| 释义 |
prophecy|ˈprɒfɪsɪ|
Forms: α. 3–4 profecie, 4 -fecye, 4–5 -fycye, -fes(s)ye, 5 -fesi. β. 3–7 prophecie, 3–8 -phesie, 4–5 -pheci, -phessye, 4–6 -phecye, -phesye, 5 -phecij, -phesi, -phicie, -phase, -phasy, 5–8 -phesy, 4– prophecy. γ. 5 propheteye, 6 -phe(a)tie.
[a. OF. profecie (12th c.), mod.F. prophétie (pron. prɔfesi) = Pr., Pg. prophecia, Sp. profecía, It. profezía; ad. late L. prophētīa (in Itala), -ēcīa, a. Gr. προϕητεία prophecy, f. προϕήτης prophet. The variant spelling prophesy is found as late as 1709, but is now confined to the verb.]
1. The action, function, or faculty of a prophet; divinely inspired utterance or discourse; spec. in Christian theology, utterance flowing from the revelation and impulse of the Holy Spirit.
a1225Ancr. R. 158 He [Saint John the Baptist] ine his iborenesse upspende his feder tunge into prophecie. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 364/30 For prophesie and riȝt-wisnesse huy heolden al þat he seide. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. xiii. 2 If I schal haue prophesye, and haue knowun all mysteries,..if I schal not haue charite, I am noȝt. 1390Gower Conf. III. 67 For it was guile and Sorcerie, Al that sche tok for Prophecie. 1563Winȝet Four Scoir Thre Quest. §24 Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 90 Serapion, quha..wes illuminat be the spirit of prophetie. 1619W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1638) 532 Of Prophecie we find two sorts. First, Extraordinary, that stood partly in foretelling things to come, by immediate reuelation; partly, in interpreting Scriptures with unerring faith. a1704Locke Par. 1 Cor. xii. (1709) 78 note 10 Prophesie comprehends these three things. Prediction, Singing by the Dictate of the Spirit, and understanding and explaining the mysterious hidden Sense of Scripture by an immediate Illumination and Motion of the Spirit. 1823Keble Serm. iii. (1848) 44 Prophecy, or the authorized declaration of God's will. 1877E. R. Conder Basis of Faith vii. 299 Prophecy, as the term is used in the Bible, signifies not prediction, but divinely-inspired speech. Prediction was merely one function of the prophetic office, subordinate to its moral aim. 1886C. A. Briggs Messianic Proph. i. 1 Prophecy is religious instruction. It is an essential feature of the religion of cultivated nations.
2. The spoken, or especially, the written utterance of a prophet, or of the prophets.
a1300Cursor M. 9196 Þat time was prophet Ieremi Spekand in his propheci. c1315Shoreham i. 1292 Ine þe alde laȝe þe redere Rede þe prophessye By wokke. 1388Wyclif 2 Chron. ix. 29 Writun..in the wordis of Achie of Silo, and in the visioun [gloss ether prophesie] of Addo, the prophete, aȝens Jeroboam. 1560Bible (Genev.) Prov. xxxi. 1 The wordes of king Lemuel; The prophecie which his mother taught him. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 307 b, All the Scripture is called a prophesie, which is as much to say as diuine. c1575H. Nicholas (title) Revelatio Dei. The Revelation of God, and his great Propheatie, which God now, in the last Daye, hath shewed unto his Elect. 1680Burnet Rochester 140 The 53rd Chapter of the Prophesie of Isaiah. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. (1840) 33 The wise men of Babylon are distinguished in the prophecy of Daniel into four classes. 1815Byron Hebrew Mel. Vision Belshazzar v, The lamps around were bright, The prophecy in view. 1902Fairbairn Philos. Chr. Relig. ii. v. 422 To be the Christ of prophecy was to be the Crucified of Judaism.
†3. A company or body of prophets. Obs. rare.
13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1308 He þe kyng hatz conquest & þe kyth wunnen..& þe pryce of þe profecie prisoners maked.
4. The foretelling of future events; orig. as an inspired action; extended to foretelling by any means; an instance of this. Now the ordinary sense.
Originally, one of the notions included in sense 1.
a1300Cursor M. 14531 He com for to dei wit wil, And sua þe prophecis to fill. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 282 A prophecie sais he salle die. 1485–6Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 50 It is in actt, that all maner of profycyes is mayd felony. 1584D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 3 Until the prophesies of Merlin should be fulfilled. 1605Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 80 Ile speake a Prophesie ere I go. Ibid. 95 This prophecie Merlin shall make, for I liue before his time. 1706Phillips, Prophecy, a Prediction or Foretelling. 1736Butler Anal. ii. vii. Wks. 1874 I. 273 Prophecy is nothing but the history of events before they come to pass. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xxiii, Old Allan-bane foretold your plight,..But light I held his prophecy. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 113 There is prophecy, but not of particular events, and derived, not from inspiration, but from observation. The astronomer predicts—and all the world knows that his predictions daily come true. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 271 The amelioration of the Struggle for Life is the most certain prophecy of Science. 1897Sir W. Lawson in Westm. Gaz. 3 Dec. 2/1 One of Disraeli's delightful sayings was, ‘that of all forms of error prophecy is the most gratuitous.’
b. fig. A foreshadowing of something to come.
1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 16 The world's a prophecy of worlds to come. 1822B. Cornwall Ludovico Sforza ii, Methinks she was A beautiful prophecy of thee.
5. The interpretation and expounding of Scripture or of divine mysteries: a function of the prophet in the apostolic churches; applied in the 16th and 17th centuries, and sometimes later, to exposition of the scriptures, esp. in conferences for that purpose, and to preaching. See prophesying b.
1382[see 1]. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. xiii. 8 Charite fallith not down, whether prophecyes schulen be voydid, ether langagis schulen ceesse, ether science schal be distroyed [1611 Whether there be prophecies, they shall faile]. [1576Grindal Let. 20 Dec. in Mem. (1710) 15 That Exercise in the Church St. Paul calleth Prophesia, and the Speaker Prophetas, terms very Odious in our Days to some, because they are not rightly understood; for indeed, Propheta in that, and the like Places of the same St. Paul..signifieth thereby the Assent and Consent of the Scriptures.] 1577Harrison England ii. i. (1877) i. 17 In manie of our archdeaconries we have an exercise..called a prophesie or conference, and erected onelie for the examination or triall of the diligence of the cleargie in their studie of holie scriptures. 1577in Stovel Introd. Canne's Necess. (1849) 59 Forbidding the exercises called Prophecies, as being practices and rites belonging to religion, not established by parliament and her authority. a1649Winthrop New Eng. (1853) I. 60 Mr. Wilson, praying and exhorting the congregation to love, etc., commended to them the exercise of prophecy in his absence. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxxiv. 343 One Thursday in March, at a prophesy (as it was called) in the Dutch Church in London, where Nicolas one of the ministers preached upon the doctrine of regeneration.
6. Eccl.
a. An Old Testament lection, esp. in the eucharistic office (e.g. in the Ambrosian rite). Cf. prophetic lesson (prophetic 1 b), prophet 3 b.
c1440Alphabet of Tales 324 Saynt Ambros þe bisshoppe was att mes..and as he lenyd on þe altar, betwix þe prophesie & þe epistull, he fell on slepe. 1853Dale tr. Baldeschi's Ceremonial 201 When the Acolyte has finished singing the Prophecy, he genuflects to the Altar. 1872Scudamore Notitia Euch. 205 In the Milanese [rite] there was..a verse or two sung from the Psalms..between the Prophecy and the Epistles.
b. The canticle Benedictus as used in the Gallican liturgy.
[1855Neale & Forbes Anc. Lit. Gall. Ch. 34 marg., We learn from the exposition of the Gallican service ascribed to S. Germanus that the prophetia was the song of Zacharias.] 1872Scudamore Notitia Euch. 203 note, The reader must not be misled by the title Collectio or Oratio post Prophetiam in the Old Gothic, Frank, and Gallican Sacramentaries; for by ‘the Prophecy’ is there meant the Benedictus or Prophecy of Zacharias. 1880― in Smith's Dict. Chr. Antiq. 1738/1 The prophecy was, on some days, in most of the Gallican liturgies, followed by an ‘Oratio’ or ‘Collectio post Prophetiam’. |