The Holy Prophet Malachi, the Last of the Old Testament Prophets and one of the Twelve
5th century BC · Last of the Twelve Minor Prophets
The last of the Old Testament prophets, who foretold the coming of the Forerunner and the Sun of Righteousness.
Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.
The Prophet Malachi — in Hebrew Mal'akhi, 'my messenger' — is the final prophet in the collection of the Twelve Minor Prophets and, by tradition, the last of the Old Testament prophets before the silence that preceded the coming of Christ. His name has long been debated as either a personal name or a title; Jewish and Christian tradition generally regards Malachi as an individual prophet. Almost nothing is known of his family, birthplace, or education, and the principal source for his life and teaching is the biblical Book of Malachi itself.
Orthodox tradition places him among the prophets who ministered after the return from the Babylonian captivity, in Judah during the fifth century BC, likely after Haggai and Zechariah. His ministry fell after the rebuilding of the Second Temple (completed in 516 BC), in a time when the hoped-for national renewal had not come and the people met economic hardship, religious indifference, and disappointment about the future.
His book lays bare the religious failures of that age: priests offering blemished sacrifices, careless worship, rising divorce, social injustice, and the doubt whether serving God brought any benefit at all. Malachi confronted both clergy and laity, calling them back to covenant faithfulness. Among his prophecies is the promise of a messenger who would prepare the way before the Lord — which the New Testament identifies with Saint John the Baptist — and the word that Elijah would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, a passage deeply influential in both Jewish and Christian tradition.
After his ministry Malachi passes from the record, and tradition places his repose in the fifth century BC. The Church venerates him as the last of the Old Testament prophets and one of the Twelve, a bridge between the age of prophecy and the coming of Christ; his feast is kept on January 3.
Malachi is known almost entirely from his own book; little reliable biographical detail survives outside Scripture, and the later traditions about him remain uncertain. His ministry is dated by its setting in the Persian period, after the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple.
Malachi pressed for sincere worship and covenant fidelity, condemned priests who offered defective sacrifices, and gave some of the strongest Old Testament words against divorce and unfaithfulness. The reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah addressed many of the same concerns — mixed marriages, neglected tithes, broken covenant — in the same generation.
His prophecy of the messenger who prepares the way became foundational to the Christian understanding of Saint John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ, and his word concerning Elijah and the day of the Lord shaped centuries of Jewish and Christian interpretation. As the last prophet in the traditional order of the Old Testament, Malachi stands at the threshold between the prophetic age and the Gospel.