What is your experience with the Minor Prophets, or the “Book of the Twelve” featuring Amos, Hosea, Micah, Jonah, Haggai, and Zechariah? Have you read any of the books in this collection before? Have you heard this collected called by either of these names 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?
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. How does this affect how we engage with these texts as interpreters?
Applying the Text:
What do you think of when you hear the word “prophecy” today? Does it differ from what prophecy looks like in the Hebrew Bible?
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?
These “minor prophets” suggest that the Israelites needed regular, new prophecies to stay on the course God had intended for them. Do you think there are prophets continuing to have new revelations today?