06.14. The Minor Prophets
Chapter 13 The Minor Prophets The twelve Minor Prophets may be classified as pre and post-exilic. Those who prophesied before the exile were Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah; and those after that event, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi. Of the first names, another classification may be made, as follows:
1. Those who prophesied in Israel.
2. Those who prophesied in Judah.
3.Those who, while belonging to Israel or Judah, had a message only to a Gentile nation. To the first of these latter classes belong Hosea, Amos and Micah, concerning each of whom a few words must suffice. Although Hosea comes first in the Bible, yet Amos preceded him in time, prophesying in the reign of Jeroboam II (Amos 1:1). Glimpses of his personal history are found in Amos 3:1-15; Amos 7:1-17. He was by profession a herdsman and gatherer of sycamore fruit, not being trained to the prophetic office, but called to it by an irresistible divine impulse. He speaks of himself as the author of his own book (Amos 7:1-17; Amos 8:1-2), whose canonicity is attested by Acts 7:42-43; Acts 15:15-17.
Hosea, while contemporaneous with Amos for a while, prophesied to a still later period, even down to the captivity. Peculiar interest attaches to his book by reason of the impassioned tenderness of his utterances (or rather Jehovah’s utterances through him), to a wicked|idolatrous people, intensified by his own bitter domestic experience growing out of his relations with an adulterous wife. For New Testament citations attesting the authority of the book, consult the marginal references in your Bible; for example, Matthew 2:15; Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7; Romans 9:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:55; 1 Peter 2:10, etc.
Micah, who speaks of himself as a Morasthite, or a native of Moreshethgath, a town twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem, was a contemporary of Hosea, and for that matter, of Isaiah also, since he includes Judah as well as Israel in his ministry (Isaiah 1:1). There is an interesting reference to him in Jeremiah 26:10-19, and he is quoted by other of the prophets, Zephaniah 3:19, Ezekiel 22:27 and Isaiah 41:15.
There is one passage in his book, Micah 4:1-3, similar to Isaiah 2:2-4, which presumably was not borrowed by either prophet from the other, but may have been a prediction of an earlier time employed by both as a kind of text. Such correspondences are not unusual among the prophets, and suggest that certain phraseology may have been a common language among them. For the general contents of this book and its teachings, as in the case of the other prophets, the reader is referred to the author’s work, Synthetic Bible Studies, page 128. To the second of these latter classes belong Joel, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. The evidence that Joel prophesied in Judah, however, is only indirect, as, for example, (a), he makes no reference to Israel, but (b), does refer to Jerusalem, the temple, etc., indicating familiarity with Judah (Joel 1:13-14; Joel 2:17, etc.). He is probably the earliest of all prophets except Jonah, a fact which seems to be shown by the circumstance that he mentions none of Judah’s later enemies like Assyria and Babylon, but does mention the earlier ones, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, etc. He seems to have lived at a time antedating the extreme depravity of his people, since he makes no mention of idolatry, and since the temple service, as will be seen, was in a flourishing condition. He, too, is attested by one very striking passage in the New Testament--that used of the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:16-21. See also Romans 10:13 and Revelation 9:7-9.
Habakkuk and Zephaniah were contemporaries of Jeremiah. The evidence of this in the case of the former is seen in that he does not speak of Assyria, which presumably had been overcome, while he refers very especially to the increase of Chaldea or Babylon. He foretells the destruction of that power. The evidence of the same fact in the case of Zephaniah is seen in Zephaniah 1:1, which speaks of his prophesying “in the days of Josiah” (compare Jeremiah 1:2), but of his personal history nothing further is known. It is this prophet that furnishes the text for that great mediaeval poem “Dies Irae,”--“the day of wrath” (Zephaniah 1:15-18). The third includes Jonah, Nahum and Obadiah. The first named seems to have been the immediate successor of Elisha in Israel, although the message of his book is entirely taken up with the history of Nineveh the capitol of Assyria. His prophecies in Israel seem to have been confined to the single one mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. No prophet of the Old Testament next to Daniel and Isaiah has received so much attention from the critic of the supernatural in the Bible, and therefore we shall reserve any further consideration of his book to a separate chapter.
Nahum, like Jonah, prophesied against Nineveh (or Assyria) probably a hundred years later, or about the date of Isaiah. Nothing is known of his personal history beyond reference to his birthplace (Nahum 1:1), which now is unknown. A passage in Nahum 1:15, used also in Isaiah 52:7, illustrates what was said before concerning a common inheritance of the prophets in certain phraseology. Obadiah prophesied against the Edomites, who, with the Assyrians and Babylonians were the bitterest foes of Israel in those days, and, who, away back in the time of their wilderness wanderings, treated them with peculiar cruelty. There are no quotations from Obadiah in the New Testament.
Coming now to the consideration of the three post-exilic prophets, it is to be remembered that Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaneous with Zerubbabel, the first governor of the returned colony, and doubtless also with Ezra. Their mission was to incite the Jews to rebuild the temple after the restoration, although like all the prophets of the earlier periods, their predictions extend nevertheless to the remotest time, to the introduction of the Millennial Age. Haggai is attested by Ezra 5:1; Ezra 6:14, and, in the New Testament, in a very remarkable reference in Hebrews 12:26. Zechariah is more frequently referred to in the New Testament. There is some question as to the genuineness of the second half of his book, to which reference may be made more particularly in the next chapter.
Malachi closes the canon of the Old Testament and forms the connecting link with the New. He was doubtless contemporaneous with Nehemiah, whom he assisted in the execution of his later national reforms. The evidence of his date is found in the fact that the temple seems to have been restored (Malachi 1:10; Malachi 3:1-10), and that he censures the same abuses as Nehemiah. (Compare his prophecies with Nehemiah 13:5-30, especially). He has many attestations in the New Testament, as may be seen by a study of the marginal references.