Bible Study - Zephaniah (Introduction) - Part 1

One of our Scripture readings for this coming Sunday is from the book of the prophet Zephaniah, from the Old Testament. (See the “Preparing for Worship” for this week to see how this reading fits in with the other readings for November 19, 2023.) I don’t think that I have presented a study on Zephaniah for a long time and so decided to make this our new study. I will mainly focus on an introduction to Zephaniah today.

Zephaniah is one of the “Minor Prophets” found near the end of the Old Testament. They are called “minor” only in the sense that they are shorter prophetic books than much longer books like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Zephaniah has only three chapters, yet it is equally and entirely “the Word of the Lord,” just as the rest of the Old and New Testament writings are.

We know nothing about Zephaniah, other than what is told us in his book. Zephaniah 1:1 tells us that the Lord revealed His Word to him during the reign of Josiah as King of Judah. Josiah ruled from 640-609 BC, after the terrible reign of Manasseh from 687-642 BC, and his son, Amon, for two more years. Manasseh is considered the worst of the kings of Judah, pushing idolatry, injustice, and cruelty. “He shed very much innocent blood,” and led the people into much sin (2 Kings 21:16).

Josiah was only 8 years old when he became king, when the evil influence of Manasseh was still very great. It was likely during these early years that Zephaniah did much of his prophecy and writing, condemning the wrongdoing in Judah and other nations. It was not until the 18th year of Josiah’s reign that “the Book of the Law” was found in the temple, having been lost and ignored for many years. Josiah was shocked at what he heard and began to introduce many reforms in Judah, calling people back to the One True God, as Zephaniah did. The strong warnings of Zephaniah, along with the prophecy of Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Nahum, would have been very helpful to him.

The genealogy of Zephaniah is long, including a reference that might be to Hezekiah, an earlier king, and to Cushi, normally an Ethiopian or Nubian name. That means that Zephaniah may have had both some royal and foreign blood in him, though we do not know for sure. Scholars even argue over what Zephaniah’s name means, “The Lord (Yahweh) has hidden” or “treasured” or “cherished,” etc. All this about Zephaniah is not so important, though. As Dr. Franzmann says, “The divine message is more important than the messenger; Zephaniah lives in history and is significant to us because the Word of the Lord came to him” (Zephaniah 1:1). Next week, we will get into what that Word was. The Lord’s blessings.