Malachi may be the name of a prophet or it may be a title, meaning as it does “My messenger.” We know nothing about Malachi as a person, and there is no certainty about when his prophecies were spoken. From the contents of the book, modern scholars date Malachi sometime after the rebuilding of the Temple and before the reforms instituted by Ezra and Nehemiah. Going even further than Jonah in spreading the message of God’s universalism, God speaks through Malachi, saying, “From where the sun rises to where it sets, My Name is honored among the nations” (1:11). In addition to his emphasis on God’s universalism, Malachi is the first person to link the return of the prophet Elijah with the redemption of the world.
