Malachi

THE BOOK OF

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[3] [4]

INTRODUCTION

MALACHI forms the transition link between the two

dispensations, the Old and the New, "the skirt and boundary of

Christianity" [TERTULLIAN], to which perhaps is

due the abrupt earnestness which characterizes his prophecies. His very

name is somewhat uncertain. Malachi is the name of an office, rather

than a person, "My messenger," and as such is found in

Mal 3:1.

The Septuagint favors this view in

Mal 1:1;

translate, not "by Malachi," but "by the hand of His messenger"

(compare

Hag 1:13).

Malachi is the last inspired messenger of the Old Testament, announcing

the advent of the Great Messenger of the New Testament. The

Chaldee paraphrase identifies him with Ezra wrongly, as Ezra is

never called a prophet but a scribe, and Malachi never a scribe but a

prophet. Still it hence appears that Malachi was by some old

authorities not regarded as a proper name. The analogy of the headings

of other prophets, however, favors the common view that Malachi is a

proper name. As Haggai and Zechariah, the contemporary prophets,

supported Joshua and Zerubbabel in the building of the temple, so he at

a subsequent period supported the priest Ezra and the governor

Nehemiah. Like that ruler, he presupposes the temple to have been

already built

(Mal 1:10; 3:1-10).

Both alike censure the abuses still unreformed

(Ne 13:5, 15-22, 23-30),

the profane and mercenary character of the priests, the people's

marriages contracted with foreigners, the non-payment of the tithes,

and want of sympathy towards the poor on the part of the rich

(Ne 6:7)

implies that Nehemiah was supported by prophets in his work of

reformation. The date thus will be about 420 B.C.,

or later. Both the periods after the captivity (that of Haggai and

Zechariah, and that of Malachi) were marked by royal, priestly, and

prophetic men at the head of God's people. The former period was that

of the building of the temple; the latter, that of the restoration of

the people and rebuilding of the city. It is characteristic of the

people of God that the first period after the restoration was

exclusively devoted to the rebuilding of the temple; the political

restoration came secondarily. Only a colony of fifty thousand settled

with Joshua and Zerubbabel in Palestine

(Ezr 2:64).

Even these became intermingled with the heathen around during the sixty

years passed over by Ezra in silence

(Ezr 9:6-15;

Ne 1:3).

Hence a second restoration was needed which should mould the national

life into a Jewish form, re-establishing the holy law and the holy

city--a work effected by Ezra and Nehemiah, with the aid of Malachi, in

a period of about half a century, ending with the deaths of Malachi and

Nehemiah in the last ten years of the fifth century B.C.; that is, the "seven weeks"

(Da 9:25)

put in the beginning of the "seventy" by themselves, to mark the

fundamental difference between them, the last period of Old Testament

revelation, and the period which followed without any revelation (the

sixty-two weeks), preceding the final week standing out in unrivalled

dignity by itself as the time of Messiah's appearing. The seventy weeks

thus begin with the seventh year of Artaxerxes who allowed Ezra to go

to Jerusalem, 457 B.C., in accordance with the

commandment which then went forth from God. Ezra the priest performed

the inner work of purifying the nation from heathenish elements and

reintroducing the law; while Nehemiah did the outer work of rebuilding

the city and restoring the national polity [AUBERLEN]. VITRINGA makes the date

of Malachi's prophecies to be about the second return of Nehemiah from

Persia, not later than 424 B.C., the date of

Artaxerxes' death

(Ne 13:6).

About this time Socrates was teaching the only approach to a pure

morality which corrupt Athens ever knew. MOORE

distinguishes six portions: (1) Charge against Israel for insensibility

to God's love, which so distinguished Israel above Edom

(Mal 1:1-5).

(2) The priests are reproved for neglect and profanation

(Mal 1:6-2:9).

(3) Mixed marriages, and the wrongs done to Jewish wives, are reproved

(Mal 2:10-16).

(4) Coming of Messiah and His forerunners

(Mal 2:17-3:6).

(5) Reproof for tithes withheld

(Mal 3:7-12).

(6) Contrast between the godly and the ungodly at the present time, and

in the future judgment; exhortation, therefore, to return to the law

(Mal 3:13-4:6).

The style is animated, but less grand, and the rhythm less marked,

than in some of the older prophets.

The canonicity of the book is established by the references to it in

the New Testament

(Mt 11:10; 17:12;

Mr 1:2; 9:11, 12;

Lu 1:17;

Ro 9:13).