prophetes ^4396^, "one who speaks forth or openly" (see PROPHECY, A), "a proclaimer of a divine message," denoted among the Greeks an interpreter of the oracles of the gods.

In the Sept. it is the translation of the word roeh, "a seer"; <1 Sam. 9:9>, indicating that the "prophet" was one who had immediate intercourse with God. It also translates the word nabhi, meaning "either one in whom the message from God springs forth" or "one to whom anything is secretly communicated." Hence, in general, "the prophet" was one upon whom the Spirit of God rested, , one, to whom and through whom God speaks, . In the case of the OT prophets their messages were very largely the proclamation of the divine purposes of salvation and glory to be accomplished in the future; the "prophesying" of the NT "prophets" was both a preaching of the divine counsels of grace already accomplished and the foretelling of the purposes of God in the future.

In the NT the word is used (a) of "the OT prophets," e. g., ; (b) of "prophets in general," e. g., ; (c) of "John the Baptist," ; (d) of "prophets in the churches," e. g., ; (e) of "Christ, as the aforepromised Prophet," e. g., , or, without the article, and, without reference to the Old Testament, ; in it is used with aner, "a man"; ; (f) of "two witnesses" yet to be raised up for special purposes, ; (g) of "the Cretan poet Epimenides," ; (h) by metonymy, of "the writings of prophets," e. g., .

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)

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