προφητεύσουσιν

Summary

προφητεύσουσιν (prophēteusousin) is the future active indicative 3rd person plural of προφητεύω ("to prophesy"). Peter uses the verb twice in his Pentecost citation of Joel (Acts 2:17-18). The second occurrence is his own editorial addition to the Joel text — the Hebrew of Joel 2:29 says only "I will pour out my Spirit in those days," but Peter expands it to "I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy" (on the male and female slaves). The indicative mood is declarative: a statement of what will be, not a permission of what may be.

Morphology

• Lemma: προφητεύω ("to prophesy, to speak forth divine truth")
• Tense/Voice/Mood: Future / Active / Indicative
• Person/Number: 3rd person plural
• Form in Acts 2:17: προφητεύσουσιν — "they will prophesy" (of "your sons and your daughters")
• Form in Acts 2:18: προφητεύσουσιν — "and they will prophesy" (of "my male slaves and my female slaves")

Peter's Editorial Expansion

A comparison of the LXX of Joel 3:1-2 (Eng. 2:28-29) and Acts 2:17-18 shows that Peter's quotation is not a bare citation. The most significant editorial addition is the phrase καὶ προφητεύσουσιν in v. 18, appended to the line about male and female slaves. In the Hebrew and LXX, that line ends with "I will pour out my Spirit in those days." Peter adds "and they will prophesy." The expansion is deliberate and carries theological weight: the Spirit's outpouring on women (including female slaves) is not merely an interior gift of dreams or visions — it issues in public, authoritative prophetic speech.

Semantic Range in the NT

Paul uses προφητεύω with a specific corporate-assembly meaning:

• 1 Cor 11:4-5 — both men and women pray and prophesy in the gathered church
• 1 Cor 14:1 — the gift to be eagerly pursued
• 1 Cor 14:3 — prophecy defined: "speaks to people for their edification and exhortation and consolation"
• 1 Cor 14:5 — "the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues"
• 1 Cor 14:24 — by prophecy the outsider is convicted and judged
• 1 Cor 14:29-32 — prophets speak while others weigh; two or three at a time; orderly
• 1 Cor 14:31 — "you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn"

This is not marginal or private speech. It is the authoritative, Spirit-empowered addressing of the assembly.

WIM Debate Relevance

1. Declarative mood, not permissive. The indicative says "they will prophesy" — this is a prediction-fulfillment statement, not a concession.

2. Peter's expansion in v. 18 closes a loophole. Without the addition, a reader could argue that the female slaves receive the Spirit only in an interior, non-public sense. Peter forbids that reading by appending "and they will prophesy" specifically to the female-slaves line.

3. Paul's same verb, same gift. When 1 Cor 11:5 describes women prophesying, Paul is not using a different Greek word for a different category of activity. He is using the same verb Peter used of the Spirit's outpouring on daughters and female slaves. The continuity across Acts 2 and 1 Cor 11-14 is lexical as well as theological.

4. If the Pentecost sermon is normative, women prophesy is normative. Peter's application of Joel is the inaugural interpretation of the Spirit's descent on the church. Any later text that appears to silence women's public speech in the assembly must be read in the light of this anchor, not against it.

References

• Acts 2:17-18 — Peter's Pentecost citation and editorial expansion
• Joel 2:28-29 — the Hebrew/LXX source text
• 1 Corinthians 11:4-5 — Paul assumes women pray and prophesy
• 1 Corinthians 14:1-5, 24, 29-32 — corporate regulation of the same gift
• Acts 21:9 — Philip's four daughters who prophesied
• Revelation 11:6 — the two witnesses προφητεύσουσιν (same verb form)

Counterargument: "Prophecy ≠ Teaching"

A common complementarian response distinguishes prophecy (allowed to women) from teaching (restricted from women, per 1 Tim 2:12). The lexical evidence does not support a clean separation — Paul in 1 Cor 14:1-5 ranks prophecy above teaching, defines it as speech for the edification, exhortation, and consolation of the church, and calls the whole assembly to pursue it. Whatever distinction one draws between prophecy and didactic authority, the texts locate both within the Spirit's gifting of men and women alike.