INTRODUCTION TO THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS
In our editions of the Hebrew Bible, the book of Ezekiel is followed by the book of the Twelve Prophets (twÌn dwÂdeka profhtwÌn, Sir 49:10; called RVFˆF „YN˜Ši by the Rabbins; Chaldee, e.g., in the Masora, RSAYR˜Ti = RVFˆF YR˜ti), who have been called from time immemorial the smaller prophets (qêtanniÝm, minores)on account of the smaller bulk of such of their prophecies as have come down to us in a written form, when contrasted with the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.[1]
On the completion of the canon these twelve writings were put together, so as to form one prophetic book. This was done “lest one or other of them should be lost on account of its size, if they were all kept separate,” as Kimchi observes in his Praef. Comm. in Ps., according to a rabbinical tradition. They were also reckoned as one book, monoÂbibloj, toà dwdekaproÂfhton (see my Lehrbuch der Einleitung in d. A. T. § 156 and 216, Anm. 10ff.). Their authors lived and laboured as prophets at different periods, ranging from the ninth century B.C. to the fifth; so that in these prophetic books we have not only the earliest and
- ↑ Augustine (De civit. Dei, xviii. 29) observes: “Qui propterea dicuntur minores, quia sermones eorum sunt breves in eorum comparatione, qui majores ideo vocantur, quia prolixa volumina condiderunt.” Compare with this the notice from b. Bathra 14b, in Delitzsch on Isaiah, p. 16, translation.
