Zephaniah 1.1-Identification of the Author and the Origin of His Message
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 21, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 1:1-Identification of the Author and the Origin of His Message
Lesson # 8
Zephaniah 1:1 The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah: (NASB95)
“The word of the LORD” is composed of the following: (1) masculine singular construct form of the common noun dĕbar (דָּבָר), “the word of” (2) masculine singular proper noun yhwh (יהוה), “the Lord.”
The noun dĕbar means “message” referring to what Yahweh, the God of Israel said to the prophet Zephaniah.
The proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) “Lord” is the personal name of God emphasizing that He is the redeemer of mankind and is used in His relationship to His covenants or contracts with men.
This term yhwh, “Lord” is emphasizing the covenant relationship that Zephaniah and the kingdom of Judah had with the Lord and the revelation that Zephaniah received from God.
This word is emphasizing the “immanency” of the Lord meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
Here the construct state of dĕbar means that it is governing the noun yhwh and the genitive function is source indicating that this message that Zephaniah was communicating to Judah through this book “originated from” the Lord Himself.
“Which came to Zephaniah” is composed of the following: (1) relative pronoun ʾăšer (אֲשֶׁר), “which” (2) third person masculine singular qal active perfect form of the verb hāyâ (הָיָה), “came to” (2) preposition ʾel (אֶל), “to” (3) masculine singular proper name ṣĕpanyâ (צְפַנְיָה), “Zephaniah.”
The verb hāyâ means “to communicate” since the context indicates that the Lord is communicating a message originating from the Lord to the kingdom of Judah and to the surrounding Gentiles nations and the entire world.
“Son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah” expresses the fact that the prophet Zephaniah was a biological descendent of Cushi, Gedaliah, Amariah and Hezekiah.
“In the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah” denotes that Zephaniah communicated to Judah the message he received from the God of Israel during the days of Josiah, king of Judah.
The proper name yōʾšiyyāhû, “Josiah” means either “Yahweh will support” or “Yahweh heals” and refers to the fifteenth king of Judah which is also known as the southern kingdom of Israel.
He reigned from 640-609 B.C. and was the son and successor of Amon.
He was made king after his father’s assassination by the “people of the land” (2 Kgs 21:24; 2 Chr 33:25) and came to the throne at the age of eight and reigned for 31 years (2 Kgs 22:1; 2 Chr 34:1).
The construct noun bēn means “descendant, son” since it pertains to a male offspring of an ancestor, of any of a number of generations and pertains to Josiah being a descendent or the son of Amon.
The proper name ʾāmôn, “Amon” means “faithful” and was the father of Josiah who was the fourteenth king of Judah and reigned from 642-640 B.C.
The noun melek means “king” referring to the governmental head of Judah, i.e. the southern kingdom.
The proper name yĕhûdâ, “Judah” means “I will praise the Lord” and was the name given to the fourth child that Leah bore to Jacob whose birth is recorded in Genesis 29:35.
In Zephaniah 1:1 it refers to the southern kingdom.
After the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel had a civil war and was divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom with the latter taking the name Judah.
Zephaniah 1:1 The message originating from the Lord was communicated to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, grandson of Gedaliah, great-grandson of Amariah, great, great-grandson of Hezekiah, during the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah. (Author’s translation)
Zephaniah 1:1 contains the title of the book which is composed of three parts: (1) the prophetic word formula (2) identification of the prophet and his ancestry (3) identification of the historical context of the prophet’s ministry.
The prophetic word formula (“the word of the Lord came to”) is the typical introductory phrase used among the prophetic books (cf. Jeremiah 1:2; Ezekiel 1:3; Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Micah 1:1; Haggai 1:1; Malachi 1:1).
This formula asserts the prophecy originates with God and not the prophet.
Zephaniah 1:1 states that Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, the grandson of Gedaliah, the great-grandson of Amariah and the great, great-grandson of Hezekiah.
This is unique that the prophet Zephaniah would trace his ancestry back four generations.
No other prophet in Israel ever did this.
This would indicate that he was descended from the fourteenth king of Judah, namely Hezekiah who reigned from 716-687 B.C. and thus, Zephaniah was from royalty and was from the tribe of Judah.
He would thus be the prophet with the most royal blood except for of course David and Solomon.
He would also thus be a distant relative of King Josiah in whose reign he prophesied.
Now, many scholars do not agree with this conclusion that Zephaniah was a descendant of King Hezekiah.
However, why would Zephaniah go to such lengths in describing his ancestry and tracing it back to the fourth generation?
Why go back and stop at Hezekiah if this is not King Hezekiah of Judah?
There is no other reason why Zephaniah would trace his ancestry back so far which can account for such a long genealogy which is unique among the prophets of Israel.
He wanted his readers to know he descended from one of Judah’s great kings.
In fact, the prophets of Israel were not inclined to give explicit descriptions of themselves and in fact, many are shrouded in mystery.
Zephaniah also makes clear that Zephaniah received a message which originated from the Lord.
The content of this message is recorded in the book of Zephaniah and the exact manner in which Zephaniah received this message is not given by Zephaniah.
The contents of the book of Zephaniah indicate that the message is directed toward to the kingdom of Judah, the surrounding Gentiles nations and the entire world.
Zephaniah is therefore asserting that his message to Judah and the world is divine in origin and not of human origin and thus Zephaniah 1:1 brings into view the doctrine of inspiration.
Zephaniah 1:1 also makes clear that the prophet Zephaniah received his prophetic message from the Lord during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah who became king at the age of eight in 640 B.C. and whose reign ended in 609 B.C.
He began to “seek the God of his father David” eight years later and four years after that began to institute a spiritual reformation of the nation in approximately 622 B.C. (2 Chron. 34:3).
Scholars are in disagreement regarding whether Zephaniah served before or after the recovery of the Law by Hilkiah and the subsequent reforms instituted by Josiah in 622 B.C. (2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34).
The conditions described by Zephaniah regarding the moral and spiritual condition of Judah in his day have caused many to believe that Zephaniah was speaking of the condition of Judah after the Josianic reforms that began after the finding of the book of the Law.
Others believe that the conditions Zephaniah denounces could only be true of the early portion of Josiah’s reign before the discovery of the Law.
Scholars are in disagreement regarding whether Zephaniah served before or after the recovery of the Law by Hilkiah and the subsequent reforms instituted by Josiah in 622 B.C. (2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34).
When examining the internal data in the book of Zephaniah, there are several conclusions which would appear to favor the earlier period in Josiah’s reign.
First, the religious practices in Judah were still plagued with Canaanite syncretistic rites such as characterized the era of Manasseh (1:4-5, 9).
Secondly, many in Judah failed to worship Yahweh at all (1:6).
Thirdly, the royalty of Judah was enamored with wearing the clothing of foreign merchants (1:8) who had extensive business enterprises in Jerusalem (1:10-11).
Furthermore, the society of Judah was plagued by various social and economic problems (1:12-13, 18) and political and religious corruption (3:1-4, 7, 11).
Lastly, when one considers that Josiah was only eight years old when he ascended the throne in 640 B.C. and was dependent upon royal officials of questionable integrity (cf. 3:3), the cause for Zephaniah’s alarm is apparent.
That Josiah’s reforms were not instituted until the twelfth year of his reign (628 B.C.), four years after his initial spiritual awakening (2 Chron. 34:3), suggests that Zephaniah’s prophetic activities may have had some type of effect in the reformation of that era.
Thus a date of 635-630 B.C. is not unlikely and accepting such a date means that the historical setting has advanced little beyond that of Nahum and Habakkuk.