The MAJOR & MINOR Prophets - The 16 Writing Prophets Of The Hebrew Canon

The Book of Malachi This is the last book of the sixteen writing prophets of the Old Testament, an amazing book written in an unusual style. In a sense, Malachi is the last will and testimony of the many prophets that served God through the B.C. centuries--rebuking sin, exalting righteousness and foretelling a glorious age when the Messiah’s kingdom would reign over all the earth. Surprisingly, there has been some debate whether “Malachi” was the actual name or a descriptive title of the writing prophet. Meaning “my messenger,” the same word is used in 3:1, and there is a strong tie to the phrases “the Messenger of the “LORD of hosts” (2:7) and “the Messenger of the covenant” (3:1). We have no other information about the man apart from the written material of this book, so our concentration must be on the great theme and circumstances of the book: God’s appeal to a wayward people and the great hope of the future. Wilkinson and Boa give this clear summary: His [God’s] appeal in this oracle was that the people and priests would stop to realize that their lack of blessing was not caused by His lack of concern, but by their own compromise and disobedience to the covenant law. When they repent and return to God with sincere hearts, the obstacles to the flow of divine blessing will be removed. Malachi also reminds the people that a day of reckoning will surely come when God will judge the righteous and the wicked. 1 The Historical Setting Something else we do not know--the exact date that Malachi was written. Once again, we must analyze the text to glean clues that can help us bring focus on the historical section under consideration. At first, that task seems rather formidable, but we can arrive at a reasonable date. We have no record that a prophet named Malachi ministered at the time of Haggai and Zechariah or during the later time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Holman Study Bible says: Malachi could have written his book anytime between about 500-400 B.C. The earlier date is the approximate time for the fall of Edom (Esau), which Malachi referred to as in the past (1:2-4). The later date is about the time that Nehemiah’s ministry ended and when the last part of the OT was written. Certain issues that Malachi treated were also treated by Ezra and Nehemiah, leading to the conclusion that Malachi was likely written between 450-400 B.C. 2 I think Hobart Freeman in his An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets , gives some of the best information for judging the time of writing the book. As he says, “All scholars are in agreement, on the basis of the internal evidence, that the book of Malachi is postexilic.” 3 He mentions that two reasonable views usually center on the two dates of 458 and 433 B.C. After giving reasons for the 458 date, he lists five plausible reasons for the recommended date of 433 B.C., and being in agreement with the latter date, I will present those reasons in abbreviated form: 1 Bruce Wilkinson and Kenneth Boa, Talk Thru The Old Testament , p. 296. 2 The Apologetics Study Bible , p. 1393. 3 Freeman, p. 348.

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