THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES on the gift of prophecy. Click here for the rest of the series.

Prophecy was normal and expected in the early church

In the first century, directly following the apostles, Ignatius of Antioch (a disciple of John the Beloved) tells of a message he delivered to the church in Philadelphia. The message he states was biblical in tenor, though it is not a direct quote from scripture:

“When I was with you, I cried out, I spoke with a loud voice, God’s own voice the Spirit made proclamation…Pay attention to the bishop and the presbytery and deacons. Do nothing apart from the bishop; keep your flesh as the temple of God; love unity; flee from divisions; be imitators of Jesus Christ as he is of his Father.”

The church in Philadelphia had been dealing with divisions. Ignatius, however, was unaware of the present situation. The message he delivered was so timely and accurate, he was accused of having been told what to say. He asserted that by no natural means did he know the current strife. The accusation came because the call to unity was so timely and so accurate.

In the church of Corinth as described in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians these types of prophetic utterances would have been expected. Paul admonishes the believers in Corinth to pursue prophecy:

1 Corinthians 14:1-3 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

He does not speak as if it would be rare, or as if only a select few were to expect it to happen. The language of Paul is incredibly inclusive. Ignatius would have seen himself following in the footsteps of the Apostles. After all, it was Paul who said we should imitate him as he imitated Christ. That would seem to include prophetic utterances.

To Ignatius, this was the reality of his position. He had been taught by John the Beloved, a man well acquainted with the voice of the Spirit. Ignatius saw his oration as a direct message from God. His voice, God speaking through him.

An early church document from the 1st/2nd century called the Didache was a collection of teachings and guidelines for Christian communities. It gives clear instruction for how prophetic ministry was to be received:

“And you must neither make trial of nor pass judgment on any prophet who speaks forth in the spirit. For every (other) sin will be forgiven, but this sin will not be forgiven. And not everyone who speaks forth in the spirit is a prophet, but only if he has the kind of behavior which the Lord approves. From his behavior, then, will the false prophet and the true prophet be known.” Didache, 1st century

The ministry of the prophetic was thriving in the early church. Though some have claimed that the gift of prophecy has ceased to function, a case study in history would show that belief to be faulty. We will address that in a later post.

In the ancient Greek world, inspired utterances were not uncommon. Famous books such as Homer’s Oddysey and Illiad incorporated prophetic utterances as part of their narrative. In the ancient world, women were chosen as Oracles or Sybils by one of the many gods they believed in. One of the most famous of these was the Oracle of Apollo. Paul seems to have had a clash with this woman in the books of Acts:

Acts 16:16-18 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour.

This slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination most likely served the Greek god Apollo. As an oracle, it was believed that the Apollo would possess her and express divine utterances through her. The agency of possession was a large python Apollo had supposedly wrestled unto submission. The Greek word used in this text for divination is the word “puthon” (G4436 - from which we derive our word for python). This woman was possessed by a “puthon” spirit, the python spirit Apollo supposedly held in subjection. Some have even suggested that the trance like state these women would prophecy from were induced by certain gases.

When Paul begins his grand narrative on what we classically call spiritual gifts, he starts by saying:

1 Corinthians 12:1-2 'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.’

Paul is juxtaposing their understanding of spiritual things from their time in pagan temples (when you were Gentiles) with the actual nature of the spiritual life as seen in the Holy Spirit (Now concerning spiritual gifts).

Take note that the word “gifts” is italicized. In most study Bibles, translators place a word in italics to indicate that it is not in the original text. They have added the word “gifts” because it seems implied in the context. There are a few different words translated as “gift” in the original Greek language found throughout the Bible:

• Charisma (G5486 – a gift that is the result of grace – Romans 5:15, 1 Timothy 4:14)

• Merismos (G3311 – distribution of gifts – Hebrews 2:4)

• Doma (G1390 – present – Luke 11:13, Ephesians 4:8)

• Dorea (G1431 – a free gift – Acts 2:38, 2 Corinthians 9:15)

• Doron (G1435 – present or sacrifice – Ephesians 2:8)

None of these words are present in 1 Corinthians 12:1. The word translated as “spiritual gift” is the Greek word pneumatikos (G4152) and it is the adjective form for the word “spirit.” Hence it is translated as “spiritual” in English. This is where it gets tricky. In the Greek there is no noun to follow the adjective, but that cannot be the same in English. Modern translations tend to insert the words “gifts” following “spiritual” to make it more readable in English. A more literal translation, such as Young’s Literal Translation, reads like this:

“And concerning the spiritual things, brethren, I do not wish you to be ignorant.”

This is much more consistent with a full reading of 1 Corinthians 12-14. Paul was not so much teaching about the nature of giftedness, but rather, he was teaching about the nature of the spiritual life. With this in mind, the rest of the narrative begins to come together. In verse 7, Paul wrote:

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man for the benefit of all.”

What Paul goes on to list are nine distinct “manifestations of the Spirit”: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, various kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues.

These are not gifts as we would think of them. Why did people speak in tongues or prophesy in the books of Acts when they were filled with the Spirit? Because the Spirit was manifesting within them. This even happens in a number of Old Testament episodes, though they are more rare.

To be continued…