Not "Prophet" but "Luminary" - Part 1

The word “prophets” in the New Testament is an untranslated Greek word adopted into English. Its English meaning does not match what the word meant in the time of Jesus.

The Greek Words

The Greek noun is prophetes (προφῆται). Jesus uses it in thirty-seven verses. This word is translated as “one who speaks for a god and interprets his will," more generally, "interpreter," and "keepers of the oracle." It was also the highest level of priesthood in Egypt. However, its basic meaning is something else.

The Hebrew word translated into the Greek prophetes is nāḇî' (נָבָא). This word is simpler, it means literally, "spokesperson." This is the Greek’s basic meaning, but the Greek says it more colorfully, as we shall see.

The noun is from a root verb, prophao (προφαίνω), a word Jesus never uses, which means to “bring to light,” “show forth,” “manifest,” "to shine light out," or "to shine light before." Its roots are pros ("before"), phos ("light) and  phaino ("shine.) This means that people at the time called those who speak for a god or were keepers of the oracle as their "shining lights," "enlightened," or “luminaries.” From its sense as “spokesperson,” the verb came to mean to “show forth” by word, “indicate,” or “declare.”

Because it was associated with oracles and divine revelations, it could refer to someone who foretells the future, but that was not as a dominant meaning at the time that it is in English today. The English sense of this word comes from Biblical interpretation, especially the Bible foretelling and foreshadowing the coming of Jesus and its predictions of the Second Coming.

Another verb is derived from the noun, prophetes. It is propheteuo (προφητεύω). This is translated as “prophesy” in the Bible, but the verb’s form means “to be” something. This verb means to "be illuminated" or "be a shining light," that is, to act as a spokesperson or an intermediary. It does not actually mean "to foretell the future.” More humorously, it can also mean "to be a quack doctor." Jesus only uses propheteuo in only four verses. However, to properly discuss what Jesus does and does mean when he uses it, will require a separate article, the next in this two-part series.

Jesus’s Use of the Word

Jesus uses t prophetes three distinct ways:

Prophetes can refer to specific books of the Bible. A good example is Matthew 5:17:

NIV: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Listeners Heard: You might not want to imagine that I've shown up to annul the Law or the Luminaries. I really didn't show up to break up but to fill up.

The books of Moses were known as "the Law" in the New Testament. It was called the Torah ("Instruction"). Whenever Jesus used the word "Law" to refer to what has been written, he is referring to these books. The next section of books in the Bible are known as Nevi'm ("Prophets). This word is the Hebrew plural of nāḇî'. These books were divided into the “former” or “major” and “latter” or “minor” prophets. The “former” books are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The “latter” are Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The other books of the Bible were called Ketuvim (“Writings”).

Jesus also uses prophetes to refer to the historical prophets themselves. A good example is Matthew 23:30.

NIV: And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
Listeners Heard: And you say: If we chaired in the times of those fathers of ours, we should not sit still idle, a part of them, companions in the blood of the prophets.

Later in this section of Matthew (Matthew 23:35), Jesus goes on to say:

NIV: And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah…
Listeners Heard:  So on it might show up upon you, all blood of virtue, being poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel of the virtuous until the blood of Zachariah…

Note here that Abel, the son of Adam, was not considered a prophet and neither was Zachariah, who was a priest in the Old Testament. These two verses make it appear that Jesus considered the “prophets” to include all the enlightened in Israel’s history.

Finally, we have the third way Jesus used prophetes: to refer to those who are enlightened in the present day. A good example is Matthew 10:41.

NIV: Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.
Listeners Heard: The one welcoming a luminary in a name of a luminary will get himself compensation of a luminary. And the one welcoming a virtuous person in a name of a virtuous person will get himself compensation of a virtuous person.

This does not refer to the people from the Bible in the past. From the tenses of the verbs, we know it refers to people in the present. However, this verse is somewhat humorous considering Jesus saw that most luminaries were killed, which isn’t that rewarding.

However, there is a more interesting verse, that, as I translate it, regards an even larger group of people. This verse is from the Sermon on the Mount. It comes after a section where Jesus tells people to celebrate when others insult them. This verse is Matthew 5:12. In it, I translate one word differently than the Biblical translators. Though both translations are legitimate, mine makes what Jesus says here much more consistent with the real meaning of prophetes and what says afterwards.