As time went on, these gifts became distinguished from one another and more sharply outlined (1 Co 12281.).

It is St. Paul who gives us the first clear classification of 'spiritual gifts' and announces that they have been bestowed for the common good. God has set people within the Church,' he says, 'to be first of all apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators and speakers in tongues of various kinds' (1 Co 12281.; cf. 12, 1 Th 520, Ro 126-8, Eph 220 411., 1 Ti 118 414, 2 Ti 16). And yet these gifts were not bestowed singly and to the exclusion of all the others. For the apostles prophesied, taught, governed, and exercised their manifold ministry. And the prophets also taught and sometimes spoke in a tongue, wrought miracles, and healed. But the individual became classified by his most conspicuous gift, and each little community of believers looked to this one or that for the performance of his chosen function. Certain gifts, however, from their very nature, were unstable and intermittent-e.g., speaking in a tongue, working miracles, healing, and even prophesying. On the other hand, there were gifts that were naturally stable and continuous-e.g., teaching, administering, and governing. The intermittent, unstable gifts were liable to lapse in any given community. There were not enough accredited prophets, healers, or speakers in a tongue to go round; and, where genuine inspiration failed, the pretender often came to the front. St. Paul found it necessary to advise restraint and moderation in speaking in a tongue (1 Co 142.); and he also warns against unrestrained prophecy: Let only two or three prophets speak, while the rest exercise their judgment upon what is said. Should a revelation come to one who is seated, the first speaker must be quiet. . . . Prophets can control their own prophetic spirits' (1 Co 1429f.).

individuals, were the first court of appeal. They based their judgments on the words of the Lord and the mind of Christ. Then the appointment of bishops (i.e. elders or presbyters) and deacons supplied the place of an apostle when he was absent. Letters were a substitute for personal presence. The disappearance of the apostles and the first disciples tended to leave the churches, now widely scattered, open to the invasion of presumptuous claimants to leadership, and the words of the Lord were not often specific enough to meet the case. And who could claim to have the 'mind of Christ'?

4. Warnings of the early fathers.-The rise and development of the monarchical episcopate was here and there favoured and fostered in the interests of sound doctrine and as a restraint against newfangled notions, foreign to the faith. Hermas, Pastor (Mand. xi. and xii.), and Ignatius (Eph. vii., ix., and xvi., Mag. viii., Tral. vi., Phil. ii., iii., Smyr. iv., vii., ad Pol. iii.) are full of warnings and admonitions against false prophets and teachers; and Ignatius especially exhorts to obedience of the bishop. This was his hope for the maintenance of sound doctrine. Clement likewise relies upon the bishops (i.e. presbyters) for the preservation of the unity and purity of the Church (1 ad Cor. xlii.– xliv.). Prophecy, however, was not yet suppressed, but only repressed and somewhat regulated by the rising officials in the Churches. The Didache informs us that prophecy was still free and in good repute in Syria (or Egypt), although often counterfeited and condemned (xi. 7-12). Its days, however, were numbered, for it was soon to share the general distrust and opposition towards all extravagant claims to divine wisdom. The Gnostics and Marcion had prophets as well as the churches, and they were sometimes indistinguishable from each other (see artt. GNOSTICISM, MARCIONISM). Then the rise of Montanism (q.v.) was in some respects but a resurgence of prophetism. It was an effort to revive primitive Christian conditions where each believer was free to exercise his Godgiven gift.

3. The Church and 'false prophets.'-The freedom of the early years gradually came under the restraint of the general judgment of the Christian communities and their accredited leaders. The stable continuous functions in the life of the Church 5. Disappearance of the prophetic office.-The grew in influence and power. The apostles them-churches were now put on the defensive and they selves saw to it that the churches were supplied soon sought to co-operate in the maintenance of with permanent leaders, such as presbyters and their apostolic heritage. Joint action in councils deacons, who should direct the affairs of the was the most effective means at hand. This brotherhood and guard the purity of its life and brought the bishops together and greatly increased teachings (Ac 611. 11271. 1423 1521. 2110., 1 Th 5201., their prestige and power. The appeal to the words Gal 22, 1 Co 1437, Eph 220, Col 218, 1 Ti 118). of Christ was enlarged to include an appeal to They were careful, however, not to put the ban on the teaching and writings of the apostles, and the exercise of any God-given power or to restrain the use of the OT as a book of discipline and any genuine effort to minister in the name of the standard of doctrine grew in favour. The Law Master. For every disciple was a member of the and the Prophets had sufficed for Israel, and the 'body of Christ' and under obligation to contribute Old Covenant needed only to be supplemented by to the welfare of all; to his own Lord he stood or the New with its apostolic guarantees. Prophecy fell. And yet abuses of freedom were sure to arise, was thus placed under the restraint of written and did occur. Not all saints were sanctified, and records, and it was considered more important to impostors and pretenders appeared here and there. interpret the old prophecies than to utter new The apostles began to recall that Jesus had warned All the unstable, intermittent spiritual gifts them against false prophets (Mt 715. 2441). And shared the fate of the prophetic. Tongues, miracles, His forecast was soon fulfilled (Ac 2029, 2 Th 22, healings waned; and by the end of the 2nd cent. Col 24. 18, 1 Ti 1191., 2 Ti 216f. 31f., Rev 220 and often, they were all, including prophecy, under the re1 Jn 41.). The appearance of these false prophets, straint of the regular officials of the respective pretending superior wisdom, ere long created dis. churches and subordinated to them. Prophecy as trust and aroused the churches and their leaders well as the rest was not denied its theoretic claims, to the dangers that threatened their welfare. But but it must keep within the bounds of Holy as yet there was no recognized 'form of discipline' Scripture and the standards of discipline. The adequate for the suppression of those would-be pressing primitive need of interpreting the 'signs spokesmen and pretentious revealers of the secret of the times,' however, seemed to have passed counsels of God. There were no specific standards away. Men were now trying to adjust Christianity by which to test and try those 'spirits.' Standards, to its place in the world. There were sporadic however, were sure to be found, and, if not found, efforts to reinstate prophecy as a special function then created, by the churches for their protection in the life of the Church, but it had served its day from vagaries in doctrine and aberrations in life. (Iren. adv. Hær. ii. 32; Eus. HE v. 7). Its most The apostles, whether in common councils or as important and essential element was absorbed by

ones.

the teachers and preachers, and the office practi- (e.g., Kuenen, Wellhausen, Stade) connect nabi' with y23, nāba', cally disappeared.

source E, which, while some scholars regard it as at least second in point of age, the present writer and others believe to be the oldest of all (cf. E. König, Einleitung in das AT, Bonn, 1893, pp. 200, 203 f.); thus E in Gn 207 calls Abraham a nabi' (as in Ps 10515 the name is given to the patriarchs generally, and in Dt 1815, Hos 1213 to Moses). And, if other religions found a voice in some form of prophecy, why should this not have been the case from the first with the lawful religion of Israel?

A somewhat different view is taken by Cornill, who inclines to think that Arabia was the native soil of nabi-ism (Der israel itische Prophetismus5, p. 12). He seeks to support this theory by pointing to the fact that the basal form of the verb corresponding to nabe is not found in Hebrew. But Hebrew has many nouns that have no corresponding verb at all, as, e.g., dām, 'blood,' saphia', 'dung,' and these words certainly did not connote foreign or imported concepts. Moreover, while kihhen, 'to act as priest,' the verb corresponding to kōhen, is as much a mere verbum denominativum as nibba' or hithnabbe', 'to prophesy' (from nabi'), no one would ever deny that the priesthood was an ancient and indigenous institution among the Hebrews. Yet some scholars go even farther than Cornill;

The actual situation, as it appeared to the historical consciousness of Israel, was, in contrast to the foregoing views, rather as follows. The fervour of faith in Jahweh as supreme among the gods (Ex 15" 1811), which had been kindled by the deliverance from Egypt, never wholly died out (Jos 2431, Jg 210); on the contrary, clear-sighted representatives of the true religion, such as Deborah (Jg 4), and God-fearing men like Gideon (83) had striven to maintain it. Nevertheless, the national and religious life sank to a very low level, and, in particular, the nation seemed about to be overwhelmed by the Philistines, who were constantly being reinforced from Crete (A. Noordtzij, De Filistijnen, Kampen, 1905, pp. 39, 123 f.). Even the high-priestly family fell into a state of complete degeneracy in Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas; the ancient symbol of the divine covenant was captured by the enemy; and a daughter-in-law of Eli, heart-broken at her people's calamity, gave her child the name Ichabod, dishonour,' 'ignominy' thus Wellhausen (Die israel.-jud. Religion, Leipzig, 1906, p. 20)(1 S 419-22). It was in this extremity that Samuel asserts that prophecy arose in Israel in the agitated period before the outbreak of the Philistine war. At first sight this view seems to find support in 1 8 99b: the prophet (nabi') of to-day was formerly called the seer' (ro'ch). The present writer is of opinion, however, that in the exposition of this passage certain points have not been fully taken account of. (1) Šamuel bears both titles—ro'ch in 1 8 911. 18f. (cf. 1 Ch 922 2628 2929), nabi' in 320; and we need not attach much importance to Cornill's statement (p. 13) that he is always called 'seer' in the earliest source, for he is there also styled 'man of God' (96-8. 10). Moreover, Hanani (Asa's reign, c. 900 B.C.) is still called a seer in 2 Ch 167. 10, and there, accordingly, it is not implied that the two terms belonged to different periods. In point of fact, the man of God might be described either as one who perceived, or as one who proclaimed, religious truth, so

that the nabi' was subsequently also called ro'ch (Is 3010); and the prophet's act of reception or perception is always (from Am 71 onwards) denoted by the verb ra'ah, of which the ro'eh of 1 S 99b is the active participle. Hence Wellhausen's idea of

an absolute distinction between 'prophet' and 'seer' is unfounded.

(2) We must take into account the purpose of 1 S 99b, that purpose being to explain why Saul chose the term ro'eh (v.11), which is not used of Samuel in the previous part of the chapter. It seems very probable, therefore, that the LXX has here preserved the true reading (ὅτι τὸν προφήτην εκάλει ὁ λαὸς ἔμπροσBev, o Bλéжwv); for (a) the Hebrew here presents a difficulty, and, even if we read linebi hayyom, this would mean the prophet of to-day'; (b) the adjunct hayyom is never found in the many other references to changes of designation (cf., e.g., Gn 175); hayyom might easily arise from ha'am, 'the people,' which is precisely the reading of the LXX, and certainly other passages (e.g. 1 K 32) seem to speak of the people in the special sense of the multitude.' Thus the statement that the nebi'im appeared in Israel shortly before the Philistine wars finds but frail support in 1 S 99b.

That statement, moreover, is confronted by the fact that in the historical consciousness of Israel there had been nebi'im long before the period indicated, as may be inferred from Gn 207 (already noted as belonging to E), from Nu 1125f. 29 (J), from reminiscences of the prophetic function of Moses (Dt 1815, Hos 1213), and from Jeremiah's utterance regarding the unbroken prophetic sequence from the Exodus (Jer 725). Notwithstanding all this, however, the statement in question has been amplified by the assertion that prophecy in Israel was derived from the Canaanite religion. It was Kuenen (De Profeten, ii. 2271.) who formulated the theory that in the closing period of the Judges the Canaanite phenomena of geest verrukking (ecstasy) passed over to the worshippers of Jahweh, and that Samuel placed himself at the head of the movement. This theory won the approval of Wellhausen and others, including W. R. Harper (ICC, Amos and Hosea,' Edinburgh, 1905, p. lv). (a) It is to be noted, however, that Harper himself (p. liv) does not deny that prophecy was indigenous to other Semitic religions, and it would be strange that Israel should be an exception. (b) It is extremely unlikely that the Israelites should borrow an institution from a religion which they despised and to whose gods and orgiastic practices they were bitterly hostile (Ex 203 2313 3412., Dt 2318f. etc.). (c) Had the Israelites, in the period of the Judges, not possessed the institution which constitutes the deepest source of their religious power, then the

Canaanites, with their superior external culture and an alluring form of religion, would almost certainly have absorbed them. (d) The statement of Wellhausen and his successors, viz. that prior to Samuel's time there was a whole host of nebi'im in Israel, and that Samuel simply put himself at their head, finds no support in the sources. We read of no religious movement before Samuel's day, for we can hardly think of Samson in this connexion, while in Eli's time the Ark itself was not guarded against capture by the enemy (1 8 411). Far from there having been a multitude of prophets before Samuel's day, we read that 'the word of the Lord was rare in those days; vision was not widely spread' (31).

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stood forth on behalf of his people; speaking as a messenger of his God, he brought them to repent, and to turn to Jahweh (73-12). It was Samuel who once more raised the standard of religion and nationality, and this standard was then seized and carried far and wide by others. It is only after his great victory, which he commemorated by setting up the stone called Eben-ezer ('stone of [Jahweh's] help,' 712), that we find traces of the 'prophetic companies' (105).

4. The development of Hebrew prophecy.—(a) Companies of the prophets.-We would note here, to begin with, the operation of the general law according to which the great figures in the prophetic field draw round them numbers of emulative disciples. Thus Moses has satellites in Miriam, the prophetess, who led the women in their chant of victory at the Red Sea (Ex 1520ff.), and the elders who received a portion of his spirit (Nu 1125.[J]).1 In a similar way those who had been moved by the religious and patriotic spirit of Samuel drew round him as their leader. Such prophetic bands-often, though less correctly, called schools of the prophets' -come once more into special prominence in the struggle between Ba'al and Jahweh, when Elijah and Elisha stood forth as champions of the legitimate religion of their people. Even Amos (c. 760 B.C.) makes reference to 'sons of the prophets,' as such disciples or scholars could be called in the Hebrew idiom (Am 714; cf. 1 K 2035). The status of the prophets Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and Amos, in relation to the members of the prophetic companies, may to some extent be made out from the following references: the latter prophesied before Samuel (1 S 1924), or sat before Elisha (2 K 488), and, as this mode of expression finds a parallel in the well-known affirmation of Elijah, the Lord, before whom I stand' (1 K 171 etc.), we infer that they were the agents or pupils of the greater men; moreover, they addressed Elisha as 'man of God' (2 K 440); and Elisha treats one of them as his servant (615-17; cf. also 91). In Samuel's time, again, we see the bands of prophets marching in procession to the sound of harp and timbrel, and from this fact, as from other references in the sources, we infer that the part which they played kind: (1) they disseminated the ideas of men like in the religious development was of a threefold Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha among the people (in 2 K 85 Gehazi recounts the great deeds of Elisha); (2) in chants expressing the great historic memories of their people they sounded forth the praise of God to the accompaniment of musical instruments; (3) in all probability they recorded the history of

1 On the trustworthiness of the earlier strata of the Hebrew historical record cf. E. Konig, Gesch. des Reiches Gottes, p. 12 ff.

collision between Hananiah and Jeremiah (Jer 281.).

.

How are we to explain the rise of this inferior type of prophet? It is not adequately accounted for by the desire of court favour or of material gain (cf. Am 35.). The true explanation lies rather in the fact that the conception of God set forth by Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Amos, etc., was unwelcome to many in Israel. Thus, while these greater prophets represent God as the stern patron of justice and the avenger of wrong-doing, and therefore as one who must often threaten retribution, others ventured to regard the Deity as a weakly indulgent being. These, accordingly, fawned upon the rulers and upon all who were inclined to violate justice within the State (cf. Is 287 'they reel in wine they stumble in judg ment'). From the period of the Assyrian invasion of Palestine (c. 733 B.C.), again, there emerged a fresh element of differentiation among the prophets of Jahweh. About that time the prophet Isaiah arrived at the conviction that it was not the task of those who had received the true religion to emulate worldly states in political undertakings or in amassing munitions of war. But, while Isaiah accordingly denounced alliances with Egypt and other countries (301.) and reprimanded the boastful display of military stores (392), there were other prophets who sided with king and people and whom the people called their wise ones' (2914. cf. 10). It was the habit of these counsellors to paint the horizon of external politics in the brightest colours (cf. Jer 614 saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace').

Israel in the spirit of the prophetic religion; and accordingly it would doubtless be in their circle that the book of Jashar (Jos 1013, 2 S 118), the book of the wars of the Lord (Nu 2114), and especially the many other prophetic writings mentioned as sources (I Ch 2929 etc.) were composed. As regards the inner relationship between men like Samuel and these prophetic societies, we may say that, while the former were vehicles of revelation, the members of the latter were derivative or reproductive prophets. But a more important mark of distinction is the fact that, while these derivative prophets caught the excitement of the times and in their vehement movements would throw themselves half-naked ('arôm, Is 587 etc.) upon the ground (1 S 1924), such enthusiastic and ecstatic behaviour is never ascribed to Samuel, Elijah, or Elisha; hence Stade, in attributing such action to the leading prophetic figures as well (Bibl. Theologie des AT, Tübingen, 1905, § 64), is speaking entirely without authority. Thus, to sum up what the sources tell us regarding a possible first step in the development of genuine Hebrew prophecy, we may say that the leading representatives became centres of groups or circles of emulative disciples who sought sometimes, doubtless, in ways not wholly commendable-to spread the true light. This view contrasts with the genetic theory advanced, e.g., by Wellhausen. This scholar speaks of the members of these prophetic unions (1 S 105.), somewhat disparagingly, as 'swarms of prophets' (Prophetenschwärme [p. 20, etc.]), compares them to the modern dervishes of the East and to the Thracian Bacchantes of Greece, and regards them as having provided the raw materials from which Now it can scarcely be doubted which of these the prophetic function of a Samuel or a Nathan classes represented the true Israel. For, while was developed by a process of refinement. This Harper (p. cx) says that the adversaries of the now widely accepted theory (propounded also by OT prophets should not be called 'false prophets,' K. Marti, Gesch. der israelit. Religion, Strassburg, this was precisely the designation applied to them 1907, p. 139), however, stands opposed to the state- by the characteristic representatives of the nation, ments of the sources. For (i.), as was shown above, who found the true prophets of Jahweh, e.g., in Abraham and Moses were thought of as having Moses, not in Balaam; in Micaiah, not in the four been prophets, and Samuel is expressly called a hundred partisans of Ahab; in Isaiah, not in those nabi' (1 S 320). (i.) None of the later prophets who joined the wealthy in their dissipations (Is who occupied an independent position is ever de- 287); in Jeremiah rather than in Hananiah (Jer scribed as having been previously a member of a 281.). That Moses and his successors were given prophetic society; thus Elisha was called from the the pre-eminence appears from the fact that their plough (1 K 1919), and Amos plainly declares that words were preserved among the treasures of the he was not the son (i.e. disciple) of a prophet, but national literature, and this procedure finds a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, the absolute justification in the circumstance that in Lord having called him from following the flock the face of the people (who were acquainted with (714). (iii.) It seems probable that the members both classes) Isaiah stigmatized his opponents as of the prophetic companies, by reason of their drunken, and Micah (311) his as diviners 'for national and more material points of view, became money' (cf. § 9). Our conclusion, accordingly, is the popular prophets referred to in the passage of that the prophets whose writings appear in the OT Amos just cited and in Is 32 etc. Thus the theory represent the true type of Hebrew prophecy, while of Wellhausen conflicts with the actual data, and their opponents were a degenerate species. in point of fact it rests upon the evolutionary hypothesis, which so many scholars of the present day treat as an axiom.

(b) False prophets.-A further distinction among those who claimed to speak for Jahweh was that between true and false prophets. A concrete illustration of this distinction will be found in the scene in which Ahab and his ally Jehoshaphat seek to ascertain the possibilities of an attack upon the Syrians (1 K 22.). Four hundred prophets assured them of victory, but another, Micaiah the son of Imlah, predicted a different issue, and went to prison rather than keep silence regarding the defeat which his prophetic consciousness divined. Here, then, we find a cleavage which affected not merely the rank but also the spirit of the prophets. Other representatives of the class to which the four hundred belonged are those with whom Amos contrasted himself (Am 714), those whose removal was predicted by Isaiah (Is 33 etc.), and those who were denounced by Micah (Mic 35.); cf. also the

(c) Idolatrous prophets.-Not a few prophets among the Hebrews rendered homage to the cults of Ba'al and Astarte, personifications respectively of the sun and the moon such were those who enjoyed the patronage of Jezebel (1 K 1819.5, 2 K 1019, Jer 2313). Other phases of the development are of less moment, and are discussed below.

5. The aim of the true prophets.-(a) The aim of the true prophets was not, as has recently been asserted (Wellhausen, p. 15; E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme, Halle, 1906, pp. 82, 84, 136), the realization of the so-called Bedawi ideal.' The hypothesis is all the more inconceivable because there was in Palestine a non-Israelite clan, viz. the Rechabites (q.v.), whose great object it was to maintain the Bedawi mode of life, and who sought to honour their ancestral tradition by not building houses or planting vineyards (Jer 356.). But none of the Hebrew prophets adopted this principle, and even Elijah did not always live in the desert or in caves (1 K 179.);

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