Habakkuk belongs to a canonical tradition in the Hebrew Bible called “the Prophets”
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(Nebiim). It is one of the three distinct elements that form the Hebrew text; the others being
“the Law”
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(the Torah) and “the Writings”~ybiWtK.
(Kethubim). The three together constitute Jewish Scriptures. In canonical terms, argues Brueggemann (2003:101-2), “the Prophets” are understood as second to and derivative from “the Torah.” This suggests that the Torah is the expression in narrative or in commandment of the norms of faith and obedience proportionate with the rule of Yahweh while the prophetic canon is a literature that articulates Israel‟s faith and practice in the rough and tumble of historical reality (Brueggemann,2003:101-2). The collaboration between the Torah and the Prophets portrayed in the Hebrew Bible helps us to see the role of the prophets in society.
Two groups, the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets constitute “the Prophets” in the Hebrew Bible. The Former Prophets include the following books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. These books are reckoned to be part of prophetic literature partly because the authors of these books were evidently not historians but religious writers, and partly because prophets like Deborah, Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Jonah, Isaiah, and many other men and women of God, named and unnamed, play so prominent a part in the narrative (Sawyer, 1987:2). Nyirimana (2010:165) observes that this corpus of historical books contains a long narrative, the deuteronomistic history, describing the situation of the people of Israel in the Promised Land. He says since the six books were found to be connected in style and themes,
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some scholars have argued that a single exilic author used older traditions to compose a theological “history” that runs through these books.
The second group, the Latter Prophets, also known as canonical or writing prophets, consists of four books of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (also known as the Major Prophets) and the Book of the Twelve (the Minor Prophets). It is important to note that the twelve small prophetic books were one scroll and thus form a fourth prophetic scroll (Brueggemann, 2003:105). They are traditionally termed “minor” not because they are unimportant or less important, but that the books are relatively brief when compared to the Major Prophets (Brueggemann, 2003:209). Habakkuk as one of the Minor Prophets belongs to the umbrella group of the Latter Prophets that form a unique corpus in the Hebrew Bible. Their uniqueness is witnessed in the message that is not ascribed to prophets elsewhere (Gowan, 1998b:6-7).
The Latter Prophets marked the beginning and end of their exclusive message that focused on the end and restoration of Israel (Gowan, 1998b:6-7).
The unifying theme of their message is “The Death and Resurrection of Israel” derived from the three key moments in Israelite history, which are: the fall of Samaria in 722 BCE, the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE and Cyrus‟ decree in 538 BCE (Gowan, 1998b:9). Here we note that the Latter Prophets have been more or less mechanically shaped and edited into a twofold assertion of God‟s judgment that brings Israel to exile and death, and God‟s promise that brings Israel to a future that it cannot envision or sense for itself (Brueggemann, 2003:107). In this sense, the experience of the exile by both the people in Israel and Judah should be understood as death; whereas Cyrus‟ decree in 538 BCE that issued emancipation of God‟s people should be seen as resurrection from the dead of God‟s people. Furthermore, we can say the books – Isaiah through Malachi – respond to the rise and fall of Assyrian and Babylonian empires, which clearly distinguishes the work of the Latter Prophets from their predecessors. Heaton (1977:12) points out that the books – Daniel and Lamentations – may be isolated from the Latter Prophets because in the Hebrew Bible both belong in the Writings.
The Latter Prophets are clustered into three groups based on the time they prophesied. The clustering corresponds to the major emphasis of the message of each of the prophets, and to a key date in history (Gowan, 1998b:8).
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The first group of Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah 1-39 is situated from the middle to the end of the eighth century BCE. The defining contextual matter for this literature is the imposing reality of Assyrian imperial hegemony that threatened, in turn, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (Brueggemann, 2003:210). Their message focused on the fall of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, which was conquered by Assyrians in 722 BCE. The second group consists of Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who prophesied between the late seventh and early sixth centuries. Their defining contextual matter was the waning reality of Assyrian hegemony, the soon-to-arrive Babylonian empire, and the general disarray in Jerusalem attributable to poor royal leadership and a general disregard of the requirements of Judah as YHWH‟s covenantal people (Brueggemann, 2003:210). They were mainly concerned with the fall of Jerusalem that took place in 587 BCE when Babylonians were in control.
The last group comprises of prophets Isaiah 40-55, Isaiah 56-66, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. According to Brueggemann (2003:210), the central contextual reality for this literature is the new, kinder imperial policies of Persia that, unlike the policies of Babylon, permitted some reassertion of local religious and political traditions, of course under the more general support of the empire. The message of these prophets focused on the restoration of Judah after Cyrus‟ decree in 538 BCE, which was the beginning of the Persian hegemony of the late sixth century BCE.
Prophets Obadiah, Joel and Jonah are difficult to date. The dating of Obadiah ranges from preexilic period to postexilic period (see Niehaus, 1993:496-7). Because Obadiah depicts a time of acute tension for Judah with the Edomites, many have located the book in the latter half of the ninth century BCE (Brueggemann, 2003:211).55 Scholars such as Jeffrey Niehaus (1993:502) and Hobart Freeman (1968:135) have located Obadiah‟s prophecy during the reign of Jehoram around 845 BCE. In the case of Joel, the book has been dated from early preexilic times (in the ninth century BCE) to the late postexilic date of 350 BCE because the book is undated in the superscription (Freeman, 1968:147). While this is the case, there are strong indications that the book originated in the postexilic period (Gowan, 1998b:181). This is in line with the thoughts of Raymond Dillard (1993:242-3), who says although establishing
55 Carl E. Armerding (2008:425) says the prophecy is clearly a response to a time when Jerusalem was overrun by foreign armies, a sacking in which the Edomites were understood to have in some way collaborated.
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the date of Joel is inconclusive, it is fair to say that it tilts towards a date in the postexilic period.
For Jonah, Joyce Baldwin (1993:544) says there is no indication in the book as to who may have written the story of Jonah; anything we claim to know about the author and when he lived has to be deduced from his work. Gowan (1998b:137) agrees, he says several themes have been proposed as keys to understanding the purpose of the book, and there is no agreement among scholars as to which, if any, should be taken as central, but it is for thematic reasons that discussion of the book has been located at the end of Neo-Babylonian period. Because Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 as the “son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher,” many claim that Jonah ministered God‟s word to Jeroboam II of Israel (782-753 BCE) (Baldwin, 1993:544). Armerding (2008:454) and Freeman (1968:166) support this view and locate Jonah in the eighth century BCE at the time Jeroboam II of Israel and King Uzziah of Judah.
This simple matter of dating suggests that these three turning points in Israel‟s history account for the existence of just this collection of prophetic books (Gowan, 1998b:9).56 The clustering helps in locating the book of Habakkuk in its rightful literary context. Thus, because prophetic books address events leading to the death and restoration of Israel in the period between eighth to mid-sixth centuries, the Latter Prophets are treated as the larger literary context of Habakkuk. The immediate literary context of Habakkuk is the period between eighth and early sixth centuries that describes the death of Israel and Judah. The message of Habakkuk was wrought by the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian threats. Although Assyrians were mainly the cause of Israel‟s death in the Northern Kingdom, their impact was also felt in Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
Habakkuk appeared on stage to explain what God was doing in the life of Judah when Neo- Babylonians were about to destroy Judah. As Judah and Jerusalem had sunk deeper into disobedience towards God and his requirements, so the fabric of national life had begun to come apart at the seams (Prior, 1998:203). It was the most difficult time for the people of Judah: destruction and violence were evident; strife and contention were everywhere; and the
56 Here, I need to mention that I am not making a detailed claim about the dating of any particular book, but that I am using a broad scholarly framework to locate Habakkuk.
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law became useless to the fact that there was no justice in the courts (1:3-4). The period was characterized by exploitation of the poor since the system only favoured those in power – the king and his officials at the royal court.