"No man, when in his senses, attains prophetic truth and inspiration; but when he receives the inspired word either his intelligence is enthralled by sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession. And he who would understand what he remembers to have been said, whether in dream or when he was awake, by the prophetic and enthusiastic nature, or what he has seen, must recover his senses; and then he will be able to explain rationally what all such words and apparitions mean, and what indications they afford, to this man or that, of past, present, or future, good and evil. But, while he continues demented, he cannot judge of the visions which he sees or the words which he utters; the ancient saying is very true that 'only a man in his senses can act or judge about himself and his own affairs.' And for this reason it is customary to appoint diviners or interpreters as discerners of the oracles of the gods. Some persons call them prophets; they do not know that they are only repeaters of dark sayings and visions, and are not to be called prophets at all, but only interpreters of prophecy."--Jowett's _Translation_. [19] _Nik._, i. 91. [20] _Phædrus_, 262 D. [21] It is still a controversy whether the original meaning of the Semitic root KHN is prophet, as in the Arabic KâHiN, or priest, as in the Hebrew KôHeN. [22] Cf. Jer. ii. 10: _For pass over to the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods?_ From the isles of Chittim unto Kedar--the limits of the Semitic world. [23] Numbers xxiv. 4, _falling but having his eyes open_. Ver. 1, _enchantments_ ought to be _omens_. [24] Instanced by Wellhausen, _Skizzen u. Vorarb._, No. v. [25] אלהים איש [26] רֹאֶה [27] חזֶה [28] Deut. xiii. 1 ff. admits that heathen seers were able to work miracles and give signs, as well as the prophets of Jehovah. [29] Cf. Mesha's account of himself and Chemosh on the Moabite Stone, with the narrative of the taking of Ai in the Book of Joshua. [30] Cf. Kuenen: _Gesammelte Alhandlungen_ (trans. by Budde), p. 461. [31] So in Deborah's Song. [32] 1 Sam. ix. 9. [33] 1 Sam. x. 1-16, xi. 1-11, 15. Chap. x. 17-27, xi. 12-14, belong to other and later documents. Cf. Robertson Smith, _Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, 135 ff. [34] 1 Sam. xix. 20-24. [35] What seemed most to induce the frenzy of the dervishes whom I watched was the fixing of their attention upon, the yearning of their minds after, the love of God. "Ya habeebi!"--"O my beloved!"--they cried. [36] Cornill, in the first of his lectures on _Der Israelitische Prophetismus_, one of the very best popular studies of prophecy, by a master on the subject. See p. 73 _n_.