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Why are Hosea through Malachi called the Twelve Minor Prophets?
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Hebrew Bible
Portion of the Aleppo Codex, a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible written in the Hebrew language in the 10th century ce; in the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
The designation "Minor Prophets" for the books from Hosea through Malachi refers to the relative brevity of their writings compared to the "Major Prophets" (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel).1
In the Hebrew Bible, these twelve works are collectively known as The Twelve. While they are treated as separate books in most Christian Old Testament traditions, they were traditionally consolidated into a single book within the Nevi'im (the Prophets) division of the Hebrew canon. Because they were historically recorded on a single scroll, they functioned as one of the eight books that comprise the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible.234