Most religious and historical traditions say the Book of Malachi was written by a prophet named Malachi , whose name in Hebrew means “my messenger.”

Prophet Malachi as author

  • The book opens with the line “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi,” which reads like a normal prophetic superscription identifying the prophet who wrote it.
  • Ancient Jewish and early Christian communities consistently treated Malachi as a real, named prophet, not just a title, and copied the book under his name in Greek (Malachias) and later translations.

Alternative views about authorship

Some scholars are less certain about the personal identity behind the name:

  • Because “Malachi” can be read as “my messenger,” a few interpreters think it might be a descriptive title, so the actual author would be anonymous.
  • A rabbinic tradition recorded in the Talmud attributes the book instead to Ezra the scribe , connecting its setting and themes to the era of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Persian period.

What most scholars say today

  • Most modern scholars date the book to around 450–430 BCE, after the rebuilding of the Second Temple and around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
  • In practice, biblical scholarship and most religious communities still refer to the author simply as the prophet Malachi, while acknowledging that the exact person behind the name cannot be proved with absolute certainty.

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