Inasmuch as it is possible to date the kings of Judah and Israel, especially the later ones, with comparatively high accuracy, the various reigns during which these sixteen prophets ministered have been entered in this chart according to the tentative chronology used in this commentary. Many messages and prophecies can be understood correctly only if seen against the background of the time in which the prophets ministered and in the light of the events that happened during their lives. The accompanying chart enables the reader to study these prophets in their historical setting. For two of them (Joel and Obadiah), however, no conclusive evidence as to the time of their work exists, and scholars differ widely in their views concerning this matter. Most of them left chronological data by which the duration of their ministry can be determined, at least approximately. The sixteen prophets-Isaiah to Malachi-whose writings have come down to us lived during four centuries, from about 800 to 400 B.C. So a new crisis needs new prophets! And God sends Haggai and Zechariah in 520, right about the time the temple was being rebuilt, and then finally, the very last prophet, Malachi in 460 BC.The Chronology of the Old Testament Prophets Wait – why is that a crisis? The Persians are the ones who let the Jews go home!Īh, yes – but this was a DIFFERENT kind of crisis! It was an IDENTITY crisis! The Jews back in Judah weren’t sure who they were anymore! Were they STILL God’s covenant people? Since the Babylonians destroyed God’s temple, did that mean the Babylonian god was stronger than Israel’s God?Īnd some of them started marrying women from other lands and worshipping THEIR gods. Then things are quiet again until the 3rd crisis – the rise of the Persian Empire! 100 years later things are kind of calm again, when suddenly, BOOM! Here come the Babylonians! And BOOM! New prophets! Nahum in 660, Zephaniah and Habakkuk in 640, and Jeremiah around 627 BC! Twenty years later Daniel shows up, then Ezekiel, then Obadiah. Then comes Micah in 742, and Isaiah in 740. The first was the rise of the Assyrian Empire! The first prophet to show up wasAmos in about 760 BC, followed by Hosea in 755. There were THREE emergencies that brought lots of prophets with warnings from God. From Buck Denver Asks What’s in the Bible? Volume 9: God Speaks!. Schniffenhousen shares his timeline of the prophets – where all 16 major and minor prophets fit in the history of Israel.
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