What is your experience with the Minor Prophets, or the “Book of the Twelve”? Have you read any of the books in this collection before?
How does approaching a series of texts like this differ from reading a stand-alone prophetic book such as Jeremiah or Isaiah?
These books span about 400 years of Israel’s history. Do you expect these texts to feel similar? Or different? How so?
What do you think of when you hear the word “prophecy”? Does it differ from what prophecy looks like in the Hebrew Bible?
Almost every book in the Hebrew Bible has been added to, adjusted, or edited over their long histories of composition and transmission, before they became fixed and “canonical” as we know them today. Had you encountered this idea before? How does it make you feel?
Think about the communities who came before you, and how they read and used these books; both their ancient, “original” audiences, and the many that have followed throughout history. How do you think you read these texts differently? What is your social context like, and how is it similar to, or different from, those who have come before?