View source for Malachi

{{Short description|Traditional writer of the Book of Malachi}}
{{About||the prophetic book|Book of Malachi |other uses|Malachi (disambiguation)}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}

{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[Prophets in Judaism|Prophet]]
| name               = Malachi
| image              = Lorenzo monaco, cappella bartolini salimbeni, profeti nella volta, 1420-24, 03 malachia.JPG
| image_size         = 250px
| caption            = Malachi depicted in the [[Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel]], [[Florence]]
| native_name        = {{lang|he|מַלְאָכִי}}
| native_name_lang   = 
| disappeared_status = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| burial_place       = [[Tomb of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi]], Jerusalem
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}}

'''Malachi''' or '''Malachias''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-Malachi.ogg|ˈ|m|æ|l|ə|k|aɪ|}}; {{Hebrew Name|{{Script/Hebrew|מַלְאָכִי}}|Malʾaḵī|Malʾāḵī|"my messenger"}}) is the name used by the author of the [[Book of Malachi]], the last book of the [[Nevi'im]] (Prophets) section of the [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]]. It is possible that ''Malachi'' is not a [[proper name]], because it means "messenger"; it has been assumed to be a [[pseudonym]]. According to Jewish tradition, the real identity of Malachi is [[Ezra the scribe]].

Some scholars{{who?|date=September 2025}} argue that the Book of Malachi is the result of multiple stages of redaction;<ref>Kessler, Rainer. 2011. Maleachi. p. 59-61. ''Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament'', Freiburg, Germany: Herder.</ref> most of its text originated in the [[Persian period]], with the oldest stratum from around 500 BCE and redactions into the [[Hellenistic]] period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schart |first=Aaron |editor=Julia M. O'Brien |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-19-067320-8 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.32 |page=540-542 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.32 |quote=Most commentators consider the book of Malachi to be the product of multiple redactional activities (see O’Brien 1990, 51–57; Kessler 2011, 59–61)…In sum, the oldest stratum of the book is likely to date to around 500. Most of the text originates from the Achaemenid period. In general, the Persians pursued a policy of peaceful and harmonious unification of nations under Persian domination. The writing of Malachi seems to accept the Persian rule. Kessler (2011) dates the final form of the writing of Malachi later, in the fourth century. Reflections of Hellenization in the wake of Alexander the Great are rare, however. Noetzel considers Ptolemaic influence for the idea that the “sun of righteousness” brings healing (2015). The appendix in 4:5–6 [Heb. 3:23–24], which refers to a profound generation conflict, resonates with the tensions between those who opened themselves to Hellenization and those who strictly rejected it. Ecclesiasticus 49:10 mentions the “twelve prophets” around 180 BCE, probably presupposing the Book of the Twelve Prophets as a scroll. At this time, the book of Malachi must have been almost finished.}}</ref>

==Identity==
The editors of the 1906 ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' implied that Malachi, also known as Malachias,{{sfn|Van Hoonacker|1913}} prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BC, after the second return of [[Nehemiah]] from Persia,<ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|13:6|HE}}</ref> or possibly before his return. The [[Talmud]] and the Aramaic [[Targum]] of [[Jonathan ben Uzziel|Yonathan ben Uzziel]] identify Ezra as the same person as Malachi. This is the traditional view held by most Jews and some Christians, including [[Jerome]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Megillah.15a.5?lang=bi |title=Megillah 15a, the William Davidson Talmud (Koren - Steinsaltz) |access-date=2023-05-24 |archive-date=2023-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524023514/https://www.sefaria.org/Megillah.15a.5?lang=bi |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Introduction to the Aramaic [[Targum]] of [[Jonathan ben Uzziel|Yonathan ben Uzziel]] on the Prophet [[Malachi]] (Minor Prophets); Yehoshua b. Ḳarḥa (''Megillah'' 15a) .</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_preface_prophets.htm |title=Jerome, Prologue to the Twelve Prophets |access-date=2023-05-24 |archive-date=2023-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420031002/https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/jerome_preface_prophets.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> This identification is plausible, because "Malachi" reprimands the people for the same things Ezra did, such as marrying foreign pagan women. Malachi also focuses extensively on [[corruption|corrupt]] priests who Ezra, a priest himself who exhorted the people to follow the law, despised. According to [[Josephus]], Ezra died and was buried "in a magnificent manner in Jerusalem".<ref>Josephus, [[Antiquities of the Jews]], book XI, chapter 5, paragraph 5</ref> If the tradition that Ezra wrote under the name "Malachi" is correct, then Josephus meant that he was buried in the [[Tomb of the Prophets]], the traditional resting place of Malachi. This would also explain why Ezra does not refer to a prophet named Malachi, while he did refer to other prophets such as [[Haggai]] and [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]]. 

Other potential identities includes [[Zerubbabel]] and Nehemiah; others suggest that Malachi was a separate person altogether, possibly a [[Levite]] and a member of the [[Great Assembly]].<ref name=berg>Bergstein, A., [https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1678766/jewish/Who-Was-the-Prophet-Malachi.htm Who Was the Prophet Malachi?], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326064624/https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1678766/jewish/Who-Was-the-Prophet-Malachi.htm |date=2023-03-26 }}, [[Chabad.org]]</ref>

==Name==
Because the name ''Malachi'' does not occur elsewhere in the [[Hebrew Bible]], some scholars doubt whether it is intended to be the personal name of the prophet. The form ''mal'akhi'' (literally "my ''[[malakh]]''") signifies "my messenger"; it occurs in Malachi 3:1<ref>{{bibleverse|Malachi|3:1|HE}}</ref> (compare to Malachi 2:7, but this form would hardly be appropriate as a proper name without some additional syllable such as [[Theophoric name#Yahweh|Yah]], whence ''mal'akhiah'', i.e. "messenger of Yah".<ref name="intyu"/> In the [[Book of Haggai]], [[Haggai]] is designated the "messenger of the [[Yahweh|{{Lord}}]]."<ref>{{bibleverse|Haggai|1:13|HE}}</ref> The [[biblical canon|non-canonical]] superscriptions prefixed to the book, in both the [[Septuagint]] and the [[Vulgate]], warrant the supposition that Malachi's full name ended with the syllable -yah.<ref name="intyu"/> The Septuagint translates the last clause of Malachi 1:1, "by the hand of his messenger",<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://biblehub.com/sep/malachi/1.htm |title=Brenton translation, septagint |access-date=2023-03-26 |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326063406/https://biblehub.com/sep/malachi/1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2024}} and the [[Targum]] reads, "by the hand of my angel, whose name is called [[Ezra the scribe]]".<ref name="intyu">{{Cite web |url=https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/M/malachi.html |title=malachi-international standard bible |access-date=2023-03-26 |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326063953/https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/M/malachi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[G.G. Cameron]] suggests that the termination of the word "Malachi" is adjectival, and equivalent to the Latin ''angelicus'', signifying "one charged with a message or mission" (a missionary).<ref>G. G. CAMERON, J. HASTINGS' Dictionary of the Bible, New. York, 1902 </ref>{{better source|date=December 2024}}

==Date==
[[File:Tissot Malachi.jpg|thumb|100px|Imaginative image of Malachi (watercolor c.&nbsp;1896–1902 by [[James Tissot]])]]
Opinions vary as to the prophet's exact date, but nearly all scholars agree that Malachi prophesied during the [[Yehud (Persian province)|Persian period]], and after the reconstruction and dedication of the [[Second Temple]] in 516 BC.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Malachi in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. |url=https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/M/malachi.html |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online |language=en}}</ref> More specifically, Malachi probably lived and labored during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah.<ref name=":0" /> The abuses which Malachi mentions in his writings correspond so exactly with those which Nehemiah found on his second visit to Jerusalem in 432 BC<ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|13:7|HE}}</ref> that it seems reasonably certain that he prophesied concurrently with Nehemiah or shortly after. Bergstein suggests that he died in 312 BC.<ref name=berg />

==Message==
{{main|Book of Malachi}}
According to [[W. Gunther Plaut]]:{{who|date=December 2024}}
{{blockquote|Malachi describes a priesthood that is forgetful of its duties, a Temple that is underfunded because the people have lost interest in it, and a society in which Jewish men [[divorce in Judaism|divorce]] their Jewish wives to [[interfaith marriage|marry out of the faith]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/haggai-zechariah-and-malachi-back-in-the-land/ |title=Plaut, W. Gunther. "Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: Back in the Land", My Jewish Learning |access-date=2018-07-28 |archive-date=2021-02-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219232343/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/haggai-zechariah-and-malachi-back-in-the-land/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2024}}}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Van Hoonacker |first=Albin|author-link=Albin van Hoonacker |editor-last=Herbermann |editor-first=Charles G. |encyclopedia=[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]] |title=Malachias |trans-title= |url=https://archive.org/details/V09CatholicEncyclopediaKOfC/page/562/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date= |language= |edition=Special |date=1913 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |series= |volume=9 |location=New York |id= |isbn= |issn= |oclc=1293868540 |doi= |pages=563{{ndash}}565 |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=|quote= }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Miller|first1=Stephen M. |title=How to Get Into the Bible |date=2012 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |location=Nashville, Tennessee |isbn=978-14185-5-028-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fbOPsEESeEsC |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=John |title=Exploring the Minor Prophets: An Expository Commentary |date=2002 |publisher=Kregel |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |isbn=978-08254-3-475-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5_pPOgIXRsC |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=George L. |title=The Twelve Minor Prophets |date=1926 |publisher=Doran |location=New York |isbn=|oclc=2759927 |url=https://archive.org/details/twelveminorproph0000robi/page/157/mode/1up |ref=none}}
<!-- * {{eastons|Malachi}}
* {{JewishEncyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=M&artid=102|article=Malachi, Book of}} -->

==External links==
* [http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=100013 Holy Prophet Malachi] from the [[Orthodox Church in America]]
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[[Category:Book of Malachi people]]
[[Category:Ezra]]
[[Category:Levites]]