A prophet, in the strict and proper sense, was one to whom the
knowledge of secret things was revealed, that he might declare them to
others, whether they were things past, or present, or to come. The woman
of Samaria perceived our Saviour was a prophet, by his telling her the
secrets of her _past_ life, John iv, 19. The Prophet Elisha had the
_present_ conduct of his servant Gehazi revealed to him, 2 Kings v, 26.
And most of the prophets had revelations concerning _future_ events;
above all, concerning the coming and kingdom of the Messiah: “He has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the
world began,” Luke i, 69, 70. Nevertheless, in a more lax or analogical
sense, the title prophet is sometimes given to persons who had no such
revelation, nor were properly inspired. Thus Aaron is said to be Moses’s
prophet: “The Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to
Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet,” Exod. vii, 1:
because Aaron received the divine messages, which he carried immediately
from Moses; whereas other prophets receive their messages immediately
from God himself. In this respect, as Moses stood in the place of God to
Pharaoh, so Aaron acted in the character of his prophet. The title of
prophets is given also to the sacred musicians, who sung the praises of
God, or who accompanied the song with musical instruments. Thus “the
sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun,” are said to “prophesy
with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals,” 1 Chron. xxv, 1; and
they prophesied, it is said, “according to the order of the king.”
Perhaps Miriam, the sister of Aaron, may be called a prophetess only on
this account, that she led the concert of the women, who sung the song
of Moses with timbrels and with dances, Exodus xv, 20, 21. Thus the
Heathen poets, who sung or composed verses in praise of their gods, were
called by the Romans _vates_, or prophets; which is of the same import
with the Greek ϖροφήτης, a title which St. Paul gives to Epimenides, a
Cretan poet, Titus i, 12.
Godwin observes, that, for the propagation of learning, colleges and
schools were in divers places erected for the prophets. The first
intimation we have in Scripture of these schools is in 1 Sam. x, 5,
where we read of “a company of prophets coming down from the high place
with a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp before them, and they did
prophesy.” They are supposed to be the students in a college of prophets
at גכעת, or “the hill,” as we render it, “of God.” Our translators
elsewhere retain the same Hebrew word, as supposing it to be the proper
name of a place, “Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that
was in Geba,” 1 Sam. xiii, 3. Some persons have imagined that the ark,
or at least a synagogue, or some place of public worship, was at this
time at Geba, and that this is the reason of its being styled in the
former passage גבעת האלהים, the hill of God. We read afterward of such
another company of prophets at Naioth in Ramah, “prophesying, and Samuel
standing as appointed over them,” 1 Sam. xix, 19, 20. The students in
these colleges were called sons of the prophets, who are frequently
mentioned in after ages, even in the most degenerate times. Thus we read
of the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel; and of another school
at Jericho; and of the sons of the prophets at Gilgal, 2 Kings ii, 3, 5;
iv, 38. It should seem, that these sons of the prophets were very
numerous; for of this sort were probably the prophets of the Lord, whom
Jezebel cut off; “but Obadiah took a hundred of them, and hid them by
fifty in a cave,” 1 Kings xviii, 4. In these schools young men were
educated under a proper master, who was commonly, if not always, an
inspired prophet, in the knowledge of religion, and in sacred music, 1
Sam. x, 5; xix, 20, and were thereby qualified to be public preachers,
which seems to have been part of the business of the prophets on the
Sabbath days and festivals, 2 Kings iv, 23. It should seem, that God
generally chose the prophets, whom he inspired, out of these schools.
Amos, therefore, speaks of it as an extraordinary case, that though he
was not one of the sons of the prophets, but a herdsman, “yet the Lord
took him as he followed the flock, and said unto him, Go, prophesy unto
my people Israel,” Amos vii, 14, 15. That it was usual for some of these
schools, or at least for their tutors, to be endued with a prophetic
spirit, appears from the relation of the prophecies concerning the
ascent of Elijah, delivered to Elisha by the sons of the prophets, both
at Jericho and at Bethel, 2 Kings ii, 3, 5.
The Hebrew prophets present a succession of men at once the most
singular and the most venerable that ever appeared, in so long a line of
time, in the world. They had special communion with God; they laid open
the scenes of the future; they were ministers of the promised Christ.
They upheld religion and piety in the worst times, and at the greatest
risks; and their disinterestedness was only equalled by their
patriotism. The houses in which they lived were generally mean, and of
their own building, 2 Kings vi, 2–4. Their food was chiefly pottage of
herbs, unless when the people sent them some better provision, as bread,
parched corn, honey, dried fruits, and the like, 1 Kings xiv, 3; 2 Kings
iv, 38, 39, 42. Their dress was plain and coarse, tied about with a
leathern girdle, Zech. xiii, 4; 2 Kings i, 8. Riches were no temptation
to them; therefore Elisha not only refused Naaman’s presents, but
punished his servant Gehazi very severely for clandestinely obtaining a
small share of them, 2 Kings v, 15, &c. To succeeding ages they have
left a character consecrated by holiness, and “visions of the Holy One,”
which still unveil to the church his most glorious attributes, and his
deepest designs. “Prophecy,” says the Apostle Peter, “came not of old
time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost,” 2 Pet. i, 21. They flourished in a continued succession
during a period of more than a thousand years, reckoning from Moses to
Malachi, all coöperating in the same designs, uniting in one spirit to
deliver the same doctrines, and to predict the same blessings to
mankind. Their claims to a divine commission were demonstrated by the
intrinsic excellency of their doctrine; by the disinterested zeal and
undaunted courage with which they prosecuted their ministry, and
persevered in their great design, and by the unimpeachable integrity of
their conduct. But even those credentials of a divine mission were still
farther confirmed by the exercise of miraculous powers, and by the
completion of many less important predictions which they uttered, Deut.
xiii, 1–3; xviii, 22; Joshua x, 13; 1 Sam. xii, 8; 2 Kings i, 10; Isa.
xxxviii, 8; xlii, 9; 1 Sam. ix, 6; 1 Kings xiii, 3; Jer. xxviii, 9;
Ezek. xxxiii, 33. When not immediately employed in the discharge of
their sacred office, they lived sequestered from the world, in religious
communities, or wandered “in deserts, in mountains, and in caves of the
earth;” distinguished by their apparel, and by the general simplicity of
their style of life, 2 Kings i, 8; iv, 10, 38; vi, 1; Isa. xx, 2; Matt.
iii, 4; Heb. xi, 38; Rev. xi, 3. They were the established oracles of
their country, and consulted upon all occasions when it was necessary to
collect the divine will on any civil or religious question. These
illustrious personages were likewise as well the types as the harbingers
of that greater Prophet whom they foretold; and in the general outline
of their character, as well as in particular events of their lives, they
prefigured to the Jews the future Teacher of mankind. Like him, also,
they laboured by every exertion to instruct and reclaim; reproving and
threatening the sinful, however exalted in rank, or encircled by power,
with such fearless confidence and sincerity as often excited respect.
The most intemperate princes were sometimes compelled unwillingly to
hear and to obey their directions, 1 Kings xii, 21–24; xiii, 2–6; xx,
42, 43; xxi, 27; 2 Chron. xxviii, 9–14; though often so incensed by
their rebuke, as to resent it by the severest persecutions. Then it was
that the prophets exhibited the integrity of their characters, by
zealously encountering oppression, hatred, and death, in the cause of
religion. Then it was that they firmly supported “trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the
sword; they wandered about, destitute, afflicted, tormented,” evil
intreated for those virtues of which the memorial should flourish to
posterity, and martyred for righteousness, which, whenever resentment
should subside, it would be deemed honourable to reverence, Matthew
xxiii, 27–29.
The manner in which the prophets published their predictions was, either
by uttering them aloud in some public place, or by affixing them on the
gates of the temple, Jer. vii, 2; Ezek. iii, 10, where they might be
generally seen and read. Upon some important occasions, when it was
necessary to rouse the fears of a disobedient people, and to recall them
to repentance, the prophets, as objects of universal attention, appear
to have walked about publicly in sackcloth, and with every external mark
of humiliation and sorrow. They then adopted extraordinary modes of
expressing their convictions of impending wrath, and endeavoured to
awaken the apprehensions of their country, by the most striking
illustration of threatened punishment. Thus Jeremiah made bonds and
yokes, and put them upon his neck, Jer. xxvii, strongly to intimate the
subjection that God would bring on the nations whom Nebuchadnezzar
should subdue. Isaiah likewise walked naked, that is, without the rough
garment of the prophet, and barefoot, as a sign of the distress that
awaited the Egyptians, Isa. xx. So Jeremiah broke the potter’s vessel,
Jer. xix; and Ezekiel publicly removed his household goods from the
city, 2 Kings xxv, 4, 5; Ezek. xii, 7; more forcibly to represent by
these actions some correspondent calamities ready to fall on nations
obnoxious to God’s wrath; this mode of expressing important
circumstances by action, being customary and familiar among all eastern
nations. The great object of prophecy was, as has been before observed,
a description of the Messiah, and of his kingdom, Matt. xxvi, 56; Luke
i, 70; xviii, 31; xxiv, 44; John i, 45; Acts iii, 18, 24; x, 43; xiii,
29; xv, 15; xxviii, 23; 1 Pet. i, 10–12. These were gradually unfolded
by successive prophets in predictions more and more distinct. They were
at first held forth in general promises; they were afterward described
by figures, and shadowed out under types and allusive institutions, and
finally foretold in the full lustre of descriptive prophecy. The Hebrew
prophets were chosen of God to testify beforehand of the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow. See PROPHECY.
knowledge of secret things was revealed, that he might declare them to
others, whether they were things past, or present, or to come. The woman
of Samaria perceived our Saviour was a prophet, by his telling her the
secrets of her _past_ life, John iv, 19. The Prophet Elisha had the
_present_ conduct of his servant Gehazi revealed to him, 2 Kings v, 26.
And most of the prophets had revelations concerning _future_ events;
above all, concerning the coming and kingdom of the Messiah: “He has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the
world began,” Luke i, 69, 70. Nevertheless, in a more lax or analogical
sense, the title prophet is sometimes given to persons who had no such
revelation, nor were properly inspired. Thus Aaron is said to be Moses’s
prophet: “The Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to
Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet,” Exod. vii, 1:
because Aaron received the divine messages, which he carried immediately
from Moses; whereas other prophets receive their messages immediately
from God himself. In this respect, as Moses stood in the place of God to
Pharaoh, so Aaron acted in the character of his prophet. The title of
prophets is given also to the sacred musicians, who sung the praises of
God, or who accompanied the song with musical instruments. Thus “the
sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun,” are said to “prophesy
with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals,” 1 Chron. xxv, 1; and
they prophesied, it is said, “according to the order of the king.”
Perhaps Miriam, the sister of Aaron, may be called a prophetess only on
this account, that she led the concert of the women, who sung the song
of Moses with timbrels and with dances, Exodus xv, 20, 21. Thus the
Heathen poets, who sung or composed verses in praise of their gods, were
called by the Romans _vates_, or prophets; which is of the same import
with the Greek ϖροφήτης, a title which St. Paul gives to Epimenides, a
Cretan poet, Titus i, 12.
Godwin observes, that, for the propagation of learning, colleges and
schools were in divers places erected for the prophets. The first
intimation we have in Scripture of these schools is in 1 Sam. x, 5,
where we read of “a company of prophets coming down from the high place
with a psaltery, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp before them, and they did
prophesy.” They are supposed to be the students in a college of prophets
at גכעת, or “the hill,” as we render it, “of God.” Our translators
elsewhere retain the same Hebrew word, as supposing it to be the proper
name of a place, “Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that
was in Geba,” 1 Sam. xiii, 3. Some persons have imagined that the ark,
or at least a synagogue, or some place of public worship, was at this
time at Geba, and that this is the reason of its being styled in the
former passage גבעת האלהים, the hill of God. We read afterward of such
another company of prophets at Naioth in Ramah, “prophesying, and Samuel
standing as appointed over them,” 1 Sam. xix, 19, 20. The students in
these colleges were called sons of the prophets, who are frequently
mentioned in after ages, even in the most degenerate times. Thus we read
of the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel; and of another school
at Jericho; and of the sons of the prophets at Gilgal, 2 Kings ii, 3, 5;
iv, 38. It should seem, that these sons of the prophets were very
numerous; for of this sort were probably the prophets of the Lord, whom
Jezebel cut off; “but Obadiah took a hundred of them, and hid them by
fifty in a cave,” 1 Kings xviii, 4. In these schools young men were
educated under a proper master, who was commonly, if not always, an
inspired prophet, in the knowledge of religion, and in sacred music, 1
Sam. x, 5; xix, 20, and were thereby qualified to be public preachers,
which seems to have been part of the business of the prophets on the
Sabbath days and festivals, 2 Kings iv, 23. It should seem, that God
generally chose the prophets, whom he inspired, out of these schools.
Amos, therefore, speaks of it as an extraordinary case, that though he
was not one of the sons of the prophets, but a herdsman, “yet the Lord
took him as he followed the flock, and said unto him, Go, prophesy unto
my people Israel,” Amos vii, 14, 15. That it was usual for some of these
schools, or at least for their tutors, to be endued with a prophetic
spirit, appears from the relation of the prophecies concerning the
ascent of Elijah, delivered to Elisha by the sons of the prophets, both
at Jericho and at Bethel, 2 Kings ii, 3, 5.
The Hebrew prophets present a succession of men at once the most
singular and the most venerable that ever appeared, in so long a line of
time, in the world. They had special communion with God; they laid open
the scenes of the future; they were ministers of the promised Christ.
They upheld religion and piety in the worst times, and at the greatest
risks; and their disinterestedness was only equalled by their
patriotism. The houses in which they lived were generally mean, and of
their own building, 2 Kings vi, 2–4. Their food was chiefly pottage of
herbs, unless when the people sent them some better provision, as bread,
parched corn, honey, dried fruits, and the like, 1 Kings xiv, 3; 2 Kings
iv, 38, 39, 42. Their dress was plain and coarse, tied about with a
leathern girdle, Zech. xiii, 4; 2 Kings i, 8. Riches were no temptation
to them; therefore Elisha not only refused Naaman’s presents, but
punished his servant Gehazi very severely for clandestinely obtaining a
small share of them, 2 Kings v, 15, &c. To succeeding ages they have
left a character consecrated by holiness, and “visions of the Holy One,”
which still unveil to the church his most glorious attributes, and his
deepest designs. “Prophecy,” says the Apostle Peter, “came not of old
time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost,” 2 Pet. i, 21. They flourished in a continued succession
during a period of more than a thousand years, reckoning from Moses to
Malachi, all coöperating in the same designs, uniting in one spirit to
deliver the same doctrines, and to predict the same blessings to
mankind. Their claims to a divine commission were demonstrated by the
intrinsic excellency of their doctrine; by the disinterested zeal and
undaunted courage with which they prosecuted their ministry, and
persevered in their great design, and by the unimpeachable integrity of
their conduct. But even those credentials of a divine mission were still
farther confirmed by the exercise of miraculous powers, and by the
completion of many less important predictions which they uttered, Deut.
xiii, 1–3; xviii, 22; Joshua x, 13; 1 Sam. xii, 8; 2 Kings i, 10; Isa.
xxxviii, 8; xlii, 9; 1 Sam. ix, 6; 1 Kings xiii, 3; Jer. xxviii, 9;
Ezek. xxxiii, 33. When not immediately employed in the discharge of
their sacred office, they lived sequestered from the world, in religious
communities, or wandered “in deserts, in mountains, and in caves of the
earth;” distinguished by their apparel, and by the general simplicity of
their style of life, 2 Kings i, 8; iv, 10, 38; vi, 1; Isa. xx, 2; Matt.
iii, 4; Heb. xi, 38; Rev. xi, 3. They were the established oracles of
their country, and consulted upon all occasions when it was necessary to
collect the divine will on any civil or religious question. These
illustrious personages were likewise as well the types as the harbingers
of that greater Prophet whom they foretold; and in the general outline
of their character, as well as in particular events of their lives, they
prefigured to the Jews the future Teacher of mankind. Like him, also,
they laboured by every exertion to instruct and reclaim; reproving and
threatening the sinful, however exalted in rank, or encircled by power,
with such fearless confidence and sincerity as often excited respect.
The most intemperate princes were sometimes compelled unwillingly to
hear and to obey their directions, 1 Kings xii, 21–24; xiii, 2–6; xx,
42, 43; xxi, 27; 2 Chron. xxviii, 9–14; though often so incensed by
their rebuke, as to resent it by the severest persecutions. Then it was
that the prophets exhibited the integrity of their characters, by
zealously encountering oppression, hatred, and death, in the cause of
religion. Then it was that they firmly supported “trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the
sword; they wandered about, destitute, afflicted, tormented,” evil
intreated for those virtues of which the memorial should flourish to
posterity, and martyred for righteousness, which, whenever resentment
should subside, it would be deemed honourable to reverence, Matthew
xxiii, 27–29.
The manner in which the prophets published their predictions was, either
by uttering them aloud in some public place, or by affixing them on the
gates of the temple, Jer. vii, 2; Ezek. iii, 10, where they might be
generally seen and read. Upon some important occasions, when it was
necessary to rouse the fears of a disobedient people, and to recall them
to repentance, the prophets, as objects of universal attention, appear
to have walked about publicly in sackcloth, and with every external mark
of humiliation and sorrow. They then adopted extraordinary modes of
expressing their convictions of impending wrath, and endeavoured to
awaken the apprehensions of their country, by the most striking
illustration of threatened punishment. Thus Jeremiah made bonds and
yokes, and put them upon his neck, Jer. xxvii, strongly to intimate the
subjection that God would bring on the nations whom Nebuchadnezzar
should subdue. Isaiah likewise walked naked, that is, without the rough
garment of the prophet, and barefoot, as a sign of the distress that
awaited the Egyptians, Isa. xx. So Jeremiah broke the potter’s vessel,
Jer. xix; and Ezekiel publicly removed his household goods from the
city, 2 Kings xxv, 4, 5; Ezek. xii, 7; more forcibly to represent by
these actions some correspondent calamities ready to fall on nations
obnoxious to God’s wrath; this mode of expressing important
circumstances by action, being customary and familiar among all eastern
nations. The great object of prophecy was, as has been before observed,
a description of the Messiah, and of his kingdom, Matt. xxvi, 56; Luke
i, 70; xviii, 31; xxiv, 44; John i, 45; Acts iii, 18, 24; x, 43; xiii,
29; xv, 15; xxviii, 23; 1 Pet. i, 10–12. These were gradually unfolded
by successive prophets in predictions more and more distinct. They were
at first held forth in general promises; they were afterward described
by figures, and shadowed out under types and allusive institutions, and
finally foretold in the full lustre of descriptive prophecy. The Hebrew
prophets were chosen of God to testify beforehand of the sufferings of
Christ, and the glory that should follow. See PROPHECY.