but no one is prophet with reference to himself. This idea lies even in the name, for נָבִיא is not a passive name in the sense of one to whom a revelation is vouchsafed, but an intensive active noun, which indicates the professional announcer, as (
Greek characters) does not signify a foreteller, qui praefatur, but a proclaimer, qui profatur. The word נָבָה, rad. נב indicates speech which comes and bursts forth from within. The speaker presupposes the hearer, hence the
prophet as such is a mediator of a divine revelation to others.
Rem. I. The opinion of Land (Theologische Tijdschrift, Leiden, II, 191) which is also approved by Kuenen, and in which he follows Sprenger (Leben Mohammed's vol. I. — 1861, p. 265), that כֹּהֵן Arabic kâhin originally signified
soothsayer, is without weight. The verb כָּהַן is related secondarily to כּוּן to stand, כֹּהֵן is the one who stands and so the one who officiates, Hebr. X, II (Greek characters), according to a principle derived from Deuteronomy XVIII, I that every priestly office is performed by standing (אֵין שֵׁרוּת אֶלָּא מְעֻמָּד), compare Buxtorfii Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, Basileae 1540, col. 2534. Schultz (Altteslamentliche Theologie , 2nd ed., Frankfurt on the Main 1878, p. 369) explains it as the one who prepares [the offering]. The word כּוּן, as primitive, either signifies to stand, or in the sense of the Hiphil is הֵכִין to prepare. But the first signification in this participial name is most probable.
Rem. 2. The verb נָבָא does not signify to speak softly, hollowly, secretly as Riehm p. 21, and Schultz p. 215 maintain in agreement with Hupfeld, nor does it signify to speak with animation, or with deep excitement as Anger, p. 8, Kuenen (The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, London 1877, p. 42) hold, but as Fleischer (in Delitzsch' Genesis, 4th ed., Leipzig 1872, p. 551—553) has proved נָבָא did not signify anything further originally than to raise oneself, to ascend, to become audible. It is perhaps the same word as that from which in the Babylonio-Assyrian the god Nabu (biblical נְבוֺ) has received his name as the messenger of the Gods. The form קָטִיל as a more intensive form than קָטֵל includes the accompanying idea of habitual activity or the permanent possession of a quality hence נָבִיא is the speaker by profession. The word does not signify anything else than the speaker, but as רֹאֶה in itself denotes the seer in the sense of one seeing clearly (clairvoyant), so נָבִיא signifies the speaker in the sense of an inspired, divinely filled speaker. The Niphal נִבָּא and the Hithpael הִתְנַבֵּא are denominatives, signifying to demean, or exercise oneself as a prophet.
§ 5.
The Patriarchs as Priests.
Hence the name נָבִיא implies mediation, but it does not originally indicate a class with the duty of public proclamation. Before Israel became a state the gift and profession of the נָבִיא as well as that of the כֹּהֵן was especially connected with the head of the holy family which was to become the medium, and the birth-
