them up, by his discipline, to a degree of prophetical perfection'.'

Of these disciples we find very frequent mention in Scripture; so we read of the sons or disciples of the prophets in Gilgal. And (chap. vi.) Elisha is brought in as their master, at whose command they were, and therefore they ask leave to enlarge their dwellings. And Elisha himself was trained up by Elijah, as his disciple; and therefore it was thought a reason good enough to prove that he was a prophet, for that he had been Elijah's disciple, and "poured water upon his hands," as all the Jewish scholiasts observe. And Elisha sends one of these his ministering disciples to anoint Jehu to be king of Israel. And the young prophet sent to reprove Ahab for sparing Ben-hadad, king of Syria, is called by the Chaldee paraphrast 'One of the sons, the disciples of the prophets'.' And hence it was that Amos urged the extraordinariness of his commission from God, "I was no

1 R. Levi Ben Gersom states nothing about Samuel being called the father of the prophets. His words are these:

other reason.'

22 Kings iv. 38, where the Heb.

rendered by Jonathan and Jarchi by

sons of the prophets, is בְנֵי הַנְבִיאִים וּמִי אֲבִיהֶם' ר"ל שאין ענין הנבואה

'.disciples of the prophets תַּלְמִידִי נְבִיא

והשלמות מגיע מהאב לבן ולזה יתכן שיהיה הבן נביא ואף על פי שאביו אינו

The meaning of the expression, "Who is their father?" is, that prophetical perfection is not a matter that is conveyed from father to son. Under these circumstances the son may be a prophet, though the father is not so.' Then, after speaking of the difference between the time when Samuel was first established to be a prophet of the Lord' (1 Sam. iii. 20), when the word of the Lord was precious,' without any 'open vision' (v. 1), and the present time, he adds, DDN

6

Similarly in 2 Kings vi. 1, et passim.

3 2 Kings vi. 1, 2. The increase in the number of the sons of the prophets is attributed by the various Jewish commentators to the circumstance of the removal of Gehazi from among them. (2 Kings v. 27.)

4 2 Kings iii. 11. That is, 'ministered unto him,' as the Targum renders it.

R. L. Ben Gersom remarks on the passage, that though Elijah had many disciples, yet Elisha was especially mentioned to Jehoshaphat, on account of his having been a personal attendant on Elijah, and so having had superior advantages of instruction and discipline.

עתה רבו הנביאים אם מצד מה שלמד אותם שמואל והביאם אל השלמות אם -And perhaps the pro לסבה אחרת:

phets had now become numerous either because Samuel instructed them, and trained them up, by his discipline, to a degree of prophetical perfection, or through some

5

6

2 Kings ix. 1.

prophet, nor was I a prophet's son." 'He was not prepared for prophecy, nor trained up so as to be fitted for a prophetical function by his discipleship,' as Abarbanel glosseth upon the place. And, therefore, divine inspiration found him out of the ordinary road of prophets, among his herds of cattle, and in an extraordinary way moved him to go to Bethel, there to declare God's judgments against king and people, even in the king's chapel. To conclude: In the New Testament, when John the Baptist and our Saviour called disciples to attend upon them and to learn divine oracles from them, it seems to have been no new thing, but that which was the common custom of the old prophets.

Now of these prophets there were several schools or colleges, as the Jews observe, in several cities, according as occasion was to employ them. So, we read of a college in Jerusalem3, where Huldah the prophetess lived, which is called in the original, and by the Chaldee paraphrast translated domus doctrina; by Kimchi

a school'.' So, we meet with divers places set down as those, where the residence of those young prophets was, as Bethel, and Jericho, and Gilgal, &c. So Kimchi observes upon the place: As the sons of the prophets were in Bethel and Jericho, so were there also of them in several other places. And the main reason why

1 Amos vii. 14.

nor have I been engaged in the study of

it, nor have I inherited from my father לא היה מוכן לנבואה מפאת 2 התלמדותו וגם לא היה מוכן אליה מצד

2 Kings xxii. 14.

-He was not pre טבעו ומפאת אביו :

pared for prophecy by the discipline he had undergone, nor was he prepared for it by his own nature, nor through his father.' Abarbanel in cap. I. vv. 1, 2. The comment of Abarbanel on the pas

אני לא הכינותי :sage itself is as follows עצמי לנבואה ולא נתעסקתי בלמודה וגם לא ירשתי מאבי מדרגת הנבואה :

'I have not prepared myself for prophecy,

the prophetical degree.'

3

4

they were thus dispersed in many of the cities of Israel was this, that they might reprove the Israelites that were there and their prophecy was wholly according to the exigency of those times; and, therefore, it was that their prophecy was not committed to writing'.' From hence, some of the Jewish writers tell us of a certain Aadouxia of prophecy-one continually like an evening star shining upon the conspicable hemisphere, when another was set. Kimchi tells us of this mystical gloss upon those words, "Ere the lamp of God went out." 'This is spoken mystically concerning the light of prophecy, according to that saying amongst our doctors— the sun riseth and the sun setteth-that is, ere God makes the sun of one righteous man to set, He makes the sun of another righteous man to rise3.'

כמו בבית אל ומה שהיו בני ! המוכן לנבואה היו אנשים נפרדים ושוכנים במדברות מתחברים עם מי הנביאים בבית אל, וביריחו כן היו בערים אחרות אלא זכר אלה לפי שדומה להם לא היו מתבודדים לגמרי אבל היו נעזרים על חכמות התורה שהיה דרכם עליהם ומה שהיו ברוב ומעשיה המקרבים אל המדרגה ההיא ערי ישראל כדי להוכיח את ישראל בכל עיר ועיר ונבואתם היתה לשעה בקדושה ובטהרה והם בני הנביאים : ,Kimchi לפיכך לא נכתבה נבואתם :

in 2 Reg. ii. 3.

9 I Sam, iii. 3.

בדרש אמר כי על נר הנבואה 3 אמר ואמרו וזרח השמש ובא השמש עד שלא ישקיע הק"בה שמשו של צדיק אחר הוא מזריח שמשו של צדיק אחר :

In the book Cosri, the sons of the prophets are described as a class of persons who partially, though not entirely, separated themselves from the world, living in deserts, and holding converse only with men of similar character.

בהמצא השכינה בארץ הקדושה בעם

'Quamdiu majestas Divina (Shechinah) præsens fuit in Terra Sancta, et in populo ad prophetiam disposito et præparato, plures extiterunt, qui se a mundo separaverunt, et in desertis habitaverunt, conversantes tamen cum sui similibus, nec prorsus et omnino solitarie viventes. Adjuti autem fuerunt sanctitate et puritate hac ad assequendum sapientiam Legis, et ejus operum, quorum ope ad gradum illum (quem quæsiverunt; propheticum sc.) pervenitur. Et hi sunt, qui vocantur Filii Prophetarum.' Cosri, Pars III. $ I.

CHAPTER X.

Of Bath Kol, i. e. filia vocis: That it succeeded in the room of prophecy : That it was by the Jews counted the lowest degree of revelation. What places in the New Testament are to be understood of it.

W

E should now come briefly to speak of the highest degree of divine inspiration or prophecy, taken in a general sense, which was the Mosaical. But before we do that, it may not be amiss to take notice of the lowest degree of revelation among the Jews, which was inferior to all that which they call by the name of prophecy: and this was their Bath Kol, filia vocis, which was nothing else but some voice which was heard as descending from heaven, directing them in any affair as occasion served: which kind of revelation might be made to one, as Maimonides tells us, that was no way prepared for prophecy'.

Of this filia vocis, we have mention made in one of the most ancient monuments of Jewish learning, and otherwhere very frequently among the Jewish writers, as that which was a frequent thing after the ceasing of prophecy among the Jews-of which more afterward. Josephus tells a story of Hyrcanus the high priest, how he heard this voice from heaven, which told him of the victory which his sons had got at Cyzicum against Antiochus, the same day the battle was fought; and this, (he says), while he was offering up incense in the temple: he was

made partaker of a vocal converse with God, that is, by

a

יבת קול

This R. Isaac Sangarensis strongly urgeth against the Karrai or Scripturarii (a sort of Jews that reject all Talmudical traditions), that the grand doctors of the Jews received such traditions from the seventy-two senators, who were guided, either by a p, or something answerable to it, in the truth of things, after all prophecy had ceased: There is a tradition that the men of the great Sanhedrim were bound to be skilled in the knowledge of all sciences, and, therefore, it is much more necessary that prophecy should not be taken from them, or that which should supply its room, viz. the daughter of voice, and the like. Thus he, according to the genius of Talmudical learning, is pleased to expound the place, where it is said, that "a law shall go forth out of Zion," of the consistorial decrees of the judges, rulers and priests of the Jews, and the great senate of seventy-two elders, whom he would needs persuade us to be guided infallibly by this, or in some other way,——by some divine virtue, power, or assistance, always communicated to them, as supposed, at least, that such a heroical spirit as that spirit of fortitude which belonged to the judges and kings of Israel, and is called the Spirit of God (as Maimonides tells us1), had perpetually cleaved to them3.

• Παράδοξον δέ τι περὶ τοῦ ἀρχιερέως Υρκανοῦ λέγεται, τίνα τρόπον αὐτῷ τὸ θεῖον εἰς λόγους ἦλθε. Φασὶ γὰρ ὅτι κατ' ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν, καθ ̓ ἣν οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ τῷ Κυζικηνῷ συνέβαλον, αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ ναῷ θυμιών, μόνος ὢν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς, ἀκούσειε φωνῆς ὡς οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ νενικήκασιν ἀρτίως τὸν ̓Αντίοχον· καὶ τοῦτο προελθὼν ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ παντὶ τῷ πλήθει φανερὸν ἐποίησεν. καὶ συνέβη οὕτω γενέσθαι. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. Lib. XIII. cap. x. § 3.

4 More Nev. Pars II. cap. 45. 5 The Bath Kol is frequently mentioned in the Talmud, and also in the later Targums. The following instances may suffice.

תנו רבנן משמתו חגי זכריה ומלאכי קבלו כי הסנהדרין היו מצווים : לדעת כל החכמות כל שכן שלא נסתלקת נסתלקה רוח הקודש מישראל ואע"פ