Twelve Minor Prophets
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Minor prophets (Hebrew: תרי עשר, Trei Asar, "The Twelve") is a book of the Hebrew Bible, so named because it contains twelve shorter prophetic works. In Christian Bibles the twelve are presented as individual books. The "Twelve" are listed below in order of their appearance in Hebrew and most Protestant and Catholic Christian Bibles:
The Septuagint of the Eastern churches has the order: Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, the rest as above. It also puts the "Minor Prophets" before, instead of after, the "Major prophets".
The first extra-biblical evidence we have for the Twelve is the writings of Jesus ben Sirach (190 BC) where they are venerated as praiseworthy. (Sir. 49:10). Josephus[1] speaks of the Twelve as part of the scriptural canon, and they were regarded as such in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[2] By the Council of Jamnia in AD 90 the Twelve were not in dispute as canonical for Jews. The Twelve are cited and alluded to in the New Testament and were accepted as canonical by the early church. Marcion deleted them, along with the entire Old Testament, from his heretical canon.[3]
Recent biblical scholarship has focused on reading the "Book of the Twelve" as a unity.[4]
The term "minor" refers to the length of the books, not their importance. See Major Prophets for the longer books of prophecies in the Bible and the Tanakh.
Book of the Twelve
Within the "Book of the Twelve," the order was more fluid, as comparison of different ancient manuscripts indicates. The arrangement found in current Bibles follows one ancient tradition and is roughly chronological. First come those prophets dated to the early Assyrian period: Hosea, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah; Joel is undated, but it was possibly placed before Amos because parts of a verse near the end of Joel (3.16 [4.16 in Hebrew]) and one near the beginning of Amos (1.2) are identical. Also we can find in both Amos (4.9 and 7.1-3) and Joel a description of a plague of locusts. These are followed by prophets that are set in the later Assyrian period: Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Last come those set in the Persian period: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. However it is important to note that chronology was not the only consideration, as "It seems that an emphatic focus on Jerusalem and Judah was [also] a main concern.[2] For example, Obadiah is generally understood as reflecting the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.[5] and would therefore fit later in a purely chronological sequence.
Each of the twelve books plus three Major Prophets which also group together as Latter Prophets has its own literary and editorial history, which is often complicated, especially for the longer books, In general, the books include three types of materials:
- Biographical materials about the prophet, in the third person. These make it clear that the collection and editing of the prophetic books was completed by persons other than the prophets themselves.
- Autobiographical materials, in the first person. Some of these may go back to the prophet in question.
- Oracles, or speeches, by the prophets. These are usually in poetic form, and draw on a wide variety of genres, including covenant lawsuit, oracle against the nations, judgment oracle, messenger speech, song, hymn, cal narrative, lament, law, proverb, symbolic gesture, prayer, wisdom saying, and vision.[6]
Christian commemoration
The twelve minor prophets are collectively commemorated in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the twelve minor prophets are read in the Breviary during the fourth and fifth weeks of November, which are the last two weeks of the liturgical year.
See also
References
- ^ Contra Apionem, i.8
- ^ a b Ben Zvi, Ehud (2004). "The Twelve: Introduction.". In Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. (ed.). The Jewish Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1139–1142. ISBN 0-19-529751-2.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - ^ Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) pp. 31-34
- ^ See, for example, Nogalski, James D. and Sweeney, Marvin A. (eds), Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000. ISBN 978-0884140214.
- ^ Ben Zvi, Ehud (2004). "Obadiah". In Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. (ed.). The Jewish Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1193–1194. ISBN 0-19-529751-2.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - ^ Michael D. Coogan, A brief introduction to the Old Testament,Oxford University Press, Inc, 2009
Further reading
- Achtemeier, Elizabeth R. & Murphy, Frederick J. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VII: Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature, Daniel, The Twelve Prophets. (Abingdon, 1996)
- Cathcart, Kevin J. & Gordon, Robert P. The Targum of the Minor Prophets. The Aramaic Bible 14. (Liturgical Press, 1989)
- Chisholm, Robert B. Interpreting the Minor Prophets. (Zondervan, 1990)
- Feinberg, Charles L. The Minor Prophets. (Moody, 1990)
- Ferreiro, Alberto (ed). The Twelve Prophets. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. (Inter-Varsity Press, 2003)
- Hill, Robert C. (tr). Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Prophets Vol 3: Commentary on the Twelve Prophets. (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2007)
- Hill, Robert C. (tr). Theodore of Mopsuestia: Commentary on the Twelve Prophets. The Fathers of the Church. (Catholic University of America, 2004)
- House, Paul R. The Unity of the Twelve. JSOT Supplement Series, 97. (Almond Press, 1990)
- Jones, Barry Alan. The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: a Study in Text and Canon. SBL Dissertation Series 149. (Society of Biblical Literature, 1995)
- Keil, Carl Friedrich. Keil on the Twelve Minor Prophets (1878) (Kessinger, 2008)
- Longman, Tremper & Garland, David E. (eds). Daniel–Malachi. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised Edition) 8. (Zondervan, 2009)
- McComiskey, Thomas Edward (ed). The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary. (Baker, 2009)
- Navarre Bible, The: Minor Prophets. (Scepter & Four Courts, 2005)
- Nogalski, James. Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve. Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fur Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (Walter de Gruyter, 1993)
- Nogalski, James D. & Sweeney, Marvin A. (eds). Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve. Symposium Series. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000)
- Petterson, Anthony R., ‘The Shape of the Davidic Hope across the Book of the Twelve’, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 35 (2010), 225-246.
- Phillips, John. Exploring the Minor Prophets. The John Phillips Commentary Series. (Kregel, 2002)
- Redditt, Paul L. & Schart, Aaron. Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve. Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Fur Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. (Walter de Gruyter, 2003)
- Roberts, Matis (ed). Trei asar : The Twelve Prophets : a New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources. (Mesorah, 1995- )
- Rosenberg, A.J. (ed). The Twelve Prophets: Hebrew Text and English Translation. Soncino Books of the Bible. (Soncino, 2004)
- Schart, Aaron. Die Entstehung des Zwölfprophetenbuchs. Neubearbeitungen von Amos im Rahmen schriftenübergreifender Redaktionsprozesse. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 260. (Walter de Gruyter, 1998)
- Slavitt, David R. (tr). The Book of the Twelve Prophets. (Oxford University Press, 1999)
- Smith, James E. The Minor Prophets. Old Testament Survey. (College Press, 1994)
- Stevenson, John. Preaching From The Minor Prophets To A Postmodern Congregation. (Redeemer, 2008)
- Walton, John H. (ed). The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. (Zondervan, 2009)