(4) The False Prophet

Tractate Sanhedrin, Herbert Danby tr. [1919], at sacred-texts.com

(4) The False Prophet.

M.XI. 5. " The false prophet " ⁵ is he who prophesies what he has not heard, and what was not told

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M.him; ¹ whereas he who suppresses his prophetic message, or regards as exaggerated the words of another prophet, or transgresses his own words, his death is left in the hands of Heaven, as it is written: I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM. ²

T. XIV. 13. He who prophesies in order to abrogate anything of what is written in the Law, is guilty. R. Shimeon says: If he prophesy in such a way as partly to abrogate and partly to support, he is free from penalty. If he have prophesied in the name of an idol, even if he maintain it one day and withdraw it another, he is guilty.

He who prophesies what he has not heard, like Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah ³; or prophesies what has not been told him, like Hananiah the son of Azzur ⁴--who heard what Jeremiah the prophet was prophesying in the upper street and went and prophesied otherwise in the lower street; or suppresses his prophetic message, like Jonah, the son of Amittai ⁵; or regards a prophetic message as exaggerated, like the companion of Micah ⁶; or transgresses his own words like Iddo ⁷; or changes his prophecy; or a stranger who ministers in the Temple; or a priest who ministers before he is fully cleansed, ⁸ or before he has made the atonement offering after his cleansing, or who ministers without the proper garments, or with hands and feet unwashed, or with hair unkempt, or after having

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T.

drunk wine: all of these are to die. By what means are they to die? At the hands of Heaven.

Footnotes

139:5 Deut. 18. 20.

140:1 Bamberg text adds a superfluous "His death is at the hands of men."

140:2 Deut. 18. 19.

140:3 1 Kings 22. 11.

140:4 Jer. 28. 1 ff.

140:5 Jonah 1. 3.

140:6 1 Kings 20. 35. The "certain man of the sons of the prophets" is identified with Micaiah the son of Imlah.

140:7 2 Chron. 9. 29; traditionally identified with the unknown prophet of 1 Kings 13.

140:8 One who, having bathed to wash away defilement, ministers before evening; cf. Lev. 22. 6.