were the prophets mentally ill or gifted?

In today's world, someone claiming to be a prophet - especially one having the ability to hear the voice of God, or professing to be the son of God - would be ignored as a nutter or taken to the nearest mental institution. In ancient times, however, afflicted people were not shunned as nutters. They were seen as being truly touched by powers beyond human comprehension.

Common among all new religions over the centuries has been the phenomenon of the 'vision' or the 'dream' of being spoken to directly by a supernatural being. The visionary prophets of old, with their epilepsy and various other mental disorders, succeeded in inspiring believers because nobody understood their conditions. It was widely believed that such people were literally touched by God, and as such they were especially gifted.

Like the Prophet Mohammed, who was born in 470, Jesus logically was a man of God rather than the son of God, but both not only claimed to have spoken directly with God but they also displayed disabilities that we would now call either epilepsy, schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.

There is a passage in the Bible that describes the family of Jesus - his mother and brothers - taking him back to Nazareth when he became manic while preaching at Capernaum. His behavior at the Temple, overturning the tables of the money-lenders, is also indicative of mental instability.

Nevertheless, such traits were necessary in those days in order to gain the desired attention. You had to be extraordinarily different. Today, we understand the mental illnesses that caused the visionary hallucinations of the old prophets and do not hold such people in awe, but in ancient times those with mental aberrations had extraordinary charisma.

Basically, a certain level of insanity or mental aberration is still necessary in order to inspire others to believe in whatever it is you are preaching. You need to have extraordinary confidence in yourself and an extraordinary belief that you have been singled out for a special mission.

That the religious elites of today exist by virtue of the fantastic visions of ancient prophets - who may or may not have been severely afflicted by mental disorders - is something that nobody particularly wants to acknowledge.

Perhaps a more salient question to ask in view of the fact that many people take up religion after a personal crisis - especially an unhinging one - is not so much the mental state of the Prophets but that of the true believers.