Monday, February 16, 2009

FYI – Dates of Authorship of the Minor Prophets

Here is a chart of commonly accepted dates for the authorship of the Minor Prophets.

Canonical Order

Chronological Order
(Number is Canonical Order)

Dates (B.C.)

Hosea

Obadiah (4)

845

Joel

Joel (2)

835

Amos

Jonah (5)

782

Obadiah

Hosea (1)

760

Jonah

Amos (3)

760

Micah

Micah (6)

735

Nahum

Nahum (7)

650

Habakkuk

Zephaniah (9)

640

Zephaniah

Habakkuk (8)

609

Haggai

Haggai (10)

520

Zechariah

Zechariah (11)

520

Malachi

Malachi (12)

433

As you can see the canonical order is not strictly chronological.  However, there is a general chronological arrangement in that Hosea through Micah occur during the Divided Kingdom, Nahum to Habakkuk during the period of the single Judean Kingdom, and Haggai to Malachi during postexilic period.

Some of the minor prophets are relatively easy to date since they give clues in the books, such as identifying the reign king or kings during whose reign the prophet ministered, or Amos’ dating his writing to “two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1; of course you have to figure out when the earthquake was, probably 760 B.C.). Haggai and Zechariah are the easiest to date since they give exact days (which work out to the autumn of 520 B.C.)

The dates of a few minor prophets are greatly disputed, such as Joel where even conservative scholars conclude differently on the date of authorship (Archer (SOTI), Feinberg, Freeman, and Garrett hold to the early date; Chisholm, Dillard, Hubbard holds to a post-exilic date, and there are others in between).

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