Who was Malachi in the Bible?

We know nothing of the person of this prophet. His name only is given in the record. Critics have therefore doubted whether Malachi is really the personal name of the prophet, and many believe that it is merely an ideal name, given to the unknown person, on account of his message. Malachi means "my messenger" or "the messenger of Jehovah." The Targum Jonathan, an Aramaic paraphrase, adds after the name of Malachi, "Cujus nomen appelatur Ezra scriba," whose name is called Ezra the Scribe, thus claiming that the great and good Ezra is Malachi. But why should Ezra hide behind an assumed name? This is unworthy of the man, and more so of the Holy Spirit. Many of the leading expositors have accepted the theory that Malachi is the official name of the prophet, whoever he may have been. One of the reasons for this theory is that "the first verse does not contain any further personal description, and that nothing is said about his father or place of birth." But Obadiah and Habakkuk show the same omissions. Nor is it true that nothing was known historically of a person by name of Malachi. The Talmud has a statement which makes Malachi a member of the great synagogue, to which also the two post-exilic prophets Haggai and Zechariah belonged. Other traditions claim that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, born in Supha. There is no reason to doubt that Malachi is the real name of the prophet.

Malachi, the name of the last book of the OT, means “my messenger”. It might be an abbreviation of “ Malachjah” which has the meaning of “messenger of Jehovah”. Some do not hold “Malachi” as a first name but a designation. The same Hebrew word mal’achi is translated “Malachi” in chap. 1:1 and “my messenger” in chap. 3:1. We are not told any personal details of Malachi.

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 Lord has not been pleased to give us much express information of the prophets in general, with the exception of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, and in a measure of Ezekiel and Jonah. Of the rest we know but little, and of none less than of Malachi. So much so that some have indulged in no small imagination about him, yea, have doubted, as learned men will doubt (none more probably), of his proper existence, some of course making him out to be anybody else than himself. I do not see what is the object or the profit gained by such speculations; or why people should suppose that he was not a man at all but an angel. It may be well briefly to allude to these dreams if it were only to show the exceeding want of good sense, to say no more, of such as indulge in them, and to caution souls against the trashy way in which they occupy themselves and their readers.

Malachi. Significantly, the name Malachi means "My Messenger" (Mal. 3:1). He prophesied about a hundred years after Haggai and Zechariah. What now remains for God to do in view of Israel's moral condition, since His claims are treated with proud contempt, His service a weariness, and His worship a lifeless form? If Jehovah's last pleadings of love fall upon the cold insensible ears and hearts of these returned remnants, save upon a few (a remnant out of the remnant who originally returned from the captivity, Mal. 3:16-18), what can God now do to His degenerate vine but send "His messenger" before He comes personally in judgment. We have the coming of Jesus in grace referred to (Mal. 3:1), and His coming in judgment (Mal. 4:5). The opening words of our prophet are quoted by Paul (Rom. 9:13), while the closing utterances are cited by Jesus (Matt. 17:11-12). We close these remarks upon the Old Testament in the earnest hope that the reader will lay deeply to heart the solemn lessons and truths graven on these last books of the former revelation.

The prophecy of Malachi deals with the people brought back from the captivity of Babylon, and is most important as shewing the moral condition of the people consequent upon their return. Its last verses evidently close the testimony of Jehovah to the people, till the coming of him who should prepare the way of Jehovah, in a word, till John the Baptist. The law and the prophets were until John, and Malachi is professedly, and from the nature of his testimony, the last.

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.

The last of the minor prophets. Nothing is recorded of the prophet's personal history, he is named once only. He was prophet near the time of Nehemiah's return to the land, and the prophecy reveals the moral condition of the people. The first chapter, while it shows their insensibility, shows also the sovereign love of Jehovah to them, a love on which His purpose depended. When charged with their sins, they asked wherein had they sinned. The answer is that they brought to the Lord that which was torn, the lame, and the sick, and had offered polluted bread upon Jehovah's altar: in effect saying, "The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible." This brought judgement upon those who were insensible to what was due to the Lord. Yet Jehovah should be magnified beyond the border of Israel, and His name be great among the Gentiles.

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.

The Message of Malachi

Malachi ("My messenger") shows us the miserably self - complacent condition of the Jews who had returned from the captivity. Their energy had very soon deteriorated into a state of callous indifference to the claims of God, a state of self ‑ pleasing. It is a deeply pleading word from God, in which He reproves their gross contempt for Him expressed in various ways. Yet with brazen defiance they reply as though they were entirely without blame! Hence, this is God's last word to Israel until four hundred years later, when John the Baptist was sent from God. Israel, refusing to listen to God, would be left to reap the bitter results of their own haughty choice.

[* Malachi was stationed as a prophet in Israel after the return of the Jews from Babylon and when the Jewish system was revived and put on trial again. But he witnessed, as it were, the gathering together of these seven spirits; the mystery of that iniquity was in his days beginning to work. The Lord does not complain through him of the return of the unclean spirit of idolatry, which had before been in the house, but of the spirit of scorn and unbelief, of the first workings of that which should one day end in the manifestation in its full energy of the god of this world, which ended in the cry, "Crucify Him, crucify Him;" and which left them in their last and worst state ripe for the judgment of God.