SPECIAL TEXT: "And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."—Deut. xviii: 22.

NOTES.

1. Of the Term Prophet. "The Hebrew word "Nabi" is uniformly translated in our English Bible by the word "Prophet." In classical Greek, it is said by highest authority, to signify 'one who speaks for another, especially one who speaks for a God and so interprets his will to man.' (Liddell and Scott.) Hence, its essential meaning is "an interpreter." In fact, the English word 'prophet,' like the word 'inspiration,' has always been used in a larger and in a closer sense. In the larger sense our Lord Jesus Christ is a 'prophet,' Moses is a 'prophet,' Mahomet is a 'prophet.' The expression means that they proclaimed and published a new religious dispensation. In a similar though not identical sense, the church is said to have a 'prophetical,' i. e., an expository and interpretative office. But in its closer sense the word, according to usage, though not according to etymology, involves the idea of foresight. And this is and always has been its more usual acceptation. The different meanings, or shades of meaning, in which the abstract noun is employed in scripture, have been drawn out by Locke as follows: 'Prophecy comprehends three things: prediction; singing by the dictate of the Spirit; and understanding and explaining the mysterious, hidden sense of scripture, by an immediate illumination and motion of the Spirit.'" (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Vol. III, pp. 2591-2.)

2. School of the Prophets, or the Prophetic Order: "Samuel, himself a Levite, of the family of Kohath (I Chron. vi: 28), and almost certainly a priest, was the instrument used at once for effecting a reform in the sacerdotal order (I Chron. ix: 22), and for giving to the prophets a position of importance which they had never before held. * * * * Samuel took measures to make his work of restoration permanent, as well as effective for the moment. For this purpose he instituted companies, or Colleges of Prophets. One we find in his lifetime at Ramah (I Sam. xix: 19, 20); others afterwards at Bethel (II Kings ii: 3), Jericho (II Kings ii: 5), Gilgal (II Kings iv: 38), and elsewhere (II Kings i). Their constitution and object were similar to those of Theological Colleges. Into them were gathered promising students, and here they were trained for the office which they were afterwards destined to fulfill. So successful were these institutions, that from the time of Samuel to the closing of the canon of the Old Testament, there seems never to have been wanting a due supply of men to keep up the line of official prophets. The apocryphal books of the Maccabees (I, iv: 26; ix: 27, xiv: 41) and of Ecclesiasticus (xxvi: 15) represent them as extinct. The colleges appear to have consisted of students differing in number. Sometimes they were very numerous (I Kings xviii: 4; xxii: 6; II Kings ii: 16). One elderly, or leading prophet, presided over them (I Sam. xiv: 20), called their father (I Sam. x: 12), or master (II Kings ii: 3), who was apparently admitted to his office by the ceremony of anointing (I Kings xix: 16; Isaiah lxi: 1; Psalms cv: 15). They were called his sons. Their chief subject of study was, no doubt, the Law and its interpretation; oral, as distinct from symbolical, teaching being henceforward tacitly transferred from the priestly to the prophetical order." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Vol. III, pp. 2592-3.)

3. The Prophetic Gift: "We have been speaking of the Prophetic Order. To belong to the prophetic order and to possess the prophetic gift are not convertible terms. There might be members of the prophetic order to whom the gift of prophecy was not vouchsafed. There might be inspired prophets, who did not belong to the prophetic order. Generally, the inspired prophet came from the College of the Prophets, and belonged to the prophetic order; but this was not always the case. In the instance of the Prophet Amos, the rule and the exception are both manifested. When Amaziah, the idolatrous Israelitish priest, threatens the prophet, and desires him to 'flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there, but not to prophesy again any more at Bethel,' Amos in reply says, 'I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit; and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel' (vii: 14). That is, though called to the prophetic office, he did not belong to the prophetic order; and had not been trained in the prophetical colleges; and this, he indicates, was an unusual occurrence." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Vol. III, p. 2593.)

4. Revelation and Inspiration Defined: "The word 'revelation' stands for the act of God in making truth known to men, and then, in a secondary sense, for the truth itself, which is thus made known. Inspiration is the name of the special divine influence under which the writers of the Bible worked. We speak of the 'revelation' of God in the Bible, and of the 'inspiration' of the writers of the Bible. In order to understand the questions which have been raised on these two subjects it is important that we should discriminate between them in thought, but in fact they are closely connected. It is the association of the two that gives its supreme value to the Bible. This is recognized as a book of unique character, because, as we have seen, it is an inspired record of divine revelation." (Teacher's Bible Helps, Bagster's Bible, p. 2.) The whole article, comprising several pages, should be studied. Also the article, "Prophets," in the Seventy's Bible Dictionary.