Skip to content
quotesby

The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.

Isaac Newton#5

ReligionHistoryInterpretationProphecy

About this quote

What does it mean?
Newton criticizes interpreting prophecies as predicting events, arguing they should be seen after fulfillment, not before.
In plain terms
Prophecies are for interpretation after they happen, not for prediction.
What can you take from it?
Avoid using prophecy to claim foreknowledge.

Where it applies

  • reading religious texts
  • historical analysis

Putting it to work

  • interpret events post‑fact rather than claim prediction

Questions to consider

  • How does hindsight bias affect our view of prophecy?
  • Can prophecy have value beyond prediction?

Another view

Some traditions view prophecy as a genuine predictive tool.

More from Isaac Newton

  1. To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for oth…

    Permalink to quote #4
  2. I have studied these things - you have not.

    Permalink to quote #6
  3. I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses;' for whatever is not deduced from the phen…

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

  1. 'We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think the wide circle of the American Society…

    John Paul II (Pope)John Paul II (Pope) quote #13
  2. The Times was rushing to assure its readers that 'prominent Islamic scholars and theologians in the West say unequivocally that nothing in Islam countenances t…

    Ann CoulterAnn Coulter quote #89
  3. Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism the destroyer. Nevertheless, the Galilean, who later was called the Christ, intended something…

    Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler quote #129