The following chart shows the minor prophets in canonical order, with the the dominant world power, and OT historical context.
| Prophetic Book | World Power | Parallels from |
| Hosea | Assyria | 2 Kings 14:23–18:12 |
| Joel | (Pre) Assyria | 2 Kings 12:1–21; |
| Amos | Assyria | 2 Kings 14:23–15:7 |
| Obadiah | (Pre) Assyria | 2 Kings 8:16–24; |
| Jonah | (Pre) Assyria | 2 Kings 13:10–25; |
| Micah | Assyria | 2 Kings 15:32–19:37; |
| Nahum | Assyria; Babylon | 2 Kings 21:1–18; |
| Habakkuk | Babylon | 2 Kings 23:31–24:7; |
| Zephaniah | Babylon | 2 Kings 22:1–2; |
| Haggai | Medo-Persia | Ezra 5:1–6:15 |
| Zechariah | Medo-Persia | Ezra 5:1–6:15 |
| Malachi | Medo-Persia | Nehemiah 13:1–31 |
Some suggest that the canonical order was intended to reflect the general chronological order as designated by the dominant world power.
In the previous chart on the dates of the minor prophets, the dating of Joel was briefly discussed. One of the arguments for an early date is its place in the canonical order. If Joel is a late pre-exilic (Babylonian), or a post-exilic book (Medo-Persian), its place in the canon would be out of order in terms of the world power.
While this is hardly conclusive for the date of Joel, it is a piece of the puzzle that should be considered.
1 comment:
Hey, Larry, back again...
The question of Joel is most perplexing to me since the content seems so apt for Babylon, yet no real specific historical markers internally. I had wondered why some conservatives favored the earlier date, but your comment here does make sense.
A few years ago, we did a project where I preached through the whole Bible chronologically. In the OT we covered about 25 chapters a week in 9 months, in the NT we did about 8 chapters a week in 8 months.
With Joel, in my preparation for the study (chronological Bible reading schedule), I had overlooked it and didn't notice until after we had already passed the early date in our reading and preaching... So I plugged it into the middle date, prior to Babylon, but with some misgivings.
Anyway, these subjects are fascinating to me and I am always tinkering with my timeline. I have continued using the chronological schedule for my own reading and am still finding places to tweak it here and there.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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