We will also avoid the question of the existence of God, which is addressed by a number of other entries in this encyclopedia see the entries listed in the Related Entries section below. It is often assumed that the primary purpose of prophecy is to foretell the future, but this is not always the case. There are fascinating debates in these religious traditions, especially in the medieval period, debates that we will not discuss here see Kreisel , Shatz , Rahman , and the entries in this encyclopedia concerning key historical figures discussed in those sources.
But when philosophers discuss prophecy, they are typically interested in prophecies concerning the contingent future, so that will be the focus in the remainder of this article. What special philosophical issues are raised by this kind of prophecy?
For more on the notion of determinism, see the entry on causal determinism. Now imagine that based upon the revelation of an infallible God, a person prophecies that some future contingent event will occur.
Since God cannot be wrong, does it follow that the future contingent event must occur? And if it must occur, how can it be a contingent event? An especially vivid example of this kind of situation comes from the Christian tradition. Jesus reportedly prophesied that his disciple Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed see Matthew For more on this connection, see the entries on compatibilism , free will , and causal determinism.
This additional element adds an interesting twist to the general problem, making it more difficult to solve. Philosophers have responded to this problem in several different ways. One obvious way to respond is simply to claim that there are no future contingent events. Different people have taken this approach for different reasons. Some are attracted to the idea that every event has a prior sufficient cause see the entry on causal determinism. Others believe that the idea of free choice does not require anything like real contingency or the possibility of doing or intending otherwise see the entries on compatibilism and free will.
So one possible response to the difficulty here is to give up one half of the problem by denying that there are any future contingent events. Many philosophers and theologians do not find this approach very promising, though, because they believe strongly in future contingent events, especially human free choices.
How else might one respond to the problem posed by prophecies concerning future contingent events? Another way of trying to solve the puzzle is to deny that God has any knowledge of the contingent future. God does not know about them either because 1 there are no true propositions now that report what future contingent events will occur, or because 2 it is impossible for anyone, including God, to know such true propositions, or because 3 God chooses not to know them in order to preserve our freedom see, e.
Open theists also typically argue that foreknowledge alone would be providentially useless to God see Hasker , for instance; for more on open theism, see Hasker and , Basinger and Basinger , Basinger , Pinnock , Pinnock et al , Rice , and Davison and How can open theism explain prophecies that appear to make reference to future contingent events?
William Hasker, perhaps the most prominent advocate of open theism, addresses this problem explicitly, and suggests a three-fold response. Second, many prophetic predictions are based upon existing trends and tendencies, which provide God with enough evidence to foresee the future Hasker , Finally, some prophecies simply reveal what God has already decided to bring about in the future Hasker , Thomas P.
Flint argues that if people are truly free in a sense that implies future contingency, then not even God could know very much about the future based upon present trends and tendencies alone. This is because the probability of any particular future contingent event is very low, so that God would not have much justification for believing that any particular future contingent event would occur see Flint , —5.
As an example, Flint points to John , which seems to imply that Jesus knew that Judas would betray him.
How could this be, Flint wonders, when the probability that Judas would betray Jesus was so low? This is problematic for some open theists, who claim that their view has the virtue that God takes certain risks in creating the world; see Flint , —6. We will not try to adjudicate the dispute between Flint and Hasker here, since that would take us beyond the scope of this article. William Ockham c. In other words, if a person were about to choose freely to do something, then God would have known about it from eternity, and hence would have acted accordingly.
In other words, Jesus uttered words that actually did constitute a prophecy, but those same words would not have been a prophecy had Peter chosen otherwise Wierenga , Once Jesus says certain words with a certain intention, is it coherent to say that Peter still has a choice about whether or not to betray Jesus?
Alfred J. In these scholarly views, a disjunction with as well as elaborations on the prophetic heritage of ancient Israel may tentatively be discerned in Second Temple Judaism. Since Paul wrote his Letters by the time of the late Second Temple period, I will now turn to early Jewish ideas about prophecy in order to highlight contexts of thought about prophecy in ancient Judaism preceding and contemporaneous with emerging Christianity.
Next to being sent by God to proclaim the word of God, the following features of prophecy recur across the works of various authors of early Jewish literature:.
The texts to which this section now turns for illustration concern the Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel and the writings of Flavius Josephus as evidence of Jewish Hellenism. The Dead Sea Scrolls roughly cover the time-span from the second century B. On the other hand, parabiblical expansions on prophetic books, such as Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Apocryphon of Jeremiah from Qumran cave 4, 24 illustrate permeable textual boundaries in literary elaboration on the Prophets.
These literary matters are not considered in Cook's book on the "cessation of prophecy". Jewish Hellenism: Evidence from Josephus. As for Jewish Hellenism, we may briefly consider prophecy in Flavius Josephus, whose writings date to the end of the first century C. Crucial evidence for the "cessation" hypothesis regarding Josephus is his statement about the "failure of the exact succession of the prophets" from the time of Artaxerxes onwards Ag.
First, one should carefully distinguish the end of the line of biblical prophets with the scriptural status of their writings from the ongoing phenomena of prophecy and prophetic inspiration in Josephus' works. Josephus attributes the gift of prophecy to John Hyrcanus J. Cook also surveys prophetic phenomena in Josephus. A second caveat concerns the consideration of Josephus' works for evidence on "false prophecy".
Perhaps 70 C. It may suffice to note the different perspectives on false prophets in, for instance, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus respectively. In fact, Josephus relates the cause of the Jewish war against Rome to a fatal misjudgement of prophetic oracles about rulership in the East J. On a final note, the terminus post quem holds a fortiori for a post C.
Thus in 2 Baruch Yet prophets are described as "sleeping" and the people are only left with the Mighty One and his Law, under the circumstance that "we have left our land, and Zion has been taken away from us" 2 Baruch Prophecy and prophetism in emerging Christianity.
The study of prophecy and prophetism in emerging Christianity yields a relatively divided picture. On the one hand, New Testament writings provide abundant indications of prophecy and prophets at the origins of Christianity.
For instance, the Synoptic Gospels include popular ideas about Jesus as a prophet, like one of the prophets of old Mk ; cf. Lk as well as about John the Baptist as a real prophet Mk , next to the distinct expectation of restoration through the return of Elijah Mk supported by the scribes. Luke's infancy narrative further mentions Zechariah's act of prophesying who considers John as prophet of the Most High Lk According to the narrative of Acts, prophets, and among them Agabus, were part of the missionary Jesus-movement's contacts between Jerusalem and Antioch Acts , , In Acts , it is Agabus, who prophetically forewarns Paul about dangers involved in his return to Jerusalem.
Beyond these examples from the Gospels and Acts, many more passages could be adduced to illustrate the existence of prophets and prophecy in the early church. Yet on the other hand, Christian prophecy was characterized by D. Aune as a "relatively unstable and unstructured institution within early Christianity".
Luz situated a crisis of early Christian prophecy in the third generation of Christianity, by the end of the first century C. What then should we think about prophecy at the origins of emerging Christianity? In his comments on offices in the early church, U. Schnelle has taken the citation of Joel about the outpouring of the Spirit applied to "the latter days" in Acts as evidence for early Christian prophetic convictions.
That is, the Jerusalem church was convinced that "the time of the cessation of prophecy was over and that the Spirit of God was now at work again". Another way of probing the significance of prophecy at the origins of emerging Christianity is to evaluate its role in Christianity's earliest documents, Paul's Letters, to which I will now turn.
Prophecy in the Pauline letters. In Paul's theology, promises about the Christ as Son of God from the line of David have been mediated beforehand "through his prophets in the holy scriptures" Rom and find their fulfilment in the gospel of God Rom As such, biblical prophecy precedes the apostleship as literary model Rom All three figure in Paul's theological discourse on Israel in Romans It is beyond the focus of this essay to consider intertextuality with biblical prophecy more broadly.
Previous scholarship has recurrently pointed out intertextuality with biblical prophets in passages about Paul's calling and self-understanding as an apostle, such as in Romans and Galatians At any rate, in 1 Corinthians, Paul recurrently quotes from the book of Isaiah.
Next to biblical prophecy, we need to consider settings of early Christian prophecy in Paul's Letters briefly, before turning to 1 Corinthians, in particular to sections in 1 Cor Prophetic speech is part of Paul's concerns from his earliest correspondence, his first letter to the Thessalonians, onwards.
Thus, in 1 Thessalonians , Paul includes the following advice in his concluding exhortation:. This statement correlates the presence of the Spirit with the gift of prophesying, 42 but also makes the critical point of testing everything.
Analogously, prophecy and the ability to distinguish between spirits are consecutively coupled in 1 Cor as complementary gifts, 43 somehow as various kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues are coupled in the same verse. Further, 1 Cor correlates prophetic speech with weighing what is said.
Even though OT prophecy is distinct from early Christian prophecy in Paul's theology, the two may also be found correlated in his Letters.
While scholarship is divided between maximal and minimal identifications of early Christian forms of prophetic speech in Paul's Letters, 44 1 Cor and Rom are most recurrently identified as such. Both passages are surrounded by citations of biblical prophecy, both from the book of Isaiah, Isa in 1 Cor , followed by Hos in 1 Cor , and Isa a with Isa in Rom The revelation of a mystery which Paul voices in his eschatological visions with exegetical reference to biblical prophecy was not unknown to ancient Judaism.
With regard to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the contemporizing exegesis of the prophets of old as a "prophetic experience" has been framed "revelatory exegesis" in a recent study by A.
Early Christian prophecy ranks prominently among Pauline lists of spiritual gifts, as we may infer from Rom and from 1 Cor as well as When prophecy is mentioned as the first "gift according to the grace given to us" in Rom RSV , its character as a gift has been recurrently interpreted as inspired speech. I will return to some of these homiletic functions, when considering sections in 1 Cor Toward rereading 1 Corinthians Turning to 1 Cor for relevant passages on prophecy, it should be noted that this larger section has long been recognised as key evidence about early Christian prophecy.
The literary unity of 1 Cor as a larger section regarding divine gifts of the Spirit has recently been underscored by Soeng Yu Li, who considers prophecy as major paradigm in Paul's exposition on these gifts for a future-oriented faith community. Paul also mentions the interpretation of "spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit" 1 Cor , RSV , when speaking about the secret and hidden wisdom of God 1 Cor Yet the constraints which the apostle meets when corresponding with his Corinthian audience are disunity, dissensions and factionalism 1 Cor This prevents Paul from addressing them as "spiritual people" and leaves them for the moment as people of flesh 1 Cor With this overall setting of 1 Cor within 1 Corinthians at large in mind, I now discuss aspects of prophecy in 1 Cor , , , and a, with a view to contextual reading.
Throughout this variety of spiritual things and the variety of modalities gifts, ministries, workings in 1 Cor , Paul stresses their service to the common good 1 Cor In this passage, prophecy is embedded in a web of spiritual things and consecutively coupled with the ability to distinguish between spirits, a bit like tongues are coupled with the interpretation of tongues 1 Cor In a communal context, the discernment of spirits may find a formal analogy in the Dead Sea Scrolls, of which the Scrolls movement was also prophetically inspired and engaged in "revelatory exegesis".
That is, the examination and testing of spirits as well as deeds recurs in the Qumran Community Rule 1QS 5. This same text also mentions the authoritative role of an interpreter in finding out matters hidden from Israel 1QS 8. More generally speaking, the testing of prophecy in Paul also stands in relation to its Jewish heritage. In Paul, early Christian prophecy yet has a relatively more distinct and outspoken place: "the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets" 1 Cor , RSV. Our next passage, 1 Cor , pinpoints the limitations of prophecy from an eschatological perspective.
Prophecy is here considered finite, it will pass away, and it only manifests itself in part 1 Cor Prophetic knowledge could be perceived as being limited also in early Jewish thought, as illustrated by the Qumran Pesher to Habakkuk, which speaks of the final age being extended "beyond all that the prophets say" 1QpHab 7. Paul compares the contemporaneous situation with seeing in a mirror dimly and knowing in part over against seeing face to face and gaining full understanding, being fully understood in the final age 1 Cor Throughout chapter 13, Paul emphasizes that that which endures from the present to the final age is love.
Without love, nothing is gained with prophetic powers 1 Cor Wolter calls this the eschatological relativization of the gift of prophetic speech in Paul's theology. The aim of love 1 Cor , heavily stipulated in 1 Cor 13, does not preclude eagerness for gifts of the Spirit, but in Paul's understanding should predetermine it. Perhaps it should be added that prophecy is not so much relativized as its nature is put into perspective with regard to the final age.
Yet the notions of full understanding and face to face contact appear proleptically embodied in Paul's understanding of love. If the aim of love undergirds the desire of the special gift of prophecy then Paul has nothing against it, but even commends it in the interest of the upbuilding of the faith community, as we see in 1 Cor This distinction has already been foreshadowed by consecutive references to speaking in the tongues of men and of angels and to prophetic powers in 1 Cor Speaking in tongues without love is associated with "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" in 1 Cor , whereas prophetic powers are surrounded by the understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge and all faith in 1 Cor , which yet amount to nothing without love.
In 1 Cor , Paul addresses this distinction in increasing sharpness. Thus we read in 1 Cor In 1 Cor , Paul adds that prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues. Both may be put in practice, but the latter is only for one's own benefit, unless it is followed by interpretation. Where does this distinction between prophecy and speaking in tongues come from? Glossolalia vs.
Speaking in tongues is characterized as unintelligible to other people, whereas prophecy stands out for its intelligibility and moral outreach to the faith community in Paul's understanding in 1 Cor In his study on prophecy and inspired speech, C.
Forbes sought to dissociate alleged Hellenistic religious contexts of "ecstatic speech" from Paul's discussion of speaking in tongues. Forbes rather associated Pauline glossolalia with spiritual elitism among the Corinthians drawing on speculations within Jewish Hellenism.
Thus a spiritual sense should be included. The fact that Paul does not specify where his idea of "speaking in tongues" comes from could imply its diffuse presence in various contexts. By May 14, , when the United Nations officially recognized the State of Israel, over , Jews had fulfilled the prophecies of the ingathering. Currently, out of the Only God could have foreseen this miraculous ingathering and rebirth over 2, years before it began, and only God had the power to make it happen!
The study of prophecy provides a better understanding of the current economic and political events in the world that will bring the Antichrist to power. Many today are also troubled due to the disturbing world conditions. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John —3. Because they had already witnessed the fulfillment of Scripture through the life and ministry of Jesus, the disciples believed Him when He gave the prophetic promise of His return.
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