That predictive powers did occasionally exist in the
New-Test prophets i- proved by the ease of Agabus (Acts \i. 28), hut this was not their characteristic. They were not an order, like apostles, bishops or pres- byters, and deacons, inn they were men or women (xxi,
0) who had the Y.aoi<r/(a Trpo<;n)Tfiac vouchsafed them. If men. they might at the same time he apostles 1 Cor. xiv); and there was nothing to hinder the different Xaphpara of wisdom, knowledge, faith, teaching, mir- acles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpreta- tion fch. xii i being all accumulated on one person, ami on tuiu'ht or might not lie a presbyter. Paul describes prophecy as being effective for the conversion, apparently the sudden and immediate conversion, ot' unbelievers i xiv. 24 I, and lor the instruction and conso- lation of believers i ver. 31 I. This shows its nature. It was a spiritual gift which enabled men to understand and to teaidi the truths of Christianity, especially as veiled in the (lid Test., and to exhort and warn with authority and effect greater than human (see Locke, Paraphrase, note on l Cor. xii. and Conybeare and llowson. i. 461 i. The prophets of the New Test were superiiaturally illuminated expounders ami preachers. XI. Literature. — (hi the general subject of prophecy
mprehensive or altogether satisfactory treatise has
yel baen produced. Among the old works we may mention Augustine, D< CivitaU l><i. lib. xviii, cap. 27 sq. (Op. vii, 508, Paris, 1685); Carpzov, Introd. ad Libros Canonicos (Lips. 17.'>7i. Sonic good remarks will he found in the essay of John Smith, On Prophecy (Select Discourses, disc. \ i. p. 181, Loud. 1821, 8vo),
which was translated into I. aim and reprinted at the
end of Le Clerc's Commentary on tht Prophets i Amsterd. 17:; I ). It contains interesting passages on the nature of the predictions in the < lid Test., extracted from Jew- ish authors, of whom Maimonides i- the most distin- guished. Of less importance is the essay of Hermann Witsius. I >< Propketia et Prophetis (in vol. i of his Mis- rillnu. Sacra \ Utrecht, 1692], p. 1-392): he digresses too much and needlessly from the main question, and says little applicable to the point ; but he still supplies some useful materials. The same remark .also applies in substance to Knibbe's History of the Prophets. Some valuable remarks, but much more that is arbitrary and untenable, will be found in Crusius's Hypomnemata ad Theologiam Prophet. (Lips. 1764, 3 vols.). In the Trea- tise on Prophecy inserted by Jahn in his Introduction to th Old Testament, he endeavors to refute the views of the Rationalists, but does not sift the subjecl to the bottom. Kleuker's work, />• Nexu Proph. inter utrum- que Fadus, possesses more of a genuine theological character. The leader of the Rationalists is Eichhorn, Du Hebraischen Propheten (Gbtting. 1816); also in his Introduction to the Old Testament, and in his disserta- tion l>< Prophet. Pas. Hebr. Their views on this sub- ject are most fully explained by rlnobel in his Prophe- tismus d* r llilnii, r vollstandig dargesteUt t Breslau, l*.'!7. 2 vols.): the work contains, however, little original re- search, and is valuable only as a compilation of what the Rationalists asserl concerning prophecy. 'The work of Roster, Die Propheten </•* .1. and 2V. '/'. (Leipsic, 1838), bears a higher character: on many points hi ap- proaches to sounder views: hut he is inconsistent and wavering, and therefore cannot he said to have essen- tially advanced the knowledge of this subject Of con- siderable eminence is the treatise by Ewald on proph- ecy, prefixed to his Propheten des Alien Bundes (Stattg. 1840; 1867, 3 vols.). Hut to the important question, whether the prophets enjoyed supernatural assistance or not.au explicit answer will there he SOUghl for in wain. His view of the Subjecl is in the main that of the na- tionalists, though he endeavors to veil it i the Spirit of God influencing the prophets is. in lad. only their own mind worked up hy circumstances; their enthusiasm ami ecstasy are made to explain all. finally, the work of I [offmann, H'< issaguvg und Krjullung im . I . >ni<l N. T. (Nordlingen, 1841, vol. i), is chargeable with spurious
and affected originality: his views are often in their vers details forced and strained, and it is to In re^n t ted that the subject has i,y this work gained less than from the author's talent might have heeti expected. Many of the elements of prophecy have been very ably and
PROPHETESS
653
PROPHETS
soundly discussed by Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, in T. T. Clark's transl. (Edinb. 1854). Other German works of importance on the subject are those of Umbreit, Vie Propheten des A. Test, (in the Stud. it. Krit. 1833, p. 1043 sq.) ; Tholuck, Die Pro- pheten und Hue Weissagungen (1860; transl. in the Bibliotheea Sacra, 1833, p. 361 sq.). The subject is likewise discussed more or less fully in all the introduc- tions (q. v.) to the Old Test. See also Bible Educator (Index, s. v.). One of the latest and most specious productions of the Rationalistic school is that of Prof. Kuenen (of the University of Leyden), The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel (transl. by Milroy, Lond. 1877, 8vo) ; it reiterates with ingenious array all the difficul- ties, contradictions, and failures alleged by hostile writ- ers, and refuted or explained again and again by ortho- dox scholars. Comp. Seer.