Difference between revisions of "Minor Prophets" - New World Encyclopedia

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Revision as of 04:58, 17 May 2007

The term minor prophet refers to the purported authors of the twelve shorter prophetic texts included within the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament. While this title places those books in contrast to the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and (in some Christian Bibles) Daniel), it should not be seen as a denigration of the former texts, as the term simply refers to the book's respective lengths.

The Twelve Prophets, whose exhortations were recorded on a single scroll in the classical Hebrew (and only separated when the text came to be translated), run the gamut of Israelite/Jewish history — from the Assyrian period to the Persian. In doing so, they address strikingly varied audiences, from broken-hearted exiles to hopeful builders of a new temple. In spite of this,they consistently stressed a single, primary thesis: that they were God's chosen people, that it behooved them to behave accordingly, and that, in the end, history would vindicate the faithful. In this way (and in spite of their varied historical perspectives), all of the twelve, in their hopeful proclamations and baneful exhortations, were conditioned by this singular perspective.^[1]

Annotated List of Minor Prophetic Books

While the first mention of the "Twelve Prophets" still extant is found in the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach (written in the second century B.C.E.), the "collection is thought to have assumed its unitary form sometime in the century before."^[2] The ordering of the twelve books found in modern Hebrew and translated Bibles, as listed below, is thought to have been an early attempt at a chronological organization (one which modern textual scholarship tends to take some issue with).^[3]

The Septuagint of Eastern Christian Churches has a slightly different order, beginning with Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, with the remainder as above. Their ordering scheme also places the books of the "Minor Prophets" before (instead of after) the "Major prophets".

Recent Scholarship

Recent biblical scholarship, following the original Hebrew, has focused on reading the "Book of the Twelve" as a unity - both in terms of content and editorial style.^[4] Further, many of these studies, using the archaeological finds from Qumran (and other Middle Eastern excavations), are attempting to develop these interpretations using the most historically relevant source materials. Some of these trends are elegantly summarized by Russell Fuller:

Building on the currently developing interest in studying the final form of biblical compositions, much recent work on the Minor Prophets has focused on the redactional history of the collection as a whole, especially on editorial strategies used in the final ‘editing’ of the collection (Nogalski 1993; Jones 1995; Schart 1998). There is no consensus concerning how far back this compositional and redactional history may be traced (Ben Zvi 1996), or even if the attempt is legitimate. Some scholars (e.g. Jones 1995) have attempted to integrate information about the textual history, based on the manuscript evidence, with the redactional history of the collection.^[5]

Literary perspective (12 as "anti-prophetic" books)

Notes

↑ As Bandstra notes, "the books taken as a whole address the big issues of prophecy; namely, Israel's devotion to Yahweh, the responsibility of foreign nations to respect God's people, and the expectation that God will act in the future to vindicate his people and punish wickedness" (378).
↑ Marks, 207.
↑ A modern dating scheme tends to order the books as follows: Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai, Zecheriah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah. See Bandstra, 349-380; Koch, Volumes 1-2.
↑ James D. Nogalski and Marvin A. Sweeney (eds), Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve, (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).
↑ Fuller, 81-82. The sources referred to in this quotation are as follows: J. Nogalski, "Literary Precursors of the Book of the Twelve" and "Redactional Processes of the Book of the Twelve," BZAW 217-218 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1993); B.A. Jones, The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Study in Text and Canon, (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995); A. Schart, "Die Entstehung des Zwölfprophetenbuchs: Neubearbeitung von Amos im Rahmen schriftenübergreifender Redaktionsprozesse" BZAW 260, (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1998); E. Ben Zvi, "Twelve Prophetic Books or 'The Twelve': A Few Preliminary Considerations," in Watts and House (eds.) Forming Prophetic Literature, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 125-56.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Bandstra, Barry L. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Second Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999. ISBN 0534527272.
Buttrick, George Arthur (Commentary Editor) et al. The Interpreter's Bible: the Holy Scriptures in the King James and Revised standard versions with general articles and introduction, exegesis, exposition for each book of the Bible. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951-57.
Fuller, Russell. "The Text of the Twelve Minor Prophets." Currents in Research 7 (1999), 81-95.
Koch, Klaus. The Prophets: The Assyrian Period. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. ISBN 0800616480.
Koch, Klaus. The Prophets: The Babylonian and Persian Periods. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. ISBN 0800617568.
Marks, Herbert. "The Twelve Prophets." Edited by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, MS: The Belknap Press of Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0674875303.
The New Interpreter's Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994-2004. ISBN 0687278201.
Nogalski, James D. and Sweeney, Marvin A. (editors). Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000.

External links

Prophetic Midrash: Stories about prophets from ancient and modern sources. Accessed May 15, 2007.

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[1] As Bandstra notes, "the books taken as a whole address the big issues of prophecy; namely, Israel's devotion to Yahweh, the responsibility of foreign nations to respect God's people, and the expectation that God will act in the future to vindicate his people and punish wickedness" (378).

[2] Marks, 207.

[3] A modern dating scheme tends to order the books as follows: Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai, Zecheriah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah. See Bandstra, 349-380; Koch, Volumes 1-2.

[4] James D. Nogalski and Marvin A. Sweeney (eds), Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve, (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).

[5] Fuller, 81-82. The sources referred to in this quotation are as follows: J. Nogalski, "Literary Precursors of the Book of the Twelve" and "Redactional Processes of the Book of the Twelve," BZAW 217-218 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1993); B.A. Jones, The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Study in Text and Canon, (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995); A. Schart, "Die Entstehung des Zwölfprophetenbuchs: Neubearbeitung von Amos im Rahmen schriftenübergreifender Redaktionsprozesse" BZAW 260, (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1998); E. Ben Zvi, "Twelve Prophetic Books or 'The Twelve': A Few Preliminary Considerations," in Watts and House (eds.) Forming Prophetic Literature, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 125-56.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 The term '''minor prophet''' refers to the purported authors of the twelve shorter prophetic texts included within the Hebrew Bible ([[Tanakh]]) and the Christian [[Old Testament]]. While this title places those books in contrast to the [[Major Prophets]] ([[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]], [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]], [[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]], and (in some Christian Bibles) [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]]), it should not be seen as a denigration of the former texts, as the term simply refers to the book's respective lengths.
-The '''Twelve Prophets''', whose exhortations were recorded on a single scroll in the classical Hebrew (and only separated when the text came to be translated), run the gamut of Israelite/Jewish history &mdash; from the Assyrian period to the Persian. In doing so, they address strikingly varied audiences, from broken-hearted exiles to hopeful builders of a new temple, though they consistently stressed a single, primary thesis: that they were God's chosen people and that it behooved them to behave accordingly. Despite their varied historical perspectives, all of the twelve, in their hopeful proclamations and baneful exhortations, were conditioned by this singular perspective.<ref>As Bandstra notes, "the books taken as a whole address the big issues of prophecy; namely, Israel's devotion to Yahweh, the responsibility of foreign nations to respect God's people, and the expectation that God will act in the future to vindicate his people and punish wickedness" (378).</ref>
+The '''Twelve Prophets''', whose exhortations were recorded on a single scroll in the classical Hebrew (and only separated when the text came to be translated), run the gamut of Israelite/Jewish history &mdash; from the Assyrian period to the Persian. In doing so, they address strikingly varied audiences, from broken-hearted exiles to hopeful builders of a new temple. In spite of this,they consistently stressed a single, primary thesis: that they were God's chosen people, that it behooved them to behave accordingly, and that, in the end, history would vindicate the faithful. In this way (and in spite of their varied historical perspectives), all of the twelve, in their hopeful proclamations and baneful exhortations, were conditioned by this singular perspective.<ref>As Bandstra notes, "the books taken as a whole address the big issues of prophecy; namely, Israel's devotion to Yahweh, the responsibility of foreign nations to respect God's people, and the expectation that God will act in the future to vindicate his people and punish wickedness" (378).</ref>
 ==Annotated List of Minor Prophetic Books==
-While the original Hebrew texts view the writings of the minor prophets as a single book, they are divided into separate sections in Christian Bibles. The "Twelve" are listed below (with brief overviews) in order of their appearance in Hebrew and Western Christian bibles:
+While the first mention of the "Twelve Prophets" still extant is found in the ''[[Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach]]'' (written in the second century B.C.E.), the "collection is thought to have assumed its unitary form sometime in the century before."<ref>Marks, 207.</ref> The ordering of the twelve books found in modern Hebrew and translated Bibles, as listed below, is thought to have been an early attempt at a chronological organization (one which modern textual scholarship tends to take some issue with).<ref>A modern dating scheme tends to order the books as follows: Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai, Zecheriah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah. See Bandstra, 349-380; Koch, Volumes 1-2.</ref>
 *[[Book of Hosea|Hosea]]
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 Recent biblical scholarship, following the original Hebrew, has focused on reading the "Book of the Twelve" as a unity - both in terms of content and editorial style.<ref>James D. Nogalski and Marvin A. Sweeney (eds), ''Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve'', (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).</ref> Further, many of these studies, using the archaeological finds from Qumran (and other Middle Eastern excavations), are attempting to develop these interpretations using the most historically relevant source materials. Some of these trends are elegantly summarized by Russell Fuller:
 :Building on the currently developing interest in studying the final form of biblical compositions, much recent work on the Minor Prophets has focused on the redactional history of the collection as a whole, especially on editorial strategies used in the final ‘editing’ of the collection (Nogalski 1993; Jones 1995; Schart 1998). There is no consensus concerning how far back this compositional and redactional history may be traced (Ben Zvi 1996), or even if the attempt is legitimate. Some scholars (e.g. Jones 1995) have attempted to integrate information about the textual history, based on the manuscript evidence, with the redactional history of the collection.<ref>Fuller, 81-82. The sources referred to in this quotation are as follows: '''J. Nogalski''', "Literary Precursors of the Book of the Twelve" and "Redactional Processes of the Book of the Twelve," ''BZAW'' 217-218 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1993); '''B.A. Jones''', ''The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Study in Text and Canon'', (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995); '''A. Schart''', "Die Entstehung des Zwölfprophetenbuchs: Neubearbeitung von Amos im Rahmen schriftenübergreifender Redaktionsprozesse" ''BZAW'' 260, (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1998);  '''E. Ben Zvi''', "Twelve Prophetic Books or 'The Twelve': A Few Preliminary Considerations," in Watts and House (eds.) ''Forming Prophetic Literature'', (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 125-56.</ref>
+Literary perspective (12 as "anti-prophetic" books)
 == See also ==
@@ Line 38: / Line 40: @@
 == References ==
-* Alter, Robert and Kermode, Frank. ''The Literary Guide to the Bible''. Cambridge, MS: The Belknap Press of Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0674875303.
 * Bandstra, Barry L. ''Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible'' (Second Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999. ISBN 0534527272.
 * Buttrick, George Arthur (Commentary Editor) et al. ''The Interpreter's Bible: the Holy Scriptures in the King James and Revised standard versions with general articles and introduction, exegesis, exposition for each book of the Bible.'' New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951-57.
 * Fuller, Russell. "The Text of the Twelve Minor Prophets." ''Currents in Research'' 7 (1999), 81-95.
+* Koch, Klaus. ''The Prophets: The Assyrian Period''. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. ISBN 0800616480.
+* Koch, Klaus. ''The Prophets: The Babylonian and Persian Periods''. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. ISBN 0800617568.
+* Marks, Herbert. "The Twelve Prophets." Edited by Robert Alter and Frank Kermode. ''The Literary Guide to the Bible''. Cambridge, MS: The Belknap Press of Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0674875303.
 * ''The New Interpreter's Bible''. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994-2004. ISBN 0687278201.
 * Nogalski, James D. and Sweeney, Marvin A. (editors). ''Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve''. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000.