TITLES OF A PROPHET
The title for any job usually reveals a lot about the person who fills that

position and what he or she does. For instance, people call me a pas-
tor, teacher, minister, elder, or reverend—and sometimes a few

names I can’t repeat here. Each of these titles gives people insight into
the job I fulfill. Likewise, the Bible contains several titles for the office
of prophet that help us to understand who these people were and
what they did.

Old Testament Titles: The English translations of the Old Testament
use five main titles for those who spoke on God’s behalf. Each of these
titles emphasizes a different aspect of the prophet’s job description.
PROPHET This title, the most commonly used, emphasizes that the
person was an authoritative spokesman for God.
SEER This word focuses on the way in which the prophet received
God’s message.
MAN OF GOD This title identifies the prophet as one who knew God
and one whom God had commissioned for a specific task.

SERVANT OF THE LORD: This term stresses the close relationship be-
tween God and his faithful messenger.

MESSENGER OF THE LORD: This term focuses on the mission and the
message rather than on the person. It emphasizes the fact that God
sent a prophet to deliver a message—the word of God.
Old Testament Terms Three Hebrew words in the Old Testament are
translated “prophet” or “seer.” The first two terms occur less frequently
than the third. The first term, ro’eh, appears only twelve times, and the
second term, hozeh, appears eighteen times. These words are both
“revelational” terms. They come from words that basically mean to see,
look at, or behold. The prophet or seer, therefore, is one who can see
things that others cannot. The prophet is one to whom God directly and
uniquely reveals his word and his will—usually through dreams or
visions.
The third term, nabbi’, appears 309 times in its noun form and almost

600 times in its verb forms. When we trace this term through the Old Tes-
tament, it becomes clear that nabbi’ refers primarily to one who speaks

for someone else, someone who acts as a “mouth” for another (Exod.
7:1). Whenever God assigned a specific task to a prophet, the assignment

always focused on speaking God’s message. Therefore, the basic mean-
ing of the term nabbi’ is “to speak God’s message,” to be a “speaker for

God,” “one who is a spokesman for God” (Deut. 18:18; Jer. 1:7; Isa. 1:20).
The nabbi’ was a divinely inspired preacher who faithfully spoke the
message God had revealed. When the prophet spoke, God spoke.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “PROPHET” AND “SEER” 2 :

New Testament Terms The primary New Testament term for a prophet

or prophetess is the Greek noun prophetes, and the Greek verb prophe-
teuo means “to prophesy.” These words, like their Old Testament coun-
terparts, refer to one who speaks for God, one who speaks the word and

Prophecy and Prophets

NAME
Prophet
Seer

BASIC CONCEPT
Spokesman
One who Sees

FOCUS
Proclamation of
divine revelation
Reception of divine
revelation

EMPHASIS
Output (what he does)
Input (how he knows)

New Testament Terms The primary New Testament term for a prophet

or prophetess is the Greek noun prophetes, and the Greek verb prophe-
teuo means “to prophesy.” These words, like their Old Testament coun-
terparts, refer to one who speaks for God, one who speaks the word and will of God. The New Testament prophet brought God’s word to his
fellowman.