Commenting on instances of prophetesses in the Scriptures, Duane Crowther wrote:
Women Can Prophesy
Another message clearly established in the scriptures is that the prophetic gift can also be enjoyed by women. It is not limited to men, and therefore is not necessarily a priesthood function. Like any of the spiritual gifts, it can be manifested in any person upon whom God, through His Holy Spirit, chooses to bestow it.
The Old Testament records in detail the visit of Hilkiah the high priest, Shapan the scribe, and others, to Huldah the prophetess. They being the Church leaders of the day, were sent by Josiah the king to “inquire of the Lord” for him, so he could better understand God’s will concerning the book of the law which had been discovered in the temple after being lost for many years. When they met with the prophetess she told them,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell the man that sent you to me,
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:
Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched, shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, and touching the words which thou hast heard;
Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants therefore, and they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.
Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy graves in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I bring upon this place. (2 Kgs 22:15-2. See also 2 Chron 34:22-28).
Other women in the scriptures possessed the ability to prophesy. We read of “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron” (Exo 15:20), and of “Deborah a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth” (Judg 4:4). They tell of “the prophetess Noadiah” (Neh 6:14. She, it would appear, worked against Nehemiah in his rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall) who was allied with the enemies of Judah. Isaiah’s wife was a prophetess, and he wrote that “I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son” (Isa 8:3. See also 2 Nephi 18:3).
In the merdeian [sic] of time, when Jesus was firsts presented in the temple, his parents encountered “Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel” (Luke 2:36). Philip, the evangelist, “Had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy” (Acts 21:8-9). And John the Revelator also spoke of a woman who had the ability to prophesy, though she worked against the Lord’s servants. As he wrote to the saints at Thyatira he commented,
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. (Rev 2:20).
Thus women, married and unmarried, young and old, are shown in the scriptures to be the possessors of prophetic ability. They have served God, and also opposed His work, by means of their prophetic git. The pattern is clear, though, that women as well as men can and may prophesy with God’s authorization and inspiration. (Duane S. Crowther, Thus Saith the Lord: The Role of Prophets and Revelation in the Kingdom of God [Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers and Distributors, 1980], 162-64. Italics in original)
