It has often been maintained in biblical and early Christian scholarship that there is a qualitative difference between prophecy (προϕητεία, Lat. prophetia) and divination (μαντική, Lat. divinatio), the one a form of religion and therefore true, and the other a form of magic and therefore false. This view is well illustrated in Otto Böcher’s definition of prophecy (Weissagung), originally published in 2005 in the fourth edition of Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and translated in Religion Past & Present in 2011:

The phenomenon of predictive prophecy (Weissagung) is often referred to by the related terms “promise” (Verheißung) and “soothsaying” (Wahrsagung), which vary in content according to context. While soothsaying or divination (das Wahrsagen) belongs in the demonic sphere of an individual’s curiosity about his or her future, prophetic promise (Verheißung) is invariably understood as the...

You do not currently have access to this content.