Malachi

Malachi (probably an abbreviated form of Malachiyyah, meaning 'messenger of Jehovah'; the LXX. and Vulgate have Malachias), the name given to the last book in the prophetic section of the Old Testament canon. Regarding its author nothing is known. It has even been doubted whether Malachi is a proper name or only an appellative ('my messenger' or 'Angelicus'), many authorities both in ancient and in modern times favouring the latter view, and thinking that some such writer as Ezra, or even some supernatural person is meant. But although Malachiyah does not actually occur anywhere in the Old Testament, there is nothing to make it impossible as a proper Hebrew name. The book consists of a series of reasoned remonstrances against prevailing laxity in religious and social conduct, the points brought chiefly into prominence being the bringing of defective offerings to the altar, irregularity and evasion in payment of tithes, mixed marriages and unjustifiable divorces, a spirit of scepticism as to the divine cognisance of human actions and as to the reality of moral distinctions, the practice of witchcraft, sorcery, perjury, oppression. Warning is given of the approaching judgment, when Jehovah himself, preceded by the angel of the covenant, shall come to cleanse the sinful community by the removal of those who have been found unfaithful. It is the priests who are primarily addressed, and the community which they lead is that of 'Judah and Jerusalem;' both circumstances, combined with the reference to the pasha or governor, show that the prophecy belongs to the Persian period. Some have assigned it to the governorship of Nehemiah, but in view of Neh. v. 14 seq. this is improbable; its date is to be sought rather in the interval between his two terms of office, or after the close of the second—possibly many years after. It is usual to speak of the style of Malachi as marking the transition from the age of the prophets to that of the scribes, as having little of the freedom and fire of the older period, and as tending to the artificiality of formal scholastic disputation. Yet its dialogue is not without dramatic force; and relatively to its size the little book has contributed an unusually large number of memorable phrases and bold and striking figures to the language and thought of Christendom. For commentaries on Malachi, see the works on the minor prophets mentioned under HOSEA. There are monographs by Pocock (1677), Reinke (1856), Koehler (1865), Sanger (1867), Lange (1876), and Pusey (1877).