tion as one in a high state of emotional excitement was prominently retained. When Elisha sends a young man of the school of prophets to anoint Jehu as King of Israel, the court attendants asked him: "Wherefore came this insane fellow to you?" (II K. 9: 11). מדוע בא) -so also the later prophets speak of the sur ,(המשגע הזה אליך vival of this excited frenzy under the name of prophecy: Jer. 29: 26" for every man that is mad and maketh himself a prophet, that thou put him in prison and in the stocks"; II Kings 3: 15 “and it came to pass when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him," showing emotional excitement caused by external stimulus such as music, etc. Philology shows that the same word running through different languages of the same family does not always retain the original sense of the root; while other words, again, may in the course of evolution develop new meanings and shades of meaning alongside with the original.1 Still other words may denote something of the original idea of the root and at the same time connote the different shades of meaning which the word in the different related languages may have assumed, and thus blend, as it were, different shades of meaning into the same word. Now it is my conviction, that, though it may not be possible to say with any degree of certainty from which one of the family of Semitic languages the word nabi was originally imported, it is quite certain that the word has absorbed, in the course of Israelitish development, or assumed even from the very beginning, all the meanings of the word in the different Semitic tongues in which the Hebrews met the word, for it is evident beyond question that the Hebrew literature preserves the word in all 1E. g., Knave, Knabe; Knight, Knecht; indict, indite; burden, bier, barrow, birth, bairn; nice in sense of ignorant as in "He was nyce, and knowthe no wisdom." ("Three Lectures on Science of Language," by F. Max Mueller, p. 15 ff.) these shades of meaning, and uses it sometimes exclusively in one sense, and again exclusively in another sense, and then again in a sense in which all the meanings are blended into one. In addition, therefore, to the Canaanitish usages and meaning of the word, the Arabic and Babylonian-Assyrian meanings must also be considered, for they, too, have unquestionably contributed to the fundamental concept of the nabi. In each the word developed a peculiar shade of the original germinal idea, and all these have blended into one concept in the Hebrew language. Firstly, then, we saw that nabi has the original. idea, common to all natural prophecy, that of “bubbling up," or "gushing forth," derived from the older word .naba נבע In the second place naba'a (Arabic) means "to show," "declare," "proclaim," announce." Here in this Arabic word is evidently one of the most important thoughts of the germ-idea of the common root naba. And this idea has been retained, sometimes mingled with the other idea, but often quite distinctly and exclusively, through all the stages of prophetic development and growth. The nabi is, then, according to the Arabic word, a proclaimer, an announcer, a messenger, one who proclaims, announces, something not his own or for himself, but one who is an agent, a messenger for some one else, and that some one else is always God. With this idea Exodus 7: 1 and 2 harmonize perfectly: "God said to Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." And as if that were not plain enough, the writer continues to explain what he means by nabi, namely, one who speaks for another. He says: "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, and Aaron, thy brother, shall speak unto Pharaoh." In another place (Ex. 4: 16) Aaron is called the mouth of Moses, an idea often expressed by the prophets, calling themselves the mouth of God (nın''D). Jeremiah expresses the same idea when he says (23: 13) "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied." Thus Amos 5: 8 "The Lord God hath spoken, shall not the prophet announce it? "1 The essential idea is always that the prophet announces, declares, something for his God. This is so not only in Israel but in all nations. There are prophets of Baal and prophets of Asherah (I K. 18: 19), that is, prophets announcing the message of their gods, as is even more plainly indicated by Jeremiah in Ch. 23: 13" they prophesied by Baal " (Sya nn), that is, spoke in Baal's name, ordered and commissioned by Baal, not of their own accord. As we have seen the Canaanitish conception of the nabi agreeing with the Greek idea of μávτis, so we may note here this Arabic idea agreeing entirely with the Greek conception of a prophet, προφήτης (from πρόφημι to speak for some one). The προφήτης was one who spoke for another, an interpreter of the will of a god. “ Διὸς προφήτης έστι Λοξίας πατρός.” Even more characteristic is the expression used of poets, Μουσῶν προφῆται. Now while the Arabic meaning of the word expresses the core-thought of prophecy, no inconsiderable light is thrown on the subject by the Babylonian-Assyrian idea of the word naba'a, and especially by an investigation of the attribute ascribed to the god Nabu. Jastrow2 says: "The Hebrew word for prophet, nabi, is of the same stem as the Assyrian Nabu, and the popular tradition in placing the last scene in the life of Moses on Mt. Nebo is apparently influenced by the fact that Moses was 1 Free translation. 2 Jastrow, Morris: "The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," Boston, 1898, p. 130, note 1. a nabi." The primitive meaning of the root in the Babylonian-Assyrian was simply "speaker," but it soon came to be a peculiar kind of speaker, namely, one who' uttered wisdom. So here again we have a new contribution to the fundamental concept of the Hebrew word nabi. From a study of the attributes of the Babylonian-Assyrian god Nabu we learn what the nabi must have been. "The most prominent attribute of Nabu, at least in the later phases of the Babylonian religion, is that of wisdom."1 He is also called "The opener of the ears of understanding," also the god of writing and the patron of science. Not only is he the source of all wisdom, but the clear seer who guides all the gods.2 Nabu is also one of the special gods of oracles, assuring and sending messages to his favorite followers.3 Since then Nabu was the god of wisdom, of writing, of science, of oracles, of revelation, of messages, opening the ears of understanding, it is evident that the nabi must have been the recipient of all these gifts, receiving his understanding, his wisdom, through oracles and revelations and messages from his god. 1 Jastrow, ib., p. 124. See also pp. 127-28. 2 Ib., p. 229. 3 Ib., p. 348. "I will grant thee life, O Ashurbanabal, even I, Nabu, to the end of days Thy feet shall not grow weary, nor thy hands weak (?), Thy tongue shall not be removed from thy lips, For I give thee a favorable message. I will raise thy head, I will increase thy glory in the temple of One of his important offices, namely, that of "revelation" became later detached from his personality and was ascribed to his consort Tashmitum, but so closely connected was this idea of "revelation" with the god Nabu, that not only is he often called "ilu tashmêti" (god of revelation) but his consort Tashmitum is never mentioned without Nabu while other goddesses are often mentioned separately from their divine husbands. To conclude, then, the Hebrew word nabi is the same as the Arabic, Babylonian-Assyrian, and the general Canaanitish word from the same root, and its complete meaning has been enriched by the three streams of thought. The nabi is one who gushes forth an abundance of words, bubbles over with frenzied emotion, in the later stage with enthusiasm; always, in all stages, and under all circumstances, proclaims the words of his God; and finally those words are words of wisdom such as one could not have gotten except through oracular interpretation and revelation. |