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Malachi's Prediction concerning the Heathen.

Zechariah prophesied under Darius Hystaspis (521—486 B. C.), Malachi under Artaxerxes Longimanus (464-424 B. C.) or his successor Darius Nothus (423-404 B. C.). The public evils, against which he directs his censure, are those which were found by Nehemiah in his second residence at Jerusalem. His censure in I, 6—II, 9 concerns the priests. Jehovah had no pleasure in the priests of that post-exilic time. He was not willing to accept the meat offering which they brought to Him (I, 11):

"For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, great is my name among the heathen, and in every place incense is offered to my name, a pure meat-offering, for great is my name among the heathen saith Jehovah Zebaoth." The present

tense does not refer to the actual time of the writer, but to the future which appears to his prophetic eye as present, and Keil is right, when he here finds the thought, that the kingdom of God will be taken from the Jews and given to the heathen. The form which this thought takes is significant in two aspects:

(1) the sacrificial ritual appears to be confined to the vegetable sacrifice (compare Is. LXVI, 20).

(2) the connection of the divine service with Jerusalem seems here to be dissolved. The phrase ip harmonizes with the reply which Jesus gives in answer to the Samaritan woman (Joh. IV, 23), although the thought is clothed in a way which we might expect in the Old Testament.

Rem. I. If we apply the words of the prophet (I, 11) to the present (as e. g. Köhler) the thought is expressed that the heathen everywhere, although unconsciously, worship the God who revealed Himself in Israel, but this idea extends far beyond Acts XVII, 23, is contradictory to Rom. I, 25, and is without a parallel in the Old Testament (compare on the contrary Ps. IX, 18; XXII, 28). Both participles have the value of active present tenses with an indefinite subject, as 7 "It is said”, like “they say” Ps. LXXXVII, 3. See Ewald, Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache, Göttingen 1870, § 295a. The before is an explicative, "and indeed" Ewald § 340b.

Rem. 2.

The passages which Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels, Berlin 1878, p. 64 quotes for in the universal signification of offering need to be sifted. In Is. I, 13; I, 10 etc. and everywhere in this prophet 2 signifies the "meat offering". It does not include all oblations, not even in Num. XVI, 15, excepting Gen. IV, 3-5; 1 Sam. II, 17 (but not II, 29) and XXVI, 19.

Rem. 3.

As a result of the modern theory concerning the origin of the Pentateuch the prophet Joel is considered post-exilic, since in his book Jerusalem appears as the centre of a worship which corresponds to that laid down in the so-called priestly codex. Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten, Bonn 1875, p. 276, calls him in the frivolous manner which has now become the fashion, einen Epignonen, der mit grossen Formtalent begabt und von Gedanken nicht viel geplagt ist, "an epigon (one late born), who has a great talent for the form, but is not overburdened with thoughts". Merx also in Die Prophetie der Joel und ihre Ausleger, Halle 1879, maintains that Joel lived after the execution of Nehemiah's reforms. We hold that all the reasons which are assigned for this position are invalid. Obadiah, Joel and Amos are trilologically united through their relation to the sad misfortune which befell Judah under Joram (2 Chron. XXI, 16. 17), and which became the real beginning of a Jewish diaspora. Obadiah is cited by Joel III, 5a, and Joel himself is one of the (ancient prophets) which are referred to in Ezek. XXXVIII, 17.

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The Angel of the Covenant.

The prophet rebukes another cancerous affection of the people, from II, 17 to the end of his book. In connection with the blasphemous utterance of those who in the present allotment of events, fail to perceive the holiness and justice of God he prophesies the appearance of Jehovah in judgment, who will reveal the difference between the godless and the godly and who will introduce a new period (III, 1):

"Behold, I send my angel and he prepares the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant for whom ye long, behold, he comes, saith Jehovah Zebaoth." In both cases although the word does not designate one belonging to the order of real angels, yet it indicates a heavenly messenger sent by God. The angel of Jehovah, who prepares the way for the coming One, is according to II, 23 etc. Elijah, the prophet. Suddenly, that is immediately following His messenger, the Lord (which is the name of God Himself) will come. But in what relation does

הָאָדוֹן stand to הַבְּרִית

The parallelism does not demand the identity of both, but only the immanence of the Lord in the angel. As ver. 1a refers back to Is. XL, 3-5, so the designation

may be compared with Is. XLII, 6; XLIX, 8, where it is said of the Servant of Jehovah that He will make him a covenant of the people (). Moreover this designation refers to

Gen. XVI, where the angel of Jehovah after the establishment of the covenant with Abram first appears to the exiled Hagar in order to secure the farther accomplishment of the covenanted promises. If we combine these fundamental passages, we find that

is the name of the expected mediator of a new covenant, and that he is called the angel of the covenant, because in him the heavenly messenger, that is attained which the angelophanies of the primitive period prefigured and prepared. But nothing is said farther of the work of this mediator, for the future Christ, in the Old Testament prophecy, never had such an independent position beside Jehovah as to prevent him from always standing in the background in comparison with Him. The unbelieving pessimists of that period wish for the day of Jehovah, and therewith the angel of the covenant, without knowing what they desire. The Lord comes, and a messenger, who summons to repentance, prepares the way for Him. He comes in the angel of the covenant, He comes to His temple. What a visitation in the present decline of the priests and laity! He comes to establish a new covenant, because Israel has broken the old one and through this covenant has not become such a church as God desires (Jer. XXXI, 32).

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The final Restoration.

A new order of things is accomplished through judgment. The day of Jehovah has two sides, one worthy of the longing which is felt for it, and one which is terrible for those summoning it (III, 2): "And who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears, for He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap." This image of the refiner is retained in ver. 3. The refining pertains particularly to the children of Levi, hence to the priestly tribe. When this shall have been winnowed and cleansed then they shall be according to vs. 3b, 4:

"[Such] as offer meat offerings unto Jehovah in righteousness. And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to Jehovah as in the days of old, and as in the former years." Malachi in his constant designation of the sacrifice as (II, 12. 13, compare I, 10. 11. 13) betrays a certain opposition to animal sacrifices. When in ver. 4 the glorious future appears to him

to be essentially equivalent to a restoration (añoxatástasis) of the glorious past (Is. I, 26), yet the angel of the covenant in ver. 1 indicates a new covenant and hence the re-establishment, of the commonwealth of Israel not only in the old form, but in one which will be new and glorified.

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The future Elijah.

In III, 19 Malachi resumes the announcement of the day of Jehovah which he began with (III, 1), and it is characteristic, that in ver. 22 in connection with the prophecy of the day of Jehovah he says:

"Remember the law of Moses, my servant, whom I commanded in Horeb statutes and judgments for all Israel." The verb is construed here as in Ex. XXV, 22 with the accusative of the person and of the thing. The

Thora as vouos vтoλov (Eph. II, 15). the messenger, who according to III, coming of the Lord (vs. 23, 24):

pare the contents of the The prophet then returns to 1 prepares the way for the

"Behold, I send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse". The prophet doubtless thinks of Elijah who together with Moses appeared with Jesus upon the mount of transfiguration. But in the fulfilment Elijah is only another Elijah, as Christ is another David, a powerful preacher of repentance, who causes, that the ancestors of Israel should agree with the children, and the children with their ancestors. The estrangement will cease, which now exists between the church of the old, better time and that of the present (compare the paraphrase in Luke I, 17).

Remark. The termination of Malachi is so dreadful, that the Synagogue repeats the twenty-third verse after the twenty-fourth, but the Septuagint transposes the twenty-second verse (μνήσθητε νόμου Μωση κτλ.) to the end.

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Wisdom as an Objective Existence.

Malachi is the last voice of the Old Testament prophecy, and Coheleth of the Old Testament Chokma. Even the Chokma in the

midst of the religion of the Ancient Covenant has to a certain extent prepared the way for christianity, since it stripped off the Israelitish husk from that which concerns man as such, and the external enactments of the Tora from God's will which pertains to mankind. Besides in its doctrine concerning the divine wisdom the Chokma prepared the way for the knowledge of the Logos and of the incarnation; for the fundamental idea of the Chokma-literature is that of wisdom itself. Wisdom appears even in the old proverbs of Solomon as in itself an existence in contradistinction to a subjective opinion (Prov. XXVIII, 26). In the introductory discourses (I, 7-IX) an objectivity is assigned to it, which in its existence even approaches personality. She appears as a preacher and presents to all men life and death. She pours out upon those who do not reject it her spirit (I, 23). She receives and hears prayers (I, 28). She was with God even before the creation, as His primeval child possessing royal dignity (VIII, 22-26). She was his chief worker (VIII, 27-29, compare III, 19). She remained even after the creation His beloved, and daily pursued her delightful employment before Him, especially upon the earth, where man is her favorite (VIII, 30 etc.). The author of Prov. I, 7-IX here stands upon Job XXVIII, but raises himself to the conception of wisdom as the world-idea, and even almost to the conception of wisdom as a hypostasis, which as such has the world-idea in itself and is the medium of its creative and spiritual realization.

Remark. The utterances of Wisdom in Prov. I-IX come remarkably into contact with those of Jesus, especially in the fourth gospel, e. g. Prov. VIII, 35. 36, compare Joh. VIII, 51; and what is said in Joh. I, 1 coincides essentially with the testimony of Wisdom respecting herself (Prov. VIII, 22-23.30): "Jehovah brought me forth as the firstling of His way, as the earliest of His works of old. From everlasting I was set up, from the commencement after the primitive beginnings of the earth."

$ 85. Agur's Enigma.

Even the comparison of Wisdom as equivalent to God's Son is consummated in the book of Proverbs (XXX, 4):

"Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a cloth? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name if thou knowest?"

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