Minor Prophets

Abstract

Minor Prophets Christopher T. Begg, John L. McLaughlin, and Thomas Hieke 1354. [Twelve Prophets] Stefan Fischer, "Gott als Figur prophetischer Rede. Eine Analyse göttlicher Ich-Reden im Zwölfprophetenbuch," Gott als Figur, 150-86 [see #1580]. F. analyzes first-person speeches of God in the Book of the Twelve, especially in Hosea. In so doing, he first introduces God's "I-speeches" and their characteristics in the corpus that represent various dimensions of the figure "God." In the main part of the essay, F. focuses on the metaphors occurring in the divine I-speeches. Here he reflects on the text's anthropomorphisms, God's relationship to the creation, mention of actions that only God can do, God acting as a father, a mother, a husband, a shepherd, a farmer, a healer, a prophet calling for repentance, a judge, a fowler, and a warrior. In a few cases, God compares him/herself to an object (animals, plants, the dew). F.'s conclusion reflects on the peculiarities of the metaphors used and on the pragmatics of the divine I-speeches.—T.H. 1355. [Twelve Prophets] Annett Giercke-Ungermann, "'So nah und doch so fern': Erzähler als Organisationsinstanzen der Krisendarstellungen im Zwölfprophetenbuch," Perspektiven, 362-79 [see #1589]. The Twelve Prophets contain many allusions to situations of crisis in the life of the nation Israel and their possible transcendence. At the same time, one can note a paradox in how the narrators of the individual books making up the complex present the crisis featured in the given book. On the one hand, those narrators "control" who speaks in the book, how much they get to say, just as they are the ones who decide how the voices of the book's "figures"—whether divine or human—are coordinated with each other. On the other hand, these narrators offer very little in the way of explicit commentary on or evaluation of what characters in the book say, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions about the characters' statements. In other words, the books' narrators are omnipresent, but are so mostly—Jonah and Haggai are something of an exception in this regard—in a hidden, silent fashion.—C.T.B. 1356. [Hosea; Amos; Isaiah] B. Gosse, "Le salut antimonarchique dans les livres d' Osée et d'Isaïe," Trans 48 (2016) 93-103. In the Book of Isaiah, the delivery of Jerusalem and the monarchy that took place during the period of the prophet's activity are portrayed as a salvific event and a promise [End Page 433] that history will go on. Yet, the Davidic dynasty was not part of the salvation experienced at the return from Exile. In Second Isaiah the Messiah title is applied to Cyrus and those of "chosen" and "servant" used of the Davidic king in Ps 89:4 are awarded to the figure introduced in Isa 42:1. This conception of a salvation without a king appears also in the Judean reading of the history of the Northern Kingdom found in the redactions of the Books of Hosea and Amos. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1357. [Hosea; Deuteronomy] Cooper Smith, "The 'Wilderness' in Hosea and Deuteronomy: A Case of Thematic Reappropriation," BBR 28 (2018) 240-60. Among their many other similarities, the Books of Hosea and Deuteronomy also share the use of the word midbar ("wilderness") as part of a wilderness sojourn theme that emphasizes Yhwh's gracious actions of provision and protection despite Israel's rebellions. Although the scholarly consensus holds that each book drew on a different sojourn tradition, an analysis of their respective presentations of the theme based on their use of the above term reveals shared features: the word occurs in similar contexts that emphasize Yhwh's gracious actions on Israel's behalf in the wilderness, while conversely it is absent in negative contexts that recount Israel's rebellions. These similarities are all the more apparent when one compares them with the rhetoric of the "wilderness" used in the Book of Numbers that displays the opposite tendency. The tendency in Hosea and Deuteronomy to use the term in question in contexts speaking of Yhwh...