Chapter II: Christ’s Prophetical Office

1. Definition of the Term “Prophet”

The word “Prophet” is etymologically derived from the Greek verb προφημί, to say beforehand, to foretell (Hebr. נָבִיא = vates, seer). In a wider sense it signifies a teacher (magister, διδάσκαλος; Hebr. מַגִּיד = speaker, orator).¹

The Bible employs the term Prophet in both meanings, most frequently however in the latter. Old Testament prophetism was not limited to extraordinary predictions of future events, but comprised primarily the ordinary teaching office, which was clothed with divine authority and exercised by instruction, admonition, warnings, and threats. The so-called prophetic schools of the Jews were colleges founded for the training of professional teachers of religion, not of prophets in the strict sense of the term.²

To say that Christ exercised the office or function of a prophet, is equivalent to saying that He possessed in the highest degree the gift of prophecy (donum prophetiae) and the vocation of a teacher (magisterium). Soteriology deals with Him only as a teacher.

2. The Prophetic Teaching Office of Christ

The Old Testament prophets hailed the future Messias as a teacher of truth, and when Jesus Christ appeared in Palestine, He actually exercised the functions of a teacher in the most exalted sense of the term.

a) Moses, who both as the founder of a religion and a teacher par excellence, is a prominent type of the Messias, uttered the famous prophecy registered in Deut. XVIII, 15: “The Lord thy God will raise up a prophet³ of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear.”⁴ This passage is expressly applied to Christ in the New Testament.⁵

Isaias foretells that the coming Messias will deliver humanity from sin and error. Is. LXI, 1 sq.: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn.” Christ Himself publicly read this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth, and when he had folded the book, said (Luke IV, 21): “This day is fulfilled this scripture in your ears.”⁶

b) The New Testament has confirmed the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. It has also demonstrated their truth. When Jesus was engaged in recruiting His disciples, Philip said to Nathanael: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth.”⁷ It was with the utmost confidence that our Lord appealed to Moses: “Think not that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me.”⁸ After He had fed five thousand people with a few loaves of bread, those who had witnessed the miracle enthusiastically exclaimed: “This is of a truth the prophet that is to come into the world.”⁹ When He had raised the widow’s son to life, there came a fear on those about Him, “and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet¹⁰ is risen up among us; and, God hath visited his people.”¹¹

c) Christ exercised His teaching office by journeying about Palestine and preaching the glad tidings of salvation.

St. Matthew records that “the people were in admiration at his doctrine; for he was teaching them as one having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees.”¹² He presented Himself as the absolute Teacher of truth. Cfr. John XVIII, 37: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth.” For it was “His Father” who spoke through Him,¹³ and He Himself was “the way, and the truth, and the life.”¹⁴ Consequently, there can be no other teacher beside or above Him: “Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master,¹⁵ Christ.”¹⁶ Acknowledging Him as the sovereign teacher of mankind, Nicodemus says: “Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God; for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him.”¹⁷ Even so great a teacher as St. John the Baptist literally paled in the glorious halo which encircled the Divine Master: “He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.”¹⁸

Nor must we forget the power of our Saviour’s example, which more effectively even than His words prompted men to embrace the truth and lead a virtuous life. Fully realizing that “Example serves where precept fails,” St. Luke in writing his Gospel, as he himself admits,¹⁹ was chiefly concerned with the things which “Jesus began to do and to teach.”²⁰ That it was the Redeemer’s express purpose to set a good example is manifest from His own declaration in John XIII, 15: “For I have given you an example,²¹ that as I have done to you, so you do also.” St. Paul strongly insists on the importance of our being made conformable to the image of the Son of God,²² and did not rest until Christ had been formed in all his hearers.²³ Christ was the beau-ideal of virtue, because He was without sin; and His example was most effective, because He was impelled by supreme charity. This accounts for the inexhaustible power which flows from the imitation of Christ and never ceases to purify, ennoble, energize, and rejuvenate men and to lead them on to moral perfection. In confirmation of this truth we need but point to the lives of the Saints.²⁴

d) For an adequate theological explanation of the singular greatness and perfection of Christ’s prophetical office we must go to its fountain-head, the Hypostatic Union.

(α) Endowed with a fulness of knowledge unparalleled in the history of the human race, Jesus was in a position to propound His teaching with absolute certainty and irresistible conviction.²⁵ Equipped with miraculous powers and the gift of prophecy, He was able to confirm and seal His words by signs and miracles. As the supernatural Head of grace, He was in the altogether unique position of one able to enlighten his hearers with the torch of faith and to fire their hearts with His grace. In all three of these respects He has absolutely no peer among men, and it is sheer folly to compare Him with Socrates or even with the greatest of the prophets, Moses and John the Baptist.

(β) Nor can it be urged as an argument against the sublimity of His prophetical office, that Jesus addressed Himself only to the Jews of Palestine. He had excellent reasons for confining His personal activity to that particular nation and country. We will enumerate four of the principal ones given by St. Thomas.²⁶ (1) He had to fulfil the promises which God had made to the Jews in the Old Testament. (2) It was becoming that the Gospel should reach the gentiles through the instrumentality of God’s Chosen People. (3) Jesus had to pay due regard to the peculiar mentality of the Jewish nation. (4) The method He chose was better adapted than any other to demonstrate the triumphant power of the Cross. After His Resurrection He sent out His disciples to teach and baptize all nations, and when He had ascended into Heaven, He appointed a special Apostle for the gentiles. His teaching was as open and public as the scene of His activity. Unlike the pagan philosophers, He made no distinction between esoteric and exoteric truths. His motto was: “That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.”²⁷

(γ) Our Divine Lord had very good reasons for disdaining to consign His heavenly teaching to books. It eminently befitted His high office as Teacher of mankind to employ the most perfect mode of teaching, namely oral instruction, which goes straight to the heart and reaches all, even those who are unable to read. It was for this same reason, in the opinion of St. Thomas, that He commanded His Church to instruct by word of mouth and constituted oral tradition a source of faith side by side with Sacred Scripture. Some of the wisest men of antiquity (e.g., Socrates and Pythagoras) exercised a tremendous influence over succeeding generations without ever having recourse to the stylus or the pen. Oral instruction was admirably adapted to the propagation of Christianity. Had our Lord presented His teaching in the form of bookish lore, consigned to parchment or papyrus, it would have become a veritable apple of discord. Then again, in the words of St. Thomas, “those who refused to believe what the Apostles wrote, would not have believed Christ Himself had He consigned His doctrines to writing.”²⁸

3. The Ecclesiastical Magisterium a Continuation of Christ’s Prophetical Office

As the priesthood of our Divine Lord is continued on earth by the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the administration of the Sacraments, especially Holy Orders, so His prophetic office is continued by the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

a) The very fact that Christ established a Church to teach “all nations” shows that He wished her to continue His prophetical office. He guaranteed her His special assistance and promised to be with her “all days, even to the consummation of the world.”²⁹ Having established her as a teacher, He sent her the Spirit of Truth, who informs and vivifies her as the soul informs and actuates the body, and enables her to keep the deposit of faith intact against all attempts at diminution or distortion. Thus the infallibility of the Church and of her Supreme Pontiff ultimately rests upon the prophetic office of Christ Himself, who is the infallible source and teacher of all truth.³⁰

b) This explains why the Church participates in the prerogatives of the prophetic office as exercised by her Divine Founder. As the faithful custodian of the deposit of faith she teaches the whole truth. There is no higher magisterium conceivable than hers. The “spiritual church” expected by the Montanists and the “Johannine church” imagined by some modern heretics are pure figments. Christianity is the absolute religion and cannot be measured by the inadequate yardstick of comparative science. The Catholic Church, through her connexion with Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, enjoys a truly divine authority, by which she proclaims with infallible certainty the dogmas of faith and morals and condemns heretical errors whenever the necessity arises. Her anathemas are as truly binding on all men as her dogmatic definitions. Finally, she is endowed with unlimited adaptability, which enables her to adjust herself to all times and circumstances, provided they do not run counter to the orthodox faith and the eternal principles of true morality.

No matter how times may change, the Catholic Church, ever old and ever young, fills them with her own spirit, overcomes error and sin, and directs all legitimate efforts for the betterment of the race into their divinely appointed channels. There is no error so novel, no intellectual malady so grave that the Church is not able to counteract it with antidotes from her spiritual pharmacopoeia. Our own time furnishes a most instructive exemplification of this truth. It is a period of transition and fermentation. Pius X has vigorously condemned the Modernistic errors endangering the faith, and there is no doubt that they can be effectively warded off if the nations will listen to the voice of Holy Mother Church.³¹