Who is the Author?

The book of Malachi is the last prophetic book of the Old Testament. Malachi means “my messenger,” which could be a personal name. Another possibility, based on 3:1, is that “My Messenger” is the title of thebook.1 We know very little about this last of the OT prophets (John the Baptist was the very last—Mal. 3:1 and 4:5–6; Matt. 11:10–15,Mark 1:2, and Luke 1:17). What we know is that he ministered to the restored Jewish nation about four hundred years before Christ.2 The contents of the book of Malachi clearly indicate that it was written by a prophet. Nothing is known of his family line, and he is not mentioned by name elsewhere in the Bible.3 The book emphasizes the message rather than the messenger; of a total of fifty-five verses, as many as forty-seven are personal addresses from the Lord.4