Chapter IX.—The Prophets Inspired by the Holy Ghost.

Chapter IX.—The Prophets Inspired by the Holy Ghost.

But men of God carrying in them a holy spirit ⁵⁶⁵ and becoming prophets, being inspired and made wise by God, became God-taught, and holy, and righteous. Wherefore they were also deemed worthy of receiving this reward, that they should become instruments of God, and contain the wisdom that is from Him, through which wisdom they uttered both what regarded the creation of the world and all other things. For they predicted also pestilences, and famines, and wars. And there was not one or two, but many, at various times and seasons among the Hebrews; and also among the Greeks there was the Sibyl; and they all have spoken things consistent and harmonious with each other, both what happened before them and what happened in their own time, and what things are now being fulfilled in our own day: wherefore we are persuaded also concerning the future things that they will fall out, as also the first have been accomplished.

Footnotes

97:565

Wolf perfers πνευματόφοροι, carried or borne along by the Spirit. [Kaye’s Justin M., p. 180, comparing this view of the inspiration of prophets, with those of Justin and Athenagoras.]