Zechariah is the work of at least three writers. Davidson says: "To Zechariah's authentic oracles were attached chapters ix-xiv, themselves made up of two parts (ix-xi, xii-xiv) belonging to different times and authors" (Canon, p. 33). The passage quoted by Matthew (xxi, 5) is not from the authentic portion of Zechariah, but from one of the spurious chapters, ix, 9. Mark (1, 2, 3) quotes a prophecy which he applies to John the Baptist. The passage quoted contains two sentences, one of which is found in Malachi (iii, 1), the other in Isaiah (xl, 3). Whiston declares that both sentences originally belonged to Isaiah. If Whiston is correct the Evangelist has not quoted Malachi. This, the last book of the Old Testament, is an anonymous work, Malachi being the name of the book and not of the author. The period assigned for the prophecies of Amos is from 808 to 785 B.C. The book contains the following: "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old" (ix, 11). "And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them" (14). Amos was not written until after the captivity. This commenced 588 B.C. and continued fifty years. Joel, it is asserted, was written 800 B.C. That this writer also lived after the captivity is shown by the following: "I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem" (iii, 1). This passage, it is claimed, was a prediction made centuries before the event occurred. Joel's ability to predict future events, however, is negatived by his next effort: "But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation" (20). "Nineveh is laid waste: who shall bemoan her?" (Nahum iii, 7). The composition of Nahum is placed between 720 and 698 B.C. Nineveh was destroyed 606 B.C., a century later. The first verse of Zephaniah declares that the book was written "in the days of Josiah," in the seventh century B.C.; the last verse shows that it was written in the days of Cyrus, in the sixth century B.C. Every chapter of Habakkuk and Obadiah's single chapter show that these books were written after the dates assigned. The book of Haggai is ascribed to Haggai, the last person in the world to whom it can reasonably be ascribed. It is not a book of Haggai, but about Haggai. Excepting a few brief exhortations, of which it gives an account, it does not purport to contain a word from his tongue or pen. This argument applies with still greater force to Jonah.