Will Vaus

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the minor prophet, Jonah.   Author   As with most of the books of Hebrew Scripture, there is no internal claim to authorship in this narrative. The book of Jonah was originally included in “The Twelve” because it was accepted as a prophetic book and Jonah as a historical prophet. There is a prophet called Jonah, son of Amittai, mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. The Jonah of 2 Kings served as a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE shortly after the time of Elisha and before the time of Amos and Hosea.   However, most biblical scholars today do not view the book of Jonah as historical. That is the case not simply because of the story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish. If we believe in the miraculous, the tale of Jonah and the great fish is not sufficient reason to reject this story as historical. And there are naturalistic explanations of this story as well. For example, a loca...

Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the minor prophet, Obadiah. I love the depiction of Obadiah above because I think I know what he is saying. I think he is saying: "Missed it by that much!" Do you remember Get Smart ? More on that in a minute...   Author   This book carries the name of an otherwise unknown prophet. The name, Obadiah, means “slave/servant of Yah” (Yahweh). Obadiah was a common name. (See 1 Kings 18:3-16; 1 Chronicles 3:21; 7:3; 8:38; 9:16; 12:9; 27:19; 2 Chronicles 17:7; 34:12; Ezra 8:9; Nehemiah 10:5; 12:25.) The text states neither Obadiah’s father’s name nor his place of birth.   Date   The present book of Obadiah was composed in the post-monarchic period, as the references to the fall of Jerusalem, the exile, and the exilic community in Sardis (v. 20), make clear. Sardis is a city in modern Turkey that was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. Sardis is also referenced in the book of Revelation. The book of O...