Malachi

The Prophet Malachi, painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna, c. 1310 (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena Cathedral).

Malachi, Malachias or Mal'achi (Hebrew: מַלְאָכִי, Modern Malʾaḫi Tiberian Malʾāḵî ; "My Messenger", see malakh) was a prophet in the Bible, the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament .

He was the last of the minor prophets of David, and the writer of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Christian edition Old Testament canon (Book of Malachi 4:4-6), and is the last book of the Neviim (prophets) section in the Jewish Tanakh. No allusion is made to him by Ezra, however, and he does not directly mention the restoration of the temple. The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia inferred that he prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah (Malachi 1:10; 3:1, 3:10) and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BC, after the second return of Nehemiah from Persia (Book of Nehemiah13:6), or possibly before his return, comparing Malachi 2:8 with Nehemiah 13:15; Malachi 2:10-16 with Nehemiah 13:23).

In Rabbinic Judaism

Malachi is identified with Mordecai by Rav Nachman and with Ezra by Joshua b. Karcha (Meg. 15a). The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel to the words "By the hand of Malachi" (i. 1) gives the gloss "Whose name is called Ezra the scribe. According to Soṭah 48b, when Malachi died ruach hakodesh departed from Israel. According to the tractate Rosh Hashanah 19b, he was one of the three prophets.

In Christianity

Russian Orthodox icon of the prophet Malachi, 18th century (Iconostasis of Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia).

Early Christian writings

Jerome,in his preface to his commentary on Malachi^[1], mentions that in his day the belief was current that Malachi was identical with Ezra ("Malachi Hebræi Esdram Existimant").

He also rejects and attributes to Origen the view that Malachi was an angel according to his name^[1]. A tradition preserved in pseudo-Epiphanius (De Vitis Proph.) relates that Malachi was of the tribe of Zebulun, and was born after the Babylonian captivity. According to the same apocryphal story he died young, and was buried in his own country with his fathers.

Christian liturgy

On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, his feast day is January 3. He is commemorated with the other Minor prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.

In contemporary Biblical criticism

According to the editors of the 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary^[2], the name is not a "nomen proprium" and is assumed^{[not in citation given]} to be an abbreviation of ("messenger of Yhwh"), which conforms to the Μαλαχίας of the Septuagint and the "Malachias" of the Vulgate. The Septuagint superscription is ὲν χειρὶ ἀγγήλου αὐτοῦ, (by the hand of his messenger).

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
•  A. Van Hoonacker (1913). "Malachias (Malachi)". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Malachias_(Malachi). 

1. ^ ^{a b} Prefaces to the Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, Jerome, 406: The Jews, the Preface says, believe Malachi to be a name for Ezra. Origen and his followers believe that (according to his name) he was an angel. But we reject this view altogether, lest we be compelled to accept the doctrine of the fall of souls from heaven.
2. ^ Malachi at the Easton's Bible Dictionary

External links

• Prophet Malachi Orthodox icon and synaxarion