Who wrote Malachi, and when?
Malachi (the name means “my messenger”). About 460–430 BC, after the temple was rebuilt.
The name Malachi means “my messenger”, and the book itself uses the same word for the messenger God will send (see chapter 3). This has led some scholars to wonder whether Malachi is a personal name at all or a title for an unnamed prophet. Jewish and Christian tradition has generally treated it as the prophet's name, and nothing in the book rules that out. The book carries no date, but its setting is clear: the temple has been rebuilt and worship there has gone stale. Most scholars place it between about 460 and 430 BC, around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, since it addresses the same problems they faced, including careless priests, withheld tithes and marriage to those outside the faith.
Who was Malachi written to?
The post-exilic community in Judah, and its priests, grown careless and doubtful decades after the return.
Malachi addressed the Jewish community in Judah several generations after the return from exile. The temple had stood for decades, but the glory Haggai and Zechariah had promised had not visibly arrived. Judah was a small, poor province of the Persian empire, and people had grown weary. Priests offered blind and lame animals as sacrifices. Ordinary people held back their tithes, divorced their wives to marry outsiders, and asked openly where the God of justice was. Malachi speaks to both the priests and the people, and his tone suggests an audience that was not defiant so much as cynical. They still went through the motions, but they doubted that God loved them or that serving him made any difference.
What was happening at the time?
The temple stood, but the promised glory had not come. Priests offered blind and lame animals, people withheld tithes, divorced freely and asked where the God of justice was. Malachi is a series of disputes: God makes a claim, the people object, and God answers. He promises a messenger to prepare the way and the sun of righteousness rising with healing.
Why was Malachi written?
To rebuke half-hearted worship and to promise the coming of the LORD and his forerunner.
Malachi was written to rebuke half-hearted worship and to reassure a doubting people that God's love for them had not changed. The book is built as a series of disputes: God makes a statement, the people push back with a question, and God answers. He begins with love and ends with promise. In between he confronts corrupt priests, faithless marriage, robbery in tithes and the claim that serving God is useless. He promises to send a messenger to prepare the way before him, and a day when the sun of righteousness will rise with healing (see chapters 3 and 4). In the wider story of the Bible, Malachi closes the Old Testament, and the Gospels identify his promised messenger with John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus.
How to read Malachi today
Read the four chapters in one sitting and count the disputes; there are six, and each begins with something God says and something the people ask back. Watch for the pattern, because it shows how doubt and defensiveness sound in real life. Notice that the book opens with God's love before it says anything critical, and let that set the tone. Do not force the passage on tithing into a promise about your bank balance; read it in context as a call to stop holding back from God. Do not miss the quiet scene in chapter 3 where those who fear the LORD talk together and God writes their names in a book. Then read the opening of Mark's Gospel and see how the story continues. As you read, ask God to show you where your worship has become routine, and to renew your confidence that he loves you.
The key verse in Malachi
For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
Passages worth knowing in Malachi
- Malachi 1
I have loved you
Yet you offer defiled food on my altar.
- Malachi 2:10-16
Faithlessness in marriage
God hates divorce and the violence it covers.
- Malachi 3:1-6
Behold, I send my messenger
Fulfilled in John the Baptist.
- Malachi 3:8-12
Will a man rob God?
Bring the tithes; test me in this.
- Malachi 4
The sun of righteousness
Elijah will come before the great day; the Old Testament ends here.
The main themes of Malachi
- God’s unchanging love
- Careless worship
- Faithfulness in marriage
- Giving
- The coming messenger
An outline of Malachi
| Section | Chapters |
|---|---|
| God’s love and the priests’ failure | 1–2 |
| The coming messenger and the day of the LORD | 3–4 |