PROPHETS IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH In the nascent organization of the Christian communities (Acts xi. 27, Eph. iv. II, i. Cor. xii. 28) prophets are mentioned, ranking next to the Apostles. Sometimes itinerant, sometimes settled in one locality, they were the evangelists of the early Church, credited with a direct spiritual inspiration for enlightenment and edification. Men can be appointed to an office; they cannot be appointed to prophecy. The conviction that in Christ all things were made new evoked minds sensitive to spiritual issues.
Therein the Christian prophets were in the true succession; but in all else how different from the lonely Hebrew seers. The Christian prophets were expected to provide intelligible utter ances (1. Cor. xiv. 32), and were thus differentiated from the ecstatic "speaker in tongues," whilst they were also distinct from the permanent local officials—catechists, deacons, presbyters, bishops. From the valuable information in the Didache it appears that the high regard felt for them lasted fully a century ; yet their position was always precarious. Sane enthusiasm might lapse into futile er..3tasy (1. Cor. xiv. Hypocrites might simulate the gift—the Didache insists that the prophet is worthy of main tenance and respect only if his piety is indubitable, and his con duct "worthy of the Lord." The prestige of the permanent officials increased in comparison with the occasional prophet, whose sole virtue seemed to be his edifying speech. But that gift might also be found among the regular ministers : and if so, how preferable! Lastly the zeal of the prophets might claim an authority, or make ascetic demands, on the Church which roused antagonism. At the end of the 2nd century the wild prophesying in the Mon tanist party (significantly of Phrygian origin) hastened the end. Armed with the now-accepted Canon of Holy Scripture ("the law and the prophets until John"), the authorities ruled that "Ecstasy was of the devil not of God" and that "Prophets must not accept gifts," and ere long they ceased as a distinctive class in the Church's organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The literature on this subject is so extensive that only a selection of important, or recent, works can here be cited. In addition to commentaries on the several prophets, and discussions in volumes dealing generally with the Religion of Israel, see W. R. Smith's Prophets of Israel (2nd ed., with notes by Cheyne, 1895) ; A. B. Davidson, art. "Prophecy" in Hasting's Dict. Bib. (1902) ; C. F. Kent, Israel's Prophets (Students 0. T., 191o) ; G. A. Smith, Early Poetry of Israel (Iwo) ; Sellin, A. T. Prophetismus (Leipzig, 1912) ; G. Hiilscher, Die Propheten (Leipzig, 1914) ; M. Buttenwieser, Prophets of Israel (N.Y., 1914) ; A. R. Gordon, Prophets of the O.T. (1916) ; E. Konig, art. "Prophecy, Hebrew," in E.R.E. (1918) ; Welch, Visions of the End (1922) ; Duhm, Israel's Profeten (2nd ed., Tubingen, 1922) ; Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (5922) ; T. H. Robinson, Prophecy and the Prophets (with bibliography by Peake) 1923 ; Peake, Roots of Hebrew Prophecy (1923) ; Wiener, Prophets of Israel (1923) ; S. A. Cook, in Cambridge Ancient History, vol. iii. (with bibliography, p. 736) 1925 ; J. M. P. Smith, Prophets of Israel (1925) ; Micklem, Prophecy and Eschatology (1926) ; and Fascher, Hpockirrns (1927). On Hebrew psychology in relation to the prophets, H. Wheeler Robinson, Christian Doctrine of Man (1913), and arts. in The People and the Book (1925) and O.T. Essays (5927). On prophets in the Christian Church, see Selwyn, The Christian Prophets (5900) ; Mitchell, art. "Prophecy, Christian," in E.R.E. (1918).