PROPHET
637
PROPHET
observe decency and order, by forbidding them to med- dle with politics and Church government, and by pro- hibiting all nonconformist ministers and laymen from being speakers. The queen, however, seeing that they spread the religious notions of the Puritans and es- tranged the people from all Komanistic tendency, was re- solved to suppress them ; and having sent for the arch- bishop, told him she was informed that the rites and ceremonies of the Church were not duly observed in these prophesyings : that persons not lawfully called to be ministers exercised in them; that the assemblies themselves were illegal, not being allowed by public au- thority; that the laity neglected their secular affairs by repairing to these meetings, which tilled their heads with notions, and might occasion disputes and sedition in the State ; that it was good for the Church to have but few preachers, three or four in a county being suffi- cient. She further declared her dislike of the number of these exercises, and therefore commanded him per- emptorily to put them down. The archbishop, how- ever, instead of obeying the commands of his royal mistress, thought that she had made some infringement upon his office, and wrote the queen a long and earnest letter, declaring that his conscience would not suffer him to comply with her commands. The queen was so inflamed with this letter that the archbishop was se- questered from his office, and he never afterwards re- covered the queen's favor. Thus ended the prophesy- ings.— Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v. See Neal, Hist, of the Puritans.
Prophet, a person who acts as the organ of divine communication with men, especially with regard to the future. He differs from a priest in representing the divine >ide of this mediation, while the priest rather acts from the human side. (The following article is chiefly based upon those in Kitto's and Smith's dictionaries.) See Prophecy.
I. The Title in Scripture. — The ordinary Hebrew word for prophet is K^SS (nubi), derived from the verb X23, connected by Gesenius with "23, '• to bubble forth," like a fountain. If this etymology be correct, the sub- stantive would signify either a person who, as it were, involuntarily bursts forth with spiritual utterances un- der the divine influence (comp. Psa. xlv, 1, "My heart is bubbling up of a good matter"), or simply one who pours forth words. The analogy of the word ~^3 (na- tuph), which has the force of "dropping" as honey, and is used byMicah (ii, 6, 11), Ezekiel (xxi, 2), and Amos (vii, 16) in the sense of prophesying, points to the last signification. The verb N23 is found only in the niphal and hitkpael, a peculiarity which it shares with many other words expressive of speech (comp. loqui, fori, vo- ciferari, concionari, (pSeyyopai, as well as fiavrevofiai and raticinari). Bunsen (Gott in Geschichte, p. 141) and Davidson (Intr. Old Test, ii, 430) suppose nabi to signify the man to whom announcements are made by God, i. e. inspired. Exod. iv, 1-17 is the classical pas- sage as to the meaning of this word. There God says to Moses, " Aaron shall be thy X^23 (nabi) unto the peo- ple, and thou shalt be unto him instead of God." The sense is. "Aaron shall speak what thou shalt communi- cate to him." This appellation implies, then, the proph- et's relation to God : he speaks not of his own accord, but what the Spirit puts into his mouth. Thus X^23 (nabi) is an adjective of passive signification: he who has been divinely inspired, who has received from God the revelations which he proclaims. But it is more in accordance with the usage of the word to regard it as signifying (actively) one who announces or pours forth the declarations of God. The latter signification is pre- ferred by Ewald, Hiivernick, Oehler, Hengstenberg, Bleek, Lee, Pusey, M'Caul, and the great majority of Biblical critics. We have the word in Barnabas (IS N"1^}), which is rendered vibe. TrapaK\i)(jEu)c. (Acts iv,36),
one whom God has qualified to impart consolation, light, and strength to others. Augustine says, " The prophet of God is nothing else nisi enunciator verborum Dei ho- minibus. So Heidegger, " Nabi is properly every utter- er of the words of another, not from his own, but from another's influence and will."
Two other Hebrew words are used to designate a prophet— MX'-l (roeh) and rttH (chozeh)— both signify- ing one who sees. They are rendered in the A. V. by "seer;" in the Sept. usually by fiXkirwv or bpwv, some- times by irpo(pi)Ti)Q (1 Chron. xxvi, 28; 2 Chron. xvi, 7, 10). The three words seem to be contrasted with each other in 1 Chron. xxix, 29. " The acts of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer (rbeh), and in the book of Na- than the prophet (nabi), and in the book of Gad the seer (chozeh)." Roeh is a title almost appropriated to Sam- uel. It is only used ten times, and in seven of these it is applied to Samuel (1 Sam. ix, 9, 11, 18, .19; 1 Chron. ix, 22 ; xxvi, 28 ; xxix, 29). On two other occasions it is applied to Hanani (2 Chron. xvi, 7, 10). Once it is used by Isaiah (xxx, 10) with no reference to any par- ticular person. It was superseded in general use by the word nabi, which Samuel (himself entitled nabi as well as roeh [1 Sam. iii, 20; 2 Chron. xxxv, 18]) ap- pears to have revived after a period of desuetude (1 Sam. ix, 9), and to have applied to the prophets organ- ized by him. The verb ilK^I, from which it is derived, is the common prose word signifying "to see:" {"ITU — whence the substantive tlTrl (chozeh) is derived — is more poetical, q. d. " to gaze." Chozeh is rarely found ex- cept in the books of the Chronicles, but "iin is the word constantly used for the prophetical vision. It is found in the Pentateuch, in Samuel, in the Chronicles, in Job, and in most of the prophets. In 1 Sam. ix, 9 we read, " He that is now called a prophet (nabi) was beforetime called a seer (roeh)f from whence Stanley (Lect. on Jeicish Church) has concluded that roeh was " the oldest designation of the prophetic office," "superseded by nabi shortly after Samuel's time, when nabi first came into use" (ibid, xviii, xix). This seems opposed to the fact that nabi is the word commonly used in the Pentateuch, whereas rbeh does not appear until the days of Samuel. The passage in the book of Samuel is clearly a paren- thetical insertion, perhaps made by the nabi Nathan (or whoever was the original author of the book), perhaps added at a later date, with the view of explaining how it was that Samuel bore the title of roeh, instead of the now usual appellation of nabi. To the writer the days of Samuel were " beforetime," and he explains that in those ancient days — that is, the days of Samuel— the word used for prophet was rbeh, not nabi. But that does not imply that roeh was the primitive word, and that nabi first came into use subsequently to Samuel (see Hengstenberg, Beitrarje zur Einleitung ins A . T. iii, 335). Stanley represents chozeh as "another antique title ;" but on no sufficient grounds. Chozeh is first found in 2 Sam. xxiv, 11; so that it does not seem to have come into use until roeh had almost disappeared. It is also found in the books of Kings (2 Kings, xvii, 13) and Chronicles (frequently), in Amos (vii, 12), Isaiah (xxix, 10). Micah (iii, 7), and the derivatives of the verb chazdh are used by the prophets to designate their visions down to the Captivity (comp. Isa. i, 1 ; Dan.viii, 1 ; Zech. xiii, 4). The derivatives of raah are rarer, and, as being prose words, are chiefly used by Daniel (comp. Ezek. i, 1 ; Dan. x, 7). On examination we find that nabi existed before and after and alongside of rbeh and chozeh, but that chozeh was somewhat more modern than roeh.