ABSTRACT
Malachi dates from c.460–450 bc or a little later, when the Temple had been rebuilt, and the overwhelming of Judah by larger empires was turning into memory – for the present at least. The title means simply, ‘My Messenger’; the author is anonymous. He calls on Moses as his model; his particular target is the failure of corrupt priests to observe the Temple sacrifices in their full correctness and purity. But although Malachi’s vision of the future seems limited, so that ‘the messenger of the covenant’ will bring only a punishment of such priests for misusing tithes, not the great day of worldwide peace and happiness envisaged by the great prophets, several of his phrases and images were taken up and given a wider significance by NT writers.
