When I first read the Bible, I came across the word "prophet" and I figured that such a person had a privileged view of the future. After all, prophets could predict what would happen years ahead. They seemed to be superior people chosen to foresee.
Later on, I discovered that the word "prophet" has a different meaning and the prophets had a different vocation. The Hebrew word describing Amos and Isaiah and Jeremiah and others was "nabi" which means "to bubble over." The original description of these passionate people suggested that they were so very excited, so focused on their task that they bubbled over. These were people who were obsessed by their effort to understand God.
But when "nabi" was translated into Greek, the word used was "prophete." That word carried over to the English language and means "one who predicts" or "one who prophesies." Today we‘ve substituted the idea of prediction for that original "bubbling over."
One of the Old Testament prophets (described as a “nabi”) was Job. The author described him as telling his friends that he was so intent on confronting God that he vowed "I will seek Him though He slay me." Similarly, Shakespeare shows Hamlet voicing great determination as he pursues his father's ghost: "I will cross it though it blast me." And Herman Melville's Captain Ahab was depicted as a zealot in search of the Great White Whale. These were men whose waking hours were spent searching, wrestling, reaching for what they valued.
Each of these was a committed, enthusiastic "bubbler,” not a uniquely chosen person. The passion that lit their lives was generated by a hunger to grapple with their highest aspiration.
It became clear to me that my pursuit of God's presence is my own choice. I can't wait for some call or commission before I act. Jesus is reported to have said, "Seek first the kingdom of God...and all these things will be added to you." Whatever our goals may be – happiness, wealth, recognition -- let them come about as a result of our own “bubbling over” in pursuit of God in our lives.
One thing about prophets, especially old testament prophets that gets overlooked is that being a prophet is in many ways a terrifying experience.
ReplyDeleteAs Karen Armstrong mentions in A Short History of Myth: "the early Hebrew myths imagined a god who could eat and converse with Abraham as a friend, but when the prophets of the Axial Age (approx. 800-200 bc) encountered this same god, he was experienced as a fearful shock, which either endangered their lives, or left them feeling stunned and violated."
As an aside, I'd like to point out that in your examples from non-biblical literature, you've chosen two characters who are indeed "bubblers" but also are incredibly self-destructive in the pursuit of their goals. Ahab destroys everything to go after Moby Dick, and Hamlet destroys his home and everyone who cared about him. Do you see the function of the prophet to pursue their revelation or connection with the divine at the expense of everything else?
As a species, as our religion and spirituality becomes more inwardly focused, looking closely at morality and ethics (as opposed to the forms and functions of worship) our connection with the divine becomes more and more about the divine "other", rather than a god that is human, like us.