Hebrew Prophecy had throughout regard for the Jews as a nation and to see that it fulfilled its destiny as such in the world. This purpose we see carried out by five steps or stages. It taught, first, by the Nebiim (q.v.), that the nation must regard itself as one nation; secondly, by Elijah, that it must have Jehovah alone for its God; thirdly, by Amos, that as a nation it was not necessarily God's chosen; fourthly, by Isaiah, that it existed for the preservation of a holy seed; and finally, that it ceased to exist when it was felt that religion primarily concerned the individual and was wholly an affair of the conscience. Thus does Hebrew prophecy terminate when it leads up to Christianity, the first requirement of which is a regeneration of the heart (John iii. 3), and the great promise of which is the outpouring of a spirit that “will guide into all truth” (John xvi. 13).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Hebrew Poetry * Hebrews, Epistle to the