Zephaniah The Prophet

This is my instant post on Zephaniah. Take the youthful study in this series by clicking appearing in.The book of Zephaniah is the ninth book in the bank accepted as the Twelve Frivolous Prophets. These twelve prophets are furtive as "Frivolous Prophets" not because they were less significant in mass nor because their communication was not significant to their the people. Fairly, they are called Frivolous Prophets because their books are not as stately as the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Zephaniah was a vision who ministered in Judah owing to the directive of Josiah (640-609 B.C.). A hard to please study of the communication of Zephaniah indicates that Zephaniah began his farseeing ministry through the moral reforms of Josiah.A quick grasp of the Frivolous Prophets decision reveal that biographical information about the prophets is sad. Zephaniah is the definite canonical vision with a striking genealogy. The book of Zephaniah is the definite farseeing book that provides utter genealogical information about a prophet's boarding house. The four-generation genealogy found at the beginning of the book traces Zephaniah's procession back to Hezekiah. The genealogy introducing the ministry and communication of Zephaniah says:"The word of the Peer of the realm that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of Sovereign Josiah son of Amon of Judah" (Zephaniah 1:1).This feature information in the book tells the reader a choice of gear about the vision. Outdo, the superscription tells that Zephaniah was worker owing to the directive of Sovereign Josiah, who ruled in Jerusalem in the seventh century B.C. As a result, it is very likely that the communication of Zephaniah provided the stimulus for the Josianic reforms. The moral reforms of Josiah took place in particular stages: "In the eighth rendezvous of his directive [632 B.C.], even if he was still a boy, he [Josiah] began to aspire the God of his pioneer David, and in the twelfth rendezvous [628 B.C.] he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high sitting room, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images" (2 Chronicles 34:3). Josiah's update found its peak with the leak of the book of the law of Moses in 622 B.C. (on the reforms of Josiah, read appearing in, and appearing in).Second, the superscription says that Zephaniah was a descendant of Hezekiah. Give are three individuals named Hezekiah in the Hebrew Bible. In specially to Hezekiah, the Sovereign of Judah, and the great-great-grandfather of the vision Zephaniah, the definite other Hezekiah mentioned in the Bible was the leader of a boarding house that returned from the Babylonian cast out (Ezra 2:16). Whether the Hezekiah mentioned in the genealogy of Zephaniah was the Judean king who reigned in Judah in the eighth century B.C. is debated by scholars (chief on Hezekiah appearing in, appearing in, and appearing in). Although, the same as Zephaniah is the definite vision who has provided an insincerely desire genealogy, the fortuitous to identify Zephaniah's forebears may be an icon that the superscription is upsetting to bend the readers of the shape parentage of Zephaniah.The fortuitous to hoard the genealogy of a prophet's forebears to the fourth clock is relatively multihued. The opening direct of a genealogy is to hoard officially recognized information about a guess. As a result, the genealogy at the beginning of Zephaniah's book is held to add reliability or propriety to the communication of the vision. As a result, it is possible to unite that the acclaim of Hezekiah in the genealogical list of Zephaniah was of special magnitude.Robert Wilson, in his book, Sight and Culture in Past Israel (Philadelphia: Bastion Quantity, 1980), p. 279, wrote: "Linear genealogies of this type claim definite one function: to set down in the behind an individual's claims to power, things, or suite."If the intent of Zephaniah's genealogy was to authenticate that the vision was a aficionado of the shape boarding house, one would wage that the redactor would exactly acclaim that Hezekiah was the king of Judah. Yet, the linear genealogy found in the book is very ordinary in the Old Testimonial and does not make an fortuitous to underline any of the individuals named in the genealogy other than the vision himself.For this intelligence, whether this Hezekiah was the king of Judah has been a bough of negotiations concerning scholars. Schedule some pick up the fact that Zephaniah was a aficionado of the shape boarding house, others claim rejected the view that Zephaniah was fixed to Sovereign Hezekiah. From the horse's mouth, I possess that the Hezekiah mentioned in the genealogy of Zephaniah was the one who ruled in Judah in the eighth century B.C.Third, the genealogical information at the beginning of the book says that the set out of Zephaniah was Cushi. In the Hebrew Bible, the name "Cush" has two meanings. Largely, the word "Cush" is translated as Ethiopia. The name "Ethiopia" it would seem burial "the land of the dynasty of dry faces." The name answer to the land was a commendation to the dark defense of the dynasty who lived in Ethiopia (see Jeremiah 13:23). The word "Cush" moreover appears as the names of two dynasty in the Old Testimonial. Cushi was the great-grandfather of Jehudi, an spokesperson in Sovereign Jehoiakim's official. The other guess who was called Cushi was the set out of Zephaniah.Past the name Cushi is whole acknowledged with Ethiopia, some dynasty wage that Zephaniah was a outcast. For pencil case, David T. Adamo, in his book Africa and the Africans in the Old Testimonial (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Shyness Publishers, 2001), p. 116, called Zephaniah "The African Thinker." Adamo believes that the same as Hezekiah had chief dealings with Africa than any other king of Judah, Hezekiah married an African organism who afterward gave get going to Zedekiah's grandfather. Adamo concludes: "As a result to find an African as one of these prophets burial that Africans claim contributed to the appear development of ancient Israel" (p. 119).It is doubtful that Zephaniah's set out was an Ethiopian or an African. Give is no pang of conscience that in the behind contemporary were intermarriage and astonishing pretend to have in the Judean shape boarding house. Although, the fact that all the forebears of Zephaniah claim Hebrew names, use that his forebears were Judeans. In specially, the totter of a genealogy with four generations was it would seem held to authenticate that Zephaniah was not a outcast, regardless of the name of his set out and that he was a full Israelite and a aficionado of the shape boarding house.If Zephaniah was a aficionado of the shape boarding house afterward one would understand the arrant pretend to have that he strong suit claim exercised in the moral formation of the young king. If Zephaniah was a relative of Josiah, he it would seem had way in to the young king at the time the king was escalating and treatment blessing from dynasty who were stanch to the ancient moral traditions of Israel.His vigorous communication v the expressive and moral evil here in Judean the people responsible in the young king a sense of lack of warmth that in due course led him to grip Israel to turn from their evil ways.Zephaniah was called by God to sign an pungent communication. The Peer of the realm located his minion in a input place and gave him a special mission: to grip the king and the dynasty of Judah back to the ancient traditions of Israel.In a anticipated post I decision grasp my study on Zephaniah.Unorthodox Studies on Zephaniah:Prophets in IsraelZephaniah and the PalestiniansClaude MariottiniGoverness of Old TestimonialNorthern Baptist SchoolIf you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to my posts appearing in.Tags: Zephaniah, Josiah, Hezekiah, Cushi, Ethiopia