The Bible: The Book Of Obadiah

The prophetic book takes its name after the prophet who received the vision. The name Obadiah means “servant of the LORD”. It is the smallest book in the Old Testament. There is no information about the author. Sanhedrin 39b (Talmud) said Obadiah was Ahab’s servant. Pseudo-Epiphanius said he was King Ahaziah’s military official (thus the book must have been written in 842 B.C.). John Calvin said he could have been an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem which suggests that the book must have been written in 586 B.C. (Ibibio, n.d).Some say the name could be a title. Most scholars agree that Obadiah wrote in the 840s B.C., a few years before Joel and he was Elisha’s contemporary. The genre of the book is classical Hebrew prophetic poetry. The author uses imagery, rhetorical questions, irony, repetition, and various …show more content…
So the people who received the prophecy were mostly the residents of Judah. It is also interesting to note that no author from the New Testament alludes to Obadiah and also there is a striking similarity in Obadiah and Jeremiah. Obadiah is an exposition of Genesis 12:1-3 with two themes that are intertwined- 1) the judgment of Edom because of her pride and also because she mocked Judah when Judah was being attacked 2) the restoration of Judah which included a territory from the Edomites. The blessing that Obadiah pronounced had a near fulfillment of Edom’s destruction (2 Chr. 21:8–20) and a far fulfillment of the judgment on Edom which came to pass in the first century A.D. and also Israel eventually occupying Edom (MacArthur, 2010). The book is of significance as it is talks about the universal church which would be on fire with the gospel, gaining victory over every kind of oppression (vs. 17) and also the inheritance of eternal life for those who come into this church by putting their faith in Jesus