M 



PROPH! 



li.iv.ili. or nf Moses, nr some other person, thus np- 

 perenuy representing it to bo the phraseology of the 



time when tin- event.- OOtMrrad. rinally, tlio allega- 

 tion that these sections of the Pentateuch arc of laUl 

 origin is itself not to be accepted without proof, tad 

 the proof of it is not forthcoming. (See UOBM 

 ITEDCH.) 



represented to have been in existence in 



of Jehovah. Prophets rc also called "wntehmen," 

 .lit.- nf Jehovah," "shepherds" In Mie. 11. 

 (\ 11, the word translated " prophet," "prophesy. 

 means physically "to let drop." MM so "to talk 

 apply to be a sage. But all these arc figures of speech, 

 or descriptive phrases, rather than strictly proper 



: 



of the terms descriptive of prophets and 

 prophceyare actually used in thn-e delves of exten- 

 sion : lirst. t.. denote man whoso distiiimiislini-- char- 

 actcri-tic is the possession of the prophetic gilt, such a 

 man. for example, as Samuel or Isaiah ; secondly, to 

 denote any man who has the prophetic gilt, even 

 though he is more distinguished in some other direc- 

 M - s, for example, or David, or doubtless Kzra 



or Nehemiah ; t hi nil 



called " the sons of th F .~,-.. , 



pnipluas. the disciples or followers of the gnat prop,,.,- ...- .1 i.... u ,..;. ~..~ 



M xx . 3S- 2 Kings ix. 1, 4). For the sake scarce, there being "no open vision (1 Sam. in. 1); 

 of distKn wfmay upi-ly tlu' term "prophetic though even for that time we have an^ account of 



to the second of these three classes. 

 II. The sources of information concerning the 

 prophets are two the testimony of the Old Testa 



i-'.pee 

 the times of the judges, though the thread of testimony 



-lender. It is .-aid that Deborah w:is :i propli- 

 lud. iv. 4) ; that "a prophet man " came in the. 

 Midianito times (yi. S) ; that tin- angel of Jehovah 

 " appeared'' to (iideon and to Manoali (vi. lli; xiii. 

 :i. HI); that Manoah and his wife won: familiar with 

 UM character of a " man of God," and described by 



for example, or David, or doubtless r,zra t lie diameter ou, m. , u, 



thinllv to denote the men who are also that phrase the person who appeared to them (xin. i. 



ins of the prophets " that is. the .-ccoudary 8). It is mentioned as marking the time when Bama 



disciples or followers of the great prophets was a child that "the woi-d ot Jehovah was then 



prOpllCIS arc IWU - linj I^DIAIUVMJ v j v. 



slightly supplemented by testimony from oilier 

 sources, and the analogy between the reUgioU history 



, 



:el and that of other 



In its treatment 



:e . 



of the testimony, the article in the KsCYCLOP^EDIA 

 BRITANNIC A assumes that it is necessary first to recast 

 a large part of the text of the till Testament, and 

 then to reject certain statements as untrue, and lo dis 

 cmnt others as fictional. We shall iret an account 

 somewhat dilferent if we examine the testimony as it 

 stands, without any preliminary manipulation ; and it 

 this account turns out to bo coiiMstent and credible it 

 is of course to be preferred to the other. 



- inutrt * Tinif.T\^ rentateiich and some 

 of the Liter Lo- ks attribute the .tilt of projihccy to the 

 patriarchs. Abraham is called a prophet (Gen. xx. 

 7;1 Chron. xvi. J; Ps. c.v. If,). The "word of 

 Jehovah" came to him (<Jen. xv. 1, 4). Several 

 limes it is said of him and of Isaac and Jacob that 

 they had divine visions, or that Jehovah "appeared 

 to them (<;. n. xv. 1 ; xlvL 2 ; xii. 7 ; xvii. 1 ; xviii. 1 ; 

 xxvi. 2. 24 ; xxxv. 9). . 



I'ropheey is represented as being very abundant in 

 tlie times of Moses and Jo-hu.i. Moaei himself, 

 though we are accustomed to think of him chiefly as a 

 lawiriver, is currently described as "the man ofQod, 

 and is said to have been the greatest of prophets 

 (Deut xxxiii. 1 ; xxxiv. lo ; Jo,h. xiv. 6; Iw.ra iii. 2 :; 

 llos. xii. 13, and very many other places). Miriam is 

 called a prophetess (Hx xv. -Jii). Moses is QOmpaTM 

 w^th other prophets of his time (Num. xii. 1, i'i. 7). 

 We have an account of the proplie.-ymir of Kldad and 

 M.dad and the seventy in Num. xi. 25 -'.'. Ihe 

 function of a prophet :us the special spokc-sman of Ins 

 d to be a well known fact, and is used 

 fi.r the purpos-Md'an illustr.ition (Kx. vii. 1). _ Sp 

 -Lit ion in regard lo prophet! is given in Deut, 



l.V-22; xiii. 1, 3, 5. 



But it is alleged that these testimonies come largely 

 fn.m s'ctionsof the I'eiitateueh that are of late date. 



and thai they must then !'. i led as carrying 



k into the patriarchal and Mosaic pcriodl the 



phraseology that properly belongs to later times. In 



reply to this: First, if all the testimony in the ease 

 of late date, that would not prove the inf. 

 ira-Aii. but would merely open the way for 



though even lor that time we nave an ma rantui * 

 divine message brought by a " man of God " (iL 27). 

 When Samuel became a distinguished prophet, we are 

 told that Jehovah "again appeared in Shiloh, for Je- 

 h.nah was revealed unto Samuel in Shiloh in the word 

 of Jehovah" (1 Sam. iii. 21). This seems to imply 

 the restoration of a state of things that had existed in 

 Shiloh before the time of especial scarcity of "the 

 word of God. " 



The facts thus testified to are entirely consistent with 

 the statement made in 1 Sam. ix. 9. It is there ex- 

 plained, to account for the fact thafSaul inquired, not 

 lor the prophet, but for the seer. that"scer" was then 

 the term in common use. It does not follow that tlio 

 term " prophet" bad never l>ccn known till then ; the 

 [acts we have been examining rather show that it had 

 been temporarily superseded by the word "goer," this 

 being one of the phenomena of the time of the scarcity 

 ,f the prophetic gift. 



Prophecy in we Tonei of SonuKt, Lfcmo, ana owp- 

 mow. InAota iii. 24 (cf. 2l'), in the same breath in 

 which Moses is spoken of as a prophet, we read of "all 

 the prophet-; from Samuel and them that followed 

 if Samuel was in some sense the first of the 

 prophets. This agrees well with all the statements of 

 the Old Testament. Prophets and prophecy had ex- 

 isted in Israel from the earliest times, bat under 

 Samuel they assumed new forms and a fresh impor- 

 tance. Samuel himself, followed by Gad. David, 

 Nathan, Asaph. Ileman, Jeduthun. Zadok, Solomon, 

 Ahijah, Shcmaiah, Jcdo (spelled Iddo in the King 

 James version), form a group of distinguished prophets 

 and prophetic men (see Concordance of Proper Name-). 

 P.esidcs these, we find "the companies of prophets, 

 mentioned in 1 Sam. x. and xix., probably organised 

 bv Samuel, and certainly controlled by him to I 

 extent. The attempt to make it appear that Samuel, 

 being a seer, was therefore not properly a prophet, but 

 that' the prophets were a different CUM of men. who 

 at'terwards absorbed the class known as 'Seers.' i- tmt 



a success. The true statement of the difference be- 

 tween soeh a man as Samuel and the ordinary mem- 

 bers of the prophetic companies is, that most ot the, 

 latter, like the " sons of the prophets " of later times, 

 iary ptophete the followers and di.-- 

 T the men TOO were recognized as having great 

 prophetic gifts. .. 



,/. /,,,/ | lie next .-TOllp ot 



prophets is that of which Elijah and Hhsha are the 

 -real liL-iires. The men of thi- j-roup who are named 

 in addition to these two are Oded. Arariah. llanani, 

 Jehu. Micaiah. Jahazicl, Klier.er, the high -priest 

 Jehoiada. and his son /.echariah. Hut, in addition 



been very 



Hfl VllUlill, Llulr nuuita itii'ii i? vf^" ....^T 



il ; the statements are still credible unless disproved. 



liy. part of the testimony in the . 

 other sources than r cd late p.un of the 



Pentateuch. Thirdly, irrespective of the phrai 



used, the testimony to the "..t de- 



pend on the question whether the narrator n 



phraseology of his own tim-s or of of which | amu, ior ms.ao s ... . .. - 



10 wrote Fourthly, it i< to 1,, noted, thai in them, at a time when this was apparently onlyj, s:n:. 11 



| ,' )f |hl , j,,;, , ; ,!. wr i,.. r put* ,he proportion of the whole number U Kings xvm 4.ct. 



into the mouth ux. 10). The eo-oaHed hwb of i of tiu 



to these, prophet* are represented to have b^ 

 numer i illy in tin- Northern kingdom. (>!., 



!',.r in-tanv. s:i\c.l the h\e, of a hnndird 01 



