INTRODUCTION TO

Malachi

MALACHI’S SERMONS were directed to a tough audience. Among those in his congregation were the disillusioned, the cynical, the callous, the dishonest, the apathetic, the doubting, the skeptical, and the outright wicked. What does a preacher say to this kind of crowd? As a sensitive pastor, Malachi offered the “valentine” of God’s love to a disheartened people. As a lofty theologian, he instructed the people in a basic doctrinal catechism—emphasizing the nature of God as universal King, faithful Suzerain, and righteous Judge. As Yahweh’s stern prophet, Malachi rebuked corrupt priests and warned of the coming day of God’s judgment. As a spiritual mentor, he called his audience to a more sincere life of worship and challenged the people to incarnate the ethical standards of the Mosaic covenant. But above all, Malachi was Yahweh’s messenger and his vital word to Israel was profoundly simple—“‘I have always loved you,’ says the LORD” (1:2).

AUTHOR

The book of Malachi is silent on the issue of authorship, although it is assumed that the prophetic word formula (“This is the message that the Lord gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi,” 1:1) signifies that Malachi penned his own oracles. Based on the translation of Malachi 1:1 in the Septuagint (“by the hand of his messenger”) and the etymology of the name Malachi, some scholars have taken the word “Malachi” to be a title for an anonymous prophet, perhaps a play on words with 3:1, “my messenger” (mal’aki [TH4401, ZH4858]; see 1:1 NLT mg).

The fact that “Malachi” stands as a unique proper noun in the Old Testament should not disqualify its use as a personal name since both Habakkuk and Jonah are also exceptional among the names of the Hebrew prophets. The name “Malachi” may be translated “my messenger” or “my angel” and serves as a fitting name for a prophet of God. The name Malachi also fits a pattern of other Hebrew names ending in “i” like Beeri (Hos 1:1) and Zicri (Exod 6:21). The Bible records no biographic information for Malachi. His inclusion among the Old Testament prophets both identifies Malachi as spokesperson for God and verifies his commission as a divine messenger.

DATE AND OCCASION OF WRITING

Typically the book of Malachi is dated between 450 and 430 BC. It is often assumed that Malachi was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah because he addressed the same religious concerns and social ills confronted by these two postexilic reformers. For example, Malachi denounced mixed marriages and divorce, a lax and corrupt priesthood, liturgical decay (including neglect of the tithe), and social injustice—the same abuses corrected during the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah. A careful typological study of the language of Malachi’s oracles, however, reveals that the Hebrew text of the book has great affinity to the books of Haggai and Zechariah (see Hill 1998:395-400). On the basis of this evidence, it seems much more likely that Malachi was a slightly later contemporary of these two postexilic prophets of Yahweh’s second Temple (who preached c. 520 BC). It is even possible that the battle between the Persians and Greeks at Marathon (c. 490 BC) was the occasion prompting Malachi’s message. The prophet may have interpreted that titanic struggle between East and West as at least a partial fulfillment of Haggai’s prediction that God was about “to shake the heavens and the earth” and “overthrow royal thrones” (Hag 2:21-22).

The following timeline should be helpful in placing the writing of Malachi:

DATE

EVENT

538? BC

Return of Hebrews from exile led by Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1:11)

522? BC

Return of Hebrews from exile led by Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2)

520 BC

Haggai preaches (Hag 1:1, 15; 2:1, 20)

520–518 BC (and later?)

Zechariah preaches (Zech 1:1, 7; 7:1)

515 BC

Second Temple completed (Ezra 6:15)

490 BC

Battle of Marathon, Malachi preaches

483–472 BC

Esther in Persia (Esth 1:3; 2:16; 3:7)

458 BC

Ezra arrives in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:7-9)

445 BC

Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem (Neh 2:1)

432 BC

Nehemiah recalled to Babylon (Neh 13:6)

To understand the occasion of writing we need to understand the historical background. A decree issued in 538 BC by Cyrus the Great, the first of the Persian kings, permitted conquered people groups who had been deported to Mesopotamia by the Babylonians to return to their homelands. The royal edict was issued on a clay barrel, the famous Cyrus Cylinder. This pronouncement naturally included the Jews, although they are not named on the cylinder. The first wave of emigrants to Jerusalem numbered 42,360, along with 7,337 servants (Ezra 2:64-65).

These emigrants were led back by Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah and the first governor of the restoration community in postexilic Judah (Ezra 1:5-11). The foundation for a new Temple was laid during the early stages of his administration, sometime in 538 or 537 BC (Ezra 5:16). The meager project was soon abandoned, however, and the construction site lay neglected for two decades. Not until the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (520–518 BC) did the initiative to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple resume (cf. Hag 1:14). The second Temple was completed in March of 515 BC (Ezra 6:15). It was erected under the auspices of the Persian King, Darius I, and the monies granted for the rebuilding probably took the form of “tax rebates” from the Persian royal treasury.

Malachi addressed Jews in the recently formed province of Yehud (or Judah) in the Persian satrapy of Eber-Nahara during the reign of King Darius I (522–486 BC). His audience included expatriates resettled in Judah and the descendants of those Hebrews who survived the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem but had not been deported to Mesopotamia.

Politically, Judah struggled for identity amid a sea of hostile neighboring satrapy provinces. The office of provincial governor was still in its infancy, and the provincial bureaucracy was in an embryonic stage of development. Any deference shown to Judah by the Persian overlords, religious or otherwise, was largely a matter of political pragmatism since the Persian army needed a base of operations for the conquest and control of Egypt. Religiously, the Second Temple had been completed, but it paled in comparison to its Solomonic predecessor. Temple worship was in a sorry state, as worshipers cheated God in their sacrifices and tithes. The priesthood was also in need of reform, as the ministry of the apathetic priests was actually leading people into sin—not out of it!

The hopes raised by Haggai and Zechariah for a revival of the Davidic dynasty rooted in the figure of Zerubbabel seem to have disappeared by the time of Malachi. The priests and the Levites were the “power-brokers” when he preached to Judah. Socially, Malachi confronted a population given to religious cynicism and political skepticism. The disillusionment of the postexilic Jewish community was prompted by several theological misunderstandings, including the expectations for wealth that Haggai had promised once the Second Temple was rebuilt (Hag 2:7, 18-19), the restoration of the Davidic covenant predicted by Ezekiel (Ezek 34:13, 23-24), and the implementation of Jeremiah’s “new covenant” (Jer 31:23, 31-33). In the minds of many in Malachi’s audience, God had failed his people.

AUDIENCE

Malachi’s first oracle (1:1-5) was addressed generally to the Hebrew community living in postexilic Jerusalem and environs. The prophet’s second oracle (1:6–2:9) is aimed specifically at the priests and Levites serving in the Second Temple. The final four oracles of Malachi’s prophecy (including the call to repentance, 3:6-12) are once again directed broadly to the inhabitants of postexilic Judah (2:10-16; 2:17–3:5; 3:6-12; 3:13–4:3), although the Levites are specifically mentioned again in the fourth oracle or disputation (cf. 3:3-4). The righteous Hebrews within the restoration community are singled out and contrasted with the wicked in the final oracle (cf. 3:16-18).

CANONICITY AND TEXTUAL HISTORY

Malachi is the twelfth book in the collection known as the Minor Prophets (or Book of the Twelve in the Hebrew Bible). The Twelve Prophets are usually grouped with the Latter Prophets and without exception are found in the earliest delineations of the Old Testament canon. These twelve books were always copied on one scroll in the ancient Hebrew manuscript tradition. The order of the Twelve Prophets does vary in some canon traditions, but the sequence of books from Nahum through Malachi seems quite stable in the various canon lists (cf. Jones 1995:54). Examples of the variations in order can be seen in that Amos and Micah follow Hosea in the Septuagint and one Qumran scroll fragment (4Q76) places Jonah as the last book of the Twelve Prophets.

The books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi form a distinct subcollection or literary corpus within the Book of the Twelve. All three prophets belong to the period of early postexilic Hebrew history and are unified by literary device (e.g., the rhetorical question) and theological theme (cf. Pierce 1984a:277-289). The Haggai-Zechariah-Malachi corpus is sometimes described as a narrative profile of postexilic Jerusalem recounting the spiritual history of the Hebrew restoration community (e.g., Pierce 1984b:401-411).

Pierce (1984b:411) understands the record of the postexilic prophets more negatively as one of covenant failure, since Malachi ends where Haggai begins—with a religious community in disarray. Conversely, others interpret the “spiritual history” of the restoration community as recorded in the Haggai–Zechariah–Malachi corpus more positively as the record of worship renewal prompting the return of the community to Yahweh (Schneider 1979).

The Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) of Malachi is in a very good state of preservation. Generally, the Greek Old Testament or Septuagint (LXX) represents a faithful translation of the Masoretic Text. However, the tendency for interpretive expansion and loose paraphrasing characteristic of the Septuagint in the prophetic books continues in Malachi as well (for examples of the former see 1:7; 2:2, 4; 3:2; and for examples of the latter see 1:3, 9; 2:10, 11). Hellenistic influence and certain theological motivations prompting midrashic-type exegetical practice are also discernible in the text of the Septuagint (e.g., 1:1, 12; 2:13). Some versions of the Septuagint reorder the last three verses of Malachi so the book does not end with the threat of divine judgment (i.e., reading 4:5-6 before 4:4).

Portions of the book of Malachi are attested by fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls or Qumran manuscripts, including Malachi 1:13-14 and parts of Malachi 2:10–4:6. Preliminary study of these fragments reveals that portions of these manuscripts (4Q76) agree with the Septuagint against the Masoretic Text (see Fuller 1991:47-57). Two verses in the Masoretic Text of Malachi are especially difficult to interpret (2:15, 16), due to textual corruption and grammatical anomaly. Baldwin (1972:240) has suggested that the text at this point has “suffered perhaps at the hands of scribes who took exception to its teaching.”

According to Kruse-Blinkenberg and Gelston, it is impossible to reconstruct or improve the Masoretic Text of Malachi on the basis of the Syriac Peshitta. The Aramaic Targum of Malachi shows a tendency towards midrashic paraphrasing in terms of later Jewish piety and is largely considered insufficient for the reconstruction of the Masoretic Text. Generally, the Latin Vulgate represents a faithful witness to the Masoretic Text and in some cases lends support to the Masoretic Text against the other ancient versions (e.g., 1:7, 12, 13; see the discussion in Hill 1998:3-10).

The versification of the Masoretic Text differs from the versification of the English Bible at the close of the book of Malachi. The Hebrew Bible orders the last six verses of the book (4:1-6) as a continuation of chapter 3 (MT = 3:19-24). The versification of the English Bible is used throughout this commentary on Malachi.

LITERARY STYLE

Like Haggai and Zechariah, the speeches of Malachi are essentially prose statements delivered in the third person. The speeches of Malachi are formally classified as belonging to the genre of oracular prose. The messages are “oracular” in nature because they represent authoritative prophetic speech motivated or inspired by God himself. By “prose” we mean that the literary texture of Malachi is a blend of prosaic and rhetorical features approaching poetic discourse but distinctive of prophetic style. This kind of prophetic speech is often characterized by formulaic language. Examples of such stylized expressions in Malachi include the prophetic word formula (“the message that the LORD gave,” 1:1), the messenger formula (“says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,” e.g., 1:8, 14; 2:4), the self-introduction formula (“I am the LORD,” 3:6), and the call to repentance formula (“return to me,” 3:7).

The discourse units in Malachi may be broadly categorized as judgment speeches since they accuse, indict, and pronounce judgment on the audience. More precisely, the literary form of Malachi’s oracles may be linked to Westermann’s legal-procedure (or trial speech) and the disputation (Westermann 1991:169-176). The disputation speech pits the prophet of God against his audience in combative dialogue. Typically in Malachi, the disputation features these elements:

The desired outcome in both covenant lawsuit and disputation speeches “is to leave the opponent devoid of further argumentation and resigned to the divine decision” (Patterson 1993:303). The disputation developed as an alternative form of prophetic speech because the people were unresponsive to the more conventional oracular speech. This rhetorical-question-and-disputation format gave rise to the dialogical method of exposition peculiar to the later rabbinic schools of Judaism (cf. the teaching method of Jesus in Matt 5:21, 27: “You have heard . . . but I say . . .”).

MAJOR THEMES

The message of Malachi is all about “getting things right.” The thrust of Malachi’s preaching may be placed under the umbrella theme of covenant, specifically the covenant of Jacob (i.e., the patriarchs; cf. Mal 1:2), the covenant of Levi (2:5), the covenant of marriage (2:14), and the covenant of Moses (4:4). The basic idea of a covenant is essentially that of a treaty or pact that establishes a relationship between parties with attendant obligations and responsibilities. It is not surprising, then, that three of the book’s disputations deal with right relationships. We should also take note of the fact that God’s messenger works on the premise that proper knowledge is essential to maintaining these right relationships (as seen in his first disputation).

First, the prophet called the people back to a right understanding of who God is—Israel’s Father, Suzerain, and Covenant-maker (1:2-5). Next he admonished the priests and the people to return to the practice of right worship by participating in the Temple sacrifices with honesty and integrity (1:6–2:9). The prophet addressed the issue of right relationships in marriage by decrying divorce and encouraging loyalty on the part of spouses (2:10-16). Right relationships must extend to the community at large in attitudes and behavior that promote honesty because God is just (2:17–3:5). The honesty foundational to social justice must also motivate right giving to God because he is gracious and generous in his response to those who are faithful (3:6-12).

Finally, Malachi summons his audience to a right relationship with God because he is faithful to his word and he desires genuine worship (3:13–4:3). Interestingly, a pervasive sub-theme in the book is honesty, as three of the six disputations urge the people of postexilic Judah to embrace this virtue. (Select portions of the commentary on Malachi’s disputations in this work have been adapted from my book, Malachi, Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1998.)

THEOLOGICAL CONCERNS

The book of Malachi is primarily a theology of Yahweh (VanGemeren 1990:204-208). The prophet reminded his audience that Yahweh is “father” of Israel (1:6), as well as “master” and “king” (1:6, 14). Wary of the extremes of familiarity and formality, Malachi was careful to present a balanced picture of the Lord Almighty. God is both sovereign over the nations (1:3-5, 11, 14) and over Israel as his elect nation or “special treasure” (1:2; 3:17). Yet his love for Israel (1:2) does not preclude divine testing and even judgment for the sake of purifying his people (3:2-3).

Malachi’s knowledge of and identification with Israel’s covenant tradition place his book in the mainstream of Old Testament theology. The prophet recognized God as both the maker and keeper of his covenant with Israel (1:2; 2:10), and he understood the status of Israel as an “adopted child” by virtue of that covenant relationship (1:6). The conditional nature of Yahweh’s covenant placed a premium on Israel’s obedience to the treaty stipulations and the necessity of repentance for a breach of the covenant relationship (3:7, 16-18). Finally, Malachi acknowledged that Israel’s relationship with Yahweh demanded both “vertical” and “horizontal” responsibilities in the form of proper worship and social justice (1:10-14; 3:5).

Malachi preached a lofty doctrine of marriage as companionship with the spouse of one’s youth (2:14) and parenting as a shared responsibility (2:15). The prophet called attention to the sacred nature of the husband-wife relationship by placing the covenant of marriage (2:14, “marriage vows,” NLT) within the context of the covenant between God and Israel (2:10; cf. Hugenberger 1998:27-47). This explains his censure of easy divorce and the exhortation to remain loyal to one’s marriage vows (2:16). In one way, Malachi’s teaching anticipates the more rigid instruction of Jesus and Paul on divorce (cf. Matt 19:9-11; 1 Cor 7:1-16). In context, the prophet’s prescriptive treatment of divorce may be a reaction against the “exclusivist” tendencies of postexilic Judaism to reestablish the ethnic purity of Israel diluted by intermarriage. Malachi’s eschatology conforms to the conventional prophetic paradigm of threat and promise. Like Zechariah, Malachi pictures divine judgment as both punishment for sin and a call to repentance (3:7). The goal of God’s judgment is purification and restoration of the faithful of Israel (3:3-4). The New Testament understands that the work of the “messenger,” or forerunner, who prepares the way for the Lord’s appearance at his Temple, was realized in the ministry of John the Baptist (3:1; 4:5-6; cf. Matt 11:14). Malachi also made an original contribution to Old Testament eschatology with his reference to the “scroll of remembrance” in which the names of the righteous are recorded (3:16; cf. Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12).

OUTLINE

Superscription: Malachi, Yahweh’s Messenger (1:1)

I.   First Disputation: Yahweh’s Love for Israel (1:2-5)

II.   Second Disputation: Indictment of the Corrupt Priesthood (1:6–2:9)

III.   Third Disputation: Indictment of Faithless People (2:10-16)

IV.   Fourth Disputation: Yahweh’s Messenger of Justice and Judgment (2:17–3:5)

V.   Fifth Disputation: The Call to Serve Yahweh (3:6-12)

VI.   Sixth Disputation: The Coming Day of Judgment (3:13–4:3)

VII.   Appendix: Appeals to Ideal Old Testament Figures (4:4-6)