Wondering "which six of the twelve minor prophets"? For those less familiar with the Christian Bible's layout, these are the final 12 books in the New Testament. (In the Hebrew Bible they are grouped together as one book; and Chronicles is placed last.) One online reviewer decided to just give a clue: JOHMNZ. Check the bible index and you'll soon see that only confirms two out of the possible 12! One could give another clue: the Crossway series already includes Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. To put you out of your misery, the six in fact are: Joel, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. The difference between minor and major prophets is simply down to the length of their writings, major prophets including Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. (Others are referred to within the Old Testament books, such as the prophetess Deborah.) Four centuries then passed before John the Baptist prophesied Christ and the prophetess Anna confirmed Simeon's pronouncement that the baby Jesus presented to him in the temple was the future Messiah. This can all get pretty hard to reconcile to our contemporary perspectives and cultures and that's where experts such as Michael Wilcock come in. A word of warning: if you're familiar with the old copies of the Crossway series, this is a 2012 reprint and the heavier lines, bullet-points, arrows amidst the wider spaced print are more visually intrusive and can hinder reading. So avoid being fooled by having another in the series in the old style if, like me, you only just cope when the text is broken up so much: this is worse. However, they are designed as study guides and for those not minding such emphasised styling, you can skip to p.17 if you already know how to study the bible, lead a study group or just want to crack on with it. Rev M J Wilcock is currently one of my favourite authors. His more detailed expositions are both easy and profound - and that's no mean achievement! Check out the more in-depth ones he's authored in the IVP BST series. He actually brings alive the chapters of lists of genealogy in "The Message of Chronicles" and observed in introducing "The Message of Psalms" that we wouldn't start reading a detective novel half way in; when doing so with any biblical book, our frustration is our own fault! This, though brief, will be an excellent introduction to six of the all too often neglected minor prophets.