Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/544

 PROPHECY

478

PROPHECY

extirpate them, even had thej' the appearance of miracle-workers. The former would speak in the name of Jahve, the one God; and foretell things that would be accomplished or be confirmed by miracles. The latter were to come in the name of the false gods, or teach a doctrine evidently erroneous, or vainly endeavour to foretell events. Later prophetic writers added as other signs of the false Prophets, cupidity, flattery of the people or the nobles, or the promise of Divine favoiu' for the nation weighed down with crime. Balaam is both a Prophet and a sooth- sayer; a professional soothsayer it would seem, of whom Jahve makes use to proclaim even in Moab the glorious destiny of the Chosen People, when He was about to lead them into the Promised Land (Num., xxii-xxiv).

In the time of the Judges, in addition to an un- named Prophet (Judges, vi, 8-10), we meet with Debbora (Judges iv-v), "a mother in Israel", judg- ing the people, and communicating the Divine orders concerning the War of Independence to Barac and the tribes. The word of God was rare in those days of anarchy and semi-apostasy, when Jahve partly abandoned Israel to render it conscious of its feeble- ness and its sins. In the days of Samuel, on the contrarj-, prophecy became a permanent institution. Samuel was a new but lesser Moses, whose Di\-ine mission it was to restore the code of the elder, and to supervise the beginning of the royalty. Un- der his guidance, or at least closely united to him, we find for the first time the neh't'im (I Sam., x; xix) grouped together to sing the praises of God to the accompaniment of musical instrimients. They are not Prophets in the strict sense of the word, nor are they disciples of the Prophets destined to be- come masters in their turn (the so-called ".schools of Prophets"). Did they wander about spreading the oracles of Samuel among the people? Possibly; at all events, in order to waken the faith of Israel and increase the dignity of Di\-ine worship, they seem to have received charismata similar to those bestowed upon the early Cliristians in the Apostolic days. They may not ineptly be compared with the families of singers gathered around Da\-id, under the direction of their t&ee leaders, Asaph, Heman, and Idithum (I Par., xx^•, 1-S). Doubtless the bene-iiebiim of the days of EUas, and Eliseus the "disciples of the Prophets", or "members of the confraternities of the Prophets", forming at least three communities, domiciled respectively at Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho, must be regarded as their successors. St. Jerome seems to have understood their character aright, when he saw in them the germ of the monastic life (P. L., XXII, 583, 1076).

Are we to consider as their degenerate and faith- less successors those false Prophets of Jahve whom we meet at the Court of Achab, numbering four hun- dred, and later very numerous, also fighting agaiast Isaias and Micheas and especially against Jeremias and Ezechiel? A definite answer cannot as yet be given, but it is wrong to consider them, as certain critics do, as authentic as the true Prophets, dif- fering from them only by a more retrograde spirit, and le.?s brilliant intellectual gifts. After Samuel the first Prophets properly so called who are ex- plicitly mentioned are Nathan and Gad. They assist "David by their counsels, and, when necessary, confront him" with energetic protests. Nathan's parable of the little sheep of the poor mail is one of the most beautiful passages in prophetic history (II Kings, xii, 1 sqq.). The Books of Kings and Parahpomenon mention a number of other "men of the spirit" exercising their ministrj- in Israel or in Juda. We may mention at least Ahias of Silo, who announced to .leroboam his elevation to the throne of the Ten Tribes, and the ephemeral character of his dynasty, and Micheas, the son of Jemla, who pre-

dicted to Achab, in presence of the four hundred flattering court Prophets, that he would be defeated and killed in his war against the SjTians (III Kings, xxii).

But the two greatest figures of prophecy between Samuel and Isaiah are Elias and Eliseus. Jahveism was again endangered, especially by the TjTian Jezabel, wife of Achab, who had introduced into Samaria the worship of her Phenician gods, and Israel's faith was tottering, as it divided its worship between Baal and Jahve. In Juda the danger was not less menacing, King Joram had married Athalia, a worthy daughter of Jezabel. At that moment Elias appeared like a mysterious giant, and by his preaching and his miracles led Israel back to the true God and suppressed, or at least moderated, their leaning towards the gods of Chanaan. At Cannel he i\'on a magnificent and terrible \-ictory over the Prophets of Baal; then he proceeded to Horeb to re- new within him the spirit of the Covenant and to be present at a marvellous theophany; thence he returned to Samaria to proclaim to Achab the voice of justice calling out for vengeance for the murder of Naboth. ^^'hen he disappeared in the fiery chariot, he left to his disciple Eliseus, with his mantle, a double share of his spirit. Eliseus continued the master's work against the Chanaanite idolatry with great success, and became such a bulwark to the Kingdom of the North, that King Joas wept for his death and took his farewell with these words: "My father! my father! chariot of Israel and its horse- men"! Not all the Prophets left their oracles in writing. Several of them, however, have written the history of their times. Gad and Nathan, for in- stance, the history of David; and Nathan that of Solomon ; also Semeias and Addo t he annals of Roboam ; Jehu, son of Hanani those of Josaphat. ... Is it possible that the historical books of Josue, Judges, Samuel, and Kings were called in the Jewish canon the "earlier Prophets" because of the belief that they were written by the Prophets or at least based on their writing? To this query there can be no solution.

(2) Prophetic Writers. — The prophetic books were entitled in the same canon the "later Prophets". Gradually the custom of calling their authors the prophetic writers crept in. There are four Greater Prophets, that is those whose works are of consider- able length. Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, and Daniel, and twelve Minor Prophets, whose works are briefer — Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, and Malachias. "The Book of Baruch, which is not included in the Hebrew canon, is united in our Bibles to the Book of Jeremias. The ministry of Amos, the most ancient perhaps of the prophetic writers, is placed about the years 760-50. Osee fol- lows him immediately. Next come Isaias (about 740-700), and his contemporary Micheas. Sophonias, Nahum, and Habacuc prophesied towards the last quarter of the seventh centurv. Jeremias about 626-586; Ezechiel between 592-70. The prophecy of Aggeus and in part that of Zacharias are dated exactly in 520 and 520-18. Malachias belongs to the middle of the fifth century. As for Daniel, Abdias, Joel, Baruch, as well as portions of Isaia,s, Jeremias, Zacharias, their dates being disputed, it is necessan,' to refer the reader to the special articles treating of them.

(3) The Prophetesses.— The Old Testameiit gives the name nebt ah, to three women gifted with pro- phetic charismata: Mar\-, the sister of Moses; Debbora; and Holda, a contemporary of Jeremias (IV Kings, xxii, 14); also to the wife of Isaias mean- ing the spouse of a nabi' ; finally to Noadia, a false Prophetess if the Hebrew text is accurate, for the Septuagint and Vulgate speak of a false Prophet (Neh., vi, 14).