Survival, Conversion and Restoration: Reflections on the Redaction History of the Book of Zephaniah

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the redaction history of a biblical book helps us to see how the community of faith received, applied and reinterpreted the prophetic words. There are a number of places in the book of Zephaniah that can be recognized as secondary in their present literary context. Analysis of their style and content shows that they are the result of three subsequent reworkings of the prophetic scroll: a ‘restoration of the remnant’ redaction (2:7, 9b-10 and 3:11-13 plus the phrase ‘all the humble of the earth who do his justice’ in 2:3); a ‘salvation of the nations’ redaction (2:11 and 3:9-10) and a ‘salvation of Judah’ redaction (3:14-20). These redactions focused exclusively on the issue of salvation beyond judgment but gave very different answers to the questions ‘who is going to be saved?’ (the remnant, all the nations, Judah) as well as ‘what ushers the age of salvation?’ (repentance or the grace of Yahweh).