MALACHI

:''For the Bristol band, see Malakai (band)
:''For the Northern Irish singer songwriter, see Malachi Cush.''
:''For the Iraq War protester, see Malachi Ritscher.''
:''See also Book of Malachi''
:''For the Christian saint, see Saint Malachy and the attributed prophecy of the Popes. There are other people named Malachy.''
'Malachi' or 'Mal'achi' () was a prophet in the Bible, the Christian Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh.
He was the first of the minor prophets, and the writer of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament canon (Mal. 4:4, 5, 6) Christian editions, and is the last book of the Neviim (prophets) section in the Jewish Tanakh.
No allusion is made to him by Ezra, however, and he does not directly mention the restoration of the temple. The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia inferred that he prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah (Mal. 1:10; 3:1, 10) and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BCE, after the second return of Nehemiah from Persia (Neh. 13:6), or possibly before his return, comparing Mal. 2:8 with Neh. 13:15; Mal. 2:10-16 with Neh. 13:23).

Contents

In Rabbinic Judaism

In Christianity

Early Christian writings

Christian liturgy

In contemporary Biblical criticism

References

External links

In Rabbinic Judaism

Malachi is identified with Mordecai by Rav Nachman and with Ezra by Joshua b. Karcha (Meg. 15a). The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel to the words "By the hand of Malachi" (i. 1) gives the gloss "Whose name is called Ezra the scribe." According to Soṭah 48b, when Malachi died the Holy Spirit departed from Israel. According to Rosh Hashanah 19b, he was one of the three prophets concerning whom there are certain traditions with regard to the fixing of the Jewish calendar.

In Christianity

Early Christian writings

Jerome, in his preface to his commentary on Malachi^[1], mentions that in his day the belief was current that Malachi was identical with Ezra ("Malachi Hebræi Esdram Existimant").
He also rejects and attributes to Origen the view that Malachi was an angel according to his name.
A tradition preserved in pseudo-Epiphanius ("De Vitis Proph.") relates that Malachi was of the tribe of Zebulun, and was born after the Captivity. According to the same apocryphal story he died young, and was buried in his own country with his fathers.

Christian liturgy

On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, his feast day is January 3. He is commemorated with the other Minor prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.

In contemporary Biblical criticism

According to the editors of the 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary^[2], the name is not a "nomen proprium" and is assumed to be an abbreviation of ("messenger of Yhwh"), which conforms to the Μαλαχίας of the Septuagint and the "Malachias" of the Vulgate. The Septuagint superscription is ὲν χειρὶ ἀγγήλου αὐτοῦ, (by the hand of his messenger).
Wellhausen, Abraham Kuenen, and Wilhelm Gustav Hermann Nowack consider ch. i. 1 a late addition, pointing to Zech. 9:1, 12:1. Carl Heinrich Cornill states that Zech. 9-14 and Malachi are anonymous, and were, therefore, placed at the end of the prophetical books. Mal. 3:1^[3] shows almost conclusively that the term was misunderstood, and that the proper name originated in a misconception of the word. The consensus of opinion seems to point to 432-424 B.C. as the time of the composition of the book. This was the time between the first and second visits of Nehemiah to Jerusalem.

References

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1. ''Prefaces to the Commentaries on the Minor Prophets.'', Jerome, 406: ''The Jews, the Preface says, believe Malachi to be a name for Ezra. Origen and his followers believe that (according to his name) he was an angel. But we reject this view altogether, lest we be compelled to accept the doctrine of the fall of souls from heaven.''
2. ''Malachi'' at the Easton's Bible Dictionary
3. Malachi 3:1: ''Behold, I will send 'my messenger', and he shall prepare the way before me:...''

External links

★ Malachi in the Biblical Encyclopedia Tanakh Profiles See also translations of names.