Malachi

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, but simply means "messenger".
Malachi
' at the Easton's Bible Dictionary

The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia implied that he 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. 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''") 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 ." 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".

Works

The Jews of his day ascribed the Book of Malachi to

Ezra

, but if Ezra's name was originally associated with the book, it would hardly have been dropped by the collectors of the prophetic canon who lived only a century or two after Ezra's time. 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 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, 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.

According to W. Gunther Plaut,

References

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

External links

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Prophet Malachi
Orthodox

icon

and synaxarion

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Levites