The Prophet and His Message. 

        Malachi means “My Messenger” or “My Angel,” or if it is abbreviated, as is-just possible, “The Messenger of Jehovah.” Either is a highly improbable name to give to a child. We shall be almost certainly correct in re­garding the book as anonymous, and Malachi as a title which the Prophet gave himself, perhaps because he deliberately wished to  efface himself (See HDB and ISBE, article Malachi). Most of the Church Fathers, including Jerome, many of the early rabbis, the Targum (the official Jewish translation into Aramaic) and the LXX (second century B.C.; though not the later added headin) all fail to see a proper name here and regard the book as anonymous. In addition the New Testament never quotes him by name. On the other hand there have been those from at least the second century A.D.  who have looked on Malachi as a proper name.

        It is obvious that Malachi is later then Haggai and Zechariah, for the Temple has ben rebuilt. He is hardly likely to be later than Nehemiah, for the sins that he rebukes are just those that Nehemiah had to deal with. Pusey looks on him as contemporaneous, “Yet he probably bore a great part in the reformation, in which Nehemiah co-operated out­wardly…” (Pusey, op. cit., p. 169) This hardly fits in with the general impression created by Nehemiah. Others place him in the interval between Nehemiah’s two governorships, but this presupposes an im­mediate slump in the behaviour of the people which again is hardly suggested by Nehemiah. On the other hand there are problems connected with the activity of Ezra and Nehemiah which would keep us from all dogmatism. Personally we prefer a date not much before 450 B.C., shortly before the reforms were begun.

        Beyond the fact that he probably moved in the Temple circles there is nothing that we can infer about “Malachi” personally. His book is entirely in prose and carefully and skilfully put together.

        His message concerns God’s love. In the difficulties of the post-exilic community, which were so contrary to the high hopes with which they had returned, and which had decreased but little after the rebuilding of the Temple, in spite of the glowing promises of Haggai and Zechariah, it was easy to doubt the love of God. “Malachi” is concerned to show that there is proof of God’s love, that the enjoyment of that love was being hindered by the sins of the people, and how the love would reveal itself in the future.