PROPHET (IN NT)

the principles on which the NT writers find a complete realization o£ the promises ol the Old Covenant in the New. And afterwards it will not be difficult to see in what sense perpetually new applications of the proph-ets' words may be legitimately made to the subse-quent history of the Kingdom of God in the earth.

Every reader of the NT must have noticed that the words ' that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet ' are used very freely by the several writers, ■ and not always in precisely the same sense. Christ i Himself led the way and the Apostles followed Him in declaring that His work on earth was to 'fulfil' both i the Law and the prophets, and that the whole of the OT Scriptures pointed to Him and testified of Him. It was not so much that minute coincidences might be discerned between the phraseology of the OT and the ; events of His life, though it was natural that such should be noted by the Evangelists. But Jesus spe-I cially insisted upon the fact which it is most important ; for the student of the Bible to observe, viz. that what ; the Law failed to accomplish, and what the prophets ' and those who looked for the fulfilment of their words had failed to realize, He had come completely and per-fectly to achieve. The emphasis lies, as might have been expected, upon the spiritual, rather than the literal, meaning of the Scriptures; and the most com-plete fulfilment of OT words lies not in a precise corre-spondence between circumstantial forecasts made long before with the details of His personal history, but in a spiritual realization of that great end which law-givers, kings, prophets, and righteous men under the Old Covenant desired to see, but were not able.

OT prophecy, then, is best understood when it is viewed as one remarkable stage in a long and still more remarkable history. Some of its utterances have not been, and never will be fulfilled, in the sense that many of its students have expected. A large proportion of them have already been fulfilled, though in strange and unlooked-for fashion, by Him of whom it has been said that ' the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy ' (Rev 19'°). In the Person, life, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, and in the establish-ment of His Kingdom on the earth, is to be found the fullest realization of the glowing words of the prophets who prepared the way for His coming. For a still more complete fulfilment of their highest hopes and fairest visions the world still waits. But those who believe in the accomplishment of God's faithful word thus far will not find it difficult to believe that our Lord's words concerning the Law (Mt 5") may be adapted, and that in the highest spiritual sense they will be at last realized — 'Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the prophets, till all things be accomplished.'

W. T. Davison. PROPHET (in NT).— 1. The spirit of prophecy, as it meets us under the Old Dispensation, runs on into the New, and there are prophets in the NT who are properly to be described as OT prophets. Such as Anna the prophetess (Lk 2"; cf. Miriam, Deborah, and Hul-dah in the OT); Zacharias, who is expressly said to have prophesied (Lk l"™) ; Simeon, whose Nunc Dimittis is an utterance of an unmistakably prophetic nature (2™-). But above all there is John the Baptist, who was not only recognized by the nation as a great prophet (Mt 14' 212«, Mk ll^^, Lk 20«), but was declared by Jesus to be the greatest prophet of the former dis-pensation, while yet less than the least in the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 119«- = Lk 7"-).

2. Jesus Himself was a prophet. It was in this character that the Messiah had been promised (Dt 18"- 18; cf. Ac 3K 7"), and had been looked for by many (Jn 6"). During His public ministry it was as a prophet that He was known by the people (Mt 21"; cf. Lk 7"), and described by His own disciples (Lk 24"i), and even designated by Himself (Mt 13", Lk 13^').

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PROPHET (IN NT)

And according to the teaching of the NT, the exalted Christ still continues to exercise His prophetic function, guiding His disciples into all the truth by the Spirit whom He sends (Jn 16'- "), and "building up the body' by bestowing upon it Apostles, prophets, and teachers (Eph 4»).

3. From the prophetic office of her exalted Head there fiowed the prophetic endowment of the Church. Joel had foretold a time when the gift of prophecy should be conferred upon all (.2!"'-), and at Pentecost we see that word fulfilled (Ac 2^^-). Ideally, all the Lord's people should be prophets. For 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy' (Rev 19'°), and in pro-portion as Christians are filled with the Pentecostal Spirit they will desire, like the members of the new- born Church, to bear testimony to their Master (cf. Nu 1129, 1 Co 146).

4. But even in the Spirit-filled Church diversities of gifts quickly emerged, and a special power of prophetic utterance was bestowed upon certain individuals. A prophetic ministry arose, a ministry of Divine inspira-tion, which has to be distinguished from the official ministry of human appointment (see art. Ministry). In a more general sense, all those who ' spoke the word of God' (He 13') were prophets. The ministry of the word (Ac 6') was a prophetic ministry, and so we find St. Paul himself described as a prophet long after he had become an Apostle (Ac 13>).

5. But in a more precise use of the term we find the specific NT prophet distinguished from others who 'speak the word of God,' and in particular from the Apostle and the teacher (1 Co 1228'-, cf. Eph 4"). The distinction seems to be that while the Apostle was a missionary to the unbelieving (Gal 2'- «), the prophet was a messenger to the Church (1 Co 14''- 22); and while the teacher explained or enforced truth that was already possessed (He 5'^), the prophet was recognized by the spiritual discernment of his hearers (1 Co 2'' 1429, 1 Jn 41) as the Divine medium of fresh revelations (1 Co 142S- 3°- SI, Eph 36; cf. Did. iv. 1).

Three main types of prophesying may be distinguished in the NT — (a) First, there is what may be called the ordinary ministry of prophecy in the Church, described by St. Paul as 'edification and comfort and consolation' (1 Co 143). (6) Again, there is, on special occasions, the authoritative announcement of the Divine will in a particular case, as when the prophets of Antioch, in obedience to the Holy Ghost, separate Barnabas and Saul for the work of missionary evangelization (Ac 13i«-; cf. 2221 16«ff.). (c) Rarely there is the prediction of a future event, as in the case of Agabus (ll's 21'°; cf. v.<).

Of Christian prophets in the specific sense several are mentioned in the NT: Judas and Silas (Ac IS^^), the prophets at Antioch (13'), Agabus and the prophets from Jerusalem (11"'- 21"), the four daughters of Philip the evangelist (v.°). But these few names give us no conception of the numbers and influence of the prophets in the Apostolic Church. For light upon the.se points we have to turn especially to the Pauline Epistles ^e.g. 1 Co 122af- 14, Eph 2«° 3= 4"). Probably they were to be found in every Christian community, and there might even be several of them in a single congregation (1 Co 142°). Certain of them, possessed no doubt of conspicuous gifts, moved about from church to church (Ac 112"- 211°; cf. Mt 10", Did. xiii. 1). Others, endowed with literary powers, would commit their 'visions and revelations' to writing, just as some prophets of the OT had done, though of this literary type of prophecy we have only one example in the NT — the Book of Revelation (cf. Rev 1' 22'- »• i» is).

Quite a flood of light is shed upon the subject of the NT prophets by the evidence of the Didache. We see there that about the end of the first century or the beginning of the second the prophet is still held in the highest estima-tion (xi. 7, xiii.), and takes precedence, wherever he goes.