Nabi #68

Nabi is the standard Hebrew word for a prophet. The exact origin is disputed. One common view links it to an Akkadian verb meaning “to call,” making the nabi either one who is called by God or one who calls out God’s message, and the word is clearly used for someone who speaks on behalf of another. Nabi occurs hundreds of times, and it is the source of the Greek prophetes.

Biblical Usage

Its meaning as a spokesperson is clearest in Exodus 7:1, where God tells Moses that he has made him “a god to Pharaoh” and that Aaron his brother “shall be thy prophet,” speaking Moses’s words. Deuteronomy 18:15-18 promises that the LORD will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people, to whom they must listen, and that God will put his words in his mouth. The passage is quoted in Acts 3:22 and, in Jewish and Christian tradition, has been read both as the office of prophecy as a whole and as pointing to a single coming prophet.

Other titles existed alongside it. First Samuel 9:9 explains that the one now called a prophet was formerly called a seer. Prophets are not always professionals: Amos denies that he was a prophet or a prophet’s son and says the LORD took him from the flock and told him to prophesy (Amos 7:14-15), and Jeremiah’s call describes him as appointed a prophet to the nations before his birth (Jeremiah 1:5). Women are also called prophets, including Miriam (Exodus 15:20) and Deborah (Judges 4:4), and Abraham is called one in Genesis 20:7.

Theological Significance

A prophet’s task in the Old Testament is to speak God’s message, which includes warning, judgment, and consolation as well as, in some cases, foretelling. Deuteronomy sets tests for true prophecy and the prophets themselves distinguish true from false speakers (Jeremiah 23:16). The New Testament treats John the Baptist as a prophet and more (Luke 7:26), and the early church read many prophetic texts as fulfilled in Jesus, who is himself called a prophet in the Gospels and Acts. Traditions differ on whether prophecy in the sense of a direct word from God continues in the church or ceased with the apostolic age.