Joel and Obadiah

A Commentary

John Barton

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9780664237264
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611645002
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In Joel and Obadiah, John Barton furnishes a fresh translation of the ancient manuscripts and discusses questions of historical background and literary architecture before providing a theologically sensitive and critically informed interpretation of the text.

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

COMMENTARY ON OBADIAH

Superscription Obadiah 1a

1 The vision of Obadiah.

This is the shortest superscription in any prophetic book and gives the minimum possible information. Obadiah is not identified by patronymic or given any place of origin, as is common in other prophetic books. The name, as pointed in MT, means “worshiper of YHWH” and occurs as the name of twelve people altogether in the Hebrew Bible—most famously, Ahab’s chamberlain in 1 Kings 18. The name also occurs in the Samarian ostraca (50:2) and at Kuntillet Ajrud, as well as in the ostraca from Arad (10:4).¹ It is possible that LXX Abdiou or Abdeiaou implies that the name was (sometimes?) read as Abdiyahu, equivalent to ‘ebed-yhwh, “servant of YHWH.” Clearly, the sense is very little different, and it is possible that someone might be called variously by both names: thus someone called Obadiah (‘ōbadyâ) in 1 Chron. 9:16 appears in Neh. 11:17 as Abda (‘abdā’).

It is conceivable that the word is a common noun, “servant/worshiper of YHWH,”² just as some think that Malachi is a title (“my messenger”) rather than a name. But other prophetic books begin with the name of the prophet, and since this is a common name, there seems little reason to doubt it was the real name of the author of the following oracles. Bič’s theory³ that the expression refers to a worshiper of YHWH who is about to participate in a cultic ceremony of cursing Edom simply lacks the necessary evidence.

Though there is no reason to believe that the Obadiah who produced these prophecies was the chamberlain of Ahab cited in 1 Kings, as Jewish tradition has tended to think, it is possible that the later editor who attached the superscription intended it to be taken in that way. Postexilic scribes liked to associate prophecy with individuals known from the historical books (cf. Jonah, and also the link made between Micaiah ben Imlah and the prophet Micah in 1 Kings 22:28).

The prophecy is described as the “vision” (ḥăzôn) of Obadiah, rather than, for example, the “word” that came to him. But this does not necessaril...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Select Bibliography for Joel
• Select Bibliography for Obadiah
• The Book of Joel
• Introduction
• Commentary on Joel
• The Book of Obadiah
• Introduction
• Commentary on Obadiah