Twelve Minor Prophets

Book of Joshua Book of Judges First and Second Samuel First and Second Book of Kings

Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Twelve Prophets

• Isaiah
• Jeremiah

• Lamentations
• Baruch including letter of Jeremiah

• Ezekiel (Ezekiel )
• Book of Daniel ( accessories)

• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micha
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi

The Twelve Prophets (Greek Dodekapropheton, German also 12 small prophets ) is a compilation of twelve prophetic books in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, which are counted there to the rear prophets. They have been since about 180 BC understood as a common book in Judaism and often delivered on a single scroll on papyrus, leather or parchment.

Classification

The twelve prophets in the Tanakh are arranged as follows:

• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micha
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi.

This sequence resulted in part from the respective information provided by the individual writings to her working life, on the other, thematic references. Thus Hosea and Amos worked in the early 8th century under King Uzziah and his successors in the southern kingdom of Judea or under Jeroboam I in the northern kingdom of Israel. When Joel and Obadiah no comparable information; in fact, they only appeared much later. But their message was understood as a continuation of the cult and social criticism of Hosea and Amos and therefore this also allocated time. The prophet depicted in the Book of Jonah was probably mistakenly equated with a mentioned in 2 Kgs 14,25 EU prophet " Jonah, son of Amittai ", which is brought there by Jeroboam II in conjunction.

The Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah writings contain references which suggested their classification in the 7th century BC. Haggai and Zechariah were promptly occurring post-exilic cult prophet of the 6th century BC; the resulting later book of Malachi was again seen as substantive continuation of the message of Zechariah.

So especially the classification of books Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Malachi does not correspond to their actual historical development time. Also, it is in these recent prophetic writings of the Tanakh to literary artifacts, behind which are not necessarily historical prophets. Nevertheless has its classification for the theological understanding of the entire book in the Tanach meaning.

The Greek translation of the Bible Tanach, the Septuagint, handed down a somewhat different order of the Twelve Prophets. It follows a " tripartite eschatological scheme ". The individual books are arranged thematically in the sequence:

This arrangement corresponds to the Septuagintafassung the book of Jeremiah, where the chapters 46-51 of the Hebrew text appear ( court against the peoples ) between chapters 25 ( court against Israel) and 26 ( salvation for Israel).

Formation

The first pre-exilic prophets incurred Literature Collection ( Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah ) were ( 586-539 BC) lined up since the Babylonian exile of the Judeans and delivered together. After the exile the books Haggai and Zechariah also been combined into one book and then put together with the four combined pre-exilic writings. This six- corpus were added gradually other newly formed prophetic writings, to the Twelve series was completed around 200 BC. Its circumference is approximately equal to the whole, today is divided into 66 chapters the book of Isaiah.

The number twelve plays to the Twelve Tribes of Israel as descendants of the patriarch Jacob, as it can be seen in Sirach 49:10 Sir the book Jesus:

"They [the twelve prophets ] brought healing for people of Jacob and helped him through reliable hope. "

Position in the Bible canon

Together with the three "classic" writing prophets of the exile following the twelve fonts in the Tanakh as "back" to " front " the Prophet: the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2. Book of Kings. These 21 individual books together form the second main part of the Tanakh, the Nebi'im ( Prophet).

In the tradition of rabbinic theology, the twelve prophets were doing as a single book. In the Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Baba Batra they were 14b/15a with the Aramaic term " TreJ Asar " ( תרי עשר: " the Twelve " ) referred.

This existing unit took the nascent Christianity with the entire Septuagint in the 2nd century in the canon of the Old Testament. They kept their different order and let the Twelve Prophets the other three writing prophets of the exile - Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel - precede.

Since the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, the twelve individual books are subordinated to the three "big" books of the prophets because of the small size as "small ". It noted the author and publisher of this translation, church father Jerome, in the preface explicitly:

" Unum libre eat prophetarum duodecim. " "A book are the twelve prophets. "

Theology

Mission of God

The twelve prophets are like the prophets of Israel, the proclaimers of the unique, Judge and Saviour will YHWH to his people, in addition also to the foreign nations which beset this nation and / or accomplished by God his will to Israel. So Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah start with a word event formula, either as a heading, except as a statement:

" [ This is the ] word of YHWH, which was issued on ... " "And it came to the word of YHWH ... "

It follows the name of each appointed prophets. A variant is the term " intuition of ... " He pointed to the receipt of a vision that includes the publicly aligned word message: as in Obadiah, and Nahum. When Amos and Habakkuk, both formulas are combined:

" The words of Amos ... which he looked over Israel ... " " The saying that the Prophet Habakkuk looked ..." "

As a " statement about ... " or simply " saying " presents itself the prophecy of Nahum and Malachi. The latter is described as " word of YHWH to Israel by Malachi. "

Disaster and salvation

Presented together, the twelve prophetic books form a continuous message and the same God to Israel in its history. Here Hosea and Malachi are the start and end points of this continuum and give the basic motives to his understanding before.

Hosea mainly produces the reference back to the Exodus from Egypt and the wanderings of the Israelites ago: In the relationship of Israel to its original, possible through no inherent power of election to the people of the liberating God is the key to its current and future skill. Here, the relentless wrath of God upon this waste, infidelity and betrayal of his " son " (Hosea 11:1) worn by his infinite love for this people, which can last regret it without human intervention, his court and turning them into salvation (Hos 11 and 14 as the final chapter of the previous court sermon ). The final verse Hosea 14:10 EU summarizes the objective of this love: it is to bring about the reversal of the Targeted and their separation process of the impenitent and allow the rescue of the entire people.

Both motifs - gratuitous, electing love of God to all Israel, necessary separation of the righteous from the unrighteous - picks up the book of Malachi centuries later again ( x 1.2 f EU):

"I have loved you ... Did not I loved Jacob and hated Esau? "

Accordingly, heralds the final section of 3.13 to 21 the threatened since on 5 " day of YHWH " time - the final judgment of God upon Israel and the nations - as the destruction of the wicked and save the righteous to.

Eschatological perspective

The final verses of the book of the Twelve Prophets, Mal 3:22-24 are:

"Remember the law of my servant Moses; Horeb I handed them a statute and law that apply to all Israel. But before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and the country must devote to destruction. "

This binds a suspected final editing the whole body of the Torah and puts it at the same time in an eschatological perspective. Three motifs are linked:

• God has His will for all Israel long since been revealed: The Mount Sinai passed by Moses commandments are the permanent shape and this standard will.
• All the prophets of Israel serve the memory of this will. This culminates in the second coming of Elijah, the only prophet who met God as Moses at the mountain of God (1 Kings 19.1 to 18 EU), he but did not die, but live in the sky recorded ( 2 Kings 2:1-11 EU )
• Elijah causes as the end time prophet, what all the prophets did not cause: the reversal of all generations to God and to each other, the unification of the people of Israel in listening together to God's long-known transfer, as predicted Joel 3-4 visionary. Therein lies the salvation of the many announced earlier judgment.