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Part Two · Chapter Forty-Five — Eleven Degrees of Prophecy
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After the preceding clarification of the nature of prophecy according to what rational inquiry demands together with what is clear from our Law, it is necessary to enumerate for you the degrees of prophecy according to these two principles. What I call degrees of prophecy — not every person at one of these degrees is thereby a prophet: the first and second degrees are steps leading toward prophecy, and one who has reached either of them is not to be counted among the prophets concerning whom we have already spoken. If such a person is occasionally called a prophet, it is in the broad sense, as being very close to the prophets.
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Do not be confused about these degrees by the fact that in the prophetic books you find a prophet who received revelation in the form of one of these degrees, and it is also evident concerning that same prophet that revelation came to him in another degree — for it is possible for that prophet's revelation to come at one time according to one of these forms, and at another time in another form below the first. Just as the prophet does not prophesy continuously throughout his life but prophesies at one time and prophecy leaves him at other times — so too he may prophesy at one time in the form of a higher degree, then at another time in the form of a lower degree; sometimes he may not attain the higher degree except once in his lifetime and then be stripped of it, and he may remain at a lower degree until his prophecy ceases entirely — for prophecy must cease from all prophets before their death, either a short or long time before, as is clear from Jeremiah: 'when the word of the Lord was completed from the mouth of Jeremiah' (Ezra 1:1); and from David: 'And these are the last words of David' (2 Sam. 23:1). The same applies to all prophets.
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After this introduction and its establishment, I shall proceed to enumerate the degrees referred to.
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(1) The first degree of prophecy: a divine assistance accompanies the person, moves him, and urges him to a great and weighty righteous act — such as delivering a distinguished group from the hands of evildoers, delivering a great individual, or bringing benefit to many people. He finds within himself something moving and calling him to action. This is called 'the spirit of the Lord,' and of the person whom this state accompanies it is said that 'the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,' or 'clothed him,' or 'rested upon him,' or 'the Lord was with him,' and similar expressions. This is the degree of all the judges of Israel, of whom it is said in general: 'The Lord raised up judges for them, and the Lord was with the judge and saved them' (Judg. 2:18). This also is the degree of the anointed of Israel — all the distinguished ones. This is made clear specifically concerning some of the judges and kings: 'The spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah' (Judg. 11:29); of Samson it is said 'the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him' (Judg. 14:19); 'the spirit of God came mightily upon Saul when he heard these words' (1 Sam. 11:6). So too of Amasa when the holy spirit moved him to support David: 'Then a spirit clothed Amasa, who was head of the thirty: Thine are we, David, and on your side, O son of Jesse' etc. (1 Chron. 12:18). Know that such a power never left Moses our Teacher from the time he reached manhood — that is why he was moved to slay the Egyptian and to rebuke the wrongdoer among the two quarreling men. Through the strength of this power in him, even after his flight to Midian when he arrived as a stranger and a fearful fugitive, when he saw any injustice he could not contain himself from removing it and could not bear patience with it — as it is said: 'And Moses rose and saved them' (Exod. 2:17). Similarly David was accompanied by this power from the moment he was anointed with the oil of anointing, as the text states: 'The spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward' (1 Sam. 16:13). That is why he overcame the lion, the bear, and the Philistine. This spirit of the Lord does not cause any of those who possess it to speak, but its sole goal is to move that gifted person to some act — not to any random act, but specifically to the protection of an oppressed person, either one distinguished individual or a community, or to what leads to that. Just as not everyone who has a true dream is a prophet, so too not everyone who is assisted in some matter — like acquiring wealth or attaining some private goal — is said to have been accompanied by the spirit of the Lord, or that the Lord was with him, or that he acted by holy spirit. We say this only of one who performed a great and weighty good action, or something that leads to it — like Joseph's success in the Egyptian's house which was the first cause of the great events that occurred afterwards, as became evident.
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(2) The second degree: a person feels as if something has alighted upon him and an additional power has descended upon him and makes him speak — so he speaks in wisdom, or in praise, or delivers profitable teachings, or discusses matters of governance and divine matters — all while awake and with his senses functioning normally. This is what is said of such a person: he 'speaks by holy spirit.' It is by this mode of holy spirit that David composed the Psalms, Solomon composed Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs — and similarly Daniel, Job, Chronicles, and all the other Writings were composed by this mode of holy spirit. That is why they call them Ketuvim (Writings), meaning 'written by holy spirit'; and they stated explicitly: 'The Scroll of Esther was said by holy spirit.' Of this holy spirit David said: 'The spirit of the Lord spoke within me and His word was on my tongue' (2 Sam. 23:2) — meaning that it made him speak these utterances. Of this class were the seventy elders, of whom it is said: 'When the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied but did so no more' (Num. 11:25); also Eldad and Medad; and every high priest who was consulted through the Urim and Tummim — for as the Sages said, the Shekhinah rested upon him and he spoke by holy spirit. Of this class also was Jahaziel son of Zechariah, of whom it says in Chronicles: 'The spirit of the Lord came upon him in the midst of the assembly, and he said: Attend, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat — thus says the Lord to you' etc. (2 Chron. 20:14-15); likewise Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, of whom it is said: 'And the spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them: Thus says God' (ibid. 24:20); also Azariah son of Oded, of whom it says: 'Azariah son of Oded — the spirit of God came upon him and he went out before Asa' etc. (ibid. 15:1-2); and so for all similar cases. Know that Balaam too was of this kind while he was in a state of righteousness — this is what is meant by 'The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth' (Num. 23:5), as if to say he spoke by the spirit of the Lord; and it is in this sense that he says of himself 'who hears the words of God' etc. (Num. 24:4).
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We must especially note that David, Solomon, and Daniel belong to this class — not to the class of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nathan the prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite, and their like — for David, Solomon, and Daniel only spoke and recorded what they recorded by holy spirit. When David says 'The God of Israel spoke to me, the Rock of Israel' (2 Sam. 23:3), this means that He promised him through a prophet — either Nathan or another. Similarly 'The Lord said to her' (Gen. 25:23) and 'The Lord said to Solomon: Because this was in your heart and you have not kept My covenant' (1 Kings 11:11) — that was undoubtedly a promise made to him through a prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite or another. Likewise Solomon's dream at Gibeon: 'The Lord appeared to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream of the night, and God said' (1 Kings 3:5) — this is not full prophecy, not like 'The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying' (Gen. 15:1) or 'God said to Israel in visions of the night' (Gen. 46:2), or the prophecy of Isaiah and Jeremiah — for in each of those cases, even if revelation came in a dream, the revelation itself signals that it is prophecy. But in Solomon's case, the account ends with: 'And Solomon awoke — and behold, it was a dream' (1 Kings 3:15). And similarly the second account: 'The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time as He appeared to him at Gibeon' (ibid. 9:2) — clearly also a dream. This degree is lower than the degree of 'in a dream I will speak to him' — for those who prophesy in a dream by no means call it a dream after the prophecy has reached them; rather they declare unambiguously that it is a revelation. Thus Jacob our father: when he woke from that prophetic dream he did not say it was a dream, but declared: 'Surely the Lord is in this place' etc. (Gen. 28:16); 'God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan' (Gen. 48:3) — declaring that this was revelation. Whereas of Solomon it says 'And Solomon awoke — and behold it was a dream.' Similarly Daniel: you find him speaking of his experiences as dreams even when he sees an angel in them and hears speech — and he calls them dreams even after he learned from them what he learned. He says: 'Then to Daniel in a night vision the mystery was revealed' (Dan. 2:19); 'Then he wrote the dream' (ibid. 7:1); 'I saw in my visions at night' etc.; 'And the visions of my head terrified me' (ibid. 7:15); 'I was appalled at the vision and none understood' (ibid. 8:27). There is no doubt that this is a rank below the rank of those concerning whom 'in a dream I will speak to him' is said. That is why the entire community agreed to place the Book of Daniel among the Writings (Ketuvim) rather than the Prophets. I have therefore shown you that this kind of prophecy that came to Daniel and Solomon — even though in it they saw an angel in a dream — was not experienced by them as full prophecy, but as a dream that truthfully communicates matters; it belongs to the class of those who speak by holy spirit. This is the second degree. So too in the ordering of the holy scriptures, no distinction was made between Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Psalms and the Scroll of Ruth or the Scroll of Esther — all were written by holy spirit, and all these authors too are called prophets in the broad sense.
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(3) The third degree — which is the first degree of those who say 'And the word of the Lord came to me,' and similar expressions: the prophet sees an allegory in a dream, under all the conditions we have set out concerning the nature of prophecy; and within that same prophetic dream the meaning of that allegory is explained — what is intended by it. This applies to most of Zechariah's allegories.
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(4) The fourth degree: he hears speech in a prophetic dream clearly explained, but does not see the speaker — as happened to Samuel in the first revelation that came to him, as we explained concerning his matter.
(5) The fifth degree: a man speaks to him in a dream, as is said in some of Ezekiel's prophecies: 'And the man spoke to me: Son of man' etc. (Ezek. 40:4).
(6) The sixth degree: an angel speaks to him in a dream. This is the condition of most of the prophets, as in: 'And the angel of God said to me in a dream' etc. (Gen. 31:11).
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(7) The seventh degree: in a prophetic dream it appears as if God, exalted be He, speaks to him — as Isaiah says: 'I saw the Lord' etc., 'and He said: Whom shall I send?' etc. (Isa. 6:1, 8); and as Micaiah son of Imlah says: 'I saw the Lord' etc. (1 Kings 22:19).
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(8) The eighth degree: revelation comes in a prophetic vision and he sees allegorical figures — as happened to Abraham in the vision of the covenant between the pieces (Gen. 15), for those allegories were in a daytime vision, as is evident.
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(9) The ninth degree: the prophet hears speech in a prophetic vision, as is said of Abraham: 'And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: This one shall not inherit you' (Gen. 15:4).
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(10) The tenth degree: he sees a man speaking to him in the prophetic vision — as Abraham again in the plain of Mamre (Gen. 18), and as Joshua in Jericho (Josh. 5:13).
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(11) The eleventh degree: he sees an angel speaking to him in a prophetic vision — as Abraham at the moment of the Binding of Isaac (Gen. 22:15). This, in my view, is the highest degree of the prophets whose condition Scripture attests — after the establishment of the requirement of complete rational faculties and after the exception of Moses our Teacher. Whether a prophet can also perceive in a prophetic vision that God is addressing him — this seems improbable to me; the action of the imaginative faculty does not extend that far, and we have not found this condition among the other prophets. That is why the Torah made this clear, saying: 'In a vision I make myself known to him; in a dream I will speak to him' (Num. 12:6) — placing speaking in a dream only, and assigning to the vision the contact and overflow of the intellect — as expressed by 'I make myself known to him,' which is a hitpaʿel from yodaʿ. It does not state explicitly that in the vision there is any hearing of speech from God.
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When I found texts attesting to speech heard by a prophet and clarifying that this occurred in a vision, I said by way of conjecture that the speech heard in a dream — whose counterpart in a waking vision seems unlikely — may be that God creates in him the impression that He is addressing him, following the literal sense. But one may also argue that every vision in which speech is heard must have begun as a vision, then ended in deep absorption and became a dream — as we explained in the phrase 'a deep sleep fell on Abram' (Gen. 15:12), and the Sages said 'this is a prophetic deep sleep.' On this account, all speech heard in any manner was in a dream, as the text states 'in a dream I will speak to him.' While in the prophetic vision only allegories or intellectual contacts are perceived — yielding scientific matters similar to those attained through speculation, as we explained, expressed by 'in a vision I make myself known to him.' According to this second interpretation, the degrees of prophecy are reduced to eight, the highest and most perfect being to prophesy in a vision altogether — even when a man speaks, as described.
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Perhaps you will raise an objection to me and say: You have counted among the degrees of prophecy that the prophet hears an address from God speaking to him directly — as Isaiah and Micaiah did. How can this be, given our principle that every prophet hears the address only through the intermediary of an angel, except Moses our Teacher, of whom it is said 'mouth to mouth I speak to him' (Num. 12:8)? Know that this is indeed so, and that the intermediary here is the imaginative faculty — for a prophet only hears that God addressed him in a prophetic dream; whereas Moses our Teacher heard from above the covering between the two cherubim, without any operation of the imaginative faculty. We have already explained in the Mishneh Torah the characteristics of that prophecy and the meaning of 'mouth to mouth' and 'as a man speaks to his neighbor' and other such phrases — study it there, for there is no need to repeat what has already been said.