The Twelve Minor Prophets Resources

The Minor Prophets is a comedy troupe that has produced more than two dozen short films, none of which has anything to do with the original minor prophets. That’s. So. Raven. The group owns minorprophets.com as well, further proof that the biblical Minor Prophets can’t catch a break.

There’s a whole website dedicated to Dies Irae, the Gregorian chant based on Zephaniah’s description of the day of wrath. (1:14-15)

Thanks to the diligent collection efforts of ASCAP, all royalties from the performance of this song go to the prophet’s sole surviving descendant, Milly Zephaniah of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Malachi, Nahum and Amos take a star turn in this classic film loosely based on the Minor Prophets. And more tightly based on a book by Stephen King.

The description of God’s day of wrath in Zephaniah 1:14-15 inspired a Christian chant called Dies Irae, which in turn inspired the climactic music for Simba’s ascent. It’s the circle of life. Okay, technically it’s a line, but you get the point.

VeggieTales is a popular Christian entertainment franchise that features a group of spiritual vegetables. Important note to anyone who decides to prepare a report on Jonah by watching this movie instead of reading the Bible: in the original Hebrew text, Jonah is not a talking asparagus.

It’s what everyone thinks when they read the book of Jonah: this would make a great romantic comedy! At least someone with pull in Hollywood thought so.

In his time, many considered King to be a dangerous radical. In a Birmingham, Alabama prison for his role in leading a nonviolent civil rights demonstration, King defends himself from this charge by citing the example of Amos, “Was not Amos an extremist for justice: ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’” What makes this quote an especially cool example of King’s genius: the Birmingham police were notorious for blasting the demonstrators with water cannons.

The Minor Prophets are God’s People’s Court, with Yahweh giving his people guilt trips through breach of covenant legal complaints. Here’s an example of an actual case from Babylon involving a Jewish slave in exile who fails to secure his freedom.

In this historic address from 1963, the civil rights leader quotes Amos 5:24, “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” However, Amos is not quoted in the ABBA song with the same title.

We all know that Shmoopers are clever, so you’ve probably already figured out that Yunus is Jonah in Arabic. What’s especially cool about this cartoon are the little differences from Jewish and Christian versions of the tale. The prophet can’t be drawn. He actually wants to convert the Ninevites. And then there’s the mysterious singing bear ….

Daniel and the lion’s den, Jonah and the whale—this slave spiritual from the old South finds a hope of freedom in stories about God saving his people from dangerous animals. Ooooh, burn.

The original version of this Johnny Mercer classic is an old time African American gospel sermon updated for post-war America. Remember Jonah, banish bad thoughts and whatever you do, don’t mess with Mr. In-Between because he is one tough cookie.

The third chapter of Habakkuk was historically set to music, but it’s the first verse of chapter two that made music history. Bob Dylan’s lyrics + Jimi Hendrix’ guitar = a timeless riff on Habakkuk’s watchtower vigil—so timeless, in fact, that it was the favorite song of Battlestar Galactica’s cylons millennia before it was written.

Back in the 1990s, the city of Seattle required everyone between the ages of 15 and 30 to be in a grunge band, and “Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives” is one of the songs to emerge from this strange experiment. The singer’s attempt to win back his ex by calling her a slut is surprisingly true to the biblical source.

In George Gershwin’s masterpiece, the story of Jonah is one of the things that “you’re liable to read in the Bible” that “ain’t necessarily so.”

Hosea, Gomer and a child to be named later pose for a family painting in the 12th century Bible of St. Andre aux-Bois.

A candid behind-the-scenes painting in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. That’s the Sistine Chapel, Las Vegas by Fred Michelangelo, but pretty good, no?

A woodcut from Martin Luther’s Bible of 1545

The prophet exhorts the Israelites in this Dore woodcut.

Zephaniah, Joel, Obadiah and Hosea go full emo in this painting by John Singer Sargent. Well, maybe not Hosea, who had everybody talking with his daring choice of white.

The prophet Zechariah is seeing things in this Martin Luther woodcut.