This fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls preserves the end of Zephaniah and the beginning of Haggai, indicating that the twelve minor prophets were all probably on one scroll (150 – 125 BC).
For most of the twentieth century, Old Testament scholars usually approached the twelve Minor Prophets as individual books, analyzing them individually in a similar fashion to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Usually they were re arranged and placed among the Major Prophets in chronological order and then discussed in their historical context (i.e., the prophets of the Assyrian period—Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah; the prophets of the Babylonian period—Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Nahum, etc.). More recently, numerous Old Testament scholars have suggested that while historical setting is very important, nonetheless, canonical order is also significant to the theological meaning of the books. This is true especially regarding the Minor Prophets, and a current trend in Old Testament scholarship is to study the Minor Prophets as a single book, called the “Book of the Twelve.”1
In the apocryphal book of Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), written around 200 BC, the writer mentions Isaiah (Sir. 48:23), Jeremiah (Sir. 49:6), Ezekiel (Sir. 49:8) and then the Twelve Prophets (Sir. 49:10), indicating that by the year 200 BC the twelve Minor Prophets were viewed as a unit. Likewise, in the earliest manuscripts of this literature, both in Hebrew and in the translated Greek, the Minor Prophets are collected onto one scroll. Furthermore, early counts of the books of the Old Testament by writers such as Josephus indicate that they counted the twelve Minor Prophets as one book.2 It is also not mere coincidence that the number 12 has special symbolic significance.
This fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls preserves the end of Zephaniah and the beginning of Haggai, indicating that the twelve minor prophets were all probably on one scroll (150 – 125 BC).
Six of the twelve books (Hosea, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah) open with a specific historical superscription. For example, Hosea 1:1 begins, “The word of Yahweh that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah…” Likewise, these six books are in chronological order, Hosea being the earliest and Zechariah the latest. The other six (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Malachi), however, contain no specific opening historical superscription, making it difficult to date some of them with assurance, and indicating, perhaps, that historical dating for these books was not overly important to the early writers or editors. These six undated books are fairly evenly distributed among the six dated books.
Canonical Order and Historical Superscription in the Book of the Twelve
| Book | Historical Superscription? | Date from the Superscription |
|---|---|---|
| Hosea | Yes | 786 – 746 BC |
| Joel | No | |
| Amos | Yes | 786 – 746 BC |
| Obadiah | No | |
| Jonah | No | |
| Micah | Yes | 750 – 687 BC |
| Nahum | No | |
| Habakkuk | No | |
| Zephaniah | Yes | 640 – 609 BC |
| Haggai | Yes | 520 BC |
| Zechariah | Yes | 520 BC |
| Malachi | No |
Why are these twelve books in this particular canonical order? What is the connection between them? Numerous observations have been made in recent years noting a host of thematic and “catchword” interconnections within the twelve books. Seitz argues that Hosea serves as an introduction to the Book of the Twelve and that the final verses of Hosea serve as a motto for the Twelve, as Psalm 1 does for the Psalter. Hosea 14:9 reads: “Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of Yahweh are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”3
Other scholars have suggested that the Book of the Twelve is “framed” with a similar theme that opens and closes the larger unit. Thus Hosea opens the unit, stressing the theme of the love of Yahweh (esp. Hosea 1 – 3), and Malachi closes the unit with the same thematic emphasis (Mal. 1:2).4
Numerous connections between adjacent books have been noted. For example, Joel 3:16 (“Yahweh will roar from Zion”) ties Joel to the following book of Amos, which opens with “Yahweh roars from Zion” (1:2). Likewise, Amos ends with a judgment on Edom (9:12), and the following book of Obadiah focuses on the end of Edom.5 At the end of Habakkuk, the prophet states, “Let all the earth be silent before him [Yahweh]” (Hab. 2:20); and early in Zephaniah, the prophet declares, “Be silent before Yahweh the Lord” (Zeph. 1:7). The last two units of Zechariah are called “oracles,” and the following book of Malachi is introduced as an “oracle.”
Recently, several scholars have suggested that the Book of the Twelve is loosely connected around the central theme of “the day of Yahweh” (see the discussion of the “day of Yahweh” in chapter 20). Primary texts in the Book of the Twelve that deal with the day of Yahweh directly include Hosea 9:5; Joel 3:14 – 2l; Amos 5:18 – 20; Obadiah 15; Micah 2:4; Habakkuk 3:16; Zephaniah 1:7 – 16; Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 14:1; and Malachi 4:1.6
Paul House points to the character of God as the focal point of the Book of the Twelve. As each book adds to the characterization of God, House suggests, there is a threefold movement or development of the emphases. In Hosea through Micah, warnings dominate the depiction of Yahweh. Next, in Nahum through Zephaniah, judgment texts dominate. Finally, in Haggai through Malachi, “renewal metaphors take precedence,” pointing toward the restoration.7 Note the similarity between House’s analysis of theological movement in the Twelve and the synopsis of the prophetic message that we have been following for the preexilic prophets: (1) You (Israel/Judah) have broken the covenant; you had better repent! (2) No repentance? Then judgment! (3) Yet there is hope beyond the judgment for a glorious future restoration.
The same lack of consensus about the theological or literary cohesion of the Twelve holds true for the study of the book of Jeremiah, which is not one of the Twelve. The thematic relationships or literary connections between the various portions is not always clear, a fact that has caused a great amount of scholarly debate. In addition, even though several portions of Jeremiah are in tight chronological order, the book as a whole is not. Nonetheless, while the historical context of each unit in Jeremiah is significant, no attempt to cut the book apart and reassemble the pieces in chronological order would be fruitful. Rather, the book functions in its canonical form as a unified anthology connected by the various literary and thematic features spelled out in this chapter, and it should be read and studied as it now stands. The same should probably hold true for the Book of the Twelve; it should be read as a literary unit without denying the complex and varying devices that make this anthology hold together.
House, Paul R. The Unity of the Twelve. Bible and Literature Series 27; JSOT Supplement 97. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1990.
Nogalski, James D., and Marvin A. Sweeney, eds. Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve. SBL Symposium Series Number 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000.
Seitz, Christopher. Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.
1See, for example, James D. Nogalski and Marvin A. Sweeney, Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve, SBL Symposium Series 15 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), and Christopher R. Seitz, Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets, Studies in Theological Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007).
2David L. Peterson, “A Book of the Twelve?” 4, and Paul L. Redditt, “The Production and Reading of the Book of the Twelve,” 14, in Nogalski and Sweeney, Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve; J. Gordon McConville, Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 133. Note, however, that while the concept of the Book of the Twelve as a unit was firm very early, the exact order varied, and the Septuagint order differs slightly from the order of the Masoretic Text, which our English Bibles follow.
3Seitz, Prophecy and Hermeneutic, 215.
4John D. W. Watts, “A Frame for the Book of the Twelve: Hosea 1 – 3 and Malachi,” in Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve, ed. Nogalski and Sweeney, 209 – 17.
5Redditt, “The Production and Reading of the Book of the Twelve,” 14 – 15; McConville, Guide to the Prophets, 133 – 34.
6Peterson, “A Book of the Twelve?” 4, 9; Rolf Rendtorff, “Alas for the Day! The ‘Day of the LORD’ in the Book of the Twelve,” in God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, ed. Tod Linafelt and Timothy K. Beal (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 186 – 97.
7Paul House, ‘The Character of God in the Book of the Twelve,” in Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve, ed. Nogalski and Sweeney, 125 – 45.