prophet

Person thought to speak from divine inspiration or one who foretells the future. Prophets whose words and actions are recorded in the Bible include Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. In Islam, Muhammad is believed to be the last and greatest of over 124,000 prophets beginning with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

In the Bible, a prophet is any of the succession of saints and seers who preached and prophesied in the Hebrew kingdoms in Palestine from the 8th century BC until the suppression of Jewish independence in 586 BC, and possibly later. The prophetic books of the Old Testament constitute a division of the Hebrew Bible.

Some Christians, especially adherents of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, believe in modern-day prophets.

In Israel, prophecy, in the sense of revealing or interpreting God's will, was a phenomenon for centuries and was a means of cumulative revelation. Moses is defined by Jewish tradition as the greatest prophet in Israel. In the days of the Judges (12th century BC), Deborah and Samuel were pre-eminent; Nathan, Ahiyah, Shemayah, Elijah and Elisha are the main prophetic figures in the time of the early kings (11th–9th centuries BC). The prophets who have their own books in the Bible are: Amos and Hosea of the North Kingdom (8th century BC); Isaiah and Micah (8th century BC); Zephaniah and Nahum (7th century BC); Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (6th century BC), in Judah; and Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (5th–4th centuries BC).

The Jewish regard for prophets is shared by Islam, which recognizes the prophets of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, and Jesus. Of these, 25 are mentioned in the Koran, including Jesus. Islam teaches that Jews and Christians have misunderstood and distorted the message of these prophets. They are regarded as perfect role models of how to live according to the will of God.