PROPHECY (Gr. prophetela) is it word of pregnant signification. According to its *usual acceptation in modern English, it implies prediction—tie telling of events about to 'happen beforehand. But neither according to the original meaning of the word prophet in Hebrew (nabi) or in Greek (propheto,), nor according to historical usage of the verb prophozy in English, can such a meaning be considered exclusive. The etymological force of the Hebrew word, according to the best authorities, denotes " a person who, as it were, bursts forth with spiritual utterances under divine influence, or simply one who pours forth words." The nabi is the medium of special divine communication—accord ing to some, the man inspired by God to whom divine communications are made; imp more distinctively, according to others, the man who delivers the burden of the divine thought imparted to him, who makes known the declarations of God. the more authoritative expression nabi, there are two other expressions (ro?1/ and ehozeh) used in the Hebrew original with something of the same meaning, and which are translated in our English version "seer." The exact meaning of the several words in their relatiqn to one another has been much disputed. The best view, upon tile whole, seems to be that which considers nabi. to denote specially the official function of the prophet, the order to which he belonged; and the other expressions to point peculiarly to the nature of the prophetic gift—the intuition or vision of the divine. The one may stamp more the objective function of the prophet as a teller or utterer of the divine, the other more -Lis subjective capacity as a seer of the divine.
The original and proper import of the word prophecy, therefore, may be said to be the utterance of the divine. The prophet is the "interpreter of the divine will." He' is expressly called " the interpreter messenger of Jehovah." The idea of pre diction is not of course excluded; but this idea is not a radical and necessary part of the meaning of the word, nor was it at all necessarily an element of the prophetic office. This is apparent from the use of the word even in our English Bibles and our older the ological literature. The eons of Asaph, for example, it is said (1 Chron. xxv. " proph esied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the Lord," in the sense of merely-singing or uttering God's praise under the dictate of the divine Spirit. It is said also of Philip the evangelist (Acts xxi. 9) that he had "four• daughters, virgins, which did prophesy," in the sense merely or mainly of declaring the gospel. In like manner, Bacon speaks in his day of "an exercise commonly called prophesying," which consisted in the exposi tion of a portion of Scripture by successive ministers at a meeting appointed for the purpose; and the well-known title of one of Jeremy Taylor's books, The Liberty of Prophesying—i.e., the liberty of preaching—recalls the same use of the word.
Prophecy among the Jews was a distinct office or function constituted under the divine sanction. The prophets were an order instituted, or at least reformed and more thoroughly organized by Samuel. There were prophets, indeed, before; Abraham is called a prophet (Gen. xx. 7), and Moses also (Deut. xviii. 15; xxxiv. 10); Aaron is the "prophet of Moses" (Ex. vii. 1), and Miriam is)" a prophetess" (Ex. xv. 20); but it was Samuel who first established the office as a systematic part of the Jewish religion. For this purpose, he gathered together companies of young men of promising spiritual attain ments, who were trained under his superintendence for various religions duties—the exposition of the theocratic law, and the conduct of the theocratic worship, especially of its elaborate musical departments (1 Sam. x. 5; 1 Chron. xxv. 6). The use of the psal tery and tabret, pipe, harp, and cymbal, was the peculiar business of the prophets. The
young men were set apart to make proficiency in these instruments; they were placed under an elderly head or president, who received the name of father, and they were called his sous. They were "all under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God" (1 Chron. xxv. 6). The prophetic institutions have been called by modern divines "schools of the prophets;" but this name does not occur in Scripture, nor even in our authorized version. " Sons of the prophets" is the only collective name applied to the separate companies into which they were formed by Samuel. These companies were located in special spots; in Karnali, the birthplace and residence of Samuel; in Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho, and ultimately Jerusalem. They lived in buts made of the branches of trees; wore a simple, characteristic dress; had their meals together, and were found in numbers sometimes of 50, sometimes even of 400. For a prophet not to have been trained in one of these institutions, was deemed as dean Stanley says (latish Church, vol i, p. 429), - an exceptional case." Some, like Isaiah in Jerusalem, or Elisha in Samaria, lived in great towns, in houses of their own. The higher prophets had inferior propldts or servants attendant upon them, whose duty it was to pour water upon their bands, and secure provisions for them (2 Kings iii. 11; v. 22). Thus Moses had Joshua and others; Elijah had Elisha; Elisha had Gebazi. Many of them were married, and had families; for example, Moses, Samuel, Deborah, David, Hosea, Isaiah, Ezekiel. The wife was sometimes, as in the case of Isaiah, called "the prophetess." The prophets, according to this description, were a peculiar order of teachers among the Jews; prophecy, a distinctive part of the divine economy, by which God trained. and educated the "chosen people.' Beginning in a definite, though Still unorganized form, with Moses (for it is only incidentally that Abraham is called "a prophet"), it assumes a regular organization in the hands of Samuel, just when the earlier form of the theocratic government was passing away, and the monarchy was established. It grew up alongside the older institution of the Levitical priesthood without any professed or formal' opposition to the latter, but playing a part distinct, and often practically opposed to it. The priests ministered at the altars of sacrifice, and discharged all the official rites of ,purification enjoined by the Jewish law. They were only recondu•ily teachers of the people. The prophets, again, while joining in the rites of the tabernacle. and temple, were primarily and mainly teachers. Their function was moral, and not ritual; they upheld the ethical, spiritual. and eternal side of religion, apt to be obscured under the hardening tendencies and ambitious officialism of an influential priesthood. They were the great preachers of a righteous government of the world, and of future retribution amidst the confusions and evils of their time; and prophecy was the ever renewing and reforming element in the constantly corrupting and decaying policy of Judaism. More particularly, the prophets were both the national historians and poets of the Jewish people, the narrators of its past deliverance, the heralds of its coining glories. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are included among the prophetical books of the Old Testament in the Jewish canon; while the acts of David, by Gad and Nathan, of Solomon and Jeroboam, by Nathan and Iddo, along with other historical and biographical pieces, have unhappily perished. It is needless to point to the splendid collection of the later prophetic books, beginning with Joel, as containing, along with much direct historical matter also, the most exalted specimens of poetry to be found in any language.