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BOOK OF THE TWELVE

An ancient designation for the OT Minor Prophets that refers to the scribal practice of preserving these 12 prophetic writings on a single scroll. In antiquity, these individual writings were preserved, referenced, reckoned, and received into the canon as a single book.

Ancient Evidence

Evidence for the bibliographic unity of the Minor Prophets includes ancient manuscripts, literary references, and lists of canonical books. The oldest reference to the Book of the Twelve is from the early 2nd century b.c.e. in the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira. Following references to the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Sir. 49:10 speaks of “the Twelve Prophets” as a collective group. The literary evidence from Sirach is supported by manuscript evidence from Qumran. Fragments of seven different scrolls of the Twelve have been discovered. The oldest manuscript, 4QXIIa, has been dated to the middle of the 2nd century and contains parts of the books of Zechariah, Malachi, and Jonah. Partial remains of a scroll of the Twelve in Greek have also been discovered near Qumran and are dated to the middle of the 1st century b.c.e. Ancient manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Twelve contain superscriptions that number the prophetic books from 1 to 12. In the NT the Book of the Twelve is cited in the book of Acts as “the book of the prophets” (Acts 7:42). All of the ancient listings of the Jewish/OT canon and all of the medieval Hebrew manuscripts of the Minor Prophets treat these writings as a single book.

History of the Collection

A lengthy chronological gap separates the earliest, 8th-century materials within the Twelve from the time of the latest of those writings, composed ca. 450 or perhaps even later. Another lengthy span separates the writing of the latest books within the collection from the oldest explicit reference to the Book of the Twelve, ca. 200 b.c.e. Therefore, descriptions of the formation of the book can only claim greater or lesser degrees of likelihood. Nevertheless, some conclusions about its development have a relatively high degree of probability.

For example, there is some evidence of earlier collections prior to the final 12-book collection. The superscriptions of the books of Hosea, Amos, and Micah (Hos. 1:1, Amos 1:1, Mic. 1:1) suggest an ancient compilation of these three books, the purpose of which was to apply the lessons of the Assyrian destruction of Samaria, threatened in Hosea and Amos, to the political situation of Judah and Jerusalem as described by Micah. The sequence of this presumed early collection is preserved in the manuscripts of the LXX Book of the Twelve. The germ of the final collection of the Twelve is likely to be found in this early compilation. The latest book to be added to the Book of the Twelve was probably Jonah, which is formally at great variance with the rest of the collection. The oldest manuscript of the Twelve, 4QXIIa, places Jonah after Malachi at the end of the collection. Jonah also has differing positions in the Greek and Hebrew arrangements of the Twelve.

Literary Unity

The ancient and consistent practice of preserving the Minor Prophets as a single book has raised the question of whether the individual writings within this scroll possess any degree of literary unity. The possibility of unity seems quite unlikely at first glance, given the great chronological and thematic diversity of the individual books. Nevertheless, various unifying features have been identified within the collection.

The reference to the Twelve in Sir. 49:10 states that as a group the 12 prophets “comforted the people . . . with confident hope,” which is perhaps a reference to the fact that many of the individual books within the Twelve conclude with a hopeful prediction of restoration and salvation. Another unifying element, beyond the theme of future restoration, is the implied historical narrative that underlies the collection. Israel and Judah’s experiences at the hands of Assyria provide historical background for the books of Hosea, Amos, and Micah. The fall of Assyria and the rise of Babylon provide background for Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. The restoration of Judah under the Persian Empire informs the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi and partially accounts for the numerous similarities between these three books.

Some of the books among the Twelve appear to be united by verbal cross references at the beginning and ending sections of each book. For example, the references to Edom in Amos 9:12; Obad. 1 help to explain their otherwise inexplicable sequence in Hebrew manuscripts of the Twelve. Likewise, the books of Joel and Amos share highly repetitive language in the opening and closing sections of each book (cf. Joel 3:16 [MT 4:16] and Amos 1:2; also Joel 3:18 [4:18] and Amos 9:14). Similarities such as these, which span the boundaries of individual books, have sparked attempts to identify certain passages throughout the book as the work of editorial hands who unified the collection by inserting similar material at various places. Although such unifying editorial additions are possible, there is no concrete evidence of previous forms of the book by which to judge the proposals of editorial additions.

A primary unifying feature of the Book of the Twelve was the theological belief of ancient religious communities that the words of the various prophets were ultimately the unified word of Israel’s God. This belief underlay the preservation and common transmission of the Minor Prophets and is the same theological presupposition that allowed ancient Israelite, Jewish, and Christian communities to treat the formally and chronologically diverse words of Israel’s Scriptures as a unified, canonical tradition.

Bibliography. B. A. Jones, The Formation of the Book of the Twelve. SBLDS 149 (Atlanta, 1995); J. D. Nogalski, Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve. BZAW 217 (Berlin, 1993); Redactional Processes in the Book of the Twelve. BZAW 218 (Berlin, 1993).

Barry A. Jones

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BOOK OF THE TWELVE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)