The last of the Old Testament Prophets

It is more correct to write "Malachi," meaning "My angel"; Malachias would mean the "Angel of the Lord"; the Septuagint renders "by the hand of His angel," thus evidently not regarding it as a proper name. In agreement with this it should be noted that neither Esdras with whom the prophet is supposed to have been contemporary nor Josephus, nor the author of Ecclesiasticus 49:15, mentions Malachi. The Chaldaic paraphrase has "My angel whose name is Esdras the Scribe," and this identification is accepted by St. Jerome.

Structure of Malachi

1:2-5. The proemium; the happy lot of Israel as compared with Esau.

1:6 -thru- 2:9. The priests are blamed for their neglect of the divine worship.

2:10-17. The populace is blamed for various shortcomings; their contempt of one another; their divorces; their complaints, saying: "Where is the God of judgment?" 2:17.

3:1-5. The Messiah shall come to purify them, and God will judge them.

3:6-12. It is not He who is changeable, but they who are fickle.

3:13 -thru- 4:3. Their cowardliness; His mercy, He will send the Messiah, the Sun of Justice.

4:4-6. The epilogue: remember the Law of Moses; Elias shall come before the Messiah.

The Historical Setting for Malachi

There was much violence, 3:5; the altar was despised, 1:12; the tithes were not paid, 3:8-12, cf. Nehemiah 13:10; divorce was frequent, 2:10-16, cf. 1 Esdras 10:2-3, 10-44, Nehemiah 13:23-29; a spirit of cowardliness prevailed, and men openly said it was of no profit to them to adhere to the service of God, 3:14-15.

And though the priests are more especially blamed, the populace are guilty as well, 3:9, and their apostasy from God is of long-standing, 3:7. From all this it would appear that there was at the time much discontent among the people; the key to this may be found in Nehemiah 9:36, we ourselves this day are bondmen, and the land which Thou gavest our fathers ... we ourselves are servants in it. Hence came murmurings that God had not fulfilled His promises, and that it was not necessary to serve Him in order to be well off, 3:12-18; they accused Him of changeableness, but God says: I am the Lord and I change not, and He points out that it is they who are to blame since they have not fulfilled their share of the Covenant.

This state of things well accords with that pictured to us in Esdras and Nehemiah, and it indicates that the Prophet if not actually Esdras himself was contemporary with him.

Theology of Malachi

God is "the Lord of hosts," passim; He is "the Father" 1:6, 2:10; He is "the Great King" 1:14; He changes not, 3:6; He is still the God of Israel, "they shall be My peculiar possession," 3:17, cf. Exodus 19:5. He will send His Messiah, 3:2-4, cf. Zacharias 13:9; The Messiah is "the Son of Justice," 4:2, and at His coming they shall leap, cf. Isaiah 35:6. Their sacrifices have been offered in an unworthy and grudging spirit, 1:8, 1:13-14, etc.; The sacrifices of the Law shall be replaced by the pure oblation, viz. the Mass, 1:11. The universality of the Gospel is foretold, My Name is great among the Gentiles, 1:11-14. The coming of John the Baptist is foretold, 4:5-6, cf. Luke 1:17, Mark 9:10-12.

With Malachi the list of Prophets closes and for four hundred years no one came saying, "thus saith the Lord." But the captivity had done its work, and the land was cleansed from idolatry, note the silence of the three post-Exilic prophets, Zacharias, Aggeus, and Malachi on this point. John the Baptist, in the spirit and power of Elias, St. Luke 1:17, was the first to break the long silence, and all Judea flocked to hear him.


by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.