Obadiah
Introduction
Obadiah, the forth of the minor prophets and the fifth in the Hebrew bible is the shortest book in the Old Testament consisting of one chapter of twenty-one verses. The shortest book of the bible is divide into two main sections; the first is particular and specific, consisting of oracles directed against Edom and the second is more general, buy oracles concerning Israel and the nationssome have prophesied that the oracles were derived originally from more than one source and were joined by the author of this book. One argument for this is that there are strong resemblances between Jeremiah and the book of Obadiah; particularly Obadiah 1-4 with Jeremiah 49:14-16 and Obadiah 5-6 with 49:9, 10 respectively. Rather than proposing literally dependence of one upon the other, which would be difficult to verify an independent source could have been used by both. This would account for the variations especially as regards to the order of the elements within the two books.
Who was Obadiah?
Writing prophets in Israel are regularly identified by a notice of period in which they prophesied, their hometown (or at least the place where the prophesies took place) and their father or any combination of these. In the Old Testament only two prophets are not given any contextual framework and not only are they without father and mother, they might be without proper names of their own(QUESTION). These two are Obadiah which means “servant or worshipper of Yahweh” and Malachi which means “my messenger”. Prophets were referred to as ‘servant’ (1kings 14:18, 2kings 17:23, Jeremiah 7:25, Zachariah 1:6).Obadiah is a common Israelite name in the Old Testament, however, so it is the name of the prophet.
Historical background
Jewish tradition in the Talmud placed Obadiah in the reign of Ahab in Judah in the ninth century BC and the order of the minor prophets in the Hebrew bible includes Obadiah among the pre-exilic prophets. From the reference of the book, we can locate
Obadiah, the forth of the minor prophets and the fifth in the Hebrew bible is the shortest book in the Old Testament consisting of one chapter of twenty-one verses. The shortest book of the bible is divide into two main sections; the first is particular and specific, consisting of oracles directed against Edom and the second is more general, buy oracles concerning Israel and the nationssome have prophesied that the oracles were derived originally from more than one source and were joined by the author of this book. One argument for this is that there are strong resemblances between Jeremiah and the book of Obadiah; particularly Obadiah 1-4 with Jeremiah 49:14-16 and Obadiah 5-6 with 49:9, 10 respectively. Rather than proposing literally dependence of one upon the other, which would be difficult to verify an independent source could have been used by both. This would account for the variations especially as regards to the order of the elements within the two books.
Who was Obadiah?
Writing prophets in Israel are regularly identified by a notice of period in which they prophesied, their hometown (or at least the place where the prophesies took place) and their father or any combination of these. In the Old Testament only two prophets are not given any contextual framework and not only are they without father and mother, they might be without proper names of their own(QUESTION). These two are Obadiah which means “servant or worshipper of Yahweh” and Malachi which means “my messenger”. Prophets were referred to as ‘servant’ (1kings 14:18, 2kings 17:23, Jeremiah 7:25, Zachariah 1:6).Obadiah is a common Israelite name in the Old Testament, however, so it is the name of the prophet.
Historical background
Jewish tradition in the Talmud placed Obadiah in the reign of Ahab in Judah in the ninth century BC and the order of the minor prophets in the Hebrew bible includes Obadiah among the pre-exilic prophets. From the reference of the book, we can locate