To rightly perceive their message, we must know the historical setting. While there are challenges to discerning the unity of the twelve, their chronology is especially important for understand God’s message.īecause the prophets are forth-tellers of God’s law, more than fore-tellers of God’s future, the prophets addressed the sinfulness of Israel/Judah, called for repentance, and promised mercy in a time to come. Through this chronology, the Minor Prophets provide a unique perspective on the spiritual welfare of God’s people over time. Together, the twelve Minor Prophets compose a book of prophecy approximately the same size as the other Major Prophets.įocusing our attention on the Minor Prophets, we can see that these twelve books originated over the course of four centuries (approx. While the first three major prophets are each associated with one prophet, the Minor Prophets (i.e., the Twelve) is a collection of twelve different prophets. There are four “major prophets” in the Old Testament-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve.
