^- served in Origen (Contr. Cels. bk. i and ii), puts into the mouth of the Jew whom he introduces. (In refer- ence to this contest, these Church fathers, and especial- ly Semisch's work on Justin Martyr and the works on the Jewish Talmudic literature and philosophy, may be consulted. See also, for later continuations of this con-
PPOPIIECY
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PROPIIESYIXGS
test, Ilagenbach. Eitt. of Doctr. i, § 14A, and the art. Polemics, Jewish.)
The Jew contends with the Christian not only for a special spiritual elevation in the prophet an intense! degree of the same divine intuition which God gives to all who worship him in love and reverence— but fur a gift ol lighl vouchsafed to him different from any ordi- nary endowment, Maimonides remains the chief of the Jewish hermeneutists. "This sage of mediaeval Judaism thus teaches: Prophecy signifies the com- munication of verities to the human mind from God by the medium of the active reason, with or without tic power to foretell future events or to perform mira- cles. The tirst point is essential, the oilier is merely accidental Prophecy is a capacity of the human mind. All possess it more or less. Like other human capaci- ties, ii may remain dormant in this or that mind, or be developed partially or perfectly. In the development Of this capacity, it is necessary, in the tirst place, to cul- tivate and purify the imagination, i. e. the ability of be- holding iuti rnally, dearly, and truly things external and distant, cither in space or time, and to place the imagination under the control of menial judgment. In tin' second place, the moral nature of the individual must be trained to purity, goodness, love of the true and the sublime, and the desire to understand the voice of the eternal Deity. This cannot be done outside of society, but within it and in iis active service. It can- not, be done by asceticism and the renunciation of the world and its charms; it must be done in gladness and joy. by chastity, temperance, ami a life of moderation, governing and controlling the lower passions and de- veloping the nobler, liner, and higher ones to a har- monious moral character. Passionate, immoral, and wicked persons beu ilder their imaginal ion. pervert their judgment, mil benight their reason. In the third place. reason must b • fully developed to control all other pow- ers of the individual, without weakening them or dis- turbing the harmony of the soul, and to elevate him to universal reason, which Maimonides calls the 'active reason,' which enables him to grasp universal truth ami to depict it clearly to himself or others by the power of