Editing Montanism (section)

===Ecstatic prophecy===
As the name "New Prophecy" implied, Montanism was a movement focused around prophecy, specifically the prophecies of the movement's founders which were believed to contain the Holy Spirit's revelation for the present age.{{Sfn | Tabbernee | 2009 | pp = 68}} Prophecy itself was not controversial within 2nd-century Christian communities.<ref name=Ash >{{Citation |last=Ash |first=James L Jr |title=The Decline of Ecstatic Prophecy in the Early Church |journal=Theological Studies |volume=37 |number=2 |date=June 1976 |page=236|doi=10.1177/004056397603700202 |s2cid=53551663 }}.</ref>{{Sfn | Jerome | 385 | loc = Letter 41.2 | ps = : "we tell them [Montanists] that we do not so much reject prophecy—for this is attested by the passion of the Lord—as refuse to receive prophets whose utterances fail to accord with the Scriptures old and new".}} However, the New Prophecy, as described by [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], departed from Church tradition:{{Sfn | Tabbernee | 2009 | pp = 12, 37}}
{{blockquote|And he [Montanus] became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and [[Religious ecstasy|ecstasy]], he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the Church handed down by tradition from the beginning.|Eusebius of Caesarea<ref name=EccHist5.16.7>{{Citation |author=Eusebius of Caesarea |title=Ecclesiastical History |volume=5 |chapter=Chapter 16. The Circumstances related of Montanus and his False Prophets. |chapter-url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm |access-date=5 August 2022}}.</ref>}}
According to opponents, the Montanist prophets did not speak as messengers of God, but believed they became fully possessed by God and spoke as God.<ref name= "cathen" /> A prophetic utterance by Montanus described this possessed state: "Lo, the man is as a lyre, and I fly over him as a pick. The man sleepeth, while I watch." Thus, the Phrygians were seen as false prophets because they acted irrationally and were not in control of their senses.<ref name=Epiphanius48.3-4>Epiphanius, [[Panarion|''Against Heresies'']], 48.3–4.</ref>

A criticism of Montanism was that its followers claimed their revelation received directly from the Holy Spirit could supersede the authority of [[Jesus]] or [[Paul the Apostle]] or anyone else.<ref>[[Placher, William C.]] ''A History of Christian Theology: an introduction''. Westminster John Knox Press, 1983, p. 50.</ref> In some of his prophecies, Montanus apparently, and somewhat like the [[oracle]]s of the Greco-Roman world, spoke in the [[Grammatical person|first person]] as God: "I am the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."{{Sfn | Tabbernee | 2009 | p = 12}}

Many early Christians understood this to be Montanus claiming himself to be God. However, scholars agree that these words of Montanus exemplify the general practice of religious prophets to speak as the passive mouthpieces of the divine, and to claim divine inspiration (similar to modern prophets stating "Thus saith the Lord"). That practice occurred in Christian as well as in pagan circles with some degree of frequency.{{Sfn | Pelikan | 1956 | p = 101}}{{Sfn | Tabbernee | 2009 | p = 93}}