Hello, I'm Gary Stevens, and welcome to the History in the Bible podcast.

All the history, in all the books, in all the Bibles.

Episodes. Episode 1.48. Amos and Josea, Hammers of the House of Jehu.

In the last episode of the history in the Bible, I tracked the political histories of the two kingdoms in the unhappy period when they were whacked by the kingdom of Aram Damascus. I finished with King

Amaziah of Judah, who died in 786 BC, and with King Jeroboam II of Israel, who died about 40 years later.

It's time to backtrack and discuss religious developments in the northern kingdom of Israel.

The Bible is clear that the first prophets of Yave all conducted their missions in Israel, not Judah. First Elijah and Elisha, then Amos and

Josea. Amos and Josea are the first of those who are sometimes called the literary prophets,

people who get their own book. Elijah and Elisha don't have their own books.

Their ministries are accounted in the book of kings.

True, Samuel has a book named after him, but the book is a third-person history,

in which Samuel appears as just one figure in a dramatic pageant.

The books of the literary prophets are first-person rants.

In the Jewish tradition, they are part of the single book called the Twelve.

In the Jewish tradition, only the superstars, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel get their own books.

Daniel is not accounted a prophet.

The Christians give each prophet his own book, no matter how piddling.

Obadiah and Zefaniah, I'm looking at you.

Amos and Josea are the only two literary prophets who worked in the Northern Kingdom. They laboured in Israel during the last decades of the

House of Jehu, with the Assyrian threat looming on the horizon. I'll start with Amos.

His book is the very template for prophetic writing, the literary exemplar followed by most later prophets.

His name means something like one who bears the word of God.

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