The Book of the Twelve represents a methodological challenge for biblical commentators who apply different methodologies, and commence from distinct hermeneutical presuppositions. Should the Book of the Twelve be read as one Book, an anthology, or something else? This volume offers answers to these questions by a group of international scholars.

The minor prophets can be considered an interesting field of study both from an exegetical as well as a theological perspective. An international conference held at the Université de Lorraine in Metz in November 2015 was dedicated to the Book of the Twelve, and this volume contains its proceedings. The conference's principal goal was to explore the link between theory, unstated presuppositions and exegetical analysis. Two specific areas of interest were taken into consideration here: should the Book of the Twelve be read as one book, an anthology, or something else? And how should the individual texts of the minor prophets be interpreted and/or how should certain texts be analyzed? A distinctive characteristic of the conference was the interesting comparisons made by the participating authors through their exegetical presuppositions. These differing approaches and varied questions produced a diversity of answers.

Autorentext
Born 1972; 1999 license in biblical philology, 2000 in theology; 2004 PhD; 2008-16 post-doctorate (financed by the FNRS [Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique - Belgium]) at the Faculty of Theology of the Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve; currently professor at the Université de Lorraine-Metz (France), and visiting professor at the Centre Sèvres - Jesuit faculties of Paris. Born 1958; bachelor of theology; license in biblical sciences; PhD in biblical sciences; since 1990 she has taught at numerous institutions of higher religious studies and theological faculties; currently she is full professor at the Pontificia Università Urbaniana in Rome, and visiting professor at the Theological Faculty in Milan.

Inhalt
Donatella Scaiola/Elena Di Pede: Introduction - Ehud Ben Zvi: Remembering Twelve Prophetic Characters from the Past - James D. Nogalski: The Book of the Twelve Is Not a Hypothesis - Yair Zakovitch: Do the Last Verses of Malachi (Mal 3:22-24) Have a Canonical Function? A Biblical Puzzle - Innocent Himbaza: Les thèmes théologiques de Malachie et le concept du livre des XII Prophètes - Guido Benzi: Rhetorical Analysis, Interpretation, and Location of Hosea 1-3 in its Relation to the Twelve Prophets Scroll - Hervé Tremblay: Vox clamantis in deserto? L'enseignement d'Amos sur la justice sociale dans le contexte de la théorie de l'unité des douze - Claude Lichtert: Entre rappels et renversements: les particularités littéraires et théologiques du récit de Jonas - Christophe L. Nihan: Remarques sur la question de l'"unité" des XII - Jean-Daniel Macchi: Ésaïe dans les XII: Ésaïe 2,2-5 et son parallèle de Michée 4,1-5 - Donatella Scaiola: The Twelve, one or many Books? A Theological Proposal