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 PROPHECY

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PROPHECY

ecstatic state of the latter. Possibly the soul of the Prophet may have been at times, as hapi)ened to the mystics, so absorbed by the activity of the spiritual faculties that the activity of the senses was suspended, though no definite instance can be cited. In any case, we must remember what St. Jerome (In Isaiam, Prolog, in P. L., XXIV, 19) and St. John Chrvsostom (In I Cor. homil. XXIX in P. G., LXI, 240 sqq.) remarked that the Prophets always retained their self-consciousness and were never subject to the disordered and degrading psychic conditions of the pagan soothsayers and pjthias; and, instead of enigmatical and uuerile sibylline oracles, their pro- nouncements were often sublime and always worthy of God.

E. The Teaching of the Prophets.~{l) The ex- terior form. — They usually taught orally. To this they often added symbolical acts which accorded with Oriental tastes and caught the attention of their hearers. Jeremias, for instance, wandered through Jerusalem under a wooden yoke, sym- bohzing the approaching subjugation of the nations by the King of Babylon. The false Prophet Hananias, ha\'ing taken this yoke and broken it on the ground, receives this answer, in the name of Jahve "Thou hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron" (xxviii, 13). Jeremias and Ezechiel make frequent use of this method of in- struction. Amos was probably the first who was in- spired to unite the ^^Titten to the spoken word. His example was followed. The Prophets thus exercised wider and more lasting influence, and left moreover an indisputable proof that God had spoken by them (cf. Isaias, viii, 16). Some prophecies seem to have been made exclusively in -nTiting, for instance, prob- ably the second part of Isaias and all Daniel. The greater part of the prophetic books is couched in rhj-thmic language perfectly adapted to the popular and, at the same time, sublime character of the oracles. Hardly any kind of Hebrew poesy is absent ; epithalamia and lamentations; little satirical songs; odes of wonderful l\Tism etc. The fundamental law of Hebrew poetry, the parallelism of the stichs, is usually observed. The metric seems to be based essentially on the number of accents marking a raised intonation. Most exhaustive researches upon the construction of the strophes have been made, but without many definitely accepted conclusions.

(2) The Teaching. — (a) Preaching: religion and morals, in general. — Samuel and EUas sketch out the programme of the religious and moral preaching of the later Prophets. Samuel teaches that the idols are vanity and nothingness (I Kings, xii, 21); that Jahve alone is essentially true, and immutable (xv, 29); that He prefers obedience to sacrifice (xv, 22). For Elias also Jahve alone is God, Baal is nothing. Jahve chastises all iniquity and punishes the injustice of the powerful for the feeble. These are the fundamental points emphasized more and more by the prophetic writers. Their doctrine is based on the existence of one God alone, possessing all the attributes of the true Divinity — sanctity and justice, mercy and fidelity, supreme dominion over the material and moral world, the control of the cosmic phenomena and of the course of history. The worship desired by God does not consist in the profusion of sacrifices and offerings. They are nau.seous to Jahve unless accompanied by adoration in spirit and in truth. With what greater indigna- tion and disgust will He not tiu-n away from the cruel or unclean practice of human sacrifice and the pros- titution of sacred things so common among the neighbouring nations. On being asked with what one should approach and kneel before the Most High God, He replies by the mouth of Micheiis: "I will show thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee; Verily to do judgment, and

to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy God" (vi, S). So religion joins morality, and formulates and imposes its dictates. Jahve will call the nations to account for violating the natiu-al law, and Israel, in addition, for not observing the Mosaic legislation (cf. Amos, i-ii, etc.). And Ho will do this, so as to conciliate in a Divine manner the rights of justice with the rcahzation of the promises made to Israel and mankind.

(b) Prophetic predictions. The Day of Jahve; the Saved; Messianism; Eschatologj-. — The con- stant subjects of the great prophetic predictions of Israel, the punishment of the guilty nations, and the realization for all of the ancient promises. Directly or intiirectly all the prophecies are concerned with the obstacles to be removed before the coming of the new kingdom or with the preparation of the New and final Covenant. From the days of .\mos, and clearly it w;is not even then a new expectation, Israel was awaiting a great day of Jahve, a day, which it deemed one of extraordinary triumph for it and its God. The Prophets do not deny, but rather declare with absolute certainty that the day must come. They dispel the illusions concerning its nature. For Israel, faithless and burdened with crimes, the day of Jahve will be ''darkness and not light" (.\mos, V, IS sqq.). The time is approaching when the house of Jacob will be sifted among the nations as wheat is shaken in the sieve and not a good seed drops to the groimd (ix, 9). Alas! the good seed is rare here. The bulk will perish. A remnant alone will be saved, a holy germ from which the Messianic kingdom will arise. The pagan nations will serve as sieves for Israel. But as they have wandered still further from the right path, the day of Jahve will come for them in turn; finally the remnant of Israel and the con- verts of the nations will unite to form a single people under the great king, the Son of Da\ad. The remnant of Epliraem or of Juda remaining in Pales- tine at the time of the Exile, the remnant returning from the Captivity to form the post-Exilic com- munity, the Messianic kingdom in its militant state and its final consummation — all these stages of the history of salvation are mingled here and there in one prophetic view. The futm-e life looms up but little, the oracles being addressed principally to the body of the nation, for which there is no future life. However, Ezechiel (xxx\-ii) alludes to the resurrec- tion of the dead; the apocalj-pse of Isaias (xx^^, 19 sqq.) mentions it explicitly; Daniel speaks of a res- urrection imto life everlasting and a resurrection unto eternal reproach (xii, 2 sq.). The broad day- light of the Christian Revelation is coming.

II. I\ THE New Test.«iext. — When this dawn is about to break, prophecy then long silent finds voices anew to tell the good tidings. Zachary and Elizabeth, Mary the Virgin-Mother, the old man Simeon and Anna the Prophetess are enlightened by the Holy Ghost and imfcld the future. Soon the Precursor ap- pears, filled with the spirit and power of Elias. He finds anew the accents of olden prophecy to preach penance and announce the coming of the kingdom. Then it is the Messias in person who, long foretold and awaited as a Prophet (Deut., xviii, 1.5, IS; Is., xlix, etc."), does not disdain to accept this title and to fulfil its signification. His preaching and His predictions are much closer to the prophetic models tlian are the teachings of the rabbis. His great predecessors are as far below Him as the ser\-ants are below the only Son. Unlike them He does not receive from without the truth which He preaches. Its source is within Him. He promulgates it with an authority thereunto un- known. His revelation is the definite message of the Father. To understand its meaning more and more clearly the Church which He is about to establish will have throughout all ages the infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost. However, during the ApostoUc times,