Two Views On Malachi

Malachi is a very important Old Testament book. It is considered by many to be the fulcrum or 'door hinge' between the Old and New Testaments. Malachi is written very late in the era of Persian rule over Judah. It contains more reflections on the Messiah than almost any other book. For Malachi, the Kingdom of God is defined by the coming of the messiah, a being who is almost of semi-divine status. 

Despite what most Christians believe, very little of the Old Testament is focused on the messiah. Many prophecies that are taken to be messianic prophecies, when read in context turn out to be something else entirely. Further, most images go the Kingdom of God are very Judeo-centric and rather political in nature. The Christian vision of God's Kingdom being of and for all people, is present in the Old Testament, but it is a very disjointed vision, found only at certain points. But in Malachi, as in the New Testament, a messianic world-wide vision of God's Kingdom is central. So Malachi links the two halves of the Bible together. Hence it's importance.

 

But Malachi's place in the Bible is different depending on what Bible you are reading. In most Bibles the books known as the apocrypha is missing, and therefore the account of Judah during the period in which the Greeks ruled the world is also missing. In these Bibles, Malachi is very much a door or fulcrum. You walk through it to a radically different world. Malachi is a short book, and so it represents a quick jump into some new ideas, concepts and world views that are radically expanded in the New Testament.

However, when a Bible includes the Apocrypha, the experience is different. In this case Malachi is more the beginning of a hallway, than a door hinge. The ideas found there slowly intensify until the worldview of the New Testament fully forms. In this case the New Testament seems much more like an outgrowth of the Old. In either case, Malachi is important. But in the latter case the experience is much more evolutionary than revolutionary.