Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents
Ellen G. White and Her Critics - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    “Spirit” and “Gift” Intimately Related

    “The spirit of prophecy” is intimately related to the gift of prophecy. *The term “spirit of prophecy” with reference to the prophetic gift is found in the ancient Jewish writings. The expression occurs in The Targums on the Book of Genesis. Both the Onkelos and the Jerusalem Targum on Genesis 41:38 read the same as follows: “And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this, in whom is the spirit of prophecy from the lord?” See The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch; with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum, translated by J. W. Etheridge, vol. 1 (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862), pp. 131, 303. Also Edward Lewis Curtis says that the Targum or paraphrase on Chronicles “explains somewhat similarly, except that the Sucathites are those ‘covered’ with a spirit of prophecy.”—International Critical Commentary, vol. 10 (on Chronicles), p. 98.
        Commenting on 2 Kings 22:14, Joseph Priestley remarks concerning Huldah: “It pleased God to distinguish several women with the spirit of prophecy, as well as other great attainments, to shew that, in his sight, and especially in things of a spiritual nature, there is no essential pre-eminence in the male sex.”—Theological and Miscellaneous Works, vol. 11, p. 477.
        Other writers who use the expression are:
        James Darmesteter, “Prophets of Israel,” in his Selected Essays, p. 43. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, New York, 1895.
        G. S. Streatfeild, The Incarnation, p. 41. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.
        Grace Aguilar, The Women of Israel, p. 325. George Routledge and Sons, Limited, [n. d.].
        Andrew C. Zenos, “Prophecy, Prophet,” Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Bible Dictionary (1936 ed.), sec. 14, p. 743, (cf. sec. 6, p. 741).
    The one is the Spirit which indites the prophecy; the other is the gift bestowed. They go together; they are inseparably connected. Where you find the one you find the other. The gift is the manifestation of that which the Spirit of God distributes to men, according to His own good purpose and plan. The apostle John not only gives us the definition of the term “testimony of Jesus” but also reveals in another passage in the Apocalypse something which keys the expression “testimony of Jesus” to the prophetic gift.
    EGWC 556.2

    If, after considering the evidences presented in this article, some should still feel constrained to urge that the expression “testimony of Jesus” should be understood somewhat in its objective rather than its subjective sense, we would reply that the objective might be considered, but only as a secondary meaning. We believe we have established the thought that the primary significance of this expression is subjective—that the testimony of Jesus means Jesus’ testimony, either in Himself or in and through the servants He might choose through whom to reveal Himself or His message. Certainly, after the prophet has received the divine illumination and goes forth with his message to man, in the giving of that message he is surely bearing testimony concerning his Lord and Master.EGWC 556.3

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents