THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and unspiritual worship to which their contemporaries were devoted; the latter, on the other hand, living at a time when the ritual had been purified and idealized, were more inclined to denounce any neglect to participate in it. Later Judaism looked upon Malachi as the last of the prophets. Even in the heroic age of the Maccabees, it was felt that prophecy had forsaken the land and that the only hope for its renewal lay in the future. Still, there were always those who either claimed or were supposed to possess this gift, as is shown in the pseudepigraphic apocalypses (see Pseudepighapha of the Old Testament) and in what is related of the Essenes (q.v.).
2. Characteristics : According to Old-Testament ideas, the distinguishing quality of prophetic discourse consists in the fact that it results from the
action of a supernatural power which 1. Objective giveg tQ the propnet 0f israei tne con.
tents of his discourse; the words he utters are not his own, but those of God. Since the prophet is not free to follow his own inclination, but feels himself bound and led by an overmastering power, this is frequently called the " hand of God " (Isa. viii. 11; Jer. xv. 17; Ezek. i. 3; II Kings iii. 15), which comes over him, falls upon him, snatches him away from his accustomed range of thought and view, and brings him into connection with God. The power is often called the spirit of Yahweh, just as the prophet is said to be the man of the spirit (Hos. ix. 7, A. V. margin). This spirit of the Lord is not to be confused with the universal divine spirit of life, dwelling in every human being, giving life and breath to even the brutes; it should rather be compared with that divine spirit which enabled members of the community, such as the judges or the artificer Bezaleel, to accomplish wonderful acts in the service of God (Ex. xxxi. 3, xxxv. 31). It is, therefore, necessary to distinguish various grades and also various gifts in this communication of the divine spirit. With the prophets, the spirit vouchsafed to them remains distinct from their natural consciousness and reveals itself in clear and definite announcements. The expressions used to designate its coming upon a man are " to come upon " (Num. xxiv. 2; II Chron. xv. 1), or, more forcibly, " fall upon " (Ezek. xi. 5). It is also said that this spirit clothes itself with a man as with a garment, and so makes him its corporeal envelope (Judges vi. 34). It is also said that the spirit " descends upon one," " rests upon him " (Num. xi. 25, 26; II Kings ii. 15; Isa. xi. 2); hence that the spirit of God " is upon " him (Isa. lxi. 1). Even where the spirit abides permanently, this relation had its beginning in a divine act which, as a rule, is neither coincident in time or fact with the bestowal of the universal spirit of life. The gift of prophecy is not hereditary, the privilege of a special gild or school. While members of the old prophetic societies prepared themselves to receive the spirit, it blew whither it listed. On the other hand, the spirit of prophecy came upon Amos, who was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet (Amos vii. 14-15), and at once constituted him a prophet of divine quality Occasionally also, the spirit spoke through men who were not chosen for continuous teaching
and preaching, such as David (II Sam. xxiii. 2)indeed, it sometimes seized upon persons whose mind was otherwise far removed from God, as when the Lord made the heathen seer Balaam his organ, and when the high priest Caiaphas spoke a word of the Lord (John xi. 51). The moment for revelation was always chosen by God, contrary to the practise in the heathen oracles and also to the use of the Urim and Thummim (q.v.), where the initiative came from the questioner. When counsel is sought, God often remains silent, but this does not exclude the fact that divine prophetic words are sometimes elicited later from the tried prophet (II Sam. vii. 2 sqq.). The prophet may also prepare himself to receive the divine word (Hab. ii. 1), even sensual means like music are not excluded; but whether the Lord will allow himself to be persuaded to speak, depends exclusively upon his grace. The receptive side of prophecy is sometimes designated as seeing and at others as hearing. The oldest name of the prophet was, according to I Sam. ix. 9, ro'eh, " seer." In this expression lies the conception that the prophet whose eye God has un- 2. Subjec- veiie(j gazes on those things that God
„ *Z? usually hides from mortal sight; they
Conditions. i , ,. „ B ' , /
may be symbolically represented to
the eye of the seer, but even then he is not the creator of these signs and figures — this distinguishes him from the poet — but another intelligence presents them to him and their meaning is often only gradually revealed (cf., e.g., Zech. ii. 2 sqq., iv. 4-5). In the titles of some prophetic books (Amos i. 1; Isa. i. 1; Mic. i. 1; Hab. i. 1) prophetic words are said to have been " seen " by the prophet. E. Konig (Offenbarungsbegriff, ii. 192, cf. pp. 2 sqq., Leipsic, 1882) looks upon this as a figure of speech, a later modification of prophetic diction; he supposes that the verb hazah (in contradistinction to ra'ah) is not used in genuine prophetic passages for the reception of revelations by true prophets, but only in the case of false prophets, and that it " designates a process which takes place in man's inner consciousness " (ii. 30). But the verb hazah may be used for something objectively seen (Isa. xxx. 10; Ezek. xii. 27). The verb ra'ah signifies the relation of the eye to the object seen, while hazah indicates the continued gazing upon a picture or image, and therefore applies to prophetic vision in general. The fact must be emphasized that, after receiving the revelation, the prophets are able to give an exact account of what they have seen or heard. This distinguishes them from shamans, who make their disclosures in a state of trance. The prophets also retain their consciousness and the memory of the past during the revelation (cf., e.g., Ex. iv.vi, xxxii. 7 sqq.; Isa. vi. 5; Jer. i. 6). An ecstasy, inducing a purely passive condition which assumed the characteristics of madness, sometimes appears in the case of the disciples of the prophets, or in that of a Saul (I Sam. xix. 24); but with those prophets who are familiar with the voice of the Lord this state is replaced by a certain self-control, which was necessary to enable them to apprehend clearly the word of the Lord and make it fruitful. Balaam, the half-heathen seer, the man with the " closed eye" ("whose eyes are open," A. V.), that