Malachi and the Close of the Prophets
about 435 BC, estimated dateEstimated date
The last book of the Twelve Prophets rebukes the priests and people of rebuilt Jerusalem and promises a messenger who will prepare the Lord’s way, and the return of Elijah. The Gospels apply both to John the Baptist.
The book of Malachi is set in Jerusalem some time after the temple had been rebuilt. Its heading names the prophet only as Malachi, a word that means “my messenger”; the ancient Greek translation renders it “by the hand of his messenger” (Malachi 1:1) (Septuagint Malachi 1:1). The book is built as a series of disputes. God makes a charge, the hearers answer back, “How have we…?”, and the charge is pressed home.
The priests are accused of despising the altar by offering blind, lame and sick animals, which they would not dare to present to their governor (Malachi 1:6–14). The men of Judah are accused of breaking faith with the wives of their youth and marrying “the daughter of a foreign god” (Malachi 2:10–16). The whole people is said to be robbing God by holding back tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8–10). Some are saying that it is useless to serve God, since evildoers prosper (Malachi 2:17) (Malachi 3:13–15).
The answer is a promise and a warning. “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple.” He will come like a refiner’s fire, to purify the priesthood and to judge (Malachi 3:1–5). Those who fear the Lord are written in a book of memory, and for them “the sun of righteousness” will rise (Malachi 3:16–4:3). The book ends with a command to remember the law of Moses and a promise that Elijah the prophet will be sent before the day of the Lord, to turn the hearts of fathers and children to one another (Malachi 4:4–6).
Malachi stands last among the Twelve Prophets, which Ben Sira already knew as a collection (Sirach 49:10). Later Jewish writers looked back on this period as the end of prophecy. 1 Maccabees speaks of the time since prophets ceased to appear (1 Maccabees 9:27), and Josephus says that the history written after the reign of Artaxerxes was held in less esteem because the succession of prophets had failed (Josephus, Against Apion 1.40–41).
The Gospels take up both promises. Mark opens with the messenger who prepares the way (Mark 1:2–4). In Matthew Jesus applies the same verse to John the Baptist and adds, “this is Elijah, who is to come” (Matthew 11:10–14), and in Luke the angel says that John will go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). In John’s Gospel the Baptist, asked whether he is Elijah, says that he is not (John 1:21).
How this is dated
Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.
The book names no king and gives no date. It assumes a temple in use and a governor in place of a king, and it uses for him the title that Haggai and Nehemiah give to the governors of Persian Judah (Malachi 1:8, 10) (Haggai 1:1) (Nehemiah 5:14). That puts it after the temple was finished in 515 BC. The abuses it attacks, marriages with foreign women, unpaid tithes and careless priests, are those that Nehemiah met on his second visit, after 433 BC (Nehemiah 13:10–12, 23–29).
Scholars therefore place it within a few decades of Nehemiah, with no agreement on the exact point. Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi (1987), sets it between Nehemiah’s two terms, shortly after 433 BC. Andrew E. Hill, Malachi (Anchor Bible, 1998), argues from the language of the book for a date near 500 BC. The date shown follows the first view and could be several decades too late.
Primary sources
Scripture
The Septuagint
- Septuagint Malachi 1:1ebible.org
Against Apion
- Josephus, Against Apion 1.40–41lexundria.com
In context
Grows out of
- 445 BC, estimated date
Leads to
- c. AD 28–29, estimated date