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PART II

PROPHETIC GENIUS

CHAPTER I

WHAT KIND OF GENIUS IS THE PROPHET?

OUR study of prophecy has made it plain that the prophet was the national spokesman of Jahve. He uttered an abundance of words, through great mental and emotional excitement, often deep and profound truths, the import of which, because of ignorance of psychological law, was often not known or intelligible to the prophet himself. These mysterious mind-phenomena of all descriptions from simple dreams to and through all the stages of psychological illusions, from clairvoyance and clairaudience to convulsion, delirium, epilepsy, madness and insanity, in short all the mental phenomena deviating in the slightest degree from the every-day normal were considered, by agent and witness alike, as direct inspirations and revelations either mediately through spirits, good or evil, or immediately from God. The prophet was, therefore, always God-inspired and God-commissioned, and his words, whether profound wisdom, as often was the case, or not, as was just as often true, were nevertheless considered as messages from God through His agent the prophet. In later times as well as in earlier, the prophet was considered and considered himself, or rather was known to be and knew himself to be, the mouthpiece of God. Not in any figurative sense, but in a literal sense, not only to the ancients, but to us

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to-day, the prophet is the mouthpiece of God. must be noted that the meaning of that phrase changes with growing intellect and study.

Secondly, we have seen that the prophet was a loving child of his nation, a patriot in the sublimest sense, in a sense in which the fewest of us to-day are capable of understanding that term. Whenever in the great crises of his people the prophet saw inevitable ruin and confusion, he soared aloft on prophetic pinions, comforting his own bleeding heart and the hearts of his people by the message of peace that some day the ideal king, the Messiah, will bring order out of chaos and harmony out of confusion, that he will not despoil his people but be a royal and loyal counsellor, a faithful servant of his God and his people, a messenger of peace and joy. We have seen, too, how the prophet must have been a great student of nature and of his times, healing the sick and binding up wounds, doing great and wonderful things with a loving and wise heart, things that have always been, and are yet to-day, when a great, loving soul works among us for noble ends, wonderful, miraculous and awe-inspiring. We have gleaned also some hints as to the wonderful prescience of the prophets, such as only the great souls of humanity have been gifted with, that enabled them to warn and to exhort, to lead and to guide, to preach and to teach, to announce and to proclaim. Then we have seen these prophets active as preachers of morality and teachers of ethics, not ordained preachers and appointed teachers, serving in the pulpit or in the professor's chair, but voluntarily, or rather involuntarily, pressed into service by the great and mighty force of their soul, preaching because of an awakened righteous indignation against oppression and sin, and teaching because they could not help uttering their aspirations and longings, their deep insight and their profound wisdom. And lastly, we have seen the great patriotic sons of Israel flowering forth into

statesmen, not waiting to be asked or appointed to office, but each one ever ready to offer his services with his "Here I am, send me." Nay, not waiting to be sent but like a hero, instinctively and without thought, diving into the mad stream to save some helpless one struggling against a watery grave, so did the prophets instinctively and with heroic courage plunge into the great stream of the national life to save the sinking ship, or steer it out of harm's reach into safe harbor. The prophets were statesmen by virtue of their heroic patriotism, by authority of their divine, far-seeing and deep-seeing insight and foresight.

In all these activities, it was then shown, the prophet acted not through miracle or supernatural power, but in and along with natural laws, displaying all the beauty and power of the human mind and heart under the favorable conditions of oppression, danger, confusion, poverty, imprisonment, love, hatred, ambition and, above all, religious and patriotic enthusiasm.

Finally, it has been pointed out that the prophet is very closely related to the great minds of other peoples of all times who do not claim to be prophets in the sense in which our European civilization has filled out the content of that word. Especially intimate did we find the relation of prophet to priest and diviner, the three being originally, perhaps even in Israel, one and the same person. While the poet, we found, was among all peoples inspired of the muses and gods, expressing his wisdom in that mysterious manner of highly excited nervous states and, therefore, designated by the vague terms inspiration, revelation and the like, the prophet, it was seen, was not only related to these poets, but was in every sense a poet, using all the technique of expression, form and rhythm, and displaying as well the highly imaginative faculties of the poet. This study led to the conclusion that the prophet was a genius, bearing the stamp of genius

wherever one is found, and in whatever field he is active. The prophet was a distinctly Hebrew genius, and be it distinctly understood that it is not meant to convey the idea that the prophet is a species of genius that grew only in Israel; on the contrary the prophet-genius was not even indigenous to Israel's soil, but was transplanted from foreign soil. But here, as in many cases of transplanting, the prophetic flower grew to a beauty and size that it never had in its original soil, and would perhaps never have attained but for the transplanting into the rich and fruitful soil of Israel.

To say that the prophet was the Hebrew national type of genius does not yet explain definitely the kind of genius he was. No clear definition, however, can be given of the prophet-genius that would mark him off from the other species as we mark off a musical genius from a philosophical genius, for in ancient times no man and no genius devoted himself exclusively to one thing as is done to-day. The prophet I should say was a religio-poetic and philosophical-political genius all in one in the large and rough, a rich gold ore with a large proportion of other metals. He was a natural genius who, not as Carlyle says, can be all sorts of men, but was all sorts of men. He was the watershed on the mountain top from which rivers flow in all directions. He felt the mighty stir of his soul as he lay there in the open fields, felt the mad storms of his nation's history ruffling his mighty spirit as the wind shakes the bosom of the ocean, and being unbounded by custom's river banks, but free like a vast restless ocean, his force and energy flowed in all directions instead of being channeled in one course. . He was poet, preacher, teacher, scientist, healer, leader, statesman, all in one. The keynote, however, of all the prophet's offices was a national religio-political activity in the service of Jahve. This was the unfettered Hebrew genius, the prophet.

CHAPTER II

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE HISTORY OF PROPHECY

THE results obtained from a study of the growth and development of Hebrew prophecy would agree entirely with the results in this thesis obtained by a totally dif ferent method of procedure. Here will be presented a skeleton outline of what a history of prophecy would contain, in order to keep clearly before the mind the conclusions such a history offers for a concise and clear concept of the prophet-genius. Then we shall see what elements in the prophetic mind need psychological explanation.

Were I to write a history of prophetism I should divide the subject into three periods: First, the Early Period from the earliest times to Samuel; second, the Transition Period from Samuel to Amos; and third, the Later Period from Amos to the close of prophecy. It would then appear that the early Hebrew prophecy was not only similar to, but identical with, in every respect, prophecy everywhere, among all peoples. They used in Israel as among the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Indians and others, external means such as dance, music, wine, for bringing about subjective, mental and emotional excitement such as ecstasy, delirium, vision, voices, trance, etc. These abnormal and highly excited, uncontrolled nervous states were considered the indwelling of the divine spirit. The Teraphim, the Lot, the Urim and Thumim were another kind of external means for inquiring into the future and obtaining an answer from God for private and national needs.

The second, the Transition Period, shows an advance

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