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Prophetic Books
The prophetic books are a division of the Christian Bible, grouping 18 books ( Catholic and Orthodox canon) or 17 books (Protestant canon, excluding Baruch) in the Old Testament. In terms of the Tanakh, it includes the Latter Prophets from the Nevi'im, with the addition of Lamentions (which in the Tanakh is one of the Five Megillot) and Daniel, both of which are included among the books of the Hebrew Ketuvim. The prophetic books are named as such because prophets are traditionally attributed as authors. However, modern scholars think that the books as they have been handed down to the present time are the work of successive generations of writers who took their inspiration the messages of these prophets. These authors were active between 750 BC and 450 BC. The first six of the books are known as the major prophets, while the last 12 are known as the minor prophets. These names do not imply that the major prophets are more important than the minor prophets, but refer to the majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament. Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century Hellenistic Judaism in the Roman province of Judea. Jesus' apostles and their followers spread around the Levant, Europe, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Ancient Carthage, Egypt, and Ethiopia, despite significant initial persecution. It soon attracted gentile God-fearers, which led to a departure from Jewish customs, and, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books, following Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, during the 22 years from 593 to 571 BCE, although it is the product of a long and complex history and does not necessarily preserve the very words of the prophet. The visions, and the book, are structured around three themes: (1) Judgment on Israel (chapters 1–24); (2) Judgment on the nations (chapters 25–32); and (3) Future blessings for Israel (chapters 33–48). Its themes include the concepts of the presence of God, purity, Israel as a divine community, and individual responsibility to God. Its later influence has included the development of mystical and apocalyptic traditions in Second Temple and Judaism and Christianity. Structure Ezekiel has the broad three-fold structure found in a number of the prophetic books: oracles of wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Haggai
The Book of Haggai (; he, ספר חגי, Sefer Ḥaggay) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and is the third-to-last of the Twelve Minor Prophets. It is a short book, consisting of only two chapters. The historical setting dates around 520 BC before the Temple had been rebuilt. The original text was written in Biblical Hebrew. Authorship The Book of Haggai is named after the prophet Haggai whose prophecies are recorded in the book. The authorship of the book is uncertain. Some presume that Haggai wrote the book himself but he is repeatedly referred to in the third person which makes it unlikely that he wrote the text: it is more probable that the book was written by a disciple of Haggai who sought to preserve the content of Haggai's spoken prophecies. There is no biographical information given about the prophet in the Book of Haggai. Haggai's name is derived from the Hebrew verbal root ''hgg'', which means "to make a pilgrimage." W. Sibley Towner suggests that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Zephaniah
The Book of Zephaniah ( he, צְפַנְיָה, ''Ṣəfanyā''; sometimes Latinized as ''Sophonias'') is the ninth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, preceded by the Book of Habakkuk and followed by the Book of Haggai. Zephaniah means "Yahweh has hidden/protected," or "Yahweh hides". Zephaniah is also a male given name. Authorship and date The book's superscription attributes its authorship to "Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah," All that is known of Zephaniah comes from the text. The name "Cushi," Zephaniah's father, means "Cushite" or "Ethiopian," and the text of Zephaniah mentions the sin and restoration of ''Cushim''. While some have concluded from this that Zephaniah was dark-skinned and/or African, Ehud Ben Zvi maintains that, based on the context, "Cushi" must be understood as a personal name rather than an indicator of nationality. Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted the name Hezekiah in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Habakkuk
The Book of Habakkuk is the eighth book of the 12 minor prophets of the Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Habakkuk, and was probably composed in the late 7th century BC. Of the three chapters in the book, the first two are a dialogue between Yahweh and the prophet. The message that "the just shall live by his faith" plays an important role in Christian thought. It is used in the Epistle to the Romans, Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as the starting point of the concept of faith. A copy of these chapters is included in the Habakkuk Commentary, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Chapter 3 may be an independent addition, now recognized as a liturgical piece, but was possibly written by the same author as chapters 1 and 2. Background The prophet Habakkuk is generally believed to have written his book in the mid-to-late 7th century BC, not long before the Babylonians' siege and capture of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Author Habakkuk identifies himself as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Nahum
The Book of Nahum is the seventh book of the 12 minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Nahum, and was probably written in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC. Background Josephus places Nahum during the reign of Jotham, while others place him in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, Judah's next king, or even the latter half of the reign of Hezekiah, Ahaz's son; all three accounts date the book to the 8th century BC. The book would then have been written in Jerusalem, where Nahum would have witnessed the invasion of Sennacherib and his retreat. The scholarly consensus is that the "book of vision" was written at the time of the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC.Michael D. Coogan, ''A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament'', (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) 297–298 This theory is demonstrated by the fact that the oracles must be dated after the Assyrian destruction of Thebes, Egypt in 663 BC, as this even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Micah
The Book of Micah is the sixth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah (prophet), Micah, whose name is ''Mikayahu'' ( he, מִיכָיָ֫הוּ), meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th-century BCE prophet from the village of Moresheth-Gath, Moresheth in kingdom of Judah, Judah (Hebrew name from the opening verse: מיכה המרשתי). The book has three major divisions, chapters 1–2, 3–5 and 6–7, each introduced by the word "Hear," with a pattern of alternating announcements of doom and expressions of hope within each division. Micah reproaches unjust leaders, defends the rights of the poor against the plutocracy, rich and powerful; while looking forward to a world at peace centered on Zion under the leadership of a new Davidic monarch.Sweeney (2000), pp. 341–42 While the book is relatively short, it includes lament (1.8–16; 7.8–10), theophany (1.3–4), hymnic prayer of petition and confid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Jonah
The Book of Jonah is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. The book tells of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah, son of Amittai, who is sent by God to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh, but tries to escape this divine mission. The story has a long interpretive history and has become well known through popular children's stories. In Judaism, it is the Haftarah portion read during the afternoon of Yom Kippur to instill reflection on God's willingness to forgive those who repent, and it remains a popular story among Christians. The story is also retold in the Quran. Date The prophet Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, which places Jonah's life during the reign of Jeroboam II (786–746 BC), but the book of Jonah itself does not mention a king or any other details that would give the text a firm date. The majority of scholars date the book much later, to the po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Obadiah
The book of Obadiah is a book of the Bible whose authorship is attributed to Obadiah, a prophet who lived in the Assyrian Period. Obadiah is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the final section of Nevi'im, the second main division of the Hebrew Bible. The text consists of a single chapter, divided into 21 verses, making it the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible. The book concerns the divine judgment of Edom and the restoration of Israel. Content The Book of Obadiah is based on a prophetic vision concerning the fall of Edom, a mountain-dwelling nation whose founding father was Esau. Obadiah describes an encounter with Yahweh, who addresses Edom's arrogance and charges them for their "violence against your brother Jacob". Throughout most of the history of Judah, Edom was controlled absolutely from Jerusalem as a vassal state. Obadiah said that the high elevation of their dwelling place in the mountains of Seir had gone to their head, and they had puffed themselves up in pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Amos
The Book of Amos is the third of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament (Tanakh) and the second in the Greek Septuagint tradition. Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. was active c. 750 BC during the reign of Jeroboam II (788–747 BC) of Samaria (aka. Northern Israel), making Amos the first prophetic book of the Bible to be written. Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah but preached in the northern kingdom of Israel. His major themes of social justice, God's omnipotence, and divine judgment became staples of prophecy. Structure According to Michael D. Coogan, the structure of Amos is as follows: *Oracles against the nations (1:3–2:6) *Oracle concerning prophecy (3:3-8) *Addresses to groups in Israel **Women of Samaria (4:1–3) **Rich people in Samaria (6:1–7) **Rich people in Jerusalem (8:4–8) *Five visions of God's judgment on Israel, interrupted by a confrontation between Amos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Joel
The Book of Joel is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. Content After a superscription ascribing the prophecy to Joel (son of Pethuel), the book may be broken down into the following sections: * Lament over a great locust plague and a severe drought (1:1–2:17). ** The effects of these events on agriculture, farmers, and on the supply of agricultural offerings for the Temple in Jerusalem, interspersed with a call to national lament (1:1–20). ** A more apocalyptic passage comparing the locusts to an army, and revealing that they are God's army (2:1–11). ** A call to national repentance in the face of God's judgment (2:12–17). * Promise of future blessings (2:18–32 or 2:18–3:5). ** Banishment of the locusts and restoration of agricultural productivity as a divine response to national penitence (2:18–27). ** Future prophetic gifts to all God's peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Hosea
The Book of Hosea ( hbo, , Sēfer Hōšēaʿ) is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Tanakh, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. According to the traditional order of most Hebrew Bibles, it is the first of the Twelve. Set around the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Book of Hosea denounces the worship of gods other than Yahweh (the God of Israel), metaphorically comparing Israel's abandonment of Yahweh to a woman being unfaithful to her husband. According to the book's narrative, the relationship between Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer is comparable to the relationship between Yahweh and his unfaithful people Israel. The eventual reconciliation of Hosea and Gomer is treated as a hopeful metaphor for the eventual reconciliation between Yahweh and Israel. Dated to , it is one of the oldest books of the Tanakh, predating final recensions of the full Torah (Pentateuch). Hosea is the source of the phr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
