Books of the Twelve Prophets

One Book of the Twelve or Twelve prophetic Books? Ehud Ben Zvi and myself contribute to this volume outlining the emerging debate in Book of the Twelve/Minor Prophets scholarship concerning how to interpret the compositional/thematic unity within the corpus. Attached is the table of contents. For the full volume, please visit the publisher's website at https://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/emailproduct.aspx?productid=56651&categoryid=10

Los dos pequeños libros de Nahúm y Habacuc suelen perderse en la conciencia de los creyentes. Su mensaje queda velado y desconocido a los hombres de hoy. La temática que tratan se encuentra relacionada. Son dos libros pequeños perteneciente al grupo llamado de los doce profetas menores. Los dos denuncian los destrozos y abusos del imperialismo, junto con los sufrimientos de tantas víctimas inocentes. Los dos anuncian la decisiva intervención del Señor en favor de su pueblo más humilde.

I spent the entire church year of 2016-2017 (meeting once per month) on the Book of Jonah, making use of literary, historical, canonical & theological approaches.  Prof. Mark Throntveit of Luther Seminary gave us a concluding lecture in March of 2017.

This is an abstract for my PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2015), in which I analyzed the discourse-pragmatic functions of a selection of Greek discourse markers in the documentary papyri and the Septuagint within a cognitive-functional framework. I then apply my findings to the study of Septuagint translation technique, with particular reference to The Twelve Prophets.

HEBREW CONSTRUCT PHRASES WITH "DAUGHTER" AND "VIRGIN" AS NOMEN REGENS by Magnar Kartveit. Discussions about the phrase "Daughter of Zion" have not come to rest. Genitive as a category in Semitic grammar is treated in a separate chapter, and metaphor and irony are brought into the discussion. This book proposes understandings and translations of the phrases. Kartveit (Old Testament, School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger, Norway) explores construct phrases in Hebrew that use the terms " daughter" or "virgin" rather than the more usual "land" or "river." He discusses signs of Zion, whether "Daughter of Zion" refers to a collective or an individual, "Daughter (of) Zion" in recent research, the genitive and the construct state in Semitic languages, semantic analysis of the construct phrases with "daughter" and/or "virgin," and whether nomen regens in biblical Hebrew can be a metaphor applied (in apposition) to nomen rectum. (This text was made available at the following website: https://www.pdfdrive.com/rejoice-dear-zion-hebrew-construct-phrases-with-daughter-and-virgin-as-nomen-regens-d186512019.html)

Designed to strengthen the global church with a widely accessible, theologically sound, and pastorally wise resource for understanding and applying the overarching storyline of the Bible, this commentary series features the full text of the ESV Bible passage by passage, with crisp and theologically rich exposition and application. Editors Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton, and Jay A. Sklar have gathered a team of experienced pastor-theologians to provide a new generation of pastors and other teachers of the Bible around the world with a globally minded commentary series rich in biblical theology and broadly Reformed doctrine, making the message of redemption found in all of Scripture clear and available to all.

The struggle over land and its socioeconomic relatedness, power, loss, and restoration ignites prophetic oracles represented in different clusters of prophetic activities in the Prophetic Books. While prophetic indictments against injustice have attracted the attention of many readers and interpreters, they have, however, presented contextual complexity and ambiguity. Since the text does not allow readers to easily contextualise these oracles in terms of any particular historical narrative or metanarrative about an event, this article attempts to understand the dynamics of injustice in society within the textual window of Micah 2:1-5, as it relates to evil-doers, evil-doing, and Yahweh's action. The text does not give the identity of the evil-doers, but it does present a graphic picture of evil-doing (of economic piracy and land confiscation) and Yahweh's intervention to correct evil-doing. The theological proposition of this article is that in situations of socioeconomic transgressions in which covenant community members are denied their symbolic and material possessions, such ethical violations will never go unaddressed. Although this portrait of Yahweh's intervention to correct evil-doing in the context of socioeconomic transgression conflicts with the hard realities of a world populated by evil men and plagued with unjust dealings, it is consistent with Yahweh's concern for justice and reflects his just decrees and deeds, especially as revealed to and experienced by his covenant people.

Nella lettura dei testi profetici impressiona l'abbondante presenza di ora coli di denuncia del peccato e di annuncio del castigo. Alcuni profeti sembra no presentare il castigo come un evento irreversibile, senza che i singoli o il popolo abbiano più la possibilità di sfuggirvi. Di fronte a questo fenomeno, il lettore si chiede: è possibile cee Yhwh abbia suscitato in mezzo al suo popo lo uomini cui affidare unicamente l'ingrato compito di annunciare il castigo ai loro contemporanei? Un compito d'altronde inutile! Cosa serve infatti denun ciare il peccato, se non viene data la possibilità del ravvedimento e della riabi litazione? Si deve concludere che il Dio dei profeti è un Dio vendicativo? D'altro canto, la chiamata al ministero profetico è un evento che qualifica la storia di Yhwh con Israele: è una delle modalità più evidenti di far sentire reale la sua presenza in mezzo al popolo. Per portare a termine il loro compi to i profeti non temono di affrontare i potenti del tempo, accettando l'impopo larità e la persecuzione. È chiaro che una tale forza e capacità può venire loro * La parte analitica di questo contributo riproduce sostanzialmente un mio precedente studio: G. DE CARLO, Il giudizio di Dio nell 'A T: il giorno di Jhwh, in I novissinzi nella Bibbia, a cura di G. BOR· TONE, (Studio Biblico Te ologico Aquilano 19), L'Aquila 1999, 33-78. Mi sono deciso a riproporlo in quanto l'analisi dei testi profetici che contengono il riferimento al "giorno di Yhwh" costituisce la ba se per una riflessione più ampia, che intendo qui iniziare, sulla funzione degli annunci di castigo nel l'economia della predicazione profetica. Per le sigle dei libri biblici seguo La Bibbia di Gerusalemme, Bologna 19899, IO; per le altre S. M. SCHWERTNER, Intemationales Abkiirzungsverzeichnis fiir Th eo logie und Grenzgebiete, Berlin-New York 19922, cui vanno aggiunte DEB =Dizionario enciclopedi co della Bibbia, Roma 1995; HALOT =L. KOEHLER -W. BAUMGARTNER, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the 0/d Te stament, I-V, Leiden-New York-Koln 1994-2000. La versione dei testi biblici è quella ufficiale della Bibbia curata dalla Conferenza Episcopale Italiana (Bibbia CEI); talvolta, per ra gioni critiche, dove ritengo opportuno, d6 una versione più aderente al testo originale. in Laurentianum 44 (2003) 325-358

l)orlir i Profeti Minori :,( )rì( ) rninori, ma sono dodici come le tribù di Israele, e dunque richiamano | 'it lcntità dell'ebraismo; sorro minori, ma capaci di reinterpretare libri fondamentali deÌla Bibbia, r orne l'Esodo; sorro minori, ma osano temi nuovi, come il dono deÌlo Spirito e il giorn<r r1«rI Signore; sono minori, ma appassionati e travolgenti: l'alleanza diventa fidanzamerrto c matrimonio; sono minori, ma guardano lontano: anche fuori di Israele c'è la salvczzrr; sono minori, ma gridano con coraggio per Ia giustizia; sono minori, ma annunciano l'utopia della pace e la signoria di Dio;

Das Jona-Buch stellt eine theologisch vielschichtige Erzählung dar. Wie an anderer Stelle gezeigt werden konnte, dürfte diese gehaltvolle Erzählung im Wesentlichen literarisch einheitlich sein. 1 Trifft diese Einschätzung zu, ist zu untersuchen, ob auch der Wechsel der verschiedenen Gottesbezeichnungen im Buch als bewusst zu verstehen ist. 2 Im Folgenden soll daher versucht werden, die Wahl der jeweiligen Bezeichnung an den einzelnen Belegstellen zu interpretieren. Daraus lassen sich, so die These, Einsichten in das im Jona-Buch vorausgesetzte Gottesverhältnis Jonas gewinnen. Zu den Gottesbezeichnungen im Jona-Buch und zum Gottesverhältnis Jonas Während die ersten beiden Kapitel des Jona-Buches stets von YHWH reden, wenn sie den Gott Israels meinen, und das Appellativum "Gott" 3 nur dann verwenden, wenn YHWH weiter charakterisiert wird (YHWH als Schöpfergott in 1,9 und als persönlicher Gott Jonas in 2,2.7), oder wenn von einer nicht weiter bestimmten Gottheit die Rede ist (1,5.6[2x]: der Gott bzw. die Götter der Seeleute; der [noch] nicht bekannte Gott Jonas und der [noch] unbekannte Gott, der hinter dem Sturm steht), kann in Kap. 3-4 kaum ein inhaltlicher Unterschied zwischen den Belegen von hw" hy> , ~yhi l{ a/ , 1 Vgl. Bührer, Untersuchungen. Die These der weitgehenden literarischen Einheitlichkeit des Jona-Buches wird wie die Datierung in die persische oder hellenistische Zeit von vielen Forschern geteilt. Strittig ist vor allem die Frage der Zugehörigkeit des sogenannten Jona-Psalms (zu den verschiedenen Modellen vgl. Bührer, Untersuchungen, 29-30 mit Anm. 1-5).

By Paul R. House, 1989 (this text was made available at: https://www.pdfdrive.com/zephaniah-a-prophetic-drama-bible-and-literature-series-d160060188.html) -- For another, literary-structural study of Zephaniah, see chapter 8 in the following book: https://www.academia.edu/8963455/PROPHETIC_RHETORIC_Case_Studies_in_Text_Analysis_and_Translation

This book examines John Calvin’s sense of vocation.

1) It begins with an analysis of thinking on prophecy in early, medieval, and Reformation theology.

2) It finds Calvin within a non-mystical, non-apocalyptic prophetic tradition that focused on scriptural interpretation.

3) It argues Calvin believed his prophetic authority was the same as Isaiah and Jeremiah, and suggests that he may have held himself to be infallible in matters related to Christian doctrine.

4) It argues that starting from about 1555, Calvin began to conceive the idea of encouraging one of the French 'lesser magistrates' (the princes of the blood royal) to rise up in armed conflict against the sitting French king with the aim of taking the throne.

5) Thus, it argues that when that did happen in 1562 when Louis of Condé gathered troops in Orléans and declared their intentions to liberate King Charles IX from the evil councillors surrounding him, this had Calvin's fingerprints on it -- Calvin was to a significant degree responsible for this turn of events.

6) Calvin pursued this plan, I argue, as one of a number of approaches to winning France for the gospel. In this way, the volume explores Calvin's sense of vocation and the impact this had on his political thought.

Coming at the end of the Prophets, the book of Malachi provides an important perspective on how the Bible fits together. Malachi looks back over the story of Israel, with all its hopes and failures, and looks forward to the NT which explains how the various strands of OT hope are realized in the messiah Jesus and his kingdom. Two central biblical-theological themes in the book of Malachi are covenant and the Day of the Lord. These themes resound through all of the Bible and later in this article I will trace their development to show how Malachi fits into the unfolding story of the Bible and its major themes.

Due to a supposed grammatical anomaly, interpreters of Zephaniah have long struggled with the Hebrew verb phrase ‫אָסֹף אָסֵף‬ 'I will utterly sweep away' (NRSV) that initiates the book. Normally when an infinitive absolute is followed by a yiqtol form, both verbs bear a common verbal root. Most scholars, however, believe that in Zeph 1:2 the phrase ‫אָסֹף אָסֵף‬‬ combines a qal infinitive absolute of ‫אסף‬ 'to gather' with the hiphil yiqtol of ‫סוף‬ 'to bring to an end', resulting in the need to generate a conflated translation that highlights God's promise to completely destroy the earth's creatures. In contrast, after assessing the textual tradition, I argue for the likelihood that both forms derive from the root ‫,אסף‬ the first being a qal infinitive absolute and the second a hiphil yiqtol. I then support this decision and consider the interpretive significance in light of parallels within the book and from the broader biblical context. The text teaches that God's assembling of all creatures for judicial assessment is distinct from his acts of deliverance and wrath that flow from it, and it also supports the view that the future ingatherings for salvation and punishment are one and the same event (though manifest in various culminating acts).

By Charles S. Shaw (1993) -- This text was made available at the following website: https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-speeches-of-micah-a-rhetorical-historical-analysis-jsot-supplement-series-d185546215.html -- For a comparative study, see at: https://www.academia.edu/38565341/MICAH--Exegetical_and_Translational_Guide_Questions_version_4.0

La caída estrepitosa de los reinos de Israel (722 AC), frente al Imperio Asirio, y Judá (586 AC) ante el emergente Imperio Neobabilónico puede explicarse por el indetenible deterioro de la espiritualidad de ambos reinos y el impostergable castigo de Dios al mal testimonio del pueblo que había sido llamado a reflejar la imagen de Dios en el mundo antiguo.

En su afán de preservar la espiritualidad de la nación Dios levantó a hombres y mujeres, profetas todos, que tuvieron la penosa responsabilidad de advertir al pueblo de los castigos por venir, llamar al pueblo al arrepentimiento mientras sufrían en carne propia lo que sucedía a los ciudadanos de Israel, además de la persecución que por lo general han sufrido quienes hablan en nombre de Dios.

No deben quedar en el tintero los juicios de Dios que fueron presentados por los profetas a los reinos paganos que causaron la caída de los reinos de Judá e Israel, así como a otros que no aceptaron la longánime misericordia de Dios en el tiempo de oportunidad. Debe también quedar en nuestra mente la aplicación que tienen estos mensajes de reprensión, no solamente para los enemigos de Dios y de su obra, sino para aquellos que militamos en el pueblo de Dios hoy, cuyas responsabilidades no son menores, y que tal vez… sólo tal vez, no estamos cumpliendo en alcanzar lo que el Altísimo espera de nosotros.

Muslims believe that God sent many prophets throughout history to guide humanity. They taught people about the pure creed of belief in the One God, ways to worship Him and how to lead righteous lives keeping in mind our purpose in life. The prophets also informed humanity of future events and things unseen, such as the Day of Resurrection and the life hereafter.

The prophets were all outstanding examples of honesty and righteousness, known for their pure character even before being tasked with prophethood. Therefore, their claims about the unseen could be trusted due to their reputations as being the most trustworthy of men. In addition, God granted them miracles to remove any doubts that they were sent by God. These miracles were clearly impossible for any human being to perform without divine intervention, many of which are mentioned in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. One famous example is the splitting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses and the Children of Israel to flee from the Pharaoh’s army.

A key point in understanding the concept of miracles in Islam is that they all are a result of God’s power and permission, and not that of human beings. God mentions this several times in the Quran, such as in Jesus’ statement to his people: “… I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I will make the shape of a bird for you out of clay, then breathe into it and, with God’s permission, it will become a real bird; I will heal the blind and the leper, and bring the dead back to life with God’s permission…” (Quran 3:49).
The final prophet, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was given many miracles throughout his life as well, as proofs of his prophethood.

The greatest miracle bestowed upon him was the revelation of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is miraculous in a number of aspects: Its linguistic perfection and inimitability, its validation by recent historical, archaeological, and scientific discoveries, its prophecies and so on. Unlike the miracles of other prophets before him, the miracle of the Qur'an is eternal. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) also provided us with a number of true prophecies.

In this book [The Miracles of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him by Hafidh Abi Al-Fada'ah Ismail Ibn Kathir] are accounts of the some of the other miracles of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Before reading these, it helps to know something about the Science of Traditions (Arabic: Ahadith), an exacting and comprehensive system developed by early Muslim scholars to verify the chain of transmission of these accounts, as well as investigating the trustworthiness and capability of every narrator at every level of the chain. This thorough authentication process ensures that these accounts are real, validated narrations of the sayings, actions, and tacit approvals of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Cet ouvrage traitera des difficultés principales que le texte hébreu traditionnel de plusieurs livres de prophètes (Ézéchiel, Daniel et les 12 Prophètes) a posées aux traductions de la Bible qui ont eu le plus d'influence, au cours de ce dernier demi-siècle, dans les cultures anglaise, française et allemande. Il présente et développe le résultat d'un travail sur 1075 apparats critiques. D. Barthélémy a rédigé ce volume publié en 1992. Les membres du comité international et interconfessionnel de spécialistes de la critique textuelle de l'AT eurent communication du traitement des diverses difficultés et la rédaction finale profita de leurs suggestions. Disponible à  https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/150255/

El estudio comienza con una propuesta de traducción al español del Libro de Abdías, con comentarios y notas de traducción. A partir de este análisis, se procede a un estudio detallado de las diversas propuestas sobre la estructura del oráculo contra Edom. La propuesta central es que la división en días es esencial para captar el mensaje del oráculo. Un análisis de los recursos literarios y retóricos completa el estudio, para así pasar a le profundización en el mensaje teológico del Libro de Abdías.

Zechariah has been used by the author of the Fourth Gospel to address one of the most important issues for both the early Church and first century AD Judaism: the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The Johannine references to this prophecy served to express the revolutionary truth that there is a new temple, the body of Jesus, the King-Messiah, which is rebuilt by means of his resurrection. The same prophecy served to illustrate yet another dramatic truth: just as the eschatological Jerusalem Temple is the source of the outflow of paradisiac water, so this Temple-Messiah is the source of the re-creating Spirit. Thus, the main contribution of this study is to show the relevance of Zechariah for the Johannine christology and pneumatology, both centered around the idea of the Temple.

There is certainly no famine for words on the book of Amos. 1 In particular, the religious life of Israel presented in the book continues to be a fertile area of research. This is evident not only in the quantity of works devoted to this issue, but also by the diversity of methodological approaches employed by scholars. Some, for instance, seek to orient Amos visà-vis the development of Israelite religion, bringing diachronic tensions, as well as the material culture to bear on the question. 2 Sociological perspectives, though not necessarily antithetical to this approach, emphasize questions such as the relationship between religion and culture within 1 Certainly, one reason for the scholarly interest in Amos comes from his role as the first of the classical prophets. As Holladay provocatively states, "Like Melchizedek, Amos seems to have been born without benefit of ancestors" (John S. Holladay, "Assyrian Statecraft and the Prophets of Israel," Harvard Theological Review 63, no.

This thesis analyzes the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System as represented in Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah and posits an invariable meaning for each of the four finite forms based on a semantic analysis. A general theory of TAM is presented, and then it is applied to QATAL, WEQATAL, YIQTOL, and WAYYIQTOL (the four finite forms). QATAL is found to be polysemous for perfective and perfect aspect, WEQATAL is found to be perfective-irrealis, YIQTOL is found to be irrealis, and WAYYIQTOL is found to be past-perfective. On a discourse level, it is found that each of the forms have tendencies to be temporally related to adjacent clauses in certain ways, but these relationships are not a part of the invariable meaning of the forms. Throughout the thesis, the semantic analysis presented is compared to other major analyses from various perspectives, including traditional, discourse, and diachronic approaches.

This article is a selective survey of the last twenty years of Amos research, which has witnessed robust discussion in multiple directions. It groups these trends into five very broad areas: (1) the possibility of positing an eighth-century setting for the prophet and the historical reliability of the book, (2) work on the redaction of the book and potential connections to the history of the composition of the Book of the Twelve, (3) theological themes of particular contemporary interest, (4) recent insights into the translation techniques of LXX Amos, and (5) the reception of Amos across the centuries, with a special focus on the views of women and minority and global communities. There is a range of scholarly positions in several of these areas and new questions being asked, all of which portends continued vitality in Amos research in the foreseeable future.

This paper argues that the Book of Joel is best understood against the background of the exilic period in Judah, after the Destruction but before the Return to Zion, that is, between 587 and 538 BCE. While concrete historical evidence is not decisive, an investigation of the ideology of the Book may determine the Book's historical setting. The lack of any rebuke in Joel accords with the view that he lived in the exilic period, when it would not have been appropriate to rebuke and criticize the people, who were in a state of deep despair. The Book of Joel places great emphasis on the motif of the Divine presence residing in the midst of Israel. This central message of assurance of the Divine presence is particularly apt if we accept the view that Joel belongs to the period of the Destruction, when the people were in despair and saw in the events their abandonment by God. There are cultic concerns in the book. This is understood if it is accepted that Joel functioned in the exilic period, and aimed at persuading his audience that one can pray to the Lord even when the Temple is in ruins. The prophet's main purpose was to bring the people to renew their connection with the Lord after the destruction of the Temple, and to focus the people's attention on the Temple, which, although physically ruined, had not lost its religious significance. Other characteristics of the Book of Joel that point to the same historical setting are discussed in the paper.

By Duane A. Garrett -- The focus of this commentary is the Hebrew text of Amos. Discussions of the book’s social and historical background, of insights gained from archaeology, and of its theology are secondary and purposefully kept to a minimum. In addition, this commentary works from the received Masoretic Text of Amos and makes no effort to include an exhaustive record of textual variants, of versional readings, and of conjectural emendations proposed by biblical scholars. Discussions of text-critical issues therefore will appear only when either the obscurity of the received text or some other considerations require it. This commentary is intended primarily for the student of Hebrew and the Bible translator, but it should be helpful also for any teachers of the Bible who believe that wrestling with the original language of the text to be valuable.
(This text was made available at the following website: https://www.pdfdrive.com/amos-a-handbook-on-the-hebrew-text-baylor-handbook-on-the-hebrew-bible-d184348690.html)

"The Ideological Underpinnings of Chaoskampf Motifs in Hebrew Poetry" briefly considers several significant passages that employ blatant chaoskampf motifs to speak of struggles against human threat, but will also highlight an ideological link between chaoskampf Myth and the biblical application of chaoskampf motifs to threats against life and societal stability. While one cannot reproduce ancient psychology, what phenomena of ANE and biblical religion can be observed suggest that life in the ANE was chaoskampf, a constant struggle against destructive forces within society, from abroad, in nature, and from the spirit realm. The diverse means by which this struggle is carried out says a good deal about the difference between biblical and ANE theology and practice and may provide the biblical theologian with appropriate categories for encapsulating biblical theology as a whole.

This paper plots the theme of exile across the Twelve, exploring its implications for theodicy and hope. Of particular focus is the idea in Zechariah 12–14 that Jerusalem will have to endure another attack by the nations, but after initial devastation and “re-exile”, YHWH will deliver his people with a glorious outcome. This paper examines how Zechariah draws on Israel’s past history to paint a picture of the future and how this idea of “re-exile” functions in the Twelve, especially after many of the people of Judah have returned to the land after the exilic experience that the earlier prophets of the Twelve foresaw. Even though they have returned from Babylon and the temple has been rebuilt, the books of Zechariah and Malachi give evidence that the earlier judgment of God has not dealt decisively with the enduring problem of sin. These latter chapters of Zechariah speak of a further refining purification of Jerusalem that is needed before YHWH’s kingship over the earth is established in all its glory. Crucial to the presentation in Zechariah 9–14 is a future Davidic king whose death results in cleansing and a renewed covenant relationship between YHWH and his people, a message inspiring hope.