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 (Dr. Don Polaski, 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. 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)
Zephaniah (late 7th)
Habakkuk (late 7th or early 6th)
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)

7. This Time in History
The first Olympics (according to tradition) in Greece (776 BC)
The City of Rome is founded (753 BC)
Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey are put to writing (c. 750 BC)
Fall of Samaria/Northern Kingdom to Assyria (722 BC)
Greeks add vowels to Phoenician language (700 BC)
Habakkuk probably active between 612 and 586 BC
Fall of Jerusalem/Southern Kingdom to Babylon (586 BC)
Leonidas reigns in Sparta (530 BC)
Socrates born (470 BC)
Alexander the Great born (356 BC)

8. Habakkuk’s history Habakkuk means “listen?”
7th c. Southern Prophet (from Jerusalem?)
Likely active after King Josiah’s death
Contemporary of Jeremiah & Zephaniah?
“The Chaldeans” (1:6)
Overthrew Nineveh (612); Assyria in (605)
Reign of Jehoiakim ( BC)
Undoing of Josianic reforms
Three Babylonian deportations in Judah
597, 586, 582 BC

9. Habakkuk’s history Jehoiakim in 2 Kings 23-24
34 Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away; he came to Egypt, and died there. 35 Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to meet Pharaoh's demand for money. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from all according to their assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as all his ancestors had done.
24:1 In his days King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up; Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 The LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, bands of the Arameans, bands of the Moabites, and bands of the Ammonites; he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets.

10. Habakkuk’s Message Outline
I – Dialogue between the Prophet and God (1:1-2:5)
1:1 Superscription
1:2-11 Prophetic complaint and Divine reply
1:12-2:4 The Prophet’s confusion and God’s message of hope
II – Five taunting woes against Babylon (2:6-20)
Creditors, stones cry out, feed the flames, drunkenness, idolatry
III – Psalm/poem/prayer of Hope (3:1-19)

11. Habakkuk’s Message
“The Law becomes slack and justice never prevails.” (1:4a)
Un-just Judah? Or surrounding nations?
Reign of Jehoiakim ( BC) (undoes Josianic reforms)
God’s response
5 Look at the nations, and see! Be astonished! Be astounded! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told. 6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
7 Dread and fearsome are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more menacing than wolves at dusk; their horses charge. Their horsemen come from far away; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up earth to take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind; they transgress and become guilty; their own might is their god!

12. Habakkuk’s Message
Habakkuk’s response, “Why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” (1:13b)
Example of Babylon the fisherman
God’s rejoinder, “3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith[fulness].”

13. Habakkuk’s Message – Five Taunts/Woes
Credit comes due
Your own house rebels
1:6b "Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!" How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge? 7 Will not your own creditors suddenly rise, and those who make you tremble wake up? Then you will be booty for them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you-- because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.
9 "Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!" 10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11 The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.

14. Habakkuk’s Message – Five Taunts/Woes
Best-laid plans
Get your fill
1:12 "Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!" 13 Is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor only to feed the flames, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14 But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 "Alas for you who make your neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath until they are drunk, in order to gaze on their nakedness!" 16 You will be sated with contempt instead of glory. Drink, you yourself, and stagger! The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory! 17 For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of the animals will terrify you-- because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth, to cities and all who live in them.

15. Habakkuk’s Message – Five Taunts/Woes
Can it teach?
18 What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it-- a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak! 19 Alas for you who say to the wood, "Wake up!" to silent stone, "Rouse yourself!" Can it teach? See, it is gold and silver plated, and there is no breath in it at all. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

16. Habakkuk’s Message Habakkuk’s Poem/Prayer/Psalm
The Divine Warrior (3:2-15)
Conclusion
16 I hear, and I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us. 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights. To the leader: with stringed instruments.

17. Habakkuk’s Reception Ancient Reception
Contrast to Jonah / compare with Nahum (chiasm?) / Persian redaction?
Apocrypha – Habakkuk feeds Daniel when the latter is in the Lion’s den.
Now the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea; he had made a stew and had broken bread into a bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the reapers. 34 But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, "Take the food that you have to Babylon, to Daniel, in the lions' den." 35 Habakkuk said, "Sir, I have never seen Babylon, and I know nothing about the den." 36 Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown of his head and carried him by his hair; with the speed of the wind he set him down in Babylon, right over the den. 37 Then Habakkuk shouted, "Daniel, Daniel! Take the food that God has sent you.“ 38 Daniel said, "You have remembered me, O God, and have not forsaken those who love you." 39 So Daniel got up and ate. And the angel of God immediately returned Habakkuk to his own place (Bel and the Dragon 1:33-39 NRSV)
Dead Sea Scrolls contain a (“pesher”) commentary on Habakkuk
Applies Habakkuk’s words to their own time

18. Habakkuk’s Reception Late Ancient (New Testament) Early Church
1:5 in Paul’s preaching in Acts 13:41
“The stones will cry out.” 2:11 in Luke 19:40
2:4 “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17; Galatian 3:11; Hebrews 10:37-38)
Early Church
Divine Providence
Embarrassment over Habakkuk’s arguing
Waiting on God
Christological interpretation
Moralizing

19. Habakkuk’s Reception Medieval/Reformation Modern
2:4 “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17; Galatian 3:11; Hebrews 10:37-38)
Modern
Habakkuk as hero

20. Habakkuk’s Significance
How Long? Where is God’s justice?
Wrestling with God
The just shall live by faith[fulness]