CONTENTS PAGES INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI § 1. NAME OF THE BOOK. The book is best described as anonymous. Malachi is simply the Hebrew equivalent of "my messenger," and if we make it a proper name, we ought in consistency to translate iii. 1, “Behold, I send Malachi." The word in fact has not the form of a proper name. The LXX read Malacho "His messenger" in i. 1 (èv xeɩpì ảyyédov avtoû). Maλaxías (i.e. Malachiah, "messenger of JEHOVAH"), the title prefixed to the book in the LXX, has the true form of a proper name, but it is plainly due to a later hand and not to the original translator. Malachias is the title also in the Vulgate. It can hardly be doubted that the "name" Malachi is taken from iii. 1, and that the book was first so called because the word "messenger" stands out so conspicuously in the prophecy. The position of the book in the O.T. is always that of the last of the Minor Prophets. Cp. Introduction to Haggai and Zechariah, § 1. § 2. CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF MALACHI. The book opens with startling abruptness. The prophet is a messenger! i. 1. The Superscription of the book, which is left anonymous (cp. R.V. margin, and note in loco). 2-5. A message of comfort to Israel. Edom will not be able to recover from the disaster which has recently overtaken him. 6-14. A remonstrance with the PEOPLE because they offer defective offerings at the table of JEHOVAH. The Gentiles reverence JEHOVAH's name while His own people are guilty of profanity. ii. 1—9. Arraignment of the PRIESTS for their unfaithfulness in teaching the requirements of the Law. Of old the decisions were given without favour, as though the priest were the Angel of JEHOVAH Himself, but now they are given with partiality. 10-16. Arraignment of the marriages with foreign women. PEOPLE for contracting divorce of native wives in favour of foreigners. 17-iii. 6. Rebuke of those who complain that JEHOVAH does not execute judgement. The LORD will come suddenly; and who will dare to face his fiery purification of his people? Because of the covenant, because JEHOVAH does not change, He will surely come with judgement. 7-12. Rebuke of the people because they withhold part of the tithe and heave offering. An offer of great blessing, if they will amend their fault. 13-iv. 3. A further rebuke (cp. ii. 17-iii. 6) of those who complain that JEHOVAH makes no difference between those who serve Him and those who do not. A day of judgement on the wicked and of healing for the righteous is coming. 46. The Colophon announcing the mission of Elijah. § 3. DATE OF MALACHI: CHARACTERISTICS OF The amount of positive evidence for fixing the date of the book of Malachi is very small. The book is anonymous, and the few proper names which are found in it tell us very little; only the most general conclusions can be drawn from the mention of Jacob and Esau (Edom), Levi and Judah, Moses and Elijah. The only external event alluded to is a judgement on Edom, of the circumstances of which nothing is known1. Perhaps the reference to the · 1 The reference may be to some event of the Chaldean period, but most commentators believe rather that Malachi refers to an invasion of "governor" of Judah (peḥah or paḥath), as in Hag. i. 1; Neh. v. 14, is an indication that the book belongs to the Persian period (538-331 B.C.). This rough date may be narrowed down by giving due weight to the reference of Malachi to the prevalence among the Jews of marriages with foreign women, and to the prophet's denunciation of such unions. The great struggle of Jewish history against foreign marriages was carried on by Ezra and Nehemiah in the fifth century B.C. In default of fuller evidence concerning the Idate of Malachi it seems most reasonable to connect the prophet's activity with this great episode. But this is not to assert that his work was exactly contemporaneous with either that of Ezra or that of Nehemiah. Some authorities (e.g. van Hoonacker) would put Malachi earlier, and others later, than these two great men. As however van Hoonacker places the activity of Ezra after the second visit of Nehemiah to Jerusalem, he is able to conclude that Malachi "exerça son ministère probablement vers 450-445 [B.C.]." Another indication of the period at which the prophecy was delivered is perhaps to be found in Mal. i. 6—14. The passage contains a complaint which is rare in prophetic writings. Sometimes the prophets complain that the people put their trust in sacrifice and neglect righteousness and mercy (Isa. i. 11; Hos. vi. 6; Amos v. 21—24); at other times they reproach them with their worship of other gods. But the complaint that Israel is niggardly, contemptuous and careless in the performance of the Temple the Nabataeans (Nabathaeans). These were an Arabian tribe wellknown in the later Greek and in Roman times (1 Macc. v. 25; ix. 35; Tacitus, Ann. ii. 57). There is evidence (Diodorus, xix. 94 ff.) that the Nabataeans were established at Petra before 312 B.C., when Antigonus sent his son Demetrius against them. Now if this Petrasituated half-way between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the head of the gulf of Akaba-be the Sela of 2 Kings xiv. 7 (but see note in Camb. Bible), and further if this Sela (Petra) was indeed the chief city of Edom, we may conclude that the Nabataeans overthrew the Edomite power in the fifth or fourth century B.C., and that Malachi's allusion is perhaps to this Nabataean conquest. (The prophecy of Obadiah may also refer to this.) The scanty evidence allows no more definite statement than this. |