Malachi HaNavi
c. 500 BCE–c. 430 BCE · Biblical era · Jerusalem
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Malachi is the last book of the Twelve and, in the Jewish canon, the last of the Prophets. His name means 'my messenger', and some scholars think it is a title drawn from Malachi 3:1 ('Behold, I am sending My messenger') rather than a personal name. Scholars generally place him after the Second Temple was rebuilt, while Jewish tradition counts him with Chaggai and Zechariah in the second year of Darius (Megillah 15a). He rebukes priests who offer blemished animals, asking whether the governor would accept such a gift (Malachi 1:7-8). He condemns marriage to 'daughters of alien gods' and breaking faith within the community: 'Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?' (Malachi 2:10-11). The book closes with the charge to remember the Torah of Moses and the promise to send Eliyahu the prophet before the great day of the LORD, to turn the hearts of parents to children and children to parents (Malachi 3:22-24). The Talmud records the view of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha that Malachi was Ezra, while the Sages held Malachi was his own name (Megillah 15a).
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
Malachi addresses the priests serving at the rebuilt Temple's altar (Malachi 1:7-8) and says abhorrent things have been done 'in Israel and in Jerusalem' (Malachi 2:11). The years are a scholarly estimate; tradition dates him to 520 BCE.
Jerusalem in this era
In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Malachi HaNavi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Malachi HaNavi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
- Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak (the Kohen Gadol)· 575 BCE–500 BCE
- Zerubavel ben Shealtiel (Zerubbabel)· 570 BCE–500 BCE
- Chaggai (Haggai)· 570 BCE–500 BCE
- Zecharyah ben Berechyah (Zechariah the Prophet)· 550 BCE–480 BCE
- Mordechai ben Yair (of Megillat Esther)· 500 BCE–420 BCE
- Esther (Hadassah), Queen of Persia· 495 BCE–450 BCE
- Ezra HaSofer (Ezra the Scribe)· 480 BCE–440 BCE
- Nechemiah ben Chakhalyah· 480 BCE–413 BCE
Graeco-Roman world
Buddhist world
Scientists
Luminaries & Explorers
Hindu world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.