Page:Messianic Prophecies - Delitzsch - 1880.djvu/24

8 but no one is prophet with reference to himself. This idea lies even in the name, for is not a passive name in the sense of one to whom a revelation is vouchsafed, but an intensive active noun, which indicates the professional announcer, as  does not signify a foreteller, qui praefatur, but a proclaimer, qui profatur. The word, rad. indicates speech which comes and bursts forth from within. The speaker presupposes the hearer, hence the prophet as such is a mediator of a divine revelation to others.

Rem. I. The opinion of Land (Theologische Tijdschrift, Leiden, II, 191) which is also approved by Kuenen, and in which he follows Sprenger (Leben Mohammed's vol. I. — 1861, p. 265), that Arabic kâhin originally signified soothsayer, is without weight. The verb is related secondarily to  to stand,  is the one who stands and so the one who officiates, Hebr. X, II, according to a principle derived from Deuteronomy XVIII, I that every priestly office is performed by standing , compare Buxtorfii Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, Basileae 1540, col. 2534. Schultz (Altteslamentliche Theologie, 2nd ed., Frankfurt on the Main 1878, p. 369) explains it as the one who prepares [the offering]. The word, as primitive, either signifies to stand, or in the sense of the Hiphil is to prepare. But the first signification in this participial name is most probable.

Rem. 2. The verb does not signify to speak softly, hollowly, secretly as Riehm p. 21, and Schultz p. 215 maintain in agreement with Hupfeld, nor does it signify to speak with animation, or with deep excitement as Anger, p. 8, Kuenen (The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, London 1877, p. 42) hold, but as Fleischer (in Delitzsch' Genesis, 4th ed., Leipzig 1872, p. 551—553) has proved  did not signify anything further originally than to raise oneself, to ascend, to become audible. It is perhaps the same word as that from which in the Babylonio-Assyrian the god Nabu (biblical ) has received his name as the messenger of the Gods. The form as a more intensive form than  includes the accompanying idea of habitual activity or the permanent possession of a quality hence  is the speaker by profession. The word does not signify anything else than the speaker, but as in itself denotes the seer in the sense of one seeing clearly (clairvoyant), so  signifies the speaker in the sense of an inspired, divinely filled speaker. The Niphal and the Hithpael  are denominatives, signifying to demean, or exercise oneself as a prophet.

Hence the name implies mediation, but it does not originally indicate a class with the duty of public proclamation. Before Israel became a state the gift and profession of the as well as that of the  was especially connected with the head of the holy family which was to become the medium, and the