Message
Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, reflects the situation of the Hebrew community in Judah some 8o years after the ministries of the other postexilic "minor" prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. "Malachi" may represent not a personal name but a title or pen name meaning "My messenger." The book reinforces the requirements of covenantal fidelity on the part of 5th-century-B.c. Hebrew priests and laypeople, who have grown morally and ritually lax while awaiting the glorious future promised by earlier prophets.
Message
Malachi opens with a word of encouragement that confirms God's continued love for his people and closes by restating that the day of judgment, which brings punishment on the nations and "salvation" (deliverance) for the disillusioned Hebrews, will indeed come. But the core of the book takes on the flavor of rebuke. Presented as six "disputes" in questionand-answer style, Malachi reveals God exposing the false assumptions and thoughtless behavior of his faltering flock.
Malachi reminds us that God requires unconditional fidelity to him. The obligation to live up to God's standards does not hinge on whether God "answers" our prayers, acts on our timetable, or administers justice in line with our expectations. God required of the 5th-century Hebrews fidelity with no contingencies, a faithful walk of faith, and he requires it of us today.
1:1-5 Dispute 1: I Have Loved You
The returned exiles' complaint that God does not love them stems from their unfulfilled expectation of a glorious life back in Canaan. Indeed, the earlier postexilic prophets nur tured this expectation. But God insists that he has demonstrated his love for the chosen (= "loved") line of Jacob. If they want proof, they should compare their fortunes to those of their cousins in Edom, the "hated" (= nonelect) descendants of Esau, whom the Babylonians also overran but whose kingdom God will not allow to be rebuilt.
1:6-2:9 Dispute 2: You Priests Have Despised Me
If God starts on the defensive side of the dispute (1:1-5), he quickly moves to the offensive by charging the Hebrew priests with dereliction of duty. He observes that sons and servants honor their human fathers and masters; therefore, God, as father and master of his chosen people, rightly expects honorable treatment by their priestly leaders. But the priests show only disdain for the Lord. They neglect their duty to control the quality of sacrifices presented to him. They would not dare to offer such imperfect gifts to the Persian governor - yet they do so to the God whom even foreign nations fear! God would prefer that the temple close for business rather than to have mockery of the sacrificial system continue.
If the priests have not taken God seriously till now, they had better start. If they don't quit defiling his altar, the Lord will render them ritually unclean for priestly service by smearing their faces with dung (2:3). God had long ago set apart the tribe of Levi for full-time service to him. Their job included teaching God's laws to the laity by word and example (2:5-7). But far from equipping people to uphold God's laws, the priests of Malachi's audience have promoted the waywardness of others through their own unfaithfulness and false teaching. Their corruption of the covenant, designed to produce peace between a holy God and his beloved but sinful people, has invited on them a punishment that parallels their demonstrated disdain for God: disdain for them by the people they lead.
2:10-16 Dispute 3: You People Treat Each Other Treacherously
The covenantal failure of the priests has led to the breakdown of the Hebrew community as a whole. Men's divorcing their wives in order to intermarry with worshippers of pagan gods compromises the community's covenantal fidelity, breaks apart the family of God, and threatens the religious distinctiveness of the next generation of Hebrews. Their forsaking of the marriage covenant and dismissal of the matrimonial rules - and the disregard for their Father-God that such behavior betrays - cause God to reject their sacrifices, as with the irreverent priests (1:6-2:9). Deuteronomy 24:1-4 addresses divorce from the perspective of Mosaic law, and Ezra 9-1o and Nehemiah 13 deal with the problem of interfaith marriage during the same period addressed by Malachi.
2:17-3:5 Dispute 4: You Question My Justice
For the returnees to Judah, disappointment with the less-than-ideal circumstances of life in postexilic Canaan has developed into a cynical view regarding the justice of God. The covenant promised tangible blessings - abundant crops, economic prosperity, political security - and the prophets foretold a Day of the Lord on which the divine judgment of the enemies of the Hebrews would secure for them these rewards. But for years now, the deprived community of the chosen people has seen everyone else enjoy the prosperity they expected for themselves. They blame it all on God, never stopping to ponder that their own unfaithfulness to the covenant precludes their enjoyment of its blessings.
The announcement that God is sending his messenger to prepare the way for the promised judgment day should teach them to be careful what they ask for, because God's moral smelting will extend to the Hebrews as well as to the heathen. Hebrews who transgress the Mosaic law (cf. 3:5) will one day find out that their membership in the community of the chosen does not make them immune from the dark side of God's justice.
3:612 Dispute 5: You Rob Me of My Tithe
Haggai had blamed the delay of God's blessings on the Hebrews' failure to finish rebuilding the temple (Haggai 1). That project completed, Malachi blames the continued deprivation on their failure to tithe their crops and animals in support of the temple and the Levites - an obligation not just for times of plenty but also times of scarcity. This snubbing of God's laws is nothing new (v. 7), nor is the promised reward that awaits the chosen people who live according to God's laws (vv. 10-12). By robbing God of the token return on what he has given them in the first place, they forfeit the even greater blessings for obedience and thus rob themselves more than God.
3:13-4:3 Dispute 6: You've Given Up on Me
The Hebrews' disappointment had led to cynical complaining (cf. 2:17), which now turns to blasphemous arrogance. Seeing no profit from their service to the Lord, they declare it useless. They give up on God and turn an envious eye toward evildoers who, in their shortsighted view, appear to get away with their wickedness.
But not all the returnees disparage God, and he enters the names of the faithful in a "book of remembrance" to ensure their sparing come judgment day (3:16-18). That event will restore the recognizable distinction between the wicked, hopelessly doomed to destruction like chaff set ablaze, and the righteous, restored to youth by the healing warmth of the sun and employed by God in the judgment of evildoers. The image of the sun god as a winged disc in Persian and Egyptian art may lie behind Malachi's reference to the "sun of righteousness" rising with "healing in its wings" (4:2).
4:4-6 Elijah's Return Augurs Judgment Day
This postscript to Malachi ends the Old Testament with an admonition to remember the covenantal starting point of Hebrew history, the laws God established for his people through Moses at Mount Sinai (= Horeb). The promise that prior to the day of judgment God will ensure the covenantal purity of his people through a returned Elijah provides a natural transition to the New Testament. Clad in clothing similar to his prophetic predecessor, John the Baptist "cleansed" his followers with the baptism of repentance; therefore, Jesus identified him as the second Elijah anticipated by Malachi (Matt. 11:14; 17:10-13).
Apocrypha/DeuterocanonicaI Books
The term Apocrypha means "hidden" and refers to a collection of Jewish books that variously date from the 3rd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. The alternative label deuterocanonical, meaning "secondarily canonical," indicates that these works are of secondary status compared with the other canonical books of the Bible.
Since the time of Luther, Protestants have adopted the contents but not the order of the Hebrew Bible of Judaism for their Old Testament. As a result, they have either completely excluded the Apocrypha from their Bibles or grouped the books together after the Old Testament. Reflecting the practice of some early manuscripts, the Roman Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations include the apocryphal works as an integral part of the Old Testament.
The size of the Apocrypha varies among denominations, largely for historical reasons. Roman Catholic, Slavonic, and Greek Bibles all include the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah (often as ch. 6 of Baruch),1 and 2 Maccabees, as well as the additions to Esther and Daniel. In addition, the Greek and Slavonic Bibles include 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees, and the Slavonic Bible also includes 2 Esdras (as does the Latin Vulgate appendix). Some important early manuscripts of the Greek Bible also include 4 Maccabees.
Diversity is the hallmark of the collection: it comes from various places and times, is made up of several different literary genres, and, as noted, is presented by different Christian groups in various forms. To appreciate their significance more fully, the books of the Apocrypha need to be associated with other Jewish writings from the period between the Bible and the Mishnah (ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 200): (1) the Dead Sea Scrolls, sectarian and other nonbiblical Jewish compositions found in the Judaean wilderness, which show that Jewish literature in this period was very extensive. Copies of Tobit and Sirach have been found among the Scrolls, as also have Psalm 151 and possibly the Letter of Jeremiah; (2) Jewish compositions called the Pseudepigrapha ("falsely attributed writings," e.g., the Testament of Moses), some of which (e.g., some of the writings of Enoch) have also been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In a strict sense, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 1-2 Esdras are all pseudepigrapha, since it is widely agreed that they were not written by those whose names they bear; (3) the writings of Philo and Josephus. Philo's philosophical and exegetical works are not unlike the Wisdom of Solomon in certain respects; Josephus relies heavily on 1 Esdras and 1 Maccabees for a large part of his work. All these Jewish writings provide valuable
information about the variety of Judaism and about the Palestinian setting both of emerging rabbinic Judaism and also of Jesus and the early Christian communities.
Narratives
The book of Tobit takes its name from a pious Jew who was supposedly taken into exile when the kingdom of Israel fell in 722 B.C. Tobit's many acts of charity include the burial of fellow Jews. Struck with blindness and poverty, Tobit sends his son Tobias to recover the family fortune left in Media. The story turns into a romantic quest. Tobias is accompanied by the angel Raphael ("God heals"), whose true identity is revealed only at the end, and by his dog. (Hence, even today many dogs are called Toby.) On the journey he stays with relatives in Ecbatana (Persia) and marries Sarah, the daughter of the house, from whom he exorcises the demon Asmodeus on their wedding night. The money is recovered, and on his arrival home Tobias heals his father's sight. This popular tale about life in exile shows how God answers the prayers of the righteous, even if they are temporarily afflicted with troubles.
The book of Judith is in two parts. Chapters 1-7 describe all the mighty exploits of Nebuchadnezzar's army; on its way to Jerusalem the army is encamped outside the unknown small town of Bethulia in Samaria. Chapters 8-16 contain the story of Judith, who shames the terrified men of Bethulia by using her piety and sexuality to overthrow the general Holofernes. He loses his head to her twice: once through infatuation so that he admits her to his tent and once when she executes him there! Though set in the 6th century, the story almost certainly reflects events in the 2nd century
when Judas Maccabeus took on the might of the Syrian army and its general Nicanor. The story shows how God, who is far greater than any human king, delivers and protects his people in unexpected ways.
Judith with the Head of Holofernes; engraving by Jacob Mathan, after Hendrik Goltzius. (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution /Art Resource, NY)
The Additions to Esther were probably composed by several authors. Overall they give the narrative of Esther an explicitly religious
character by including a God-given dream and its interpretation, the prayers of Mordecai and Esther that are answered, reference to dietary laws, and disparaging comments about the Gentile way of life. The Additions suggest that some Jews outside Palestine deliberately adjusted the book of Esther to support the identities of their own communities.
The three stories of Susanna, Bel, and the Dragon are exciting narrative additions to the book of Daniel that show Daniel's wisdom and tenacious faithfulness.
3 Maccabees, which has deuterocanonical status in Eastern churches, has nothing to do with the Maccabees but is a 1st-century-B.c. historical novella designed to encourage Jews in Egypt to avoid the threats of their Gentile overlords. By the end of the story the Gentile king has become the patron of the Jews.
Wisdom
Probably from late istcentury-B.c.-Alexandria, the Wisdom of Solomon has three parts. The first contains a sustained argument for immortality; only that way can the righteous who receive no reward on earth stand vindicated before God. The second features a magnificent poetic description of personified wisdom as the mirror of the divine. The third section is a set of illustrations from history of the saving power of wisdom.
Sirach (the Greek title), the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira (Hebrew), or Ecclesiasticus (Latin) was composed in Jerusalem in the early 2nd century B.c. Like Proverbs, Sirach contains collections of sayings on all aspects of daily life and teaches forcefully that God will reward everyone as they deserve. Like the later Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach extols the personified figure of wisdom and famously identifies her with the law.
4 Maccabees is an attempt to demonstrate in philosophical terms the supremacy of religious reason based on the Law over emotions of any kind. The martyrs of the Maccabean period are one of the positive examples used to prove the thesis. Because of its remarks on the inviolability of the temple (4 Macc. 4:5-14), the book is commonly dated to the time of Caligula (A.D. 37-41), but that may be too precise.
Historiography
1 Maccabees reliably covers events from just before the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 B.c.) to the end of the reign of John Hyrcanus (104). In effect, however, the book is propaganda dressed up as history. Its aim is to preach against cultural assimilation and to celebrate Jewish independence, thereby securing the place of the Maccabee brothers and the dynasty they established as the rightful rulers of Judea.
2 Maccabees covers much of the same ground as 1 Maccabees 1-8, and Judas Maccabeus remains the hero of the work. But the temple and those who are prepared to be martyred for all that it represents take the
foreground. The book provides innovative teaching on resurrection (chs. 7-8) and creation out of nothing (7:28).
1 Esdras reproduces much of 2 Chronicles 35-36, Ezra, and Nehemiah 7-8 and is probably an early alternative translation into Greek of those chapters. It also contains the memorable story (chs. 3-4) of the contest concerning what is the strongest thing on earth.
Poetry
Much of Baruch is poetry. Probably written in the early 1st century B.C., though set in the 6th, the work contains a corporate confession of sin, a hymn in praise of wisdom, and material on Jerusalem that echoes the language of Isaiah 51 and 54. The Letter of Jeremiah consists of an introduction and io stanzas that preach against idolatry.
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men are two extensive poetic additions to Daniel 3; perhaps they were designed for audience participation as the story of Daniel was read.
The Prayer of Manasseh is a 1st-century-B.C. penitential psalm put into the mouth of the wicked king Manasseh (2 Kgs. 21:1-18). Psalm 151 has a complex textual history but is now also known among the Dead Sea Scrolls; in it David speaks in the first person of his childhood and divine selection.
Apocalypse
2 Esdras (4 Ezra in the Latin tradition) is the only apocalypse among the books of the Apocrypha. From the late 1st century A.D., its Jewish author in the guise of Ezra struggles with the theological problems arising from the destruction of the temple in 70. In the first part an angel attempts to answer some of the author's questions, while in the second the author is reassured in three grand visions of the impermanence of Rome, of the promise of the Messiah, and of the authority of Israel's holy Scriptures.
Further Reading
GEORGE J. BROOKE
Nations, Peoples, and Empires (Part 2)
Alexander and the Spread of Hellenism
The face of the classical world was radically transformed through the vision and skills of two men: Philip, the king of Macedonia, and his son, Alexander. Philip and his armies succeeded in unifying the independent city-states of Greece (including Athens, Thebes, and Sparta) under his rule before his untimely death in 336 s.c. His son had received a thoroughly Greek education, being tutored by Aristotle himself, and determined to forge an empire built upon Greek institutions and culture.
Alexander the Great attacking Persian king Darius; mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii. (Erich Lessing /Art Resource, NY)
Alexander led the armies of Greece and Macedonia through Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, defeating all opposition along the way. In Egypt he was welcomed as a new pharaoh and a son of the god Ammon. Alexander made plans for a new city strategically placed where the Nile pours into the Mediterranean. This city, Alexandria, was to become one of the most important centers of commerce, learning, and art in the ancient world - and, significantly, the largest center for Jews outside Palestine. Alexander continued to expand his empire eastward, conquering Persia and eventually
pressing as far as the Indus River. Here his troops, weary of war and its diminishing returns, refused to continue, so that Alexander would have to be content with an empire that stretched from Greece to Egypt and through what is now Iran.
In the wake of Alexander's conquests came hellenization (from Greek hellenizein, to imitate the Greeks"), the importation of Greek language, education, culture, and governance into the conquered territories. Alexander either remade existing cities after the image of the Greek city-state or created new ones, and these became the administrative, commercial, and cultural centers of his empire. Essential buildings would include the gymnasium, where young men were trained in Greek language, logic and rhetoric, ethics, as well as physical skills, and where the temples, theaters, and arenas featuring Greek piety, drama, and athletic competitions found a home. Palestine was not exempt from this influence, as the emergence of Greek cities throughout the region shows. Native populations began to learn Greek alongside their native languages in order to communicate and do business with the new powers. This widespread adoption of a common, second language was probably the most significant result of Alexander's career. It brought Greek philosophy and ethical theory to the world, but the removal of language barriers also enabled the rapid spread of "native" ideas and movements.
The Hellenization Crisis and Hasmonean Revolt
Alexander's world empire was short-lived. In 323, at age 33, Alexander died, leaving no viable heir. His four generals divided up his empire, fighting among themselves until only two prominent rulers were left - Seleucus I, who held Syria, Asia Minor, and Babylon, and Ptolemy I, who held Egypt and Palestine. These kings and their successors continued to vie with each other for territory, particularly Palestine, the strip of land sandwiched between the "kings of the north" (Seleucus's dynasty) and the "kings of the south" (Ptolemy's line). The Ptolemies held Palestine until 198, when Antiochus III was finally able to drive Ptolemy V's forces back into Egypt.
Antiochus III continued the Ptolemies' policy of allowing the Jews to govern themselves and observe their ancestral customs. Many elites in Judea had already accepted Greek as a second language and recognized the economic and political advantages of assimilating to the dominant Greek culture, at least as far as their religion would permit. Within Jerusalem, however, a large portion of the aristocracy (including priestly families) favored a more radical policy of hellenization. With their support, a priest named Yeshua, who took the Greek name Jason, offered vast sums of money to Antiochus IV Epiphanes for the privilege of refounding Jerusalem as a Greek city. Antiochus was always looking for funds with which to finance his campaigns
against Egypt or pay his annual tribute to the Roman Republic (already a major power in the Mediterranean). Additionally, he welcomed any local initiative to adopt the Greek way of life, since that brought greater coherence to his empire. Antiochus therefore deposed the more conservative Onias and appointed Jason as high priest.
Jason set aside the Torah as the law of the land in favor of a Greek constitution, enrolling all his like-minded compatriots as citizens of the new "Antioch-atJerusalem." A gymnasium and other Greek institutions were built. Jason himself was replaced by Menelaus, who gave Antiochus a larger bribe and continued hellenization in even more radical terms, polarizing the population. In 167, when Antiochus was embroiled in a campaign against Egypt, Jerusalem fell into chaos as the supporters of Jason, the supporters of Menelaus, and the more conservative Jews all took up arms against one another. Antiochus, thinking Jerusalem was rebelling against him, marched on the city, slaughtered thousands, and enslaved many more. Sensing (or being informed) that religion was the source of the discontent, he turned the temple into a pagan shrine, made Torah observance a capital crime, and began a harsh persecution of those who would not give up their ancestral way of life. Daniel 8 and 11 are cryptic but rather accurate narrations of the history of the Hellenistic kingdoms from Alexander to Antiochus IV, written especially to encourage fidelity to Torah at this time of severe repression.
Antiochus might have succeeded, but for the skills and ener
gies of a priest named Mattathias and his five sons, John, Simon, Judas Maccabaeus, Eleazar, and Jonathan. (1 and 2 Maccabees tell the story of the crisis they reverse and their ongoing successes.) These organized the refugees who had fled Jerusalem for the countryside into a guerrilla army, which grew as they achieved victory after victory over both apostate Jews and the Syrian armies. By 164, they had retaken Jerusalem and reconsecrated the temple, a triumph commemorated in the festival of Hanukkah. Although Judas's forces were eventually driven from Jerusalem by Syrian armies, no further attempts were made by the successors of Antiochus IV to suppress Torah observance or disturb the temple.
After Judas died in battle, Jonathan led the resistance. Because a series of rivals laid claim to the Syrian throne and each wanted the support of the Judean armies, Jonathan was able to extract concessions by diplomacy that could not be won by military force. He was eventually appointed high priest and governor of Judea by a Seleucid king. His brother Simon succeeded to these offices after Jonathan's death, and under him the last of the Syrian forces were removed from Jerusalem and peace was restored.
The Growth and Decline of the Hasmonean Dynasty
Simon's son John Hyrcanus I and grandson Alexander Jannaeus expanded the territory of the Hasmonean state to include all the lands once held by Solomon. Although Israel was once again an independent nation and had regained its former stature, the Hasmonean leaders fell from popular favor. Looking and acting more like the Seleucid kings than pious high priests, they even took the title of "king," a title many Jews felt should be reserved for the house of David. After Alexander Jannaeus's death his two sons, John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, divided Jerusalem in their contest for the crown and high priesthood.
They both appealed to the Roman general Pompey, who had been expanding the Roman Republic's territories eastward, delivering the death blow to the Seleucid dynasty in 64 B.C. Pompey's intervention resulted in a siege of Jerusalem in 63, the imprisonment of Aristobulus II, the conferral of the high priesthood and oversight of Judea to Hyrcanus II (without the
title "king"), and the removal of Samaria, Galilee, and Transjordan from Hasmonean hands into Roman jurisdiction. The Hasmonean dynasty came thus to an abrupt end, and a new Gentile master appeared on the scene.
DAVID A. DESILVA