Septuagint: Malachi

By Scriptural Research Institute

The Book of Malachi is the most curious and debated of the Books of the Twelve minor prophets, as the name Malachi (מלאכי) simply means 'angelic' in Hebrew, and the Greek translation used the word angel (ἀγγέλου) in the Septuagint. Most Jewish and Christian denominations do treat the word as the name of a prophet, however, the prophet Malachi was never mentioned by any other prophet or Ezra the scribe, and therefore some denominations consider the Book of Malachi to be an anonymous work, with the word Malachi simply referring to the angel of the lord. Early Jewish records from the late Persian era indicate that the Jews at the time considered the book of Malachi to have been written by Ezra the scribe, however, by the Greek era, the book was no longer attributed to Ezra.

The date the book was written is also a matter of debate, as the book does not include any of the usual references to the political situation. Malachi does include two references that can be used to date the work, however, are generally ignored by scholars as they both date the book to the early 800s BC. The clearest reference was the prediction in chapter 4: "Look, I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite..."

Elijah the Tishbite was the prophet Elijah from 3rd and 4th Kingdoms (Masoretic Kings), and 2nd Paralipomenon (Masoretic Diḇrê Hayyāmîm) whose live is dated to between 900 and 849 BC. The second reference is the general description of the state of Edom, which is described as having been defeated by the Judaeans. This matches the political reality of Elijah's time, when Edom was subject to the Kingdom of Judah, between 930 and 870 BC. Edom was a kingdom southeast of Judah from at least the 1200s BC until 125 BC when the Hasmonean dynasty conquered the kingdom. Edom was recorded as being a dependency of the Kingdom of Judah between 930 and 870 BC, but then rebelled against Judah, and does not appear to have been conquered outright by the Judeans again until the Hasmonean dynasty. These two references indicate the Book of Malachi was written between circa 880 and 870 BC, at the same time as the Book of Shadrach, which is embedded within the Book of Zachariah.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
• Release date: Sep 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989852637

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WHILE EVERY PRECAUTION has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

SEPTUAGINT: MALACHI

Digital edition. January 30, 2021.

Copyright © 2021 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1-989852-63-7

The Septuagint was translated into Greek at the Library of Alexandria between 250 and 132 BC.

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2020 and 2021, primarily from the Codex Vaticanus, although the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus were also used for reference. Additionally, the Leningrad Codex of the Masoretic Texts, and the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QXIIa, and 4QXIIc were used for comparative analysis.

The image used for the cover is ‘Elijah and the Angel’ by Sir Godfrey Kneller, painted in 1672.

Note: The notes for this book include multiple ancient scripts. For your device to properly render them, it will require a Unicode font capable of displaying Greek, Hebrew, and Phoenician.

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IN THE MID-3RD CENTURY BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. The original version, published circa 250 BC, only included the Torah, or in Greek terms, the Pentateuch. The Torah is the five books traditionally credited to Moses, circa 1500 BC: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. According to Jewish tradition, the original Torah was lost when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple of Solomon and was later rewritten by Ezra the Scribe from memory during the Second Temple period. The life of Ezra the Scribe is estimated to have been between 480 and 440 BC, which is around the time that scholars generally believe the current form of the Torah was written.

Some scholars debate whether the Prophets Section was in the version published in 132 BC, and suggest it may have not been added until the early 1st-century BC, however, the twelve ‘minor’ prophets, as Christians call them, appear to have been translated into Greek circa 190 BC, after circulating as a collection in the Canaanite (Paleo-Hebrew) script since the late-Persian era, before 332 BC. The general consensus is that the twelve books were written, or redacted into their current form during the Persian era, between 538 and 332 BC, although some scholars believe Jonah was written later in the early Greek era as it contains no prophecies, and reads more like