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PROPHECY

(4) Cessalixm of Israelitic Prophecy. — The pro- phetic institution had ceased to exist in the time of the Machabees. Israel clearly recognized this, and was awaiting its reappearance. Its necessity had ceased. Religious revelation and the moral code expressed in Holy Writ were full and clear. The people were being instructed by the scribes and doctors — a living magistracy, faUible, it is true, and bound over- much by letter of the law, but withal zealous and learned. There was a feeling that the promises were about to be fulfilled and the consequent apocalypse increased and intensified this feeling. It was not unfitting, therefore, for God to allow an interval to elapse between the prophets of the Old Covenant and Jesus Christ, who was to be the crown and consummation of their prophecies.

D. Vocation and Supernatural Knowledge of the Prophets. — (1) The Prophetic Vocation. — " For proph- ecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost" (II Pet., i, 21). The Prophets were ever conscious of this Divine mission. I am not a pro- fessional or a voluntary Prophet, Amos practically said to Amasias, who wished to prevent him from prophesying at Bethel. "I am a herdsman plucking wild figs. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel" (vii, 14 sq.). Again "the lion shall roar, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who shall not prophesy?" (iii, 8). Isaias saw Jahve seated on a throne of glory, and when a seraph had purified his hps he heard the command: "Go!" and he received his mission of preaching to the people the terrible judgments of God. God made known to Jeremias that he had consecrated him from his mother's womb and appointed him the Prophet of nations; He touched his lips to show that He made them His instrument for proclaiming His just and merciful judgments (i, 10), a duty so painful, that the Prophet endeavoured to be excused and to con- ceal the oracles entrusted to him. Impossible; his heart was consumed by a flame, which forced from him that touching complaint: "Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed" (xx, 7). Ezechiel sees the glory of God borne on a fiery chariot drawn by celestial beings. He hears a voice com- manding him to go and find the children of Israel, that rebellious nation, with hardened heart and brazen face, and without prevarication deliver to them the warnings he was to receive.

The other Prophets are silent on the subject of their vocation; doubtless they also received it as clearly and irresistibly. To the preaching and predic- tions of the false Prophets uttering the fancies of their hearts and saying "the word of Jahve" when Jahve spoke to them not, they fearlessly oppose their own oracles as coming from heaven and compelling ac- ceptance under penalty of revolt against God. And the manifest sanctity of their lives, the miracles wrought, the prophecies accomplished demonstrate to their contemporaries the truth of their claims. We also separated from them by thousands of years should be convinced by two irrefragable proofs among others: the great phenomenon of Messianism culminating in Christ and the Church, and the excellence of the religious and moral teaching of the Prophets.

(2) Supernatural knowledge: inspiration and rev- elation. — (a) The fact of revelation. — The Prophet did not receive merely a general mission of preaching or predicting in Jahve's name: each of his words is Divine, all his teaching is from above, that is, it comes to him by revelation or at least by inspiration. Among the truths he preaches, there are some which he knows naturally by the light of reason or ex- perience. It is not necessary for him to learn them

from God, just as if he had been entirely ignorant of them. It suffices if the Divine illumination places them in a new light, strengthens his judgment and preserves it from error concerning these facts, and if a supernatural impulse determines his will to make them the object of his message. This oral inspiration of the Prophets bears an analogy to the Scriptural inspiration, in virtue of which the Prophets and hagiographers composed our canonical books.

The entire contents of the prophetic message is not, therefore, within the compass of the natural faculties of the Divine messenger. The object of all strictly so-called prediction requires a new manifesta- tion and illumination; unaided the Prophet would remain in more or less ab.solute obscurity. This, then, is revelation in the full sense of the term.

(b) Manner of the revelatory communications; Canons for the interpretation of the prophecies and their fulfilment. — In the words of St. John of the Cross — and the doctors of mysticism have a special right to be heard in this matter — "God multiplies the means of transmitting these revelations; at one time he makes use of words, at another of signs, figures, images, similitudes; and, again, of both words and symbols together" (The Ascent of Carmel, II, xxvii): To grasp accurately the meaning of the Prophets and judge of the fulfilment of their predic- tions, these words must be remembered and com- pleted: The material element perceived in the vision may have a strictly literal meaning and simply signify itself. When Micheas, the son of Jemla, beholds "all Israel scattered u])on the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd", and hears Jahve say, "These have no master; let every man of them re- turn to his house in peace" (III Kings, xxii, 17), he sees exactly what will be the outcome of Achab'a expedition against the Syrians at Ramoth of Galaad. Again, the meaning may be entirely symbolic. The almond branch shown to Jeremias (i, 11 sq.) is not shown for itself; it is intended solely to represent by its name I'p'iD (vigilant), the Divine watchfulness, which will not allow the word of God to be unful- filled. Between these two extremes there exists a whole series of intermediary possibilities, of signifi- cations imbued with varying degrees of realit)' or symbolism. The son promised to David in Nathan's prophecy (II Kings, vii) is at once Solomon and the Messianic king. In the last verse of Aggeus Zoro- babel signifies himself and also the Messias.

Neither the Prophets nor their clear-sighted, sen- sible hearers were ever misled. It is wronging Isaias to say he believed that at the end of time the hill of Sion would physically surpass all the moun- tains and hills on the earth (ii, 2). Examples might be multiplied indefinitely. Yet we are not forced to believe that the Prophets were always able to distinguish between the literal and the symbolical significations of their visions. It was sufficient for them not to give, and to be unable to give, in the name of God any erroneous interpretation. It has likewise been long known that the vision very fre- quently disregards distance of time and place, and that the Messias or the Messianic era almost always appears on the immediate horizon of contemporary history. If to this we add the frequently conditional character of the oracles (cf. Jer., xviii; xxiv, 17 sqq. etc.), and remember moreover that the Prophets convey their message in words of eloquence, expressed in Oriental poetry, so rich in striking colours and bold figures, the pretended distinction between realized and unrealized prophecies, predictions substantially accurate but erroneous in detail, will disappear.

(c) State of the Prophet during the Vision. — Or- dinarily the vision occurred when the Prophet was awake. Dreams, of which the false Prophets made ill use, are scarcely ever mentioned in the case of the true Prophets. Much has been said about the