When was Malachi written?
Answered from the commentary of Arend Remmers, Arno Clemens Gaebelein, Walter Scott and 1 other
Malachi was written in the second half of the fifth century BC, probably around 450–425 BC, after the temple had been rebuilt and its worship restored. The exact date cannot be fixed: some place his ministry before Nehemiah’s time, others during Nehemiah’s return to the Persian court or after it. One chronology gives about 435 BC the words, while another gives about 420 BC the words, and one dates it to 397 BC the words; these are minority estimates beside the broader dating to the second half of the fifth century BC.
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Malachi is the last of the three post-exile prophets. He does not give any detail about time and duration of his ministry. One can take from the book however that the temple in Jerusalem has been rebuilt and that the priests are offering sacrifices (Mal. 1:6-14). A governor (of the king of Persia) is reigning in the land (Mal. 1:8). The sad condition of the people is very much like the description of Nehemiah 13.
Out of these facts one concludes that Malachi lived around Nehemiah’s time. While some scientists put Malachi’s time of service before Nehemiah’s time others think that he prophesied while Nehemiah had returned from Jerusalem to the Persian court ( Neh. 13:6-7) or that he even ministered after Nehemiah’s time. In any case we are speaking about the second half of the 5 th century BC (probably 450 – 425 BC).
The historical narrative ends B.C.445, the only recorded intervention of God subsequently being the touching prophecy of Malachi (B.C.397). Then for nearly four centuries there is silence till the veil is lifted with the story of the marvelous intervention of God in the affairs of this world in sending His beloved Son into it, thus fulfilling many a glowing prophecy recorded on Old Testament page.
Persian Empire Jewish People558-529Cyrus II., the Great (Ezra 1:1) 539Conquest of Babylon538/537Edict to rebuild temple(Ezra 1:2) 536Rebuilding the temple actually started (Esra 3:8)529-523Cambyses II. (Ahasuerus; Ezra 4:6) 523-522Smerdis/Bardiya (Artaxerxes; Ezra 4:7; commonly considered as usurpator) 522-485Darius I., the Great (Ezra 4:5)520Haggai and Zechariah (Haggai 1:1; Zech. 1:1) 516Temple dedicated (Ezra 6:15)485-464Xerxes I. (Ahasuerus) Queen Esther (Esther 1:1)464-424Artaxerxes I. Longimanus (Ezra 7:1)458Ezra returns to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1,8) 445Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1) 435 (around)Malachi's service (probably)
Palestine, after the restoration, about 434 B.C.
Palestine, about 420 B.C.
This also has caused a great deal of dispute. That he prophesied after the captivity has never been doubted. Furthermore, the reading of his utterances makes it clear that he prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah. We learn that the temple has been completely finished, and the temple worship with priests has been restored for a number of years. After Ezra and Nehemiah's beneficient influence had passed the people went into a decline, and the conditions which the prophet rebukes were the results of backsliding. The abuses which were corrected by Ezra and Nehemiah had taken hold upon the people again. The exact time can hardly be fixed. It seems by comparing Malachi 1:8 with Nehemiah 5:15 and 18 that Nehemiah was no longer governor when Malachi exercised his office.
UNLIKE THE PROPHETS, Haggai and Zechariah, who furnish us with dates in regard to their utterances, Malachi gives us no such details. It seems certain, however, that he wrote about a century later; hence his words reveal how little effect the ministry of these two earlier prophets had produced amongst the masses of the people in the land. As we read through the short book we shall notice that every statement the prophet has to make — usually by way of correction — is repudiated. The people and their leaders were not prepared to admit anything. They were quite self-satisfied.
Palestine, after the restoration, about 457 B.C.
When the Jews had returned to their land after the Babylonian exile, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi served as prophets among them. Although their prophecies had different purposes, Haggai and Zechariah both prophesied during the events described in the early part of the book of Ezra (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). After them served Malachi, whose prophecy dealt with the moral condition of the people reported in the last chapter of the Nehemiah.
1910 22 The Holy Spirit, while faithfully recording the failures of the returned remnant from the Babylonish captivity, directs our attention again and again to some lovely features which had been produced in them by the grace of God. Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah had all been used of God to minister blessing and encouragement to the remnant; many evils were removed, and the authority of the word of the Lord was acknowledged and obeyed. The Lord undertook for them; not with the same manifest interference and terrible majesty, and judgments, as when the nation was delivered from Egyptian bondage; yet quite as certainly in His over-ruling providential care. But here, as in everything else intrusted to man, there ensues failure and declension, till, within the space of fifty years from Nehemiah's visit to Jerusalem, the condition of the remnant had become truly deplorable, as disclosed by the prophet Malachi.
Verses
- Malachi 1:1The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi.