Twelve Minor Prophets
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The Twelve Minor Prophets (Hebrew: שנים עשר, Shneim Asar; Imperial Aramaic: תרי עשר, Trei Asar, "Twelve"; Ancient Greek: δωδεκαπρόφητον, "the Twelve Prophets"; Latin: Duodecim prophetae, "the Twelve Prophets"), or the Book of the Twelve, is a collection of twelve prophetic works traditionally attributed to individual prophets, likely compiled into a single anthology by the Persian period. It contains diverse literary forms and themes. Scholarly debate continues over the dating and editorial history of these texts.
In the Tanakh, they appear as a single book, "The Twelve", which is the last book of the Nevi'im, the second of three major divisions of the Tanakh. In the Christian Old Testament, the collection appears as twelve individual books, one for each of the prophets: the Book of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Their order, and position in the Old Testament, varies slightly between the Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
The name "Minor Prophets" goes back to Augustine of Hippo, who distinguished the 12 shorter prophetic books as prophetae minores from the four longer books of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
The twelve minor prophets are commemorated in various ways across Christian liturgies, including specific readings in the Roman Catholic Tridentine Breviary and modern Lectionary throughout the liturgical year, and collectively honored on July 31 in the Armenian Apostolic Church calendar.