THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE
IN the order of our English
Bible the Minor Prophets, as they are usually called, form the last
twelve books of the Old Testament. They are immediately preceded by
Daniel, and before him by the three Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah
(with Lamentations), and Ezekiel. Why all sixteen were thus gathered
at the end of the other sacred books we do not know. Perhaps,
because it was held fitting that prophecy should occupy the last
outposts of the Old Testament towards the New.
In the Hebrew Bible, however, the order differs, and is much more
significant. The Prophets form the second division of the threefold
Canon: Law, Prophets, and Writings; and Daniel is not among them.
The Minor follow immediately after Ezekiel. Moreover, they are not
twelve books, but one. They are gathered under the common title
"Book of the Twelve"; and although each of them has the usual
colophon detailing the number of its own verses, there is also one
colophon for all the twelve, placed at the end of Malachi and
reckoning the sum of their verses from the first of Hosea onwards.
This unity, which there is reason to suppose was given to them
before their reception into the Canon, they have never since lost.
However much their place has changed in the order of the books of
the Old Testament, however much their own internal arrangement has
differed, the Twelve have always stood together. There has been
every temptation to scatter them because of their various dates. Yet
they never have been scattered; and in spite of the fact that they
have not preserved their common title in any Bible outside the
Hebrew, that title has lived on in literature and common talk. Thus
the Greek Canon omits it; but Greek Jews and Christians always
counted the books as one volume, calling, them "The Twelve
Prophets," or "The Twelve-Prophet Book." It was the Latins who
designated them "The Minor Prophets": "on account of their brevity
as compared with those who are called the Major because of their
ampler volumes." And this name has passed into most modern
languages, including our own. But surely it is better to revert to
the original, canonical and unambiguous title of "The Twelve."
The collection and arrangement of "The Twelve" are matters of
obscurity, from which, however, three or four facts emerge that are
tolerably certain. The inseparableness of the books is a proof of
the ancient date of their union. They must have been put together
before they were received into the Canon. The Canon of the
Prophets-Joshua to Second Kings and Isaiah to Malachi-was closed by
200 B.C. at the latest, and perhaps as early as 250; but if we have
(as seems probable) portions of "The Twelve," which must be assigned
to a little later than 300, this may be held to prove that the whole
collection cannot have long preceded the fixing of the Canon of the
Prophets. On the other hand, the fact that these latest pieces have
not been placed under a title of their own, but are attached to the
Book of Zechariah, is pretty sufficient evidence that they were
added after the collection and fixture of twelve books-a round
number which there would be every disposition not to disturb. That
would give us for the date of the first edition (so to speak) of our
Twelve some year before 300; and for the date of the second edition
some year towards 250. This is a question, however, which may be
reserved for final decision after we have examined the date of the
separate books, and especially of Joel and the second half of
Zechariah. That there was a previous collection, as early as the
Exile, of the books written before then, may be regarded as more
than probable. But we have no means of fixing its exact limits. Why
the Twelve were all ultimately, put together is reasonably suggested
by Jewish writers. They are small, and, as separate rolls, might
have been lost. It is possible that the desire of the round number
twelve is responsible for the admission of Jonah, a book very
different in form from all the others; just as we have hinted that
the fact of there being already twelve may account for the
attachment of the late fragments to the Book of Zechariah. But all
this is only to guess, where we have no means of certain knowledge.
"The Book of the Twelve" has not always held the place which it now
occupies in the Hebrew Canon, at the end of the Prophets. The rabbis
taught that Hosea, but for the comparative smallness of his
prophecy, should have stood first of all the writing prophets, of
whom they regarded him as the oldest. And doubtless it was for the
same chronological reasons’ that early Christian catalogues of the
Scriptures and various editions of the Septuagint placed the whole
of "The Twelve" in front of Isaiah.
The internal arrangement of "The Twelve" in our English Bible is the
same as that of the Hebrew Canon, and was probably determined by
what the compilers thought to be the respective ages of the books.
Thus, first we have six, all supposed to be of the earlier Assyrian
period, before 700-Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah;
then three from the late Assyrian and the Babylonian periods-Nahum,
Habakkuk, and Zephaniah; and then three from the Persian period
after the Exile-Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Septuagint have
altered the order of the first six, arranging Hosea, Amos, Micah,
Joel, and Obadiah according to their size, and setting Jonah after
them, probably because of his different form. The remaining six are
left as in the Hebrew.
Recent criticism, however, has made it clear that the Biblical order
of "The Twelve Prophets" is no more than a very rough approximation
to the order of their real dates; and, as it is obviously best for
us to follow in their historical succession prophecies which
illustrate the whole history of prophecy from its rise with Amos to
its fall with Malachi and his successors, I propose to do this.
Detailed proofs of the separate dates must be left to each book. All
that is needful here is a general statement of the order.
Of the first six prophets the dates of Amos, Hosea, and Micah (but
of the latter’s book in part only) are certain. The Jews have been
able to defend Hosea’s priority only on fanciful grounds. Whether or
not he quotes from Amos, his historical allusions are more recent.
With the exception of a few fragments incorporated by later authors,
the Book of Amos is thus the earliest example of prophetic
literature, and we take it first. The date we shall see is about
755. Hosea begins five or ten years later, and Micah just before
722. The three are in every respect-originality, comprehensiveness,
influence upon other prophets-the greatest of our Twelve, and will
therefore be treated with most detail, occupying the whole of the
first volume.
The rest of the first six are Obadiah, Joel, and Jonah. But the Book
of Obadiah, although it opens with an early oracle against Edom, is
in its present form from after the Exile. The Book of Joel is of
uncertain date, but, as we shall see, the great probability is that
it is late; and the Book of Jonah belongs to a form of literature so
different from the others that we may, most conveniently, treat of
it last.
This leaves us to follow Micah, at the end of the eighth century,
with the group Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakkuk from the second half
of the seventh century; and finally to take in their order the
post-exilic Haggai, Zechariah 1-9., Malachi, and the other writings
which we feel obliged to place about or even after that date.
One other word is needful. This assignment of the various books to
different dates is not to be held as implying that the whole of a
book belongs to such a date or to the author whose name it bears. We
shall find that hands have been busy with the texts of the books
long after the authors of these must have passed away; that besides
early fragments incorporated by later writers, prophets of Israel’s
new dawn mitigated the judgments and enlightened the gloom of the
watchmen of her night; that here and there are passages which are
evidently intrusions, both because they interrupt the argument and
because they reflect a much later historical environment than their
context. This, of course, will require discussion in each case, and
such discussion will be given. The text will be subjected to an
independent examination. Some passages hitherto questioned we may
find to be unjustly so; others not hitherto questioned we may see
reason to suspect. But in any case we shall keep in mind that the
results of an independent inquiry are uncertain; and that in this
new criticism of the prophets, which is comparatively recent, we
cannot hope to arrive for some time at so general a consensus as is
being rapidly reached in the far older and more elaborated criticism
of the Pentateuch.
Such is the extent and order of the journey which lies before us. If
it is not to the very summits of Israel’s outlook that we
climb-Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the great Prophet of the Exile-we are
yet to traverse the range of prophecy from beginning to end. We
start with its first abrupt elevations in Amos. We are carried by
the side of Isaiah and Jeremiah, yet at a lower altitude, on to the
Exile. With the returned Israel we pursue an almost immediate rise
to vision, and then by Malachi and others are conveyed down
dwindling slopes to the very end. Beyond the land is flat. Though
Psalms are sung and brave deeds done, and faith is strong and
bright, there is no height of outlook; "there is no more any
prophet" {Psa 74:9} in Israel.
But our "Twelve" do more than thus carry us from beginning to end of
the Prophetic Period. Of second rank as are most of the heights of
this mountain range, they yet bring forth and speed on their way not
a few of the streams of living water which have nourished later ages
and are flowing today. Impetuous cataracts of righteousness-"let it
roll on like water, and justice as an everlasting stream"; the
irrepressible love of God to sinful men; the perseverance and
pursuits of His grace; His mercies that follow the exile and the
outcast His truth that goes forth richly upon the heathen; the ‘hope
of the Savior of mankind the outpouring of the Spirit; counsels of
patience; impulses of tenderness and of healing melodies
innumerable, -all sprang from these lower hills of prophecy, and
sprang so strongly that the world hears and feels them still,
And from the heights of our present pilgrimage there are also clear
those great visions of the Stars and the Dawn, of the Sea and the
Storm, concerning which it is true that as long as men live they
shall seek out the places whence they can be seen, and thank God for
His prophets.
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