Malachi (; ) is the traditional author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Tanakh. According to the 1897 '' Easton's Bible Dictionary'', it is possible that Malachi is not a proper name, as it simply means "messenger".
Malachi
' at the Easton's Bible Dictionary The editors of the 1906 ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

'' implied that he prophesied after

Haggai Haggai (; he, חַגַּי – ''Ḥaggay''; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; la, Aggaeus) was a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the author of t ...

and

Zechariah Zechariah most often refers to: * Zechariah (Hebrew prophet), author of the Book of Zechariah * Zechariah (New Testament figure), father of John the Baptist Zechariah or its many variant forms and spellings may also refer to: People *Zechariah ...

and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BC, after the second return of Nehemiah from Persia, or possibly before his return. No allusion is made to him by Ezra, however, and he does not directly mention the restoration of the Second Temple.

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 In Judaism, angels ( he, ''mal’āḵ'', plural: ''mal’āḵīm'', literally "messenger") are supernatural beings that appear throughout the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), rabbinic literature, Jewish apocrypha, apocrypha and List of Old Testament p ...

''") 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 Yah may refer to: * Jah, shortened form of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God * YAH, The IATA code for La Grande-4 Airport in northern Quebec, Canada * Yazgulyam language, by ISO 639 code * Yah (song), "Yah" (song), by Kendrick Lamar from his album '' ...

, whence ''mal'akhiah'', i.e. "messenger of Yah". In the

Book of Haggai The Book of Haggai (; he, ספר חגי, Sefer Ḥaggay) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and is the third-to-last of the Twelve Minor Prophets. It is a short book, consisting of only two chapters. The historical setting dates around 52 ...

is designated the "messenger of the ." The non-canonical 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 Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...

Works

The Jews of his day ascribed the Book of Malachi to Ezra. Certain traditions ascribe the book to Zerubbabel and Nehemiah; others to Malachi, whom they designate as a Levite and a member of the Great Assembly. Certain modern scholars, however, on the basis of the similarity of the title declare it to be anonymous.

G.G. Cameron GG may refer to: Gaming * GG (gaming), an abbreviation used in video games meaning "good game" * GameGuard, a hacking protection program used in some MMORPGs * Game Gear, a handheld game console released by SEGA * Game Genie, a video game cheat ...

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). The term would thus be an official title, and the thought would not be unsuitable to one whose message closed the prophetical canon of the Old Testament.

Date

Opinions vary as to the prophet's exact date, but nearly all scholars agree that Malachi prophesied during the

Persian period Yehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta (), was an administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the region of Judea that functioned as a self-governing region under its local Jewish population. The province was a part ...

, and after the reconstruction and dedication of the

Second Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...

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. According to

W. Gunther Plaut Wolf Gunther Plaut, (November 1, 1912 – February 8, 2012) was an American Reform rabbi and writer who was based in Canada. Plaut was the rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto for several decades and since 1978 was its senior scholar. L ...

References

* * * * L. Vianès: Malachie. ''La Bible d'Alexandrie'', vol. xxiii/12, Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 2011.

External links

* *
Prophet Malachi
Orthodox icon and

synaxarion Synaxarion or Synexarion (plurals Synaxaria, Synexaria; el, Συναξάριον, from συνάγειν, ''synagein'', "to bring together"; cf. etymology of ''synaxis'' and ''synagogue''; Latin: ''Synaxarium'', ''Synexarium''; cop, ⲥⲩⲛⲁ ...

{{Authority control Levites