The Old Testament Prophets (Major and Minor)

The Books of the Old Testament are often divided into the "Major Prophets" and "Minor Prophets." There are many prophets throughout the Old Testament and many of them have their own books in the Bible.

What is a prophet?

In the Old Testament, the prophets were people called by God to be his spokespersons. They passed on messages from God to convince kings and God's people to change their ways. Their messages were less about predicting the future than changing the behaviors of God's people in the present.

Although this might be too broad a generalization, the main message of the prophets aligned well with the two greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor.

Love God: The prophets criticized kings and the people of Israel and Judah for idolatry and worshipping false gods.

Love your neighbor: The prophets criticized the greed of politicians and priests that did not care for the poor.

They did often speak of a future Day of the Lord, when God would judge the people, and the coming of the Messiah who would rule over them with justice.

The distinction between the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets describes the length of the prophetic books in the Bible. The Major Prophets had longer books attributed to them, while the Minor Prophets had much shorter books.

The Major Prophets are the books of:

- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Ezekiel
- Daniel
- Also: Lamentations and Baruch

The Twelve Minor Prophets are:

1. Hosea
2. Joel
3. Amos
4. Obadiah
5. Jonah
6. Micah
7. Nahum
8. Habakkuk
9. Zephaniah
10. Haggai
11. Zechariah
12. Malachi

Among the many other prophets in the Old Testament are Moses, Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, etc.

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[SRAVALM]

Am reading the bible now and made it to the new Testament, on mark currently. It's really a phenomenal compilement of literature.
Lot of great text that isn't in the bible like the lost gospel of Thomas -- really incredible.

[prestonwilson]

There is not a listing in the Bible of Any prophet as being Major or Minor. Show it to me, where it says these Prophets were Major or Minor? My people suffer from Lack of knowledge '. Because there books are longer/ shorter! Makes one Major or Minor. ( False).

[apostlejohnpaul]

What are you teaching us. Baruck was the secretary of Jeremiah, he was not a prophet and wasn't among the prophet. He copy Jeremiah because Jeremiah was illetret . Please