Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George F Somsel <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:03:01 +0100 "Read, James C"
<K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk> writes:
> Reading through Genesis I noticed that the first occurence of the 
> word we translate as prophet is 
> found in reference to Abraham. This reminded me of my Hebrew 
> lecturer at St. Andrews who argued 
> (years ago) that the orignal meaning of prophet meant something 
> similar to 'forth teller' rather 
> than 'fore teller' and that his primary characteristic was that of 
> speaking out rather than that 
> of predicting the future.
> 
> Any thoughts?
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That is correct except that it's too cute by half.  I don't think most
people understand what that means.  They continue to speak of
predictions.  I would rather say that the prophet speaks the divine word
regarding something viewing it sub specie aeternitatis.

george
gfsomsel
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