A prophecy is the message that has been communicated to a prophet which the prophet then communicates to others. In general, this message can involve divine inspiration, revelation, or interpretation. More specifically, it may be a professed psychic prediction. Confusion often exists between the word "prophecy" (noun) and "to prophesy" (verb). A memory phrase to help distinguish between "prophecy" (pronounced with the long e sound as in "see") and "prophesy" (pronounced with the long i sound as in "sigh"): "When a prophet prophesies he or she utters prophecies. "
The concept is found throughout the religions of the world. The term has found popular acceptance in two of the world's largest religious groups, Christianity and Islam, along with many others.
Definitions of Prophecy
Rabbinic scholar Maimonides, suggested that "prophecy is, in truth and reality, an emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and then to his imaginative faculty." This closely relates to the definition by Al-Fârâbî who developed the theory of prophecy in Islam. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines prophecy as "understood in its strict sense, it means the foreknowledge of future events, though it may sometimes apply to past events of which there is no memory, and to present hidden things which cannot be known by the natural light of reason." From a skeptical point of view, there is a Latin maxim: prophecy written after the fact vaticinium ex eventu .
Etymology
The English word "prophecy" (noun) in the sense of "function of a prophet" appeared in Europe from about 1225, from Old French profecie (12th century), and from Late Latin prophetia , Greek prophetia "gift of interpreting the will of the gods", from Greek prophetes (see prophet). The related meaning "thing spoken or written by a prophet" is from circa 1300, while the verb "to prophesy" is recorded by 1377.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the term "prophecy" is nevuah , and comes from Hebrew divrei nevuah "words of prophecy", and forms the name of a major subdivision of the Tanakh, the Nevi'im , and means "a prediction", from the root "Nuv" meaning to bear fruit, or make flourish. This may relate to the nature of prophecy from the Jewish perspective where, in Rabbinic traditions, Ezra is metaphorically referred to as the "flowers that appear on the earth" signifying the springtime in the national history of Judaism.
Nature of prophecy
In the earliest Jewish source, the Torah, prophecy often consisted of a warning by God of the consequences should the society, specific communities or their leaders not adhere to Torah's instructions in the time contemporary with the prophet's life. Prophecies sometimes included promises of blessing for obeying God, and returning to behaviours and laws as written in the Torah. Warning prophecies feature in all Jewish works of the Tanakh.
The rabbinic teachings, notably RaMBaM, suggest there were many levels of prophecy, from the highest such as that experienced by Moses, to the lowest where the individuals were able to apprehend the Divine Will, but not respond or even describe this experience to others, such as Noah.
Maimonides' theory of prophecy contains two elements 1) an explanation of what prophecy is, and 2) a ranking of the various types of prophecy and prophecy-like phenomena. I think we can use the ranking of prophecy implicate in Maimonides to substantiate our thesis that the rationalism of Maimonides is essentially a moral rationalism.
Maimonides in his work, The Guide for the Perplexed, outlines twelve modes of prophecy from lesser to greater degree of clarity:
- Inspired actions
- Inspired words
- Allegorical dream revelations
- Auditory dream revelations
- Audiovisual dream revelations/human speaker
- Audiovisual dream revelations/angelic speaker
- Audiovisual dream revelations/Divine speaker
- Allegorical waking vision
- Auditory waking revelation
- Audiovisual waking revelation/human speaker
- Audiovisual waking revelation/angelic speaker
- Audiovisual waking revelation/Divine speaker (that refers implicitly to Moses)
Of the twelfth mode Maimonides, focuses his attention on its "implicit superiority to the penultimate stage in the above series", and therefore above all other prophetic and semi-prophetic modes.
Experience of prophecy in the Torah and the rest of Tanakh do not restrict it to Jews, or even to human beings if one episode is to be interpreted literally. Nor is the prophetic experience restricted to the Hebrew language, since much of the prophecies of Daniel are in Aramaic.
Many of the Tanakh prophecies are accompanied by radical changes in the life of the prophets, and their experience is often accompanied by physiological change, including physical stress, experience of extrasensory perception (visions), physical collapse, and changes in their psychological state as a result of the encounter with the Divine.
The prophetic experience is always bestowed on the individual, usually unprepared for the experience, by the Divine, and this often causes the prophet to undergo travel, and often privations and persecution due to the unwelcome contents of the message he or she bring to those for whom it is intended.
In the Christian New Testament prophecy is referred to as one of the spiritual gifts that accompany the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. From this many Christians believe that prophecy is the supernatural ability to receive and convey a message from God or the divine. The purpose of the message may be to "edify, exhort and comfort" the members of the church or an individual believer. In this context, not all prophecies contain predictions about the future. The Apostle Paul also teaches in Corinthians that prophecy is for the benefit of the whole Church and not just the individual exercising the gift.
Instances of prophecy
Ancient Civilizations
See also: OracleProphesy is by no means new or limited to any one culture. It is a common property to all known ancient societies around the world, some more than others. Many systems and rules about prophesy have been proposed over several millennia.
China
In ancient Chinese, prophetic texts are known as Chen(谶). In contemporary Chinese , it's "yuyan"(预言).
Tanakh
See also: Nevi'imThe Tanakh contains prophecies from various Hebrew prophets (55 in total) who communicated messages from God to the nation of Israel, and later the population of Judea and elsewhere.
Malachi, whose full name was Ezra Ha'Sofer (the scribe), is acknowledged to have been the last prophet of Israel if one accepts the opinion that Nechemyah died in Babylon before 9th Tevet 3448 (313 BCE).
Christianity
The Book of Enoch, while not a part of the Canon of Scripture for most of the Christian Churches, was quoted as a prophetic text in the New Testament.
Prophecy in the Gospels
There are instances in the Gospel writings where individuals are described as being prophets or prophesying. Some examples include Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist.
The Gospel literature shows several instances where Jesus prophesied. An example of this is the gospel of John which shows that whilst passing through Samaria, Jesus encountered a woman who had been married five times. In the story, Jesus relates to her details of her personal life. The woman states that "I can see you are a prophet." Jesus prophesies about his pending death, and about the end times.
New Revelation of Jesus Christ
Through the ages many prophets who proclaims themselves Christian, started giving prophecies which they called . These prophets claim themselves to have heard things that is not subject to testing by Scripture in the bible, but are claimed to be above testing because it is received from Jesus Christ directly. Such New Revelation always results in a cult which could become very dangerous. An individual is now in a sense lifted to the status of mediator to God, as he or she receives direct communication from God like the rest of the group can't and nothing said by this prophet may be challenged against the bible or any other measure because it is said to come from God directly and therefore has the highest authority.
Many evangelical churches make room for prophecy, but it is generally accepted that all prophecy should be tested against scripture to determine if the source was truly God, as scripture warns about false Christs that would rise up to deceive many. 2 Tim. 3:16 and 1 Thess. 5:19-22
Prophecy in other Christian literature
Throughout the book of Acts, there are numerous references to individuals prophesying in different ways and contexts. Examples include where the church in Antioch is described as having both prophets and teachers. 13:1;&version=TNIV; Acts 13:1
Prophecy in the Pauline Epistles
In the Pauline Epistles, the prophet, is
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