Samuel took measures to make his work of restora- tion permanent as well as effective for the moment. For this purpose he instituted companies, or colleges of prophets. One we find in his lifetime at Ramah (1 Sam. xix, 19, 20) ; others afterwards at Bethel (2 Kings ii, 3), Jericho (ii, 5), Gilgal (iv, 38), and else- where (vi, 1). Their constitution and object were sim- ilar to those of theological colleges. Into them were
gathered promising students, and here they were trained for the office which they were afterwards destined to fulfil. So successful were these institutions that from the time of Samuel to the closing of the Canon of the Old Test, there seems never to have been wanting a due supply of men to keep up the line of official proph- ets. There appears to be no sufficient ground for the common statement that after the schism the colleges existed only in the Israelitish kingdom, or for Knobel's supposition that they ceased with Elisha (Prophetismvs, ii, 39), nor again for Bishop Lowth's statement that '• they existed from the earliest times of the Hebrew re- public" (Sacred Poetry, lect. xviii), or for M. Nicolas's assertion that their previous establishment can be infer- red from 1 Sam. viii, ix, x {Etudes Critiques sur In l:U>h , p. 365). We have, however, no act i\a\ proof of their ex- istence except in the days of Samuel and of Elijah and Elisha. The apocryphal books of the Maccabees (1, iv, 46; ix, 27: xiv, 41) and of Ecclesiasticus (xxxvi, 15) represent them as extinct. The colleges appear to have consisted of students differing in number. Sometimes they were very numerous (1 Kings xviii, 4; xxii, 6; 2 Kings ii, 16). One elderly, or leading prophet, presided over them (1 Sam. xix, 20), called their father (x, 12), or master (2 Kings ii, 3), who was apparently admitted to his office by the ceremony of anointing (1 Kings xix, 16 ; Isa. lxi, 1 ; Psa. cv, 15). They were called his sons. Their chief subject of study was, no doubt, the law and its interpretation ; oral, as distinct from symbolical, teaching being henceforward tacitly transferred from the priestly to the prophetical order. Subsidiary sub- jects of instruction were music and sacred poetry, both of which had been connected with prophecy from the time of Moses (Exod. xv, 20) and the Judges (Judg. iv, 4 ; v, 1). The prophets that meet Saul " came down from the high place with a psaltery and a tabret, and a pipe and a harp before them" (1 Sam. x, 5). Elijah calls a min- strel to evoke the prophetic gift in himself (2 Kings iii, 15). David "separates to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps and with psalteries and with cym- bals. ... All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord with cymbals, psal- teries, and harps for the service of the house of God" (1 Chron. xxv, 16). Hymns, or sacred songs, are found in the books of Jonah (ii, 2), Isaiah (xii, 1; xxvi, 1), Hab- akkuk ( iii, 2). It was probably the duty of the prophet- ical students to compose verses to be sung in the Tem- ple (see Lowth, Sacred Poetry of the Hebreics, lect. xviii). Having been themselves trained and taught, the proph- ets, whether still residing within their college or hav- ing left its precincts, had the task of teaching others. From the question addressed to the Shunamite by her husband, " Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath" (2 Kings iv, 23), it appears that weekly and monthly religious meetings were held as an ordinary practice by the prophets (see Patrick, Comm. ad loo.). Thus we find that " Elisha sat in his house" engaged in his official occupation (comp. Ezek. viii, 1 ; xiv, 1 ; xx, 1), "and the elders sat with him" (2 Kings vi, 32), when the king of Israel sent to slay him. It was at these meetings, probably, that many of the warnings and exhortations on morality and spiritual religion were addressed by the prophets to their countrymen. See Prophets, Schools of.
The schools of the prophets were thus engaged in what we may call pastoral functions, rather than in the disclosure of things to come; their office was to bring home to men's business and bosoms the announcements already made. Selected from the Levitical and priestly classes, they performed services chiefly of a priestly char- acter (1 Sam. ix, 13), but presided over devotional ex- ercises and gave spiritual instruction. We may regard Elijah as the type of the whole prophetical order at this period ; " a man cf heroic energy in action, rather than of prolific thought or excellent discourse. Power was given him to smite the earth with plagues (Rev. xi, 6).
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When an impression had been made by these extraordi- nary displays of power, a still small voice was heard to quicken ill" people i" newness of life." If we pass on to (he religious teachers who are associated with the name ami age of David— Nathan, Solomon, and others, who composed the Psalms we shall see that these aimed at the religious education of their contemporaries by a pure stream of didactic and devotional poetry. Their obj !l was to advance the members of the aucienl economy to the highest degree of light and purity which was attainable in that state of minority. The predic- snl crops "in most distinctly in the Messianic psalms, which point to the ultimate completion of the kingdom in Davids Lord, and the universal reign of righteousness, truth, and peace. When these efforts failed to stem the tide of corruption and to rescue the chosen people from • I i ^. >r< l< -r. ancient prophecy assumed the form of speeilic prediction. The moral element is chiefly seen in denouncing the iniquity and unright- eousness of the age, but the distinctive characteristic is that, in exposing the evils which prevailed, they di- rected the eye to the future. This band of religious teachers who are popularly spoken of as "the proph- ets" commenced with llosea soon after the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, Hosea's labors commenced in the daysofUzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II. king of Israel, and were prolonged to the time of Hezekiah, com- prising more than sixty years, so that with him were contemporary Amos, Jonah, Joel, Obadiah, Isaiah. Mi- cah, Nahum. Next in these in order of time came Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Zepbaniah. The last, three were Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. From these we derive our amplest materials for comparing the anticipations of prophecy with the subsequent events of history. Thus the prophets of the Old Covenant form a regular succession; they are members of an unbroken continuous chain, of which one perpetually reaches forth the hand to the other. See Prophets, Major, and Minor.