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churches,” e.g., Acts 13:1; 15:32; 21:10; 1 Cor. 12:28, 29; 14:29, 32, 37; Eph. 2:20; 3:5;
4:11; (e) of “Christ, as the aforepromised Prophet,” e.g., John 1:21; 6:14; 7:40; Acts 3:22;
7:37, or, without the article, and, without reference to the Old Testament, Mark 6:15;
Luke 7:16; in Luke 24:19 it is used with
, “a man”; John 4:19; 9:17; (f) of “two
witnesses” yet to be raised up for special purposes, Rev. 11:10, 18; (g) of “the Cretan
poet Epimenides,” Titus 1:12; (h) by metonymy, of “the writings of prophets,” e.g., Luke
24:27; Acts 8:28.
2.
$
(
$ )
, 5578), “a false prophet,” is used of such (a) in
OT times, Luke 6:26; 2 Pet. 2:1; (b) in the present period since Pentecost, Matt. 7:15;
24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; Acts 13:6; 1 John 4:1; (c) with reference to a false “prophet”
destined to arise as the supporter of the “Beast” at the close of this age, Rev. 16:13;
19:20; 20:10 (himself described as “another beast,” 13:11).¶
PROPHETESS
(
$
, 4398), the feminine of
(see above), is used of Anna,
Luke 2:36; of the self-assumed title of “the woman Jezebel” in Rev. 2:20.¶
PROPITIATION
A. Verb.
(
, 1
, 2433) was used amongst the Greeks with the significance “to
make the gods propitious, to appease, propitiate,” inasmuch as their good will was not
conceived as their natural attitude, but something to be earned first. This use of the word
is foreign to the Greek Bible, with respect to God whether in the Sept. or in the NT. It is
never used of any act whereby man brings God into a favorable attitude or gracious
disposition. It is God who is “propitiated” by the vindication of His holy and righteous
character, whereby through the provision He has made in the vicarious and expiatory
sacrifice of Christ, He has so dealt with sin that He can show mercy to the believing
sinner in the removal of his guilt and the remission of his sins.
Thus in Luke 18:13 it signifies “to be propitious” or “merciful to” (with the person as
the object of the verb), and in Heb. 2:17 “to expiate, to make propitiation for” (the object
of the verb being sins); here the
RV
,“to make propitiation” is an important correction of
the
KJV
“to make reconciliation.” Through the “propitiatory” sacrifice of Christ, he who
believes upon Him is by God’s own act delivered from justly deserved wrath, and comes
under the covenant of grace. Never is God said to be reconciled, a fact itself indicative
that the enmity exists on man’s part alone, and that it is man who needs to be reconciled
to God, and not God to man. God is always the same and, since He is Himself immutable,
His relative attitude does change towards those who change. He can act differently
towards those who come to Him by faith, and solely on the ground of the “propitiatory”
sacrifice of Christ, not because He has changed, but because He ever acts according to
His unchanging righteousness.
The expiatory work of the Cross is therefore the means whereby the barrier which sin
interposes between God and man is broken down. By the giving up of His sinless life
sacrificially, Christ annuls the power of sin to separate between God and the believer.
In the OT the Hebrew verb
is connected with
, “a covering” (see
MERCY SEAT
), and is used in connection with the burnt offering, e.g., Lev. 1:4; 14:20;
16:24, the guilt offering, e.g., Lev. 5:16, 18, the sin offering, e.g., Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35,