Lecture XIX: The History of the Prophetical Order (part 2)

by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.      

   III.  This rapid sketch may suffice to have given a      
connected view of the history of the Order.       
I now proceed to describe some of its charac-      
teristics, as an Institution.       
   (1.)  The first call, in most instances of which there      
are records, seems to have been through a vision of      
apparition, resembling those which have in Christian      
times produced celebrated conversions, as of the Cross      
to Constantine, and to Colonel Gardiner, and of the       
Voice to S. Augustine.  The word "Seer," by which       
"the prophet" was originally called, implies        
that visions were the original mode of reve-       
lation to the Prophets.  These visions in the      
case of the Prophets of the Old Testament were al-       
most always presented in images peculiarly appropri-      
ate to the age or the person to whom they appear;        
and almost always conveying some lofty conception      
of the Divine nature.  Such are the vision of the      
Burning Bush to Moses, of the Throne in the Temple       
to Isaiah, of the complicated chariot-wheels to Ezekial,       
and (although not at the commencement of this mis-      
sion) of the still small voice of Elijah.  The highest        
form of vision in the Old Testament is that mentioned        
in the case of Moses, who is described as something      
even above a Prophet.  "If there be a prophet among      
you, I THE LORD will make myself known unto him       
in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.      
My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all       
mine house.  With him will I speak mouth unto mouth,       
even visibly, and not in dark speeches; and the sim-      
ilitude of THE LORD shall he behold."      
   In like manner to the great Prophets of the New      
Testament, the purpose of these Divine visions seems       
to have been effected by the intercourse of the Apos-        
tles with Christ.  "Have I not seen Christ the Lord?"        
is S.Paul's account of his own qualifications, which      
would apply to all of them.          
    These visions or communications are described as         
taking place sometimes through dreams, as in the case        
of Samuel, Nathan, Elijah at Horeb; sometimes through         
an ecstatic trance, as in the case of Balaam, S.John,       
and S. Peter; sometimes both, as in the case of S.       
Paul.  But the more ordinary mode through which        
"the word of the Lord," as far as we can trace, came,        
was through a Divine impulse given to the      
Prophet's own thoughts.  This may be seen       
partly from the absence of any direct men-       
tion of an external appearance or voice, partly from       
the fact that the message as delivered is expressed in           
the peculiar style of the individual prophet who speaks             
This close connection between the Divine message and     
the personal thoughts and affections of the Prophet        
is still more apparent in the New Testament than in      
the Old, and reaches its highest point in the utterances         
of the Greatest of all the Prophets, Christ Himself.           
In Him the Divine is so closely united with the hu-         
man, that the passage from the one to the other is        
imperceptible.  He is Himself "the Word."  In three        
cases only, but then for special purposes, is there any         
indication of a communication external to himself.  "He        
speaks that which He knows, and testifies that which      
He has seen."          
   (2.)  In accordance with this intimate relation be-        
tween the Prophets and their Divine call, is      
the fact that of all the offices of the Jewish      
Church and State, this alone appears to be  the direct       
result of the call, without any outward or formal con-       
secration.  Kings and Priests, in the Old Testament,     
are anointed; bishops (or presbyters) and deacons in     
the New Testament, have an imposition of hands.        
But there is no instance (or but one) of the anoint-     
ing of a Prophet in the Old Testament, or of the      
consecration, by laying on hands, of a Prophet or       
Apostle in the New Testament.  It was a "call," cor-         
responding to the call of natural gifts, or inward move-       
ments of the Divine Spirit through the conscience, in      
our own times.        
   (3.)  The Prophetic office, thus dependent entirely       
on the personal relation of the Prophet to his     
Divine Instructor, was, unlike any of the other       
sacred offices of the ancient world, confined to no one      
circle or caste of men.  Its universality is everywhere       
pat of its essence.  Although a few, such as Jeremiah,     
Ezekiel, and John the Baptist, were priests, although       
Moses and Samuel belonged to the tribe of Levi, yet        
there was nothing sacerdotal even in these; in this       
respect forming a remarkable contrast to the Egyp-        
tian "Prophets," as described by Clement of Alexan-     
dria.  Most of them belonged to other tribes; the        
Greatest of all was the tribe of Judah.  They came      
from every station of life.  Moses, Deborah, and Sam-          
uel were warriors and leaders of the people; David       
and Saul were kings; Amos was a herdsman; Elijah       
a Bedouin wanderer.  Women as well as men were       
seized by the gift, — Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna,    
the four daughters of Philip.  This universal diffusion        
of the gift answered the double purpose of keeping         
the minds of the people alive to the constant expec-      
tation of some new Prophet appearing in the most         
secluded or unwonted situation; and also of main-        
taining a constant protest against the rigidity of caste      
and ceremonial institution, into which all religion,       
especially Eastern religion, is likely to fall.  To a         
certain degree the institution of the Christian clergy       
fulfils the same end, as being open to all comers from         
whatever rank.  But even here the effect is less strik-        
ing than in the case of the Jewish Prophet; partly,     
because in some branches of Christendom, as in the        
Russian Church, the clergy have virtually become an        
hereditary caste, partly because in modern times they        
have practically been drawn from one stratum of so-        
ciety, and have been animated by a professional feel-        
ing, such as must have been impossible in the Jewish      
Prophets, who included within their number functions      
so different as those of king and peasant, characters        
so different as Saul and Isaiah.         
   (4.) But although the office was characterized by       
this universal spirit, the Prophets still constituted a       
separate order in the state which, at least during the       
time of the monarchy, can be reproduced in some de-       
tail, and compared to like institutions elsewhere.  From        
Samuel's time they appear to have been formed into        
separate companies, to which modern divines have         
given the name of "schools of the prophets."         
These companies are described by a word sig-        
nifying "chain" or "cord."  They were called "sons       
of the prophets;" and their chief for the time being       
was (like the "abbott" of a monastery) called "fa-     
ther."  Music and song were among the  instruments       
of their education.  They were congregated chiefly at       
Ramah (during Samuel's life), and afterwards at Bethel,      
Gilgal, Jericho, and finally Jerusalem.  At Jerusalem        
many of them lived in chambers attached to the court      
of the Temple.  They wore simple dress — perhaps,      
since Elijah introduced it, a sheepskin cloak.  In       
Samuel's time (according to Josephus) long hair and         
abstinence from wine were regarded as signs of a       
Prophet.  They had their food in common.  They      
lived in huts made of the branches of trees.  In one       
such, probably, John lived in the same neighborhood.       
They were to be found in considerable numbers, —      
fifty, or even four hundred at a time.  Not to have       
been brought up in these schools was deemed an ex-     
ceptional case.  Some, like Isaiah in Jerusalem, or       
Elisha in Samaria, lived in great towns, in houses of       
their own.  The higher Prophets had inferior Prophets        
or servants attendant upon them, whose duty it was        
to pour water on their hands, and secure provisions      
for them.  Thus Moses and Joshua and others; Elijah      
had Elisha; Elisha had Gehazi.  Many of them were        
married, and had families; for example, Moses, Miriam,     
Deborah, Samuel, David, Nathan, Ahijah, Hosea, Isaiah,      
Ezekiel.  The wife was sometimes, as in the case of         
the wife of Isaiah, called "the Prophetess."  This con-         
tinued to the prophetical office in the New Testament,      
when all the greater Prophets claimed, and most of        
them enjoyed, the privilege of married life, — Zacharias,        
Anna, and all of the Apostles, it is said, except Paul         
and John.  To this manner of life several parallels        
suggest themselves in later times.  The rule of inmates         
of colleges and of monasteries in some points resem-      
bles, and has perhaps imitated, the outward forms of       
the prophetic schools.  But the Christian or Western        
notions of celibacy have made a material difference;      
and, on the whole, the nearest approach is that of        
dervishes in the East, — in their wandering life, in       
their symbolical actions, in their scanty dress, in their      
succession of disciples, and their collegiate institutions.        
   (5.)  Their manner of teaching varied with the age in        
which they lived.  The expression of thoughts       
in the form of poetry seems to have been part          
of the conception of the prophetic office from the very       
first.  It is involved, as we have seen, in the sense of         
the Hebrew word Nabi.  It appears first in the songs      
of Moses and Miriam.  It is also implied by the men-      
tion of the musical instruments in the school of Samuel        
and Asaph.  It is illustrated by the incident in the        
life of Elisha, who, though he has left no poetical writ-       
ings, yet required a minstrel and harp to call forth his        
powers.  It is forcibly exemplified by the grand burst        
of sacred poetry and music in David; and from that         
time most of the Prophets, whose writings have come        
down to us, wrote in verse.  The historical chapters in          
Isaiah and Jeremiah are however in prose; and it is         
therefore probable that this was also the case with the       
lost works, on which the sacred history of the Jewish       
Monarchy is founded; such as the biographies of David    
by Samuel, Gad, and Nathan; of Solomon, by Nathan,       
and Ahijah, and Iddo; of Rehoboam, by Iddo and She-       
maiah; of Jehoshaphat by Jehu.  It is, perhaps, from       
the connection between these lost writings and the       
present books of Samuel and Kings, that those books           
are in the Jewish Canon reckoned amongst the "Books       
of the Prophets."  But these were the exceptions.  The        
general style of the Jewish Prophets was poetical, and        
it is this which made the divines of the last century       
speak of the Prophets as the Poets of the Jewish nation.       
If we no longer dare to use the name, on account of        
the offence created by it, at least the fact is a sanc-       
tion to us that poetry was regarded as a prophetic        
gift, and as the fittest vehicle of Divine Revelation,        
and that a book is not the less divine or the less       
canonical, or the less true, because it is poetical.  Even       
in the New Testament, there are, in the more directly    
prophetical parts, many lingering traces of the ancient      
poetic style.  The Hebrew parallelism may be discov-      
ered in several of the Gospel discourses.  Some of the         
parables, particularly of the Prodigal Son, and the Rich       
Man and Lazarus, are almost poems.  The Epistles have         
their first models in the prophetic epistles of Elijah, Jere-      
miah, and Baruch; and though they are mostly in prose,        
yet there are portions of which the highly rhythmical        
character flows entirely in the ancient mould.  The        
Apocalypse is also thoroughly poetical in structure, as       
well as in spirit.          
   The styles which this poetry assumes are various.      
It is sometimes lyrical, sometimes simply didactic,       
at other times dramatic.  The form which is selected      
by the Great Prophet of Nazareth is that of parable        
or apologue.  Of this only a few instances        
occur in the writings of the earlier prophets, as of        
Nathan on the ewe-lamb, and Isaiah on the vine.  But,          
in an acted or symbolical shape, this kind of teaching       
is of constant recurrence.  The rending of the cloak        
of Samuel and Ahijah, the concealment of the girdle      
of Jeremiah, Hananiah's breaking the yoke, are obvious        
instances; to which in later times we may add the tak-       
ing of Paul's girdle by Agabus, and many of the mir-       
acles of the Lord, which, as  has been well pointed out,         
have almost all of them a didactic purport.  There are         
some of these acted parables which enter so deeply into      
the life of the Prophet himself, as to show that he was         
himself entirely identified with his mission.  Such is the       
marriage of Hosea with the adulteress, Isaiah's walking        
naked and barefoot for three years, the names of Isaiah's         
children, and the death of Ezekiel's wife, with its effect        
on himself.         
   All the earlier prophecies were, in the first instance,        
delivered orally.  But, like the effusions of Ma-         
homet, they were no doubt written down soon      
afterwards by his disciples, — such as, in the case of Jere-      
miah, was Baruch.  In some instances, as in the case of       
Ezekiel, and of isolated examples in the life of Isaiah,         
they were written down by the Prophet himself.  Moses is      
also said to have written the Decalogue in its second      
form, and the register of the Israelite wanderings.      
In the New Testament, the utterances of Christ, who       
in this respect conformed Himself to the greatest type      
of the ancient Prophets, were never written by Him-       
self.  The only exceptions, if they be exceptions, were         
that unknown "writing on the ground," and the tra-        
ditional letter to Abgarus.  The utterances of the        
Apostles were for the most part taken down by scribes,       
such as Tertius, Silvanus, Tychicus, who thus corre-       
sponded to Baruch or Gehazi.  The only certain cases      
in the New Testament where the Prophets were them-       
selves "the sacred penmen" (to employ a modern ex-        
pression commonly but very inexactly used) are the        
Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistles of S. John.             
Most of the utterances, like those of their Master,      
were delivered on public occasions in the synagogues, or       
in assemblies of Christians, as those of the older Proph-        
ets had been in the temple courts, or on the moun-     
tains of Judæa and Samaria.  A peculiar name — by     
our translation rendered burden — is given to the Di-       
vine messages delivered by the Prophets on these        
special occasions.  It appears that in the time of Jere-      
miah this phrase had been so much abused by the      
Prophets as to have lost its meaning, and Jeremiah        
therefore refuses to employ it — a striking instance        
of the duty of discarding even a sacred formula when       
it has been perverted or exhausted.          
   (6.)  Different as were the forms of the Prophetic     
Teaching, there was also an identity in them       
which largely contributes to the general unity       
of the Prophetic Order, and of the Bible itself.        
It is evident that each one looked upon his prede-       
cessor's teaching as, in a manner, common property,        
on which he modelled his own, and from which he       
adapted and imitated without reserve.  It is difficult        
to say in these cases whether the imitation is direct,      
or whether each of the similar passages was taken          
from a common source.  On either hypothesis, how-       
ever, the result is the same as to the community of       
the prophetic literature.  Thus Amos refers back to        
Joel, Hosea to some unknown prophet, Isaiah to      
Micah, Obadiah and Jonah to each other, or to some        
unknown prophet.        
   In the New testament the same practice still to a         
certain extent continued.  The Second Epistle of S.        
Peter and S. Jude either borrow from each other, or        
from a common source.  The same argument illus-       
trates, and to some degree explains, the corresponding      
phenomenon of the three first Gospels.  The best key        
to the difficulties of the Apocalypse is to be found       
by tracking back to their sources the numerous ima-      
ges and passages which it has taken from the older       
Prophets.  And the principle finds its highest exem-      
plification and sanction in the appropriation of the       
existing traditions of the Rabbinical schools, as well       
as the texture of the ancient prophetic writings, by       
Christ Himself.              

   These are some of the most striking characteristics        
of the outward appearance of this vast institution.        
Even in the dry enumeration of facts, which I have        
just made, it is impossible not to see its importance        
to the fortunes of the Jewish Church, and thence to         
the world at large.       
   The very name is expressive of its great design.         
If the derivation of the word, as given above        
from Gesenius, be correct — the "boiling or      
bubbling over" of the Divine Foundation of Inspiration        
within the soul — it is impossible to imagine a phrase         
more expressive of the truth which it conveys.  It is        
one of those words which conveys a host of imagery       
and doctrine in itself.  In the most signal instances        
of the sites chosen for the Grecian oracles, we find         
that they were marked by the rushing forth of a        
living spring from the recesses of the native rocks of       
Greece, the Castalian spring at Delphi, the rushing       
stream of Hercyna at Lebedea.  It was felt that        
nothing could so well symbolize the Divine voice        
speaking from the mysterious abysses of the unseen      
world, as those inarticulate but lively ebullitions of       
the life-giving element from its unknown mysterious        
sources.  Such a figure was even more significant in       
the remoter East.  The prophetic utterances were in-         
deed the bubbling, teeming springs of life in those       
hard primitive rocks, in those dry, parched levels.        
"My heart," to use the phrase of the Psalmist in the        
original language, "is bursting, bubbling over with a         
good matter."  That is the very image which would          
be drawn from the abundant crystal fountains which        
all along the valley of the Jordan pour forth their        
full-grown streams, scattering fertility and verdure as         
they flow over the rough ground.  And this is the      
exact likeness of the springs of Prophetic wisdom and       
foresight, containing in themselves and their accom-      
plishments, the fulness of the stream which was to         
roll on to fertilize the ages.  Even in the other        
great class of languages — the Indo-Germanic — the     
same figure appears, and may fairly be taken to illus-        
trate the Eastern metaphor.  Ghost — Geist — the mov-       
ing, inspiring spirit, — is the same as the heaving,        
fermenting yeast, the boiling, steaming geyser.  The        
Prophetic gift was to the Jewish Church exactly what       
these combined metaphors imply — the fermenting, the     
living element, which made the dead mass move and      
heave, and cast out far and wide a life beyond itself.        
   The existence of such an instituting in the midst      
of an Eastern nation, even if we know nothing of its        
teaching, must be regarded as a rare guarantee for        
liberty, for progress, for protection against many a         
falsehood.  Even of the modern Dervishes, with all        
their drawbacks, it has been said, that "without them       
no man would be safe.  They are the chief people       
in the east, who keep in the recollection of Oriental       
despots that there are ties between Heaven and        
earth.  They restrain the tyrant in his oppression      
of his subjects; they are consulted by courts and by      
the counsellors of state in times of emergency; they       
are, in fact, the great benefactors of the human race       
in the East."        
   Such in relation to the mere brute power of the      
kings of Judah and Israel, were the Jewish Proph-      
ets, — constant, vigilant, watch-dogs on every kind          
of abuse and crime, even in the highest ranks, by        
virtue of the universal, and at the same time eleva-      
ted position which I have described.  But they were        
much more than this.  A great philosophical writer       
of our own time, M.John Stuart Mill, has thus set       
forth the position of the Hebrew Prophets: —         
   The Egyptian hierarchy, the paternal despotism      
of China, were very fit instruments for carrying       
those nations up to the point of civilization which        
they attained.  But having reached that point, they         
were brought to a permanent halt, for want of         
mental liberty and individuality, — requisites of im-          
provement which the institutions that had carried        
them thus far entirely incapacitated them from ac-         
quiring, and as the institutions did not break down       
and give place to others, further improvement      
stopped.  In contrast with these nations let us con-      
sider the example of an opposite character, afforded       
by another and a comparatively insignificant Oriental       
people — the Jews.  They, too, had an absolute mon-      
archy and a hierarchy.  These did for them what        
was done for other Oriental races by their institutions        
— subdued them to industry and order, and gave       
them a national life.  But neither their kings nor         
their priests ever obtained, as in those other coun-         
tries, the exclusive moulding of their character.       
Their religion gave existence to an inestimably pre-      
cious unorganized institution, the Order (it it may       
be so termed) of Prophets.  Under the protection,        
generally, though not always effectual, of their sa-        
cred character, the Prophets were a power in the      
nation, often more than a match for kings and          
priests, and kept up, in that little corner of the       
earth, the antagonism of influences which is the         
only real security for continued progress.  Religion       
consequently was not there — what it has been in        
so many other places — a consecration of all that         
was once established, and a barrier against further       
improvement.  The remark of a distinguished He-       
brew, that the Prophets were in Church and State        
the equivalent of the modern liberty of the press,        
gives a just but not an adequate conception of the      
part fulfilled in the national and universal history by          
this great element of Jewish life; by means of      
which, the canon of inspiration never being com-               
plete, the persons most eminent in genius and moral     
feeling could not only denounce and reprobate, with        
the direct authority of the Almighty, whatever ap-         
peared to them deserving of such treatment, but            
could give forth better and higher interpretations of        
the national religion.  Accordingly, whoever can divest         
himself of the habit of reading the Bible as if it        
was one book, which until lately was equally in-        
veterate in Christians and in unbelievers, sees with         
admiration the vast interval between the morality and        
religion of the Pentateuch, or even of the historical         
books, and the morality and religion of the Prophe-        
cies, a distance as wide as between these last and       
the Gospels.  Conditions more favorable to progress       
could not easily exist; according to the Jews, instead      
of being stationary, like other Asiatics, were, next to       
the Greeks, the most progressive people of antiquity,       
and, jointly with them, have been the starting-point        
and main propelling agency of modern cultivation."        
   In what way this grand result was produced, not        
merely by their office, but by their teaching, and in      
what that teaching consisted, — how it is that this        
Prophetic element, pervading as it does the whole      
literature of the Hebrew nation, that is, the whole     
Bible, renders it the storehouse of instruction to the      
clergy and the teachers of all ages, and at the same     
time the one inestimable Book, dear to all true lovers       
of human progress and religious freedom, to be studied,       
understood, and reverenced, through good report and      
evil, — will be the subject of the concluding discourse.       

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Lecture XIX: The History of the Prophetical Order.
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 473-487