What are the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets?

Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are usually referred to as the major prophets because of the length of their varied prophecies, while the rest of the recorded prophecies from Daniel to Malachi are referred to as the minor prophets. It is apparent to anyone reading through these inspired records that the book of Isaiah is rightly given first place. Its scope, its themes and its account of future glories, places this book in the forefront of the prophetic word. The meaning of the name Isaiah is "Salvation of Jah," and the theme of salvation runs through it pages. Moreover we find over sixty quotations from this book in the New Testament, a further indication of the important place it has in the divine record.

The Prophets.

Prophecy and God's government of the earth, having Palestine as the land, Jerusalem, then Babylon, and again Jerusalem as city and centre, Judah or Israel as the people, and the glory of Christ as the object, form the ground-work and basis of the prophetic revelations contained in the books from Isaiah to Malachi. The Prophets are divided into "four greater" and "twelve minor prophets," Lamentations being included in the prophecies of Jeremiah. These books are so divided and termed because of the extent of their writings. Prophetic utterances and prophetic signs were generally communicated by "vision" (Isa. 6) or "word of the Lord" (Jer. 2:1).

The Minor Prophets begin with the book of Hosea. There are twelve of these books which are called by the name "minor prophets" not because their contents are of less authority than the preceding prophetic books, but on account of their size. The Jews considered them one book and the Talmud says of them, "our fathers made them one book, that they might not perish on account of their littleness."

The term "minor prophets" was used by the church in early days. Augustinus states: "The prophet Isaiah is not in the books of the twelve prophets who are therefore called minor, because their discourses are brief in comparison with those who are called 'greater' because they composed considerable volumes." Jewish tradition claims that the present arrangement was made by the great synagogue formed by Ezra.

The twelve prophets that follow the Book of Daniel are often called THE MINOR PROPHETS, simply because they are shorter than the others, and not as being in any respect inferior.

The Prophets' (Heb. Nebiim) were divided by the Jews into the 'earlier' and 'latter'; the earlier comprising Joshua, Judges, and the Books of Samuel and Kings, now together generally called the 'Historical Books,' to which, it may be, reference is made in Zech. 7:7, 12 (see the Heb.); and the latter, Isaiah to Malachi, omitting Lamentations and Daniel. Of 'the latter' Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were called 'the greater;' and the order observed in our Hebrew Bibles of the Books bearing their names is that of the Spanish Hebrew MSS. The Talmudic or old Rabbinical arrangement places Jeremiah first. The other Prophets are called 'minor.'

First then come the Greater Prophets, each in his own order, — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, without entering now upon the place assigned to the latter in the Hebrew Canon, which the Jews have variously sought to explain. But if we speak of Greater Prophets, we must beware of the error which would impute to the least an inspiration inferior to the greater. It is a question only of extent and variety in their written testimony. And it is worthy of note, as has been observed, that the three longest were led of God to adopt the language and thoughts of some of the shortest prophecies. It is also to be noted, that four or five of the earlier Minor Prophets preceded even Isaiah.

Then follow the twelve Minor Prophets, beginning again with the earlier and closing with those after the captivity. Thus if Zephaniah followed Isaiah, he is necessarily excluded from such a place, because he is classed with the shorter Prophets. Isaiah naturally and strictly takes the first place among the Greater Prophets, who are put exactly in their chronological order from first to last. And if Ezekiel lived at the same time with Jeremiah, the former was out of the land, while Jeremiah was in it or only swept down with the last remnant into Egypt. Daniel, as is known, lived the latest of the four Greater Prophets. Then we begin the Minor Prophets and go through a similar series, the only one who can be said to be taken out of his order being Jonah for the reason just suggested, though it is not improbable that the chronological place is preserved as well as the moral in the wisdom of God.

2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets.