1. Exploring the Minor Prophets
The Book of the Twelve
Exploring the Minor Prophets

2. What is the book of the Twelve?
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) divisions:
Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim (Law, Prophets, Writings)
Book = Scroll (סֵ֫פֶר- sepher)
תרי עשר = “The Twelve”
Emerged as a collection around 190 BC
Intended to be read as an episodic unity.

3. Israelite History Exodus (15th or 13th centuries BC)
Settlement & Proto-democratic Tribal Confederation
United Monarchy – Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam (c BC)
Divided Monarchy (and decline)
Fall of Samaria (N) to Assyria (c. 722 BC)
Fall of Jerusalem (S) to Babylon (587 BC)
Cyrus the Great invades Babylon (539 BC)
Edict of Cyrus Allows Jews to return home and rebuild

4. Majoring on The Minors History – What really happened?
Message – What does it say?
Reception – How have others interpreted it?
Significance – What does it mean for us?

5. The Path Ahead
July 23 – Zephaniah July 30 – Issues in the Minor Prophets ( Dr. Robin McCall, Guest Teacher) Aug 6 –   Issues in the Minor Prophets (Guest Teacher) Aug 13 – Haggai Aug 20 – Zechariah Aug 27 – Malachi Sep 3 –   Closing the Scroll
May 21 – Intro to the Book of the Twelve May 28 –  Hosea June 4 -   Joel June 11 – Amos June 18 –Obadiah June 25 –Jonah July 2 –   Micah July 9 –   Nahum July 16 – Habakkuk

6. This Time in History
The first Olympics (according to tradition) in Greece (776 BC)
Jonah’s prophetic ministry (c. 770’s BC?)
The City of Rome is founded (753 BC)
Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey are put to writing (750 BC)
Greeks add vowels to Phoenician language (700 BC)
Xerxes
Book of Jonah written (c. 490 BC?)
Socrates born (470 BC)
Alexander the Great born (356 BC)

7. Timeline of the book of the Twelve
Christian Bible (Masoretic Text)
Ancient Greek OT (Septuagint)
Chronology (all BC)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
----
Amos (mid-8th)
Hosea (mid-8th)
Isaiah (late 8th)
Micah (late 8th)
Nahum (late 7th)
Habakkuk (late 7th)
Zephaniah (late 7th)
Jeremiah (late 7th or early 6th)
Lamentations (early 6th)
Ezekiel (early 6th)
Obadiah (early 6th)
Haggai (late 6th)
Zechariah (late 6th)
Malachi (late 5th)
Jonah (5th – 4th)
Joel (4th ?)
Daniel (2nd)

8. Jonah’s history Jonah means “dove” 8th c. Northern Prophet
Contemporary (colleague?) of Amos
2 Kings 14:25 - He [Jeroboam II] restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
From Gath-Hepher
about 3 mi. from Nazareth
Nationalistic prophet?
Book of Jonah written much later

9. Jonah’s history Nineveh Major Assyrian City
Became the Assyrian Capital after the historical Jonah’s lifetime (c. 704 BC).
Near the Tigris River across from modern day Mosul
220 miles NNW of Baghdad
Walls were 8 miles in circumference.
Jonah (3:3) may be exaggerating its size.

10. Jonah’s History
Two Assyrian soldiers erect a stake with an impaled, naked man beside two others. The heads of these captured men of Lachish sag forward, suggesting that they are already dead. This detail comes from a series of reliefs, found at Nineveh, in which Sennacherib (704–681 B.C.) recorded the exploits of his invasion of Judah in 701 B.C. Lachish was among the 46 cities he conquered.
Erika Belibtreu, Biblical Archaeology Society

11. Jonah’s History Cultural Setting Post-exile era Culture of Fear
Persian Empire
Following Babylonian Exile
Judah rebuilding
Culture of Fear
Racial & Religious Impurity
Two options

12. Jonah’s History Nehemiah 13:23-27
23 In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; 24 and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak Judahite, but spoke the language of various peoples. 25 And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
Nehemiah 13:23-27

13. Jonah’s Message Outline Act I – Call and Departure
Pagan sailors
Act II – The Song of the Sea
Act III – Prophecy and Repentance
Act IV – The Aftermath
The Plant
The Question

14. Jonah’s Message Jonah’s Psalm of Thanksgiving
NRS Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' 5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. 7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"
10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

15. Jonah’s Message
Jonah’s Psalm of Thanksgiving

16. Jonah’s Message The Returnees’ Psalm of Thanksgiving
NRS Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' 5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. 7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"
10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

17. Jonah’s Message Outline Act I – Call and Departure
Pagan sailors
Act II – The Song of the Sea
Act III – Prophecy and Repentance
Act IV – The Aftermath
The Plant
The Question

18. Jonah’s Message
10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

19. Jonah’s Message Different from other prophetic books
Fable? Satire? Folktale? Novella?
Borrows phrases from other OT books
Joel 2:14 “Who knows?”
Exodus 34:6-7 “A God merciful and gracious…”
The Irony of Mercy
The fish, the plant, the people
Humor
Thinking boats, a reluctant prophet, a pitied plant, uber-repentance

20. Jonah’s Reception Ancient Reception Link with Obadiah
Casting Lots
11 On the day that you stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them. (Obadiah 1:7)
7 The sailors said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. (Jonah 1:7)
Countervoice to Obadiah
Last of the Twelve?
The Eventual Fall of Assyria (Micah 5:5b-6)

21. Jonah’s Reception Late Ancient (New Testament) Early Church / Medieval
The “Sign of Jonah” (3 days in “exile”) (Matthew 12:39-41)
“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
Early Church / Medieval
Resurrection
Jesus calming the sea
Reluctance to accept ministry / escaping God
Anti-Jewish / Anti-Heretic Interpretation
Jonah’s hatred of Nineveh projected

22. Jonah’s Reception
Early Modern

23. Jonah’s Reception Modern
Jonah as litmus test for belief in the miraculous.
Jonah as children’s story.
Jonah as pitiful prophet.

24. Jonah’s Significance Learning from the Past The Mystery of God’s Word
Loving One’s Enemies / the Other
God’s Universal Reign / Love

25. Jonah’s Significance