Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

Spokesman, Seer, Visionary

A prophet was clearly a spokesman for God, but is it possible to amplify this definition from the original Hebrew word itself? Unfortunately the word prophet has no neatly stated definition, either in the Bible or in the Hebrew lexicons. Three key Hebrew terms describe the Hebrew "prophet"-roeh, hozeh and nabi. The first two words both mean "to see" and are usually trans lated as "seer" in the English Bible. Together they appear, in one form or another, fewer than thirty times, and neither term appears before the book of 1 Samuel. The noun nabi, by contrast, is translated "prophet" and is the basic and most common term, appearing more than three hundred times, and the related verb more than one hundred times.

hozeh

nabi

Hebrew Words roeh Usually translated seer Number of appearances

prophet

seer

As a noun, 300+ times; as a verb, 100+ An authorized spokesperson (for God), a messenger Stressed the ob jective or active work of the mes senger of the LORD Relation to people Declaring the message

6 men so called (3 men are called both hozeh and nabi) A visionary or gazer; one who receives a message m a v1S10n; a beholder

3 men so called: Samuel, Zadok and Hanani

Basic meaning

A seer; one given insight into the past, present and future

Distinction

Emphasized the subjective element-i.e., the mode of receiving divine revelation by "seeing"; receiving insight from God

Emphasis

Relation to God

Reception ofthe message

Nine men are specifically called "seer" in our English Bibles. Only three have the term roeh applied to them in the Hebrew text: Samuel, Zadok and Hanani (references follow). The rest are given the term hozeh.

1. Amos (Amos 7:12) 2. Asaph (2 Chronicles 29:30) ■ 42