Concept
Prophecy
Overview
In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a prophet) by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or preternatural knowledge, for example of future events. They can be revealed to the prophet in various ways depending on the religion and the story, such as visions, or direct interaction with divine beings in physical form. Stories of prophetic deeds sometimes receive considerable attention and some have been known to survive for centuries through oral tradition or as religious texts.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Prophecy is discussed.
(1) Prophecy, or revelation is sure knowledge revealed by God to man. (2) A prophet is one who interprets the revelations of God to those who are unable to attain to sure knowledge of the matters revealed, and therefore can only apprehend them by simple faith.
Benedictus de Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise — Part 1
a chapter is titled for it; names the idea; opens on it
15); and in the account of the second divine appearance, it is said, “And God appeared to Solomon a second time, as he appeared to him at Gibeon” (ibid. ix. 2); it was evidently a dream. This kind of prophecy is a degree below that of which Scripture says, “In a dream I will speak to him” (Num. xii. 6). When prophets are inspired in a dream, they by no means call this a dream, although the prophecy reached them in a…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy really includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our natural faculties depends on our knowledge of God and His eternal laws; but ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundations which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature…
Benedictus de Spinoza, The Philosophy of Spinoza
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
17. The apostle enumerates several gifts, or works of Christian members, mentioning prophecy first. Prophecy is of two kinds: One is the foretelling of future events, a gift or power possessed by all the prophets under the Old Testament dispensation, and by the apostles; the other is the explanation of the Scriptures. "Greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues." 1 Cor 14, 5.
Martin Luther, Epistle Sermons, Vol. 2
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Prophecy is not an art, nor (when it is taken for Praediction) a constant Vocation; but an extraordinary, and temporary Employment from God, most often of Good men, but sometimes also of the Wicked. The woman of Endor, who is said to have had a familiar spirit, and thereby to have raised a Phantasme of Samuel, and foretold Saul his death, was not therefore a Prophetesse; for neither had she any science, whereby…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Related ideas
- Belief
- The Guide for the Perplexed
- Jesus
- Greek language
- Hebrew language
- Abraham
- Justin Martyr
- Al-Farabi
- Muhammad
- Fiction
- Culture
- Maimonides
- Muslims
- Moses
- Manifestation of God (Baháʼí Faith)
- Judea
- Noah
- Old Testament
- Myth
- Religion
- Divine law
- Revelation
- I Ching
- Statistics
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Agnosticism.