Prophetesses

Prophetesses — women who functioned in the prophetic role of receiving and communicating divine revelation — appear throughout Scripture as a recognized category alongside male prophets. Miriam, the sister of Moses, is the first explicitly named prophetess (Exodus 15:20), having led the women of Israel in song and worship after the crossing of the sea. Deborah served simultaneously as judge over Israel and as prophetess who delivered the LORD's word to Barak and accompanied him into battle (Judges 4:4). Huldah was the prophetess whom the high priest Hilkiah and King Josiah's officials consulted when the Book of the Law was discovered; her oracle certified the authenticity of the scroll and set the course of Josiah's reform (2 Kings 22:14).

In the New Testament, Anna the elderly widow prophesied in the temple at Jesus' presentation (Luke 2:36–38), and Philip the evangelist's four daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9). Most significantly, Peter at Pentecost cited Joel's prophecy — "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy... your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17) — as being fulfilled by the outpouring of the Spirit on men and women alike. The eschatological age of the Spirit is thus characterized in part by the extension of prophetic gifting across gender, fulfilling Moses' own wish that "all the LORD's people were prophets" (Numbers 11:29).