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The Nature of Prophecy in the Light of Recent Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

H. H. Rowley
H. H. Rowley
Affiliation:
University College of North Wales
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Extract

‘The central place in the field of Old Testament religion’ says Hertzberg ‘is undoubtedly occupied by the prophets. It is therefore little wonder that research and investigation has concentrated ever more directly on this point: What are the prophets, and what is their significance for the spiritual development of men?’ For a generation now the most keenly discussed question in this connection has been that of ‘ecstasy,’ and the extent to which the prophets were subject to abnormal experiences. It has been held that ‘ecstasy’ is of the esse of prophecy, and that it provided a criterion without which neither the prophet nor his audience would be satisfied. Yet at best the ‘ecstatic theory’ could tell us only the How? rather than the What? of prophecy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 1945 , pp. 1 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1945

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References

1 Paper read to the Oxford Society of Historical Theology on January 28th, 1943.

2 Prophet und Gott, 1923, p. 7.

3 Wheeler Robinson holds that it is better to speak of abnormal experiences than of ecstatic experiences, since there were many elements besides ecstasy proper, and since ecstasy corresponds with Greek psychology rather than with Hebrew (ZAW xli, 1923, p. 2 = Redemption and Revelation, 1942, p. 140). ‘The term properly applies’ he says ‘only to a psychology which sharply distinguishes the soul from the body, as in the Greek dualism. It ought not to be used of the phenomena of Hebrew prophecy, which is based on a very different psychology’ (ibid., p. 135). In the present writer's judgment the use of the term ‘ecstasy’ has brought much confusion into the discussion of prophecy, but it must necessarily be used in this paper, in a discussion of the ‘ecstatic theory.’

4 Mowinckel (Psalmenstudien, iii, 1923, p. 14 n.) observes that much of the material assembled by Hölscher he had himself used, and that he had drawn the same conclusions as Hölscher, in his paper ‘Om nebiisme og profeti,’ in Norsk Teologisk Tiddskrift, 1909, pp. 217–224, 358–360 (to which I have been unable to get access). Cf. also Giesebrecht, , Die Berufsbegabung der Alttestamentlichen Propheten, 1897, pp. 38 ff.Google Scholar; Stade, Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments, i, 1905, pp. 131 f. Knobel (Der Prophetismus der Hebräer, i, 1837, pp. 155 f.) had used the term ‘ecstasy’ of the prophets, but in a different sense. For him it meant not the lowest element in prophecy, the ‘dancing dervish’ element, but inner rapture of spirit. He says: ‘Diese ist die höchste Stufe derselben und überhaupt der höchste Grad der Geistesregsamkeit; sie ist die Steigerung der geistigen Lebendigkeit zur höchsten Potenz.’ He was therefore using the word ‘esctasy’ in its proper, etymological sense. Its looser use is apparently found in the Early Church, however. Cf. Lods, RHR, civ, 1931, pp. 279 f.

5 For some parallels gathered from a wider field than usual, cf. Puukko, , ‘Ekstatische Propheten mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der finnisch-ugrischen Parallelen,’ in ZAW, N. F. xii, 1935, pp. 23–35Google Scholar, and Peuckert, ‘Deutsche Volkspropheten,’ ibid., pp. 35–54.

6 ‘The Secret Experiences of the Prophets,’ in Expositor, 9th series, i, 1924, pp. 356–366, 427–435, ii, 1924, pp. 23–32 = Die Schriften des Alten Testaments in Auswahl (SAT) II, ii, 1923, pp. xvii–xxxiv; also Die Propheten, 1917.

7 Die Ekstase der alttestamentlichen Propheten, 1920.

8 ‘L'extase chez les prophètes d'Israël d'après les travaux de Hölscher et de Gunkel,’ in RHPR, ii, 1922, pp. 337–348Google Scholar.

9 ‘The Ecstatic Element in Old Testament Prophecy,’ in Expositor, 8th series, xxi, 1921, pp. 217–238Google Scholar, and Prophecy and the Prophets in Ancient Israel, 1923. Cf. also ‘Die prophetischen Bücher im Lichte neuer Entdeckungen,’ in ZAW, N. F. iv, 1927, pp. 3–9Google Scholar, and ‘Neuere Propheten-Forschung,’ in Theologische Rundschau, N. F. iii, 1931, pp. 75–103. Professor Robinson is the most notable exponent of the ‘ecstatic theory’ in English, and therefore figures largely in this paper. It will be seen below that I do not go so far in this theory as he does, while sharing it in a measure. I should like to take this opportunity of recognizing that no living British scholar has done more for the understanding of the prophets than Professor Robinson, and the measure of my debt to him greatly exceeds the measure of my disagreement.

10 Die literarische Gattung der prophetischen Literatur, 1924. It is, however, with some modification that Lindblom follows Hölscher and Gunkel. He says: ‘Nur Eins möchte ich hier betonen, nämlich dass es nicht angeht, sich den psychischen Zustand der Propheten als durchaus einheitlich und gleichartig vorzustellen. Das Wort “Ekstase” scheint in manchen Fällen dafür ein zu starkes Wort zu sein’ (p. 43). Cf. id., Hosea literarisch untersucht, 1928, p. 148: ‘Weil alles das für die prophetische Frommigkeit nicht das Wesentliche war, weil die ekstatischen Offenbarungen vielmehr nur Mittel für die Ausführung des besonderen prophetischen Berufs waren und also nicht der Kern ihrer Religiosität selbst, wollen wir auch nicht die grossen Propheten Israels als Mystiker bezeichnen.’

11 Prophet und Gott, 1923.

12 ‘Recherches récentes sur le prophétisme israélite,’ in RHR, civ, 1931, pp. 279–316, and Les prophètes d'Israël et les débuts du Judaïsme, 1935, pp. 55 ff. (= The Prophets and the Rise of Judaism, E. T. by Hooke, 1937, pp. 51 ff.).

13 ‘Die geistigen Abnormitäten der alttestamentlichen Propheten,’ in Nieuw Theologisch Tijdschrift, xxiii, 1934, pp. 26–48Google Scholar.

14 Expositor, 9th series, i, 1924, p. 358 = SAT II ii, 1923, p. xviii.

15 Die Ekstase der at. lichen Pröpheten, 1920, p. 4: ‘Die Ekstase zum Wesen des Propheten gehört.’

16 ZAW, N.F. iv, 1927, p. 4.

17 Cf. Povah, The Old Testament and Modern Problems in Psychology, 1926, pp. 62 f.; Porteous, Record and Revelation (ed. by H. W. Robinson), 1938, p. 228. Cf. too Mowinckel (Acta Orientalia, xiii, 1935, p. 273 n.): ‘What is wrong in Hölscher's treatment of higher prophethood is, mainly, only that he stretches the word “ecstasis” too far.’ Mowinckel adds that Micklem's criticism (quoted in ZAW, 1934, p. 31, n. 2) does not therefore apply to Hölscher. Had he consulted the passage in Micklem's Prophecy and Eschatology, 1926, p. 50, he would have seen that Micklem's criticism was precisely his own. ‘The protagonists of the “ecstatic” view of prophecy’ says Micklem, ‘would appear to use the term “ecstasy” in a very wide sense. There is much in Hölscher's description of Isaiah with which it is possible largely to agree, but the use of the term “ecstasy” and the constant reference backwards to the frenzied nebiʼim of earlier days seem to me to result in a generally distorted picture. It is Hölscher's psychology that is fundamentally inadequate.’

18 Die Profeten, p. 197. Cf. Jacobi, op. cit., p. 14; Lods, Les prophètes, pp. 63 f. (= E. T., p. 58); also Skinner, , Prophecy and Religion, 1922, pp. 220 fGoogle Scholar.

19 Prophecy and the Prophets, p. 50. Cf. Hempel, Die althebräische Literatur und ihr hellenistisch-jüdische Nachleben, 1930, pp. 62 ff.; Hackmann, loc. cit., p. 30.

20 With this compare the view of Lindblom (Die lit. Gattung der proph. Literatur), who thinks that the prophet presented in literary form what he had learned in ‘ecstasy.’ Whereas Robinson divides the prophetic books into very small units, which he believes to have been separately delivered in ‘ecstasy’ and then translated into intelligible terms, Lindblom believes that they were literary compositions in larger units, and not ‘ecstatic’ utterances.

21 The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 1907 issue, p. 289.

22 The Prophets of Israel, 1914, p. 138.

23 Cf. also H. Robinson, Wheeler, The Religious Ideas of the Old Testament, 1913, p. 115Google Scholar: ‘The prophets who so profoundly transformed the religion of Israel and of the world were assuredly not men of unbalanced mind. But certain features of the prophetic writings do seem to point to an intensity of psychical experience, and therefore of temperament, which distinguishes the prophets generally from other men’; and König, in Hastings’ ERE, x, 1918 (written apparently before the publication of Hölscher's work), p. 391 b: ‘The prophets in question … give no hint of any state of ecstasy, i.e. unconsciousness or frenzy…. It is clear, accordingly, that the theory of ecstasy finds no support in the passages cited, while we have the positive evidence that the prophets lived an ordered life … and that their discourses … are the work of sane and sober minds.’

24 De Profeten des Ouden Verbonds, 1918, pp. 39 ff.

25 Das Erkennen Gottes bei den Schriftpropheten, 1923. Cf. ‘Prophetische Offenbarung,’ in Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie, iv, 1926–27, pp. 91–112Google Scholar.

26 ‘Thus hath Jahveh said,’ in AJSL, xl, 1923–24, pp. 231–251.

27 Prophecy and Eschatology, 1926, chap. i.

28 Prophet und Seher in Israel, 1927.

29 ‘Quelques remarques sur la psychologie des prophètes,’ in RHPR, ii, 1922, pp. 349–356Google Scholar.

30 Der Prophet Jeremia (in Sellin's KAT), 2nd ed., 1928, p. xxxiv.

31 ‘Eestatic Experience and Rational Elaboration in Old Testament Prophecy,’ in Acta Orientalia, xiii, 1935, pp. 264–291Google Scholar.

32 Die Prophetie, 1936. Cf. p. 32, where Heschel declares ecstatic prophecy to be a contradictio in adjecto.

33 ‘Prophecy,’ in Record and Revelation (ed. by H. W. Robinson), 1938, pp. 216–249.

34 In Smith's, J. M. P. The Prophets and their Times, 2nd ed., revised by W. A. Irwin, 1941Google Scholar.

35 Cf. Skinner, Prophecy and Religion, 1922, p. 4 n.: ‘The fact that the great prophets far surpassed their predecessors in their apprehension of religious truth is no reason for denying the reality of the ecstatic element in their experience, or for explaining it away as a mere rhetorical accommodation to traditional modes of expression’; Wheeler Robinson, Redemption and Revelation, pp. 143 f. (= ZAW xli, 1923, p. 5): ‘There was an abnormal element in the experience of the Hebrew prophets which marked them out from their fellows. The evidence for this is well-known, and has been emphasized by Hölscher in particular, in his Die Profeten. It is not likely that a prophet of the classical period would have dared to prophesy without an inaugural vision such as Isaiah's in the temple, or an audition such as Jeremiah's, or such a characteristically peculiar experience as that of Ezekiel…. Moreover, we may expect such experiences to recur from time to time, and our expectation is fulfilled.’

36 Cf. Mowinckel, , Acta Orientalia, xiii, 1935, p. 277Google Scholar; Porteous, Record and Revelation, p. 230.

37 Cf. Wheeler Robinson, The People and the Book (ed. by A. S. Peake), 1925, p. 373: ‘All this does not mean necessarily that every message received and recorded in the Old Testament was given through these abnormal experiences.’

38 Theologische Rundschau, N. F. iii, 1931, p. 85.

39 Cf. Causse (RHPR, ii, 1922, p. 350): ‘Cʼest peut-être un peu trop simplifier les problèmes que de vouloir ainsi ramener à un fait élémentaire les mouvements très complexes qui constituent l'histoire du prophétisme hébreu.’

40 Record and Revelation, p. 227. Cf. Causse (loc. cit., p. 351): ‘Ceux qui prétendent décrire les états mentaux des hommes d'autrefois dans les termes de la psychologie contemporaine doivent prendre garde que ces états ont été exprimés dans une autre langue que la nôtre et dans un autre ordre de pensée. On ne saurait appliquer à la mentalité primitive les catégories de notre logique sans s'exposer à de graves méprises.’

41 Expositor, loc. cit., p. 224.

42 Häussermann (Wortempfang und Symbol in der alttestamentlichen Propheten, 1932, pp. 10 f.) distinguishes between the Niphʻal, nibbāʼ, and the Hithpāʻēl, hithnabbēʼ.

43 Thesaurus linguae Hebraeae et Chaldaeae Veteris Testamenti, II, ii, 1840, p. 838 a. Cf. Stade, op. cit., i, p. 132.

44 Cf. Hackmann, loc. cit., p. 42. Mowinckel, too, would seem to make the same connection, for he says that נבע is a ‘nabiistic’ term, meaning ‘(ekstatische) Machtwort hervorsprudeln lassen’ (Psalmenstudien, i, 1921, p. 16).

45 Cf. Smith, W. Robertson, The Prophets of Israel, 2nd ed., 1912, p. 391Google Scholar: ‘When Kuenen selects the notion of bubbling up, and regards the prophet as one who bubbles up under inspiration, this hypothesis has no more value than that of a guess guided by the particular development of the root idea found in נבך and נבע.’

46 From the Stone Age to Christianity, 1940, pp. 231 f. Cf. Torczyner, , ZDMG, lxxxv, 1931, p. 322Google Scholar: ‘Das hebräische Wort bedeutet … gewiss nicht aktiv den “Sprecher,” sondern passiv den Verzückten, vielleicht ursprünglich den vom Geist “Berufenen.”’

47 Hebräisches und Aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, 1936 ed., p. 260 b. Cf. Zimmern, in Schrader's KAT, 3rd ed., 1903, p. 400; Brockelmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, i, 1908, § 138 b (p. 354); Häussermann, op. cit., p. 10.

48 Prophecy and Divination, 1938, pp. 112 f. With this cf. Aalders, De Profeten des Ouden Verbonds, 1918, p. 11: ‘De naam nabiʼ beteekent spreker, die het woord van God vertolkt’.

49 This passage belongs to P. Jepsen (Nabi, 1934, p. 195) notes that Jer. i. 5 is the earliest passage to use nābhîʼ in the sense of speaker.

50 This passage is usually attributed to J, but Eissfeldt (Hexateuch-Synopse, 1922, 5 p. 97) assigns it to E.

51 Morgenstern (Amos Studies, i, 1941, p. 35 n. = Hebrew Union College Annual, xi, 1936, p. 51 n.) believes this verse dates from the period preceding somewhat the time of Amos, or at least of Isaiah. It is to be noted, however, that the term seers stands in Isa. xxx. 10. Dhorme (Les livres de Samuel, 1910, p. 77) maintains that 1 Sam. ix. 9 is deuteronomic.

52 So König, in Hastings’ ERE, x, 1918, p. 385 a; Caspari, Die Samuelbücher (in Sellin's KAT), 1926, p. 106; Hylander, Die literarische Samuel-Saul-Komplex. 1932, p. 140 n.

53 Op. cit., pp. 11 f. Cf. Dhorme (RHR, cviii, 1933, p. 123): ‘Cʼétait (i.e. the rōʼeh) le prophète avant la lettre.’ Cf. too Junker, Prophet und Seher in Israel, p. 82; Jepsen, Nabi, pp. 43 ff.

54 R.V.: ‘Yet the Lord testified unto Israel and unto Judah by the hand of every prophet and of every seer.’ This rendering follows the Vulgate in dividing the words differently from M.T.

55 Cf. also 2 Sam. xxiv. 11: ‘the prophet Gad, David's seer (ḥōzeh).’ Here the two terms are applied to the same person, who would seem to combine the functions of both, if they are properly to be distinguished.

56 Expositor, loc. cit., p. 220. Cf. Causse (Les plus vieux chants de la Bible, 1926, p. 124 n.): ‘Son inspiration (i.e. the seer's) nʼest pas extatique et orgiastique comme celle des prophètes, et son langage est généralement intelligible.’ Cf. also Hölscher, Die Profeten, pp. 125 f.: ‘Anders die alte Zeit; für sie ist nābī der erregte Ekstatiker, der, wo er als Vermittler übernatürlicher Offenbarungen auftritt, diese unmittelbar von sich gibt, dagegen rōʼä oder ḫōzä der Seher jeder Art, der ohne Ekstase aus mannigfachen äusseren Beobachtungen und Wahrnehmungen, unter denen die Illusionen des nächtlichen Dunkels, des Halbschlafs und Traumes besonders bevorzugt slnd, übernatürliches Wissen gewinnt…. Wie sich der “Seher” der alten Zeit vom “Profeten” unterscheidet, so hat er auch mit der ekstatischen Vision von Hause aus nichts zu tun.’

57 Psalmenstudien, iii, 1923, p. 20.

58 ‘Rôʼēh und Ḫôzēh,’ in JBL, xxviii, 1909, pp. 42–56Google Scholar.

59 Das Erkennen Gottes, pp. 7 ff. Cf. Häussennann, op. cit., pp. 4 ff.

60 Cf. Oudenrijn, ‘De vocabulis quibusdam, termino synonymis,’ in Biblica, vi, 1925, pp. 294–311, 406–417. Cf. too Lindblom, Die lit. Gattung der proph. Literatur, p. 39 n.: ‘Von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus kann ich keinen Unterschied zwisehen den beiden Begriffen ḥāzā und rāʼā finden.’

61 Loc. cit., pp. 304 f. Cf. Driver, Problems of the Hebrew Verbal System, 1936, p. 99. Oudenrijn points out, however, that the root ḥzʼ is used of mantic vision in ancient Arabic. Cf. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums, 2nd ed., 1897, p. 135 n.

62 Oudenrijn notes that we find הזיו = seers in the Zakir inscription (a: 12; cf. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik, iii, 1909–15, p. 3).

63 So Gad, 1 Sam. xxii. 5 and 2 Sam. xxiv. 11, 1 Chron. xxi, 9, xxix. 29, 2 Chron. xxix. 25; Iddo, 2 Chron. xiii. 22 and ix. 29, xii. 15.

64 Prophecy and the Prophets, p. 35.

65 Cf. Van Hoonacker, , Les douze petits prophètes, 1908, p. 269Google Scholar.

66 Expositor, loc. cit., p. 220. Cf. Lofthouse, in The People and the Book, p. 250. With this contrast Mowinckel (Psalmenstudien, iii, p. 11), who says the Seer was ecstatic. It is also to be noted that 1 Sam. xix. 20 represents Samuel as the head of a group of ‘ecstatics,’ whose frenzied abandon was shared by Saul.

67 Cf. Hempel, Gott und Mensch im Alten Testament, 1936, p. 97 n.: ‘Das anderseits freilich nicht alle profetischen Erlebnisse ekstatischer Natur sind ist ohne weiteres deutlich.’ Cf. Causse, RHPR, ii, 1922, p. 350: ‘Le prophétisme a bien commencé là (with ecstasy). Mais sʼil en était resté à ces rudiments primitifs et grossiers, il serait à jamais passé sans laisser de souvenir, il nʼaurait pas fait vivre le monde.’

68 Expository Times, xlvi, 1934–35, p. 43. With this cf. Marti, The Religion of the Old Testament, E. T. by Bienemann, 1907, p. 183: ‘The test of the prophet is therefore not the form in which the divine operation manifests itself — neither ecstasy nor cataleptic attacks, neither trances nor “hearing words” and “seeing visions” — but the contents of his message.’ Cf. too Weinrich, , Der religiös-utopische Charakter der prophetischen Politik, 1932, p. 15Google Scholar: ‘Die Ekstase als solche ist für das prophetische Bewusstsein nicht das Entscheidende, die Ekstase als solche verbürgt nicht die Echtheit des Propheten und seines Wortes.’

69 It may be recalled that in another case where a prophet similarly trapped a king into self-judgment by a story (1 Kings xx. 35 ff.), before the oracle was delivered he ‘took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel discerned that he was of the prophets.’ Clearly here the prophet had some external mark to distinguish him, and it was essential to conceal it to allay any suspicion, and equally necessary to expose it for the utterance of the oracle. Something similar may have happened in the case of Nathan. But that was an objective criterion that the man was a prophet, not that he had received this particular oracle.

70 Cf. Expositor, 8th series, xxi, 1921, p. 235, where Robinson explains the interviews of Isaiah with Ahaz, and Amos with Amaziah by the suggestion that the oracles they contain were delivered to the prophet in the ‘ecstatic’ state, and recalled and repeated by him in calmer moments.

71 Cf. Cook, S. A., The Old Testament: a Reinterpretation, 1936, p. 168Google Scholar, and CAH, iii, 1925, pp. 458 f.

72 It is far from certain, indeed, that Ahijah was attached to a shrine at Shiloh. The Danish excavations there have made it practically certain that, as had long been surmized (cf. Ewald, , Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2nd ed., ii, 1853, p. 540Google Scholar), the city was destroyed in the eleventh century, doubtless when the Philistines captured the Ark (cf. Kjaer, H., ‘The Danish Excavation of Shiloh,’ in PEFQS, 1927, pp. 202–213Google Scholar, and ‘Shiloh, a Summary Report of the second Danish Expedition, 1929,’ ibid., 1931, pp. 71–88; Mallon, , ‘Les fouilles danoises de Silo,’ in Biblica, x, 1929, pp. 369–375Google Scholar). That it was not totally uninhabited is doubtless true, though the archaeological evidence suggests that its occupation was negligible for some centuries, in which case it is unlikely that there was any shrine there.

73 It is interesting to observe that the document which represents Samuel as a seer, ascribes to his divinely inspired initiative the establishment of the monarchy, whereas the other document, which represents him as a figure of national eminence, says that the initiative lay with the people, who merely applied to Samuel to divine for them the right man. It would seem that hard and fast lines cannot be drawn between the different prophetic functions, and more than one individual seems to have combined more than one variety of function.

74 Kultprophetie und prophetische Psahnen (Psalmenstudien iii), 1923. Cf. however already Jacobi, op. cit., 1920, p. 4: ‘Dieses alte Sehertum berührte sich nahe mit dem Priestertum.’

75 Cf. Causse, ‘L'ancienne poésie cultuelle d'Israël et les origines du Psautier,’ in RHPR, vi, 1926, pp. 1–37, and Les plus vieux chants de la Bible, chap, iii; Povah, The Old Testament and Modern Problems in Psychology, 1926, pp. 67 ff.; Junker, , Prophet und Seher in Israel, 1927Google Scholar; Hylander, , ‘War Jesaja Nabi?’ in Le monde oriental, xxv, 1931, pp. 53–66Google Scholar; von Rad, , ‘Die falschen Propheten,’ in ZAW, N. F. x, 1933, pp. 109–120Google Scholar; Eissfeldt, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 1934, pp. 115 ff.; Jepsen, Nabi, 1934, pp. 143 ff., 191 ff.; Graham and May, Culture and Conscience, 1936, pp. 170, 217.

76 ‘The Prophet in Israelite Worship,’ in Expository Times, xlvii, 1935–36, pp. 312–319Google Scholar.

77 I am indebted to Dr. Johnson for his kindness in allowing me to see this study, which is to be published under the title The Cultic Prophet in Ancient Israel. (This has now appeared, in 1944.)

78 Jepsen (Nabi, p. 161) notes that there are thirty passages which refer to priests and prophets in friendly association, all in Jerusalem or Judah.

79 On these guilds cf. Oudenrijn, ‘L'expression “fils des prophètes” et ses analogies,’ in Biblica, vi, 1925, pp. 165–171Google Scholar. He notes that the term ‘sons of the prophets’ is only attested for the period circa 850–750 B.C., and only for the northern kingdom, and thinks they were members of a specifically northern prophetic brotherhood. Cf. also Junker, Prophet und Seher in Israel, for a study of the cultic significance of these brotherhoods.

80 Cf. Junker (op. cit., p. 33): ‘Überhaupt sind alle Orte, die als Sitz von Priestervereinen erwähnt werden, Kultorte, wie ausser Rama noch Gabaa, Jericho und Gilgal.’

81 Johnson says (Expository Times, loc. cit., p. 315 a): ‘The evidence points to the fact that their (i.e. the Baal prophets') rivals held a similar position in the cultus of Jahweh, and were stationed, in the form of the so-called guilds, at the different sanctuaries throughout the country (cf. 2 Kgs. ii. 3, 5 etc.).’ The words which I have italicized seem to me to go beyond the evidence. I should add that in private correspondence Dr. Johnson agrees that the word ‘stationed’ is too strong, and that the cultic prophets should not be thought of as in any sense resident at the shrines. I should also make it clear that he does not suggest that Elijah was a cultic prophet of the Carmel shrine, or Amos of the Bethel shrine, and that I only adduce these examples to show that prophetic activity at a shrine does not provide sure evidence of cultic prophecy. Jepsen tends to outrun the evidence in a different direction. He says (Nabi, p. 162): ‘Die nordisraelitischen Nabis halten also weder am Hof noch an der Priesterschaft einen Rückhalt.’ So far as the time of Ahab is concerned this is not true of the court.

82 On this, however, see below.

83 Expositor, loc. cit., p. 224.

84 Amos Studies, i, pp. 32 ff. = HUCA, loc. cit., pp. 48 ff.

85 Cf. Robinson, loc. cit.

86 Acta Orientalia, xiii, p. 267; also JBL, liii, 1934, p. 210Google Scholar, where he adds the suggestion that Isaiah was also probably a member of the same personnel. For the latter cf. Hylander, Le monde oriental, xxv, 1931, pp. 64 f.

87 JBL, loc. cit., p. 206 n.

88 In Record and Revelation, p. 233.

89 ‘“The Spirit” and the “Word” in the Pre-exilie Reforming Prophets,’ in JBL, liii, 1934, pp. 199–227Google Scholar. In the course of this paper Mowinckel says that the great reforming prophets had experiences of an ‘ecstatic’ character (p. 214), and that the ‘ecstatic’ element was a criterion of prophecy (p. 215), but he contrasts the ‘elevated’ character of their experience and utterance with the crude ‘ecstasy’ of the nebhîʼîm (pp. 207 f.). Cf. JBL, lvi, 1937, pp. 261–265, where in a postscript to the above article, Mowinckel says he would then have emphasized the ‘ecstatic’ element in the prophets even less.

90 ‘The Forms of Prophetism,’ in HUCA, xiv, 1939, pp. 23–28Google Scholar, especially p. 26: ‘These prophets deny any relationship with the so-called nebiʼim, the ecstatic bands of Canaanite prophets.’

91 Cf. Grether, , Name und Wort Gottes im Alten Testament, 1934, p. 102Google Scholar: ‘Der Kampf Jeremias mit den Nebiim ist formal betrachtet ein Kampf gegen das Ekstatische am Nabitum.’ Albright (From the Stone Age to Christianity, p. 233) thinks the Yahwistic movement may have arisen partly as a reaction against pagan ecstaticism. Cf. Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, p. 293: ‘There is an obvious parallel between Hebrew and heathen ecstatics. But this is a fact without great significance…. The more they resemble one another the greater the difference.’

92 Cf. Porteous, loc. cit., p. 233: ‘It is difficult to believe that Jepsen is right in making the cleavage between nebiʼim and canonical prophets as absolute as he does.’ Cf. also Lods, (Les prophètes d'Israël, p. 64 =) The Prophets and the Rise of Judaism, p. 59: ‘The new prophets, if they noticed any differences at all between themselves and their predecessors or contemporaries, looked upon them as very slight. The great prophets knew of no exterior sign by which the genuinely inspired of Jahweh could be distinguished’; Skinner, , Prophecy and Religion, 1922, p. 188Google Scholar: ‘In externals there was nothing to distinguish the one kind of prophet from the other.’

93 Cf. Jer. xiv. 14, xxiii. 32, where Jeremiah charges them with prophesying lying visions and the deceit of their own heart.

94 JBL, loc. cit. Cf. Häussermann (op. cit., p. 24): ‘Die klassischen Propheten verzichten auf solche Mittel. Überhaupt ist bei ihnen von der ךוה selten die Rede. Häufiger begegnet uns der Ausdruck wieder bei Ezechiel.’ For the place of the ‘Word’ in prophecy, and especially in the thought of Jeremiah, cf. Hertzberg, , Prophet und Gott, 1923, pp. 83Google Scholar ff. Cf. too Grether, Name und Wort Gottes im Alten Testament, 1934, where it is argued that the word of God is a separate category of revelation, to be distinguished from dream, vision, audition and ecstasy, and that though the word may have been associated with some abnormal experience it was never mediated merely through it, apart from the conscious coöperation of the recipient.

95 JBL, loc. cit., p. 201.

96 Cf. Mowinckel, ibid., pp. 204 ff.

97 So Wellhausen, , Die kleinen Propheten, 2nd ed., 1893, p. 138Google Scholar; Nowack, , Die kleinen Propheten, 1897, p. 203Google Scholar; Marti, , Dodekapropheton, 1904, p. 279Google Scholar; Sellin, , Das Zwölfprophetenbuch, 2nd ed., 1929, p. 326Google Scholar.

98 JBL, loc. cit., pp. 201 f. note.

99 Culture and Conscience, 1936, pp. 214 f. Cf. also Graham, The Prophets and Israel's Culture, 1934.

100 The Priests and Prophets, 1936, chap. ii.

101 For a criticism of the unpractical idealism of the greater prophets in the realm of statesmanship, cf. Weinrich, Der religiös-utopische Charakter der “prophetischen Politik,” 1932, and on the other side Elliger, , ‘Prophet und Politik,’ in ZAW, N. F. xii, 1935, pp. 3–22Google Scholar.

102 Cf. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 1942, p. 24: ‘The central fact of the prophet's consciousness remained thenceforth the memory of that transforming experience, as a result of which he was under special commission from Yahweh to preach to his people.’ Cf. too Dennefeld, Introduction à, l'Ancien Testament, 1934, pp. 151 f.: ‘Chaque nabiʼ était appelé directement par Dieu…. Le don prophétique était toujours un privilège personnel spécialement accordé par Dieu; il ne reposait pas, comme le sacerdoce, sur un titre héréditaire et ne provenait ni d'une prédisposition naturelle ni d'une préparation scolaire.’

103 Prophecy and Divination, 1938, p. 124.

104 Cf. Lods, , Israël des origines au milieu du viiie siècle, 1930, p. 411Google Scholar (= E. T. by Hooke, 1932, pp. 354 f.); Hylander, Der literarische Samuel-Saul-Komplex, 1932, p. 13.

105 Cf. Mowinckel, JBL, loc. cit., p. 211: ‘This prophetic call is not merely felt to be a certainty, it is upon them and in them as a compelling force from which they cannot escape.’ Cf. id., Acta Orientalia, xiii, 1935, p. 270.

106 Mowinckel (Psalmenstudien, iii, p. 10) holds that Moses was really a seer, and that the representation of him as a nābhîʼ is late.

107 Cf. Marti, The Religion of the Old Testament, E. T. by Bienemann, 1907, pp. 63 f.: ‘He is the first in the series of those great men of Israel whom we call prophets.… He is only rightly understood when he is conceived as a prophet.’

108 Am. vii. 14 is translated by most ‘I am no prophet or prophet's son (= member of a prophetic guild),’ and the verse is taken to be an indignant denial of prophetic status by Amos. The Hebrew is a noun sentence, and some part of the verb to be must be supplied. Cripps (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Amos, 1929, p. 233) quite incorrectly says that the insertion of the present tense is alone in accordance with Hebrew usage. Sellin (Das Zwölfprophetenbuch, 1929, p. 254), while himself preferring the present, agrees that the past tense, as found in the Septuagint, the Syriac, and R. V., is equally possible grammatically. Actually it is to be preferred on grammatical grounds, for while a noun sentence in itself may be past, present, or future, in this case it is followed by consecutive waw and the imperfect. Hence ‘and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy’ is most naturally, though not necessarily, taken as following ‘I no prophet or prophet's son’ in the temporal sequence. Cf. Jerome (Migne, PL, xxv, 1845, col. 1077): ‘non sum propheta, sive non eram (quorum alterum humilitatis, alterum veritatis est)’.; Ḳimḥi (ad loc, cf. the Amsterdam Rabbinical Bible, 1724–27, iii, folio 287 b): נביא מנעוךי לא הײהי = ‘I was not a prophet from my youth’; Rosenmüller (Scholia in Vetus Testamentum, VII ii, 2nd ed., 1827, p. 207): ‘Non propheta ego fui (הײהי) ab initioʼ; Riedel (TSK, lxxvi, 1903, p. 165): ‘Ich war kein Prophet.’ Cf. too Am. iii. 7 f.: ‘Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?’ where Amos would clearly seem to be referring to himself as numbered with the nebhîʼîm.

109 By some the story is interpreted as pure allegory (Van Hoonacker, Les douzes petits prophètes, 1908; Toy, , ‘Note on Hosea 1–3,’ in JBL, xxxii, 1913, pp. 75–79Google Scholar; Gressmann, SAT, II i, 1910; Regnier, , ‘Le réalisme dans les symboles des prophètes,’ in RB, xxxii, 1923, pp. 383–408Google Scholar), and by others as historical (Cruveilhier, ‘De l'interprétation historique des événements de la vie familiale du prophète Osée,’ in RB, N. S. xiii, 1916, pp. 342–362; Schmidt, , ‘Die Ehe des Hosea,’ in ZAW, N. F. i, 1924, pp. 245–272Google Scholar); by some chapter i is regarded as historical and chapter iii as allegorical (Volz, ‘Die Ehegeschichte Hosea's,’ in Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, xii, 1898, pp. 321–335; Guthe, in Kautzsch-Bertholet, HSAT, 4th ed., ii, 1923; Humbert, , ‘Les trois premiers chapitres d'Osée,’ in RHR, lxxvii, 1918, pp. 157–171Google Scholar), by some chapter iii is regarded as an account in the first person parallel to the account in the third person of chapter i (Gautier, Introduction à l'Ancien Testament, 1914 (reprinted 1939); Eissfeldt, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 1934; Robinson, T. H., ‘Die Ehe des Hosea,’ in TSK, cvi, 1934–35, pp. 301–313Google Scholar, and in Prophecy and the Prophets, 1923, in Oesterley and Robinson's Introduction to the Books of the Old Testament, 1934, and in Robinson and Horst, Die zwölf kleinen Propheten (HAT, I xiv), 1938; Lindblom, Hosea literarisch untersucht, 1928), by some chapter iii is regarded as the sequel to chapter i, the woman of chapter iii being either Gomer (Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament in its Historical Development, 1922; Budde, , ‘Der Abschnitt Hosea 1–3 und seine grundlegende religionsgeschichtliche Bedeutung,’ in TSK, xcvi–xcvii, 1925, pp. 1–89Google Scholar; Robinson, H. Wheeler, ‘The Marriage of Hosea,’ in Baptist Quarterly, N. S. v, 1930–31, pp. 304–313Google Scholar; Sellin, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 7th ed., 1935), or another woman (Marti — who, however, holds chapter iii to be allegorical — Dodekapropheton (KHAT), 1904; Buzy, , ‘Les symboles d'Osée,’ in RB, N. S. xiv, 1917, pp. 376–423Google Scholar = Les symboles de l'Ancien Testament, 1923, chap ii; Smith-Irwin, The Prophets and their Times, 1941). Sellin (Introduction to the Old Testament, E. T. by Montgomery, 1923) and Budde (TSK, loc. cit.) hold that an original single autobiographical account has been divided into two and part thrown into the third person. Several writers have defended Gomer's reputation against the charge of adultery (Fück, , ‘Hosea Kapitel 3,’ in ZAW, xxxix, 1921, pp. 283–290Google Scholar; Heermann, , ‘Ehe und Kinder des Propheten Hosea,’ in ZAW, xl, 1922, pp. 287–312Google Scholar; Humbert, , ‘Osée, le prophète bédouin,’ in RHPR, i, 1921, pp. 97–118Google Scholar; Batten, , ‘Hosea's Message and Marriage,’ in JBL, xlviii, 1929, pp. 257–273Google Scholar; Sellin, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 7th ed., 1935; Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament, 1941).

110 So T. H. Robinson, Prophecy and the Prophets, 1923, and ‘Die Ehe des Hosea,’ in TSK, cvi, 1934–35, pp. 301–313Google Scholar; Schmidt, , ‘Die Ehe des Hosea,’ in ZAW, N. F. i, 1924, pp. 245–272Google Scholar; Sellers, , ‘Hosea's Motives,’ in AJSL, xli, 1924–25, pp. 243–247Google Scholar, May, ‘The Names of Hosea's Children,’ in JBL, lv, 1936, pp. 285–291Google Scholar; Smith-Irwin, The Prophets and their Times, 1941. For a psycho-analytical study of Hosea's attraction to that which he most loathed, cf. Allwohn, Die Ehe des Propheten Hosea, 1926.

111 Sellers, loc. cit., describes Hosea as fundamentally a sensualist and a sadist, with a martyr complex, and an anti-food complex. This will satisfy whom it will.

112 Causse would admit this, but declares it only an accident of prophecy. Cf. RHPR, ii, 1922, p. 354: ‘Elle (i.e. ecstasy) est seulement au point de départ historique et elle s'est maintenue chez les grands prophètes comme une survivance à laquelle les contemporains et le prophète lui-même ont pu ajouter une importance plus ou moins grande, mais elle nʼest plus quʼun phénomène accidental.’ Cf. too Mowinckel, , Acta Orientalia, xiii, 1935, pp. 271 f.Google Scholar: ‘Manifestly there is an ecstatic element in all this…. All this, however, really represents unessentials.’

113 Cf. Mowinckel, JBL, liii, 1934, pp. 207 f.: ‘On the whole little remains of the ecstatic element, apart from that which is the sound psychological substratum and core of religious ecstasy: the all-predominating, all-exclusive consciousness of having been called by Yahweh to deliver a religious and moral message. All external stimuli, such as dancing and music, have been abandoned. True the state in which they deliver that message is “elevated,” but it is also characterized by spiritual clarity and reasoned judgment. Their utterances are given in a finished and artistic form; to the solemn words of judgment they generally add a clear, reasoned, moral and religious exposition; and their words do not come to them as a wild stammering glossolaly — as involuntary, unconscious words accompanied by unconscious reflex actions — but as moral and religious apprehensions of inexorable facts, apprehensions which “rise up” in them from the depths of the subconscious to attain lucidity, merging into their moral and religious personality.’ Cf. Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, pp. 292 f.

114 Prophecy and Eschatology, chap. i. Barrois complains that Micklem's prophets ‘might be the ancestors of a certain Protestantism.’ He says: ‘L'auteur va trop loin dans sa comparaison des prophètes avec nos lyriques modernes, et je crains quʼil ne réduise en fin de compte l'inspiration prophétique à une sorte d'inspiration poétique’ (RB, xxxvi, 1927, p. 132Google Scholar). Cf. Hines, , ‘The Development of the Psychology of Prophecy,’ in JR, viii, 1928, pp. 212–224Google Scholar. Cf. also Lods (Les prophètes, p. 64 =) The Prophets and the Rise of Judaism, p. 58: ‘It is also quite likely that the great prophets thought they heard within themselves the “word of Jahweh,” not only when they were really in ecstatic trance, but also when they were in a state of excitement analogous to what we call poetic or artistic inspiration, when words and images seem to crowd of their own accord into the mind and are apparently dictated to it.’

115 Cf. Hines, , ‘The Prophet as Mystic,’ in AJSL, xl, 1923–24, pp. 37–71Google Scholar; Lindblom, Die literarische Gattung der prophetischen Literatur, 1924, where the experiences of mediaeval mystics are cited for comparison. Heschel (Die Prophetie, pp. 40 ff., 165 ff.) differentiates the prophetic consciousness from both the poetic and the mystical. Cf. also Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination, p. 294.

116 Cf. Die Propheten, 1917, p. 111 : ‘Männer, die so wunderliche Handlungen vornehmen, können auch nicht ruhig und besonnen gesprochen haben. Das also muss man sich bei der Erklärung der Worte, auch eines Jesaia immer wieder vor Augen halten: dieser Mann ist einmal drei Jahre lang nackend gegangen!’ Sellers (AJSL, xli, 1924–25, p. 245) says: ‘Isaiah's going exposed about the streets of Jerusalem is a clear case of exhibitionism, a tendency which may be observed at any bathing-beach or track meet.’ With this contrast Hertzberg, Prophet und Gott, 1923, p. 41: ‘Hier ist die Unterordnung unter den Willen Jahves, das Sich-ganz-in-den-Dienststellen, auf die Spitze getrieben. Es könnte eine Absicht der Berichterstattung darin gefunden werden, dass Jesaja hier, — es ist das einzige Mal — von Jahve “mein Knecht” gennant wird. Der göttliche Wille füllt so sein Inneres, dass der Prophet nicht anders kann, als auch sein äusseres Handeln zum Ausdruck des in ihm Lebenden zu machen. Das Innere schlägt das Aussere in den Bann. Der Leib wird jetzt gleichsam Werkzeug des Geistes, wie der Geist in diesem Augenblicke Werkzeug der Gottheit ist.’ In the discussion on the present paper, Mr. L. H. Brockington observed that in prophetic symbolism the prophet threw his whole self into his prophecy, and made not his lips alone, but his whole personality, the vehicle of the divine ‘word.’

117 ‘Prophetic Symbolism,’ in Old Testament Essays, 1927, pp. 1–17, and ‘Hebrew Sacrifice and Prophetic Symbolism,’ in JTS, xliii, 1942, pp. 129–139Google Scholar. Cf. Lofthouse, , AJSL, xl, 1923–24, pp. 239 ff.Google Scholar; Buzy, Les symboles de l'Ancien Testament, 1923, and Regnier, , ‘Le réalisme dans les symboles des prophètes,’ in RB, xxxii, 1923, pp. 383–408Google Scholar.

118 Cf. Pedersen, Israel I–II, 1926, pp. 182–212, 411–452.

119 Cf. Isa. xlv. 23, lv. 10 f.

120 Cf. Lods (RHPR, ix, 1929, p. 173): ‘Plusieurs des actes “symboliques” accompiis par Ies hommes de Dieu israélites ou attribués à tel d'entre eux, ont une affinité évidente avec les rites de magie imitative pratiqués chez les non-civilisés ou dans l'antiquité pour agir, non pas sur les esprits des assistants, mais sur les événements eux-mêmes, sur l'avenir; ces actes sont tenus pour “efficaces,” non parce quʼils sont “impressionants,” mais dans un sens bien autrement réel, parce quʼils produisent eux-mêmes ce quʼils figurent.’

121 Cf. Old Testament Essays, 1927, p. 14; Redemption and Revelation, 1942, p. 250; JTS, xliii, 1942, pp. 132 f. Cf. Brockington, in Studies in History and Revelation (ed. by Payne), 1942, p. 41: ‘Because of his entire submission to the will of God his acts are fully taken up into the divine purpose and become part of the creative process.’

122 The Old Testament: a Reinterpretation, pp. 188 f.

123 AJSL, loc. cit., p. 237; cf. p. 242.

124 Die Profeten, p. 25: ‘Die Profeten reden nicht nur im Auftrage und nach dem Geheisse Jahwes, wiederholen nicht nur Worte und Offenbarungen, die der Gott ihnen zugeraunt oder in der Vision gezeigt hat, sondern sie reden als Gott selbst und identifizieren sich, solange sie ekstatisch sprechen, durchaus mit ihm.’ Cf. Hertzberg, Prophet und Gott, 1923, p. 12: ‘Das Bewusstsein, mit der Gottheit eins zu sein, gibt ihrer Stellung zur Gottheit das Gepräge.’

125 ZAW, xli, 1923, pp. 9 f. = Redemption and Revelation, pp. 149 f.

126 The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, 1942, especially pp. 36 f.

127 Die Prophetie, pp. 127 ff.

128 Redemption and Revelation, p. 150 n.

129 Cf. Porteous, in Record and Revelation (ed. H. W. Robinson), p. 240.

130 Cf. Brockington, loc. cit., p. 35: ‘The word of God to the world was not independent of the personality of the men who heard it and uttered it.’

131 In Oesterley and Robinson's Hebrew Religion, 2nd ed., 1937, p. 223. Cf. Prophecy and the Prophets, pp. 44 f. Cf. also Expository Times, xl, 1928–29, p. 298: ‘The prophetic utterances were based directly on the prophet's knowledge of God and man.’

132 ‘The Nature of Hebrew Prophecy,’ in Anglican Theological Review, iv, 1921–22, pp. 97–127Google Scholar.

133 Ibid., p. 103.

134 Ibid., p. 102.

135 Expository Times, xlviii, 1936–37, p. 182.

136 Theodore Robinson agrees that these were ordinary experiences of real objects, but supposes that the prophets stared hard at them until their whirling brain perceived more than others could detect (Expositor, 8th series, xxi, 1921, pp. 226 f.). I do not think there is adequate evidence for this supposition.

137 Cf. Prophecy and Divination, pp. 118 ff., 142 ff.

138 Cf. Brockington (loc. cit., p. 36): ‘The process may probably be explained as one of association: a chance presentation of an object to the eye, or of a sound to the ear or any other sense perception, elicits and makes fully articulate what has been already half-formed or partially realized, just as memory long dormant can be awakened in the same way.’

139 Cf. Skinner, Prophecy and Religion, pp. 195 f.: ‘This immediate consciousness of having the mind of God is the ultimate secret of true prophetic inspiration, which, being incommunicable, can neither be analysed nor applied as an objective criterion of an alleged revelation…. He who has it knows that he has it, though he who lacks it may be deceived in thinking he has it.’

140 Cf. H. Wheeler Robinson, Redemption and Revelation, p. 90: ‘If we go on to say that in this and through this consciousness, by some leap of “sympathetic” faith on the prophet's part, God was enabled in fulfilment of His purpose to enter human history, then the statement constitutes a leap of faith akin to that made by the prophet himself. We can never eliminate that personal factor, in regard to either the outer or inner event’; cf. p. 139: ‘In the last resort, we shall know as much or as little of the prophetic consciousness as is the degree to which we share its essential and central experience.’

141 Cf. Baentsch, , Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1, 1908, p. 464Google Scholar; Gressmann, , Der Messias, 1929, pp. 77 ff.Google Scholar; Gunkel, in RGG, 2nd ed., iv, 1930, cols. 1543 f.; Weinrich, op. cit., pp. 24 ff.; Mowinckel, JBL, loc. cit., p. 219.

142 Cf. Jer. xxviii. 8 f.

143 Cf. Jepsen, Nabi, p. 252, where, in the closing words of his book the author summarizes prophecy as ‘Zeugnis von Gott, seinem Gesetz, seiner Verheissung, seinem Handeln in der Geschichte in Gericht und Gnade.’ Both Gericht and Gnade belong to true prophecy.

144 Cf. Ackerman, Anglican Theological Review, iv, 1921–22, p. 116: ‘Prophecy was certainly predictive’; Gunkel, Expositor, 9th series, i, 1924, p. 433 (= SAT II ii, 1923, p. xxvi): ‘There is none among the literary prophets whose first word was not an announcement of a future event’; Guillaume, op. cit., p. 111 : ‘There is no prophet in the Old Testament who was not a foreteller of the future.’

145 Cf., e.g., Charles, , Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel, 1929, p. xxviGoogle Scholar: ‘Prophecy is a declaration, a forthtelling, of the will of God — not a foretelling. Prediction is not in any sense an essential element of prophecy, though it may intervene as an accident — whether it be a justifiable accident is another question.’

146 Cf. Isa. xlv. 21, xlvi. 9 f.

147 Dt. xviii. 22. That this simple test is not alone adequate is recognized in Dt. xiii. 1 ff., but that it should be mentioned at all as a test of prophecy shows beyond a peradventure that prophecy was regarded as dealing essentially in prediction.

148 JBL, liii, 1934, p. 211.

149 Cf. Mowinckel, Acta Orientalia, loc. cit., pp. 279 f.: ‘The content is the deciding factor, which makes the prophets’ experience an experience of God. The experience of an empty and more or less unutterable mysterium tremendum et fascinosum would not make the prophets essentially different from the common nabhi’; the ecstatic nebhiʼim had purely “numinous” experiences, but these were of no value as revelations. What is merely “numinous” may just as well be “Ba'al” as Yahweh; it may just as well be a “lying spirit” as the spirit of Yahweh, and of this the great prophets are fully aware. The content of an experience makes it an experience of Yahweh, or rather, proves that it is one. In other words, the certitude of the experience depends upon whether it has a definite content, capable of being apprehended by the mind and tested by religious and moral standards.’ Cf. JBL, loc. cit., p. 217; also Skinner, Prophecy and Religion, p. 195.

150 Cf. Mowinckel, Acta Orientalia, loc. cit., p. 286: ‘The great prophets know perfectly well that “words” can come to them which are nothing but “visions of their own hearts.” Accordingly they lay down certain criteria of the true word of Yahweh…. The content of the word will afford a more reliable test.’

151 Acta Orientalia, loc. cit., p. 289.