ST MALACHI, PROPHET - 18 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 18th of December

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SAINT MALACHI, PROPHET

It is the last book of the collection of the twelve Minor Prophets which is inscribed with the name of Malachias [Malachi]. As a result, the author has long been regarded as the last of the canonical prophets of the Old Testament. All that is known of him, however, is summed up in the tenor of his preaching and the approximate period of his ministry. 

IS MALACHI THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLICAL BOOK?

A large number of modern authors refuse to see in Mal'akhi the proper name of the author. They point out that in Mal., 3:1, the Lord announces: "Behold I send my angel (mal'akhi)...". According to them, it is from this passage that the name Mal'akhi was borrowed by a more recent author, who added the inscription to the book (1:1). 

It is more probable that Mal'akhi should be understood as the proper name of the author, or as a title borne historically by him and equivalent to a proper name. We are no doubt in presence of an abbreviation of the name Mal'akhiyah, that is "Messenger of Yah".

THE TWO PARTS

The Book of Malachias in the Hebrew comprises three chapters. In the Greek Bible and in the Vulgate in contains four, chapter 3:19 ff., of the Hebrew forming a separate chapter. The book is divided into two parts:  

- In the first the prophet first inveighs against the priests guilty of prevarication in their discharge of the sacrificial ritual, by offering defective victims, and in their office of doctors of the Law. He then accuses the people in general, condemning the intestine divisions, the mixed marriages between Jews and Gentiles, and the abuse of divorce. 

- The second part contains a discourse full of promise. To a first complaint concerning the impunity which the wicked enjoy, Yahweh replies that the Lord and the angel of the New Testament are about to come for the purpose of purifying the sons of Levi and the entire nation; if the people are faithful to their obligations, especially with respect to the tithes, they will be loaded with Divine blessings. To a second complaint concerning the afflictions that fall to the lot of the just, while the wicked succeed in everything, Yahweh gives answer that on the day of his justice the good will take a glorious revenge. 

The book closes with a double epilogue; the first recalls the remembrance of Moses, and the laws promulgated on Mount Horeb; the second announces the coming of Elias before the day of Yahweh. 

ADDITIONS OF ANOTHER HAND?

The unity of the book taken as a whole is unquestionable; but many critics consider as the addition of another hand either both the epilogues or at least the second. There is indeed no connexion between these passages and what goes before, but from this consideration alone no certain conclusion can be drawn.

The opinion brought forward some time ago, that the book of Malachias was composed in the second century B. C., has received no support. Critics are practically agreed in dating the book from about the middle of the fifth century B. C. The text itself does not furnish any explicit information. 

THE DATE OF THE BOOK

The date of composition can only fall within some short time before the mission of Nehemias. The complaints and protestations to which this latter gives expression - the abuses condemned by Malachias, namely, the relaxation in religious worship, mixed marriages and the intestine divisions of which they were the cause, the negligence in paying the tithes, were precisely the principal objects of the reforms undertaken by Nehemias. As the first mission of Nehemias falls in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (2 Esdras 2:1), that is in B.C. 445 it follows that the composition of the Book of Malachias may be placed about B.C. 450.

From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913