Framing the Twelve

Andrew Meeson shows that Hosea and Malachi parody the same texts from outside the Twelve Prophets: the nation as unfaithful wife, the priest as fool, Israel as scheming Jacob. Read together, the two books frame the Twelve as a call to return to YHWH.

Andrew Meeson approaches the question of a frame for the Twelve Prophets in three ways. First, a ‘frame’ describes the boundary of a text. According to the documentary evidence for the Twelve, the paratextual presentation encourages its reception as a verbal entity bounded by Hosea and Malachi. Thus, in at least this sense, Hosea and Malachi can be described as a frame for the Twelve. A second approach to a ‘frame’ is investigating the exploitation of prominent peripheral positions of a text for hermeneutic potential. Comparative literature shows a marked propensity to use such framing devices in various types of texts with different compositional histories. In the Twelve, significant intertextual relationships link Hosea and Malachi, its peripheries. Both Hosea and Malachi parody the same texts from outside the Twelve to portray the object of their critique: the nation is an unfaithful wife urged to return to her first husband; the priest is a prototypical fool who must repent; Israel is scheming Jacob who must return to receive God’s blessing as a gift. Such parodic intertextuality highlights a concept of a ‘frame’ for the Twelve, that is, a framework, or interpretive context, that shapes one’s reading of the Twelve. The framing parodies heighten the Twelve’s critique and encourage its reading within the framework of a call to return to YHWH. In all three senses, then, Hosea and Malachi form a deliberate frame for the Twelve.

A Frame for the Twelve?
1.1. Joining the Discussion
1.2. Re-Framing the Discussion
1.3. Re-Framing 'Framing the Twelve'
Defining our terms: Frames, Intertextuality, & Parody
2.1. What is a Frame?
2.2. Intertextuality
2.3. Parody
Paratextual Evidence for Conceptions of the Twelve as a bounded verbal entity
3.1. Masoretic Tradition ( ) - 10th/11th Century CE
3.2. Talmud - 6th Century CE
3.3. Old Greek Versions ( ) - 3rd-9th Century CE
3.4. Church Fathers - 2nd-5th Century CE
3.5. The New Testament - 1st-2nd Century CE
3.6. Jewish Texts from 1st Century CE-2nd Century BCE
3.7. Dead Sea Discoveries (DSS) - 2nd Century BCE-1st Century CE
3.8. Summary
Evidence in Antiquity for Utilising Peripheral Positions of Prominence
4.1. Peripheral Expansion
4.2. Framing Devices
4.3. Ring Composition
4.4. Conclusions
Return to your First Spouse: (Hos 1-4; Mal 2:10-16; Deut 24:1-4)
5.1. An Introduction to Hosea and Malachi
5.2. Hosea & Mal 2:10-16 as Intertexts Concerning Marriage
5.3. Deuteronomy 24 and the Law against Palingamy in Hosea and Malachi
5.4. The Function of the Hosea-Malachi Frame
The Priest is a Fool (Hosea 4:1-5:7; Malachi 2:1-9; Proverbs)
6.1. Hosea 4 and Malachi 2:1-9 as Intertexts
6.2. "Wisdom" and the Twelve
6.3. Proverbs, Hosea & Malachi
6.4. The Function of a Hos-Mal frame on the Twelve
Israel, you are Jacob (Hosea 12; Malachi 1:1-5, 8-10; 2:10-14; 3:6-9; Genesis 25-35)
7.1. Genesis, Hosea & Malachi as Intertexts
7.2. Genesis 25-35 and Hosea 12
7.3. Genesis 25-35 and Malachi
7.4. The Function of a Hosea-Malachi Frame on the Twelve
Summary & Conclusions

• By (author) Andrew Meeson