How Many Prophets Appear in the Bible?

By Staff WriterLast Updated March 30, 2020

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According to Bible.org, there are four major prophets and 12 minor prophets in the Bible. The four are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, while the 12 are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

The names of the prophets were gathered based on the 17 prophesy books in the Bible, two of which were written by Jeremiah. The classification of being a major or a minor prophet is only based on the length of the prophesy book. As published by Bible.org, “The word ‘prophet’ is from the Hebrew ‘ayb]n*’ (nabi). The derivation of this word is a matter of controversy, but the essential idea in the word is that of an ‘authorized spokesman.'”