PROPERTIUS PROPHECY 29 pagation de la foi, to inform the subscribers of the use made of the funds and of the pro- gress of the missionary work. PROPERTIl'S, Sextus Aurelins, a Roman poet, born in Uuibria about 50 B. 0. He was rich until an agrarian division, in 36 B. C., reduced his fortune. He wrote four books of elegies, principally addressed to his mistress. The text of Propertius as we have it is exceedingly cor- rupt. One of the best editions is that of Hertz- berg (2 vols. 8vo, Halle, 1843-'5). His elegies have been translated into English verse by Charles Robert Moore (Oxford, 1870). PROPHECY (Gr. Trpo^reta, from irpotydvai, to foretell), the prediction of future events. The belief that certain men or classes of men had the faculty of prediction can be traced to the remotest antiquity ; and the priesthood in par- ticular were regarded as being endowed with it. But the term prophecy, in this sense, is generally restricted to the Old Testament the- ology. The word prophet in the languages of Christian nations is derived from the Greek Trpo^Tw, by which the Septuagint renders the Hebrew noli. But the term of the Septuagint does not fully correspond to the primary mean- ing of the Hebrew word, which denotes a man speaking by divine inspiration; though some- times the word is used in a bad sense of men who only pretend to inspiration, or are in- spired of an evil spirit. The prophets of the Old Testament appear as the privileged organs of communication between God and his people. Frequently, though for the most part indefi- nitely, they pointed to a glorious completion of the theocracy throagh a great descendant of David, the Messiah. They also acted as the interpreters of the law, and were guardians of the rights of the oppressed. Their mission, as a body of extraordinary teachers, became es- pecially important in times when the ordinary guardians of the law, the priests, sided with the apostates and idolaters. The germ of the prophetic office is found in the Mosaic econo- my, but the order was formally developed by Samuel, when the moral decline of the nation had made it necessary. In the age of the judges, prophecy, though existing only in scat- tered instances, exerted a powerful influence. But the conspicuous prophetic agency begins with Samuel, who founded schools of the prophets at Gibeah, Ramah, Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal. Instruction was given in the inter- pretation of the divine law, and in music and sacred poetry. Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha are mentioned as principals of such institutions. The pupils are frequently called the " sons of the prophets. " The prophets wer e m ostly taken from these schools, yet not always ; for Amos relates of himself that he had been trained in no school, but was a herdsman when the Lord took him to prophesy unto the people of Israel. Sometimes, but rarely, it occurred that women came forward as prophetesses. The golden era of the prophets extends from the time of Samuel to the Babylonish captivity, and hardly any important event happened in which they did not appear as performing the leading part. After the time of Samuel they often held weekly and monthly meetings' for teaching, that work being tacitly transferred from the priests to the prophets. About 100 years after the return from the Babylonish captivity the prophetic profession ceased, and Haggai, Zech- ariah, and Malachi are uniformly mentioned by Jewish tradition as the last of the proph- ets. The manner of life of the prophets was conspicuous for strictness, austerity, and as- ceticism. Some of them appear to have been in possession of considerable physical and medi- cal knowledge, and to have occasionally made use of it. Later they often wrote down their prophecies, and many others compiled histor- ical works. Thus Gad, Nathan, and perhaps Samuel, wrote the history of David ; Nathan also the history of Solomon ; Shemaiah and Iddo the history of Rehoboam ; Jehu the his- tory of Jehoshaphat; and Isaiah the history of tlzziali and Hezekiah. The New Testament mentions the power of prophecy as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We read of one prophet, Agabus, who predicted the famine under Claudius and the imprisonment of Paul ; but generally a foreknowledge and foretelling of futurity is not mentioned as characteristic of those men who, as Barnabas, Judas, and Silas, are called prophets in the Acts and the Pauline epistles. The object of the Christian "prophecy" was, according to 1 Cor. xiv. 3, " edification and exhortation and comfort." Among the books of the canon of the New Testament only one, the Revelation, bears a prophetic character. The mode in which the divine will was revealed to the prophets has been the subject of much discussion. The Bi- ble declares that sometimes God spoke to them in an audible voice, sometimes in dreams, sometimes by giving them an ecstatic eleva- tion in which they saw truths ordinarily un- seen, and sometimes by visions. Many wri- ters, especially since the middle of the last century, have endeavored to show that the Scriptures do not assert a direct and miracu- lous supernatural interference, and that the prophetic inspiration can be explained by a high degree of religious enthusiasm and ecstasy. Among these writers are Eichhorn, Die He- Iraischen PropJieten (3 vols., Gottingen, 1816- '20) ; Knobel, Der Prophetismvs der Helraer (Breslau, 1837) ; Ewald, Die PropJteten des Alien Bundes (Stuttgart, 1840) ; and Dr. Wil- liams in the Oxford " Essays and Reviews." With regard to the predictions occurring in the books of the prophets, this class of wri- ters either ascribe them (as Bunsen did) to a kind of spiritual clairvoyance, or they main- tain (with Dr. Williams) that few if any pas- sages can be claimed as strictly prophetic, the prophetic utterance containing only certain " deep truths and great ideas." The great ma- jority of Christian theologians maintain that this view is opposed by the plain intent of the
