Malachi or Malachias (; ) is the name used by the author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Hebrew Bible. It is possible that Malachi is not a proper name, because it means "messenger"; it has been assumed to be a pseudonym. According to Jewish tradition, the real identity of Malachi is Ezra the scribe.
Some scholars argue that the Book of Malachi is the result of multiple stages of redaction;[Kessler, Rainer. 2011. Maleachi. p. 59-61. Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament, Freiburg, Germany: Herder.] most of its text originated in the Persian period, with the oldest stratum from around 500 BCE and redactions into the Hellenistic period.
Identity
The editors of the 1906
Jewish Encyclopedia implied that Malachi, also known as Malachias, prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BC, after the second return of
Nehemiah from Persia,
or possibly before his return. The
Talmud and the Aramaic
Targum of Yonathan ben Uzziel identify Ezra as the same person as Malachi. This is the traditional view held by most Jews and some Christians, including
Jerome.
[Introduction to the Aramaic Targum of Yonathan ben Uzziel on the Prophet Malachi (Minor Prophets); Yehoshua b. Ḳarḥa ( Megillah 15a) .] This identification is plausible, because "Malachi" reprimands the people for the same things Ezra did, such as marrying foreign pagan women. Malachi also focuses extensively on
corruption priests who Ezra, a priest himself who exhorted the people to follow the law, despised. According to
Josephus, Ezra died and was buried "in a magnificent manner in Jerusalem".
[Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book XI, chapter 5, paragraph 5] If the tradition that Ezra wrote under the name "Malachi" is correct, then Josephus meant that he was buried in the Tomb of the Prophets, the traditional resting place of Malachi. This would also explain why Ezra does not refer to a prophet named Malachi, while he did refer to other prophets such as
Haggai and Zechariah.
Other potential identities includes Zerubbabel and Nehemiah; others suggest that Malachi was a separate person altogether, possibly a Levite and a member of the Great Assembly.[Bergstein, A., Who Was the Prophet Malachi?, , Chabad.org]
Name
Because the name
Malachi does not occur elsewhere in the
Hebrew Bible, some scholars doubt whether it is intended to be the personal name of the prophet. The form
mal'akhi (literally "my
malakh") signifies "my messenger"; it occurs in Malachi 3:1
(compare to Malachi 2:7, but this form would hardly be appropriate as a proper name without some additional syllable such as Yah, whence
mal'akhiah, i.e. "messenger of Yah".
In the Book of Haggai,
Haggai is designated the "messenger of the
Yahweh."
The
biblical canon superscriptions prefixed to the book, in both the
Septuagint and the
Vulgate, warrant the supposition that Malachi's full name ended with the syllable -yah.
The Septuagint translates the last clause of Malachi 1:1, "by the hand of his messenger",
and the
Targum reads, "by the hand of my angel, whose name is called Ezra the scribe".
G.G. Cameron suggests that the termination of the word "Malachi" is adjectival, and equivalent to the Latin
angelicus, signifying "one charged with a message or mission" (a missionary).
[G. G. CAMERON, J. HASTINGS' Dictionary of the Bible, New. York, 1902 ]
Date
Opinions vary as to the prophet's exact date, but nearly all scholars agree that Malachi prophesied during the Persian period, and after the reconstruction and dedication of the
Second Temple in 516 BC. More specifically, Malachi probably lived and labored during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. The abuses which Malachi mentions in his writings correspond so exactly with those which Nehemiah found on his second visit to Jerusalem in 432 BC
that it seems reasonably certain that he prophesied concurrently with Nehemiah or shortly after. Bergstein suggests that he died in 312 BC.
Message
According to W. Gunther Plaut:
Sources
Further reading
External links
