The Prophet Amos

Length. Seriously, the only real difference between the prophetic books is their length. Accordingly, the Major Prophets are longer & the Minor prophets are shorter. That’s it, period! The division of the prophetic books into Major & Minor is a latter addition. The distinction has nothing to do with importance. As if to say these are the ‘Important Prophets’ & these are the ‘Unimportant Prophets.’ No, in fact, in the Hebrew bible all the prophets are simply lumped in to one section called the ‘Nebim’ or Prophets. (the Hebrew distinction of Former & Latter has to do with book order & not chronological order) This analogy is a little crude, but you could divide them simarly by saying the 4 ‘Longer-winded Prophets & the 12 ‘Shorter-winded Prophets.’ Or you could just put all of them together & call them the Prophets.