The church fathers mined the Old Testament throughout for prophetic utterances regarding the Messiah, but few books yielded as much messianic ore as the Twelve Prophets, sometimes known as the Minor Prophets. In this rich and vital ACCS volume you will find excerpts, some translated here into English for the first time, from more than thirty church fathers.

The Minor Prophets were the courageous and true spokesmen for God during the time of the great Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires. Joel's prophecy appears to be the first of all the books of prophecy, and Malachi the last. They are called Minor Prophets because they are shorter in length than the Major Prophets. However, their writings are no less important. We will look at the prophets in their chronological order. Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and Micah prophesied during the Divided Kingdom. Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Obadiah were prophets in Judah before the Babylonian Exile. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi prophesied after the return to Jerusalem from the exile. Jonah of Israel and Nahum of Judah prophesied against the city of Nineveh in Assyria. "Before the time of Christ these twelve books were joined together to make one scroll known collectively as "The Twelve."

Combining three volumes in one, this affordable edition brings noted evangelical scholars together to offer an authoritative, evangelical treatment of the minor prophets.

The Minor Prophets is a collection of expositional essays on each of the twelve prophets. Dr. Feinberg's work illuminates the life, times, and major emphases of these men of God. Dr. Feinberg brings to this work an unusual combination of talents and background. He has a thorough knowledge of biblical Hebrew, having trained for the rabbinate. That, combined with his scholarship in New Testament Greek, qualifies him for an expert study of the Scriptures in the original languages. In this work, he carefully presents his own views as well as dissenting views of other biblical scholars. These studies include full treatment of the historical and cultural settings of each of the twelve prophets and their writings.

Although the term "minor prophets" is a familiar one in English Bible translations, it is not a felicitous one, since it applies as much to Hosea as to Haggai and to Amos as to Obadiah. The Targum offers no such pecking order. Nuggets of importance are as likely to be found in a Targumized "minor" prophet as a "major" one. Included in this volume are the books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The authors' apparatus in the introduction provides the translational characteristics, theology, life-setting, text and versions, language, rabbinic citations and parallels, dating, manuscripts, and bibliography. A series of indices is also included.

The Old Testament prophets spoke to Israel in times of historical and moral crisis. They saw themselves as being a part of a story that God was weaving throughout history--a story of repentance, encouragement, and a coming Messiah. In this updated introductory book, each major and minor prophet and his writing are clustered with the major historical events of their time. Our generational distance from the age of the prophets might seem to be a measureless chasm. Yet we dare not make the mistake of assuming that passing years have rendered irrelevant not only the Old Testament prophets, but also the God who comprehends, spans, and transcends all time. In these pages, C. Hassell Bullock presents a clear picture of some of history's most profound spokesmen--the Old Testament prophets--and the God who shaped them.