Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/543

 PROPHECY

477

PROPHECY

1864); Recueil complet des propkeliques (Lyons, 1S70) ; Deniiers avis prophetiques (Paris, 1S72).

Arthur Devinb.

Prophecy, Prophet, and Prophetess.— I. In

THE Old Testament. A. Introduction. — Jahve had forbidden Israel all kinds of oracles in vogue among the pagans. If, for a time, he consented to reply by Urim and Thummim (apparently a species of sacred lots which the high-priest carried in the cincture of his ephod, and consulted at the request of the public authorities in matters of graver moment), yet He always abominated those who had recourse to divina- tion and magic, practiced augury and enchantment, trusted in charms, consulted soothsayers or wizards, or interrogated the spirits of the dead (Deut., xviii, 9 sqq.). Speaking of orthodox Jahveism, Balaam could truthfully say "There is no soothsaying in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In their times it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God hath wrought" (Num., xxiii, 23). For the absence of other oracles, the Chosen People were indeed more than compensated by a gift unique in the annals of mankind, to wit, the gift of prophecy and the pro- phetic office.

B. General Idea and the Hebrew Names. (1) General Idea. — The Hebrew Prophet was not merely, as the word commonly implies, a man enlightened by God to foretell events, he was the interpreter and supernaturally enlightened herald sent by Jahve to communicate His will and designs to Israel. His mission consisted in preaching as well as in fore- telling. He had to maintain and develop the knowl- edge and practice of the Old Law among the Chosen People, lead them back when they strayed, and gradually prepare the way for the new kingdom <if God, which the Messias was to establish on earth. Prophecy, in general, signifies the supernatural message of the Prophet, and more especially, from custom, the predictive element of the prophetic message.

(2) The Hebrew Names. — The ordinary Hebrew word for prophet is nabi'. Its etymology is uncertain. According to many recent critics, the root ndbi', not employed in Hebrew, signified to speak enthusias- tically, " to utter cries, and make more or less wild gestures ", like the pagan mantles. Judging from a comparative examination of the cognate words in Hebrew and the other Semitic tongues, it is at least equally probable that the original meaning was merely: to speak, to utter words (cf. Laur, "Die Prophetennamen des A. T.", Fribourg, 1903, 14-38). The historic meaning of nabV established by biblical usage is " interpreter and mouthpiece of God ". This is forcibly illustrated by the passage, where Moses, excusing himself from speaking to Pharao on account of his embarrassment of speech, was answered by Jahve: "Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharao: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak to him all that I command thee; and he shall speak to Pharao, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land" (Ex., vii, 1-2). Moses plays towards the King of Egypt the role of God, inspiring what is to be uttered, and Aaron is the Prophet, his mouthpiece, transmitting the inspired message he shall receive. The Greek rpo^i^TTjs (from Tpi-ipdpai, to speak for, or in the name of some one) translates the Hebrew word accurately. The Greek prophet was the revealer of the future, and the interpreter of divine things, especially of the obscure oracles of the pythoness. Poets were the prophets of the muses: Inspire me, muse, thy prophet I shall be" (Pindar, Bergk, Fragm. 127).

The word ndbi' expresses more especially a func- tion. The two most usual synonyms ro'eh and hozeh emphasize more clearly the special source of the prophetic knowledge, the \'ision, that is, the Divine revelation or inspiration. Both have almost the

same meaning; hozeh is employed, however, much more frequently in poetical language and almost always' in connexion with a sui)ernatural vision, whereas rd'ah, of which ro'eh is the participle, is the usual word for to see in any manner. The com- piler of the first Book of Kings (ix, 9) informs us that before his time ro'eh was used where ndbi' was then employed. Hdzch is found much more frequently from the days of Amos. There were other less specific or more unusual terms employed, the meaning of which is clear, such as, messenger of God, man of God, servant of God, man of the spirit, or inspired man, etc. It is only rarely, and at a later period, that prophecy is called nilrU'db, a cognate of iidbi ;

OF THE PrOPHET-S

Cathedral of Or

more ordinarily we find hdzon, vision, or word of God, oracle (rae um) of Jahve, etc.

C. Brief Sketch of the History of Prophecy. — (1) The first person entitled ndbi' in the Old Testa- ment is Abraham, father of the elect, the friend of God, favoured with his personal communications (Gen., XX, 7). The next is Moses, the founder and lawgiver of the theocratic nation, the mediator of the Old Covenant holding a degree of authority un- equalled till the coming of Jesus Christ. "And there arose no more a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which he sent by him, to do in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land, and all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which Moses did before all Israel" (Deut., xxxiv, 10 sqq.). There were other Prophets with him, but only of the second rank, such as Aaron and Maria, Eldad and Medad, to whom Jahve manifested himself in dreams and vision, but not in the audible speech with which He favoured him, who was most faithful in all His house (Num., xii, 7).

Of the four institutions concerning which Moses enacted laws, according to Deuteronomy (xiy, 18- xviii), one was prophecy (xviii, 9-22; cf. xiii, 1-.5, and Ex., iv, 1 sqq.). Israel was to listen to the true Prophets, and not to heed the false but rather to