Prophecy - Hebrew Prophecy, New Testament, Islam, Greece And Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Bibliography
god gift prophet speaks
The root of the English word prophecy is derived from the Greek prophēteia, Latin prophetia. The root of prophēteia is derived from prophēmi, which means to speak before or for someone or something. A cognate Greek word is prophētazō, which indicates the reception of the gift of interpreting the will of the gods—that is, the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy apparently is a universal attribute since many civilizations and their religions claim to have experienced divine revelation through those who have received the gift of prophecy.
Prophecy is one of the ways God communicates with humankind and may be a continuous process. God speaks but the human must hear and comprehend; only then can he or she speak for God as his messenger—that is, as God's prophet. A prophet reveals God's intention for the future but also for the present. Moses is a prototype of the prophet who speaks for God in regard to the present as well as to the future.
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The religion of the Hebrews was a prophetic religion from the beginning. The gift of prophecy was a distinctive mark of communion with the divine among the Semites. In the Old Testament theophanies and oracles were predominant in the earliest stages of God's revelation of himself. Before a war or the signing of a treaty, the Hebrew people would "consult" God through its seers …
Although the influence of prophecy declined after the time of the Hebrew prophets, the ancient belief in the word and symbolic act maintained its efficacy because of humanity's need of God and of communion with him. The sacraments of the Christian Church exemplify the belief in this concept of the power of word and acts. When Hebrew prophecy was stilled for a long time, new prophets were in…
Islam is also a prophetic religion, since the angel Gabriel revealed the divine message to the prophet Muhammad, who in turn communicated it to humankind. In the Koran every prophet of God is called a Muslim, and this is said to indicate that Islam is the true religion for the whole world. The prophet Muhammad is the last and most perfect of the prophets who preached Islam among different nations …
In ancient Greece and Rome oracles abounded. The primary meaning of the word oracle is "the response of a god to a question asked of him by a worshipper." The word also indicates the college of priests who manage an oracular shrine or the shrine itself. Since there were many gods in the Greco-Roman world, there were many shrines, several of which were widely known. In each shrine the…
Saint Augustine (354–430) considered the Psalms of David to be prophetic songs inspired by the Holy Spirit. He made reference to Christ's command: "It is necessary that all things be fulfilled which have been written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms about me" (Luke 24:44). He also noted "The more open [the Psalm] seems, the more profound …
The diarist Marino Sanudo the Younger, in an entry for 30 May 1509, recounted the prophecies of Piero Nani, a Venetian patrician and a brother of the Order of Charity. Nani warned the patricians that Venice would lose all of its dominance because of sin, and the flagellation would last twelve years. He had a great supply of prophecies that predicted hunger and famine. Sanudo reports that Nani then…
Ali, Muhammed Maulana. The Religion of Islam. 6th ed. Lahore, Pakistan: Ahmadiyya, 1990. Barnes, Robin Bruce. Prophecy and Gnosis: Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988. Gordis, Robert. Poets, Prophets, and Sages: Essays in Biblical Interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971. Greenstone, Julius H. The Messiah Idea…
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