3. Characteristics of the Prophets.—The prophets often formed guilds, living together in communities. These guilds are frequently called "sons of the prophets,') compare also the desienation °a band of prophets ,o 1 Sam. x, 5, 10. Such guilds are mentioned several times during the life of Samuel, 1 Sam. x, 5, 10; xix, 18-19, etc., in the time of Elijah and Elisha, 1 Kings xx, 35; 2 Kings ii, 3, 5, 7, 15, etc., and in the time of Amos, Amos vii, 14. Presuma bly this was a continuing feature. Samuel and F.-lisha were particularly connected with these guilds. The writing prophets were independ ent of them and sometimes hostile.
Gifts or fees to the prophets were customary. A fee for professional services was expected when a seer was consulted, 1 Sam. ix, 7-8; 1 Kings xiv, 3. A gift of first-fruits was made to Elisha, 2 Kings iv, 42. The prophets seem ordinarily to have made their proph esying,. as is indicated by Micah in, 5; Eze kiel xiii, 19; Amos vii, 12, etc. But no such gifts seem to have been made to the writing prophets, and Amos repudiates the idea, Amos vii, 14.
The prophets were often marked by a dis tinctive dress, viz., a hairy mantle, 1 Kings xix, 13; 2 Kings i, 8; Zechariah xiii, 4. Naturally this would be especially characteristic of the prophetic guilds, the writing prophets appar ently not following the practice. A distinctive sacred mark in the forehead is mentioned only once, 1 Kings xx, 41.
In the early times religious estacy or frenzy was a prominent characteristic of the prophets, 1 Sam. x, 9-13; xix, 18-24, as was the case also with prophets of the Phoenician Baal, 1 Kings xviii, 28; similar is the condition of Elijah when he runs before the chariot of Ahab, 1 Kings xviii, 46. In 2 Kings ix, 11 one of the prophets is called mad. This frenzied condi tion was excited especially by music, consult 1 Sam. x, 5; 2 Kings iii, 15. This condition is not mentioned in the later time and doubtless gradually ceased. Dreams and visions were also part of the experience of the prophets. But these, especially dreams, became less fre quent in the later times.
The prophets, especially the oral prophets, often gave a message that suited those con sulting them, in particular messages of pros perity for the king and the nation. Such prophets may be described as professional, they regarded their work as a profession with no high conception of its religious significance. Some of these prophets were no doubt insincere, other perhaps merely professional and con ventional, repeating the messages of earlier prophets with no distinctive addition of their own. In the Old Testament these are not de scribed as false prophets, but, at times, as prophesying falsely or prophesying lies. The writing prophets come into sharp opposition with prophets of this kind. The favorable message of such prophets is mentioned in Isaiah xxx, 10; Micah iii, 5; 1 Kings xxii, 13; Jeremiah xxiii, 17; xxviii, 1-4, etc. Several of the oral prophets, however, exerted a very important influence in reference to national affairs. Thus Samuel anointed Saul as king,
and later announced his rejection and anointed David; David followed the instructions Gad, 1 Sam. xxii, 5; Nathan gave David direc tions concerning the temple, 2 Sam. ff, and rebuked him for his sin, 2 Sam. 7; while the importance of the work of Elijah and Elisha is well known.
The conviction of the prophets that Yahweh was speaking through them seemed universal. This appeared to be quite as strong in the case of the lower professional prophets as with those of a higher kind. How fully this con viction was justified in each case, therefore, must be determined by careful study, especially by the contents of the individual message.
The dominant purpose of the actually sin cere prophets may be stated thus: so to pre sent the truth of God as to produce practical religious results. This appears from a study of the various elements in their messages, and of course applies more fully to those of the higher kind. The national interest has a funda mental religious basis; the social teachings, prominent as they are, are essentially re ligious; and the ethical teachings, which are conspicuous, have a religious centre.
i The teaching is pre-eminently practical rather than speculative, the message of the prophet was fundamentally a message to his own time.
In connection with what has already been said, the matter of prediction and fulfilment may be noted. The message in prediction, as elsewhere, was for the time of the prophet; the aim of prediction, therefore, was not to present a program for the future, but to teach the comprehensive truth concerning God and His principles of action for the sake of the present effect. Hence the prediction was not a statement of that which the prophet thought must necessarily take place, but rather a presen tation of the prophet's expectation or ideal, with a view to the encouragement or warning of his hearers. Fulfilment of details, therefore, is not to be expected and does not ordinarily appear; there is a more general fulfilment in the reali zation of the principles that are stated.
In the latter part of the Old Testament, chronologically considered, prophesy began to pass into apocalyptic, as in the book of Dan iel and in small portions of other books, which finally replaced prophecy in the Jewish thought of the two centuries before Christ and the first century after Christ. See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE.
IV. Prophecy in the New Testament. In the New Testament the prophet is in general an interpreter of God's message, who speaks to the edification of the church, 1 Cor. xiv, 3, 24, 25 prediction being only rarely mentioned, as in Acts xi, 28; xxi, 10-11. Prophets formed a special class in the church ranking next after apostles, 1 Cor. xii, 28; Eph. iv, 11, and much superior to the possessors of the gift of tongues. 1 Cor. xiv. 5. 39.