3. The time of the Prophecy, and of the age of the Prophet. He was a σύγχρονος/contemporary of Jeremiah.
The time of the publication of this Prophecy and of the age of the Prophet is not altogether clear. That he was a σύγχρονον/contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, Jerome and others assert, holding to this rule: What Prophet does not note his time, he is contemporary with the one preceding. But, that the rule is mistaken, Jonah will argue below. And it is uncertain that is this order, in which they appear today, the Prophets were always seen. Others think that he came onto the stage before that famine of seven years, which was under Joram, the son of Ahab, 2 Kings 8:1, because he predicts a famine. But Jeremiah also has a similar Prophecy concerning famine, Jeremiah 14, and mention is made of that famine under Josiah, 2 Kings 23:26. Whence from the famine foretold by Joel nothing certain is able to be concluded. But, because the Prophet nowhere mentioned the ten tribes, the Hebrews in Seder Olam Zuta[1] gather it as likely that he prophesied after the ten tribes were deported, and place him under Manasseh: perhaps they would proceed more rightly, if they had referred him to the times of Josiah, under which the famine, foretold by Jeremiah, raged; which we ourselves think to be more probable than the other options. Therefore, thus Jeremiah and Joel would be σύγχρονοι/contemporaries, and would have prophesied concerning the same calamity. And plainly the Prophecies of Jeremiah, which are found in Jeremiah 14-17, agree with the Prophecy of Joel.
[1]Seder Olam Zuta, compiled in the early Middle Ages (with a final redaction in 804), is a chronicle composed of two parts: a record of the generations from Adam to Jehoiakim; and thirty-nine generations of Davidic exhilarchs, beginning with Jehoiachin.