A foreteller ("prophet"); by analogy, an inspired speaker; by extension, a poet
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prophetes names a prophet, one who speaks for God, bears witness to His word, and in many contexts announces what God has revealed about judgment, mercy, and promised fulfillment. The New Testament uses the term for Israel's prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus' prophetic reception by the crowds, church prophets, false prophets in contrast, and the prophetic witness fulfilled in Christ.
Reader summary
Full entry for προφήτης (G4396) · Open the biblical lexicon
prophetes names a prophet, one who speaks for God, bears witness to His word, and in many contexts announces what God has revealed about judgment, mercy, and promised fulfillment. The New Testament uses the term for Israel's prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus' prophetic reception by the crowds, church prophets, false prophets in contrast, and the prophetic.
The BSB source-word alignment has 144 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include prophets (70), prophet (35), a prophet (23), of prophets (2), than a prophet (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (37), Acts (30), Luke (29), John (14).
This entry includes 8 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Prophetes names a prophet, one who speaks for God, bears witness to His word, and in many contexts announces what God has revealed about judgment, mercy, and promised fulfillment. The New Testament uses the term for Israel's prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus' prophetic reception by the crowds, church prophets, false prophets in contrast, and the prophetic witness fulfilled in Christ.
The word should not be reduced to prediction, though prediction may be present. Hebrews 1:1 says God spoke through the prophets in many ways, while Luke 24:27 shows Jesus explaining Moses and the Prophets as Scripture that speaks about Him. For pastoral teaching, prophetes opens reverence for God's spoken word, continuity with the Old Testament witness, Christ-centered fulfillment, and careful testing of every claimed message by apostolic Scripture.
The selected passages present prophets as bearers of God's prior speech, sufferers for righteousness, witnesses whose Scriptures point to Christ, and part of the church's foundation under Christ the cornerstone. Prophecy is word-centered before it is curiosity-centered.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
The chief priests and scribes answer Herod by citing what the prophet has written. The prophet's authority is tied to Scripture that locates Messiah's birth.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
Jesus places persecuted disciples in continuity with the prophets before them. The term marks faithful witness that often meets resistance.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.
The risen Jesus explains Moses and all the Prophets as Scripture concerning Himself. This anchors prophetic reading in Christ's person and work.
Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have proclaimed these days.
Peter says the prophets from Samuel onward proclaimed these days. Apostolic preaching presents prophetic witness as converging on the events fulfilled in Christ.
Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
The household of God is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ as cornerstone. Prophetic ministry serves the foundation; it is not free-floating authority over Christ.
On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.
God formerly spoke through the prophets in many ways. Hebrews honors that speech while immediately contrasting it with God's climactic speech in the Son.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. One who forth-tells God's will as His authorized interpreter, not merely predicting future events.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 149 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a prophet, poet
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 8 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 7 selected witnesses from 144 lexical occurrence verses.
προφήτης is built from these roots:
References Deuteronomy 18 expectation of Moses-like deliverer. Acts 11:27-30
Growing recognition of Jesus' divine role. John 6:1–15
Connects Jesus to Mosaic expectation.
Demonstrates Spirit-directed guidance within the early church.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Prophetes is best taught as a word-and-witness term. The prophets are not biblical fortune tellers whose value lies only in isolated predictions. They are servants through whom God spoke, called His people to covenant faithfulness, announced judgment and mercy, and bore witness to promises that find their fulfillment in Christ. Matthew 2 shows written prophetic Scripture guiding the Messiah's birthplace.
Luke 24 shows the risen Jesus reading the Prophets as part of the whole-scripture witness to Himself. Acts 3 places apostolic proclamation in continuity with that witness, while Hebrews 1 honors the prophets and then announces God's climactic speech in the Son. Ephesians 2 keeps prophetic ministry under Christ the cornerstone. The pastoral result is reverence for God's revealed word, courage under opposition, and caution toward any claimed prophetic authority that refuses the discipline of Christ and apostolic Scripture.
Luke.24.27
Prophetes emphasizes one who speaks forth for God. Future prediction can be part of prophetic ministry, but the word is broader than forecasting. Context determines whether the reference is to Old Testament prophets, John, Jesus' perceived prophetic role, church prophets, or false prophets in contrast.
Moses, Samuel, Davidic psalms, and the writing prophets all contribute to the prophetic witness honored in the New Testament. The continuity is God's speech through chosen servants; the climax is the Son, in whom the promises, warnings, and hopes are brought to their intended center.
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