Bible glossary
What Does ‘Prophet’ Mean in the Bible?
A prophet is a person called by God to speak His word to people, calling them back to Him and often revealing what is to come.
In short
A prophet is a person called by God to speak His word to people, calling them back to Him and often revealing what is to come.
A prophet in the Bible is a spokesperson for God, one whose primary task is to speak God's message faithfully. Prophets confronted injustice, called people to return to God, comforted the broken, and sometimes foretold the future, but always in service of God's word and will.
True prophecy did not come from human imagination. The Bible describes prophets as moved by the Holy Spirit to speak. Their words carried authority not because they were clever but because they were sent.
Key verses
“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”
Deuteronomy 18:18
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
2 Peter 1:21
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:7
Prophet and Jesus
Jesus is the Prophet all the others pointed toward, the One who not only spoke God's word but is the Word of God in person. Where earlier prophets said thus says the LORD, Jesus could say I say unto you, because He came from the Father's side.