Dodekapropheton : twaalf klein profete of een geheel?

Abstract

The Book of the Twelve or the twelve minor prophets received scholarly attention through the ages. Historical criticism pointed out that these prophets lived in different times, in different historical situations and articulated the "word of the Lord" for different circumstances. However, recent scholarship tends to read the corpus of the minor prophets as a structured whole. Such a reading raises a number of problems: the Twelve do not follow one another chronologically and the order of the Masoretic Text does not agree with that of the Septuagint, whilst Qumran follows yet another order. This article probes - albeit cursory - some of these questions from different perspectives. Eventually it appears that a continuous process of "Fortschreibug" shaped and reshaped prophetic messages to keep them alive for following generations. A unity is created by maintaining the tensions and differences amongst the Twelve, thereby reflecting the creative articulation and rearticulation of prophecy in the different times of the history of Judah and Israel.