The Sabbatean Prophets

150 The Sabbatean Prophets
proper time, asked in a dream. And they called to me in my dream, They are
driven forth from the midst [of men]; 75 Men shall clap their hands at him [and
shall hiss him out of his place]; 76 They cry after them as after a thief. 77 Then I
knew that the end of these sinning, deceitful men, this messiah and this
prophet [Shabbatai Zvi and Nathan], was to be expulsion from the midst of
Israel, from the inheritance of God. There is no repair [tikkun] for them but
in death or apostasy. This occurred on 22 Tevet. . . . Immediately the next
day I revealed the matter to a few people, and it leaked out to the believers.
They took it as a joke, but I said to them: Who says that your prophecy will
be fulfilled, and not that of me and my friends. . . . And when it comes
around, we will know who the true prophet is! 78
The method Sasportas used, a dream question (she’elat halom) is well known
in Jewish literature, and the form of the answers—biblical passages whose
meaning must be clear to the questioner—is typical. 79 But does his prophetic
experience contradict his own principles here
The answer is that what Sasportas wanted to combat was not prophecy of
all types, but unauthorized prophecy by persons he considered unqualified. It
turns out that many philosophers and scientists usually associated with the
anti-enthusiastic camp were themselves not free of a prophetic bent. René
Descartes, a major figure in the development of modern skepticism, was involved
with the Rosicrucians early in his career. Henry More, another anti-
Enthusiast, had deep connections with the Christian Kabbalah, and Nicolas
Fatio de Duillier, a favorite student of Sir Isaac Newton, was an adherent of
the French prophets. 80 Although each case must be considered in its own
context, the common feeling was that latter-day prophecy exists, but can
only be considered true if the prophet meets both institutional and personal
qualifications determined by the establishment leadership. The question,
then, is not about the phenomenon in general, but about the authority to be
believed. The best example of this can be found in Spain, where the many
alumbrados and beatas who presented themselves as prophets in the sixteenth
century could equally well be taken as genuine holy spirituals or as
dangerous impostors, depending mainly on how powerful their sponsors
were. 81
Sasportas had thus correctly identified potential heresy in Sabbatean
prophecy and thrown his immense learning into the battle against it. Many
of his concerns were similar to those of contemporary European opponents
of religious Enthusiasm. His own practice of prophetic techniques indicates