Bible references

Key NT Scriptures

• Matthew 7:15-20
  Click to retrieve Matthew 7:15-20

Key OT Scriptures

• Deuteronomy 13:2-6
  Jewish Commentary
• Deuteronomy 18:18-22
  Jewish Commentary

Supportive NT Scriptures

• 1 John 4:1
• Matthew 24:23-24
• 2 Peter 2:1

Supportive OT Scriptures

• Jeremiah 14:13-16
  Jewish Commentary
• Jeremiah 23:20-21
  Jewish Commentary

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Commentary

Rabbi Michael Rudolph

Prophecy involves hearing God's voice and, if that which God says is meant for persons other than the hearer, repeating it for those others to hear. In the time of Moses, prophecy was limited to only certain people (prophets) upon whom God's Spirit rested and indwelt, and their function in speaking what God said was vitally important because the average Israelite was unable to hear God's voice on his or her own. These prophets were held to a very high level of accountability - they were even to be put to death if they prophesied falsely. Prophecy in the New Covenant is an extension of the Mosaic, but with the huge step up of everyone being able to receive the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God for themselves ( Romans 12:6 ; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 14:1, 22-33 ). The Holy Spirit's universal availability (along with the salvation brought by Yeshua) is what characterizes the New Covenant (see 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 ) as being both new and "better" ( Hebrews 8:6-7 ). Sometimes what God says to us is meant for us alone, and sometimes it is meant for others. And just as with the prophets of old, when we hear words that are meant for others, are obligated to speak them out. In the New Covenant (as in the Mosaic), the existence of false prophesy and false prophets remains a problem and, although we no longer execute those who speak falsely, we are instructed to test everything that we hear so as not to be misled ( 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 ; 1 John 4:1 ). The principal way of testing what we hear is comparing it to Scripture and what we know about God from Scripture. Perhaps analogous to the "school" (company) of prophets mentioned in 1 Samuel , 2 Kings and elsewhere in Scripture, the entire body of believers (now able to prophesy) along with prophets of the fivefold ministries (see Ephesians 4:11-12 ) can be viewed as the New Covenant's expansion of the prophets of old that came together in order to hear God, affirm God's words that were heard, and weed out prophecy that was false.

Rabbi Daniel Juster

I would add that prophecy in the New Testament seems to not require the strictness and penalty of the Mosaic period. We find that no penalty is enjoined in the New Covenant for inaccuracy in prophetic words, since the community should be able to test these. In addition, we see words such as those of Agabus whose word was partially correct, but not correct in its detail. Nevertheless, Agabus was known as a credible prophet in the book of Acts . There is a level of prophecy and prophetic accuracy that can be experienced by every believer, but there are three levels of the prophetic gifting: All believers who are open to the Holy Spirit can prophecy on a basic level. Some believers are imbued with a special gift of prophecy; these tend to prophesy more frequently than others and with greater accuracy. Some with the prophetic gift have been proven, over time, to prophesy with exceptional quality and accuracy, and these we call prophets (see 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4:11 ).

Classical commentators

Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch prohibit prophesying falsely, and refer to the Talmud's penalty of strangulation for doing so. Maimonides and HaChinuch (but not Meir) also wrote a mitzvah prohibiting us from having pity for a false prophet and declining to put him to death for his sin.

Copyright © Michael Rudolph and Daniel C. Juster, The Law of Messiah, Torah from a New Covenant Perspective, Volume 1 & 2

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Based on The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective by Michael Rudolph and Daniel C. Juster.

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Disclaimer: the original content is authored by Rabbi Michael Rudolph and Rabbi Daniel Juster; additional notes or implementation details on this website are not part of their original work and do not represent their views.

Record source: The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective - Volume 1 & 2

Copyright note: Copyright © Michael Rudolph and Daniel C. Juster, The Law of Messiah, Torah from a New Covenant Perspective, Volume 1 & 2