The Malachi Prophecies

According to the Old Testament, Elias the Prophet was raised "into heaven" in a "chariot of fire" (2 Kings 2:11). That made him the only prophet who never died. That also made him the only prophet who was "raised." This event supposedly happened about 850 years before the arrival of Jesus Christ. Later, in about 450 BC, the prophet Malachi prophesied that Elias would return to prepare the way for a risen Sun of Justice (Mal 3:20), meaning the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

According to Malachi's prophecy, Elias had to come before the Messiah. If Elias didn't come first, anyone who claimed to be the Messiah was of course a false prophet. The first Christians were very aware about the prophecy because all any Jew had to ask was ... Where is Elias? Since Elias had not returned at the time the gospel of Mark was written, Mark had to invent him. He did this through the character of John the Baptist. He relied on the population's belief in Angels (supernatural spirits), reincarnation (coming back from the dead in a new body), and transfiguration (the ability to change the appearance of a body). If you carefully read the entire Gospel of Mark (and Matthew), John the Baptist is first revealed as an Angel, then as a raised Prophet ... but like Jesus later says ... "he will not be recognised" (Mt 17:12).

The gospel of Mark viewed the following passages (shown in red) as "talking points" that needed to be fulfilled.

Malachi 3:1-24

3:01	Behold, I send my Angel to prepare the way before me ...
	and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple ...
	the Angel of the covenant whom you desire ... Behold! ... he is coming ... says the Lord of Hosts.
3:02	But who can endure the day of his coming ... and who can stand when he appears?
	For he is like the refiner's fire and like the fullers' lye.
3:03	he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may offer right sacrifices to the Lord.
3:04	Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years.
3:05	I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, and perjurers, those who defraud the hired man of his wages, those who defraud widows and orphans, those who turn aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of Hosts.
3:06	For I the LORD do not change; nor do you cease to be sons of Jacob.
3:07	From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, `How shall we return?'
3:08	Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, `How are we robbing you? In your tithes and offerings.
3:09	You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me; the whole nation of you.
3:10	Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
3:11	I will rebuke your devourer, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.
3:12	Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.
3:13	"Your words have been stout against me, says the Lord.
	Yet you say ...How have we spoken against you?
3:14	You have said, `It is vain to serve God. What is the good of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of Hosts?
3:15	Henceforth we deem the arrogant blessed; evildoers not only prosper but when they put God to the test they escape.'"
3:16	Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the Lord heeded and heard them,
	and a Book of Remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and thought on his Name.
3:17	They shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts, my special possession on the day when I act ...
	and I will spare them as a man spares his Son who serves him.
3:18	Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
3:19	For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble;
	the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, so that it will leave them neither Root nor Branch.
3:20	But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.
	You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.
3:21	And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of Hosts.
3:22	Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at (mount) Horeb for all Israel.
3:23	Behold, I will send you Elias the Prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.
3:24	And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with doom.

Commentary on various verses

[3:1a] - The Angel of Malachi is the prophet Elias as revealed below in verse 23. For Mark and Matthew the Angel was John the Baptist who was supposed to be seen by the reader as a reincarnation or a substitute of the prophet Elias.

[3:1b] The "Lord whom you seek" is Jesus who "suddenly comes" to clease the temple in Mark 11:15-19 and Matthew 21:12-16.

[3:2] - The "day of his coming" is the day when Elias came to Jesus and transfigured him (Mk 9:1-8, and Mt 17:1-13). According to Matthew, when the apostles saw Jesus and Elias and heard God's voice from the cloud "they fell prostrate and were very afraid" but then Jesus came and touched them and said "rise and do not be afraid." (Mt 17:6-7). This refers to when Jesus and Elias come together in the story of the transfiguration. The "face of Jesus shone like sun" (Mt 17:2) and his garments became "dazzling white such as no fuller on earth could bleach them" (Mk 9:3, and Mt 17:2).

[3:17] - This verse is the prophecy that God has a Son and that he will spare Men who serve (believe) in him.

[3:20] - The Sun of Righteousness is Jesus who will "rise" from the dead. The metaphor of "healing in it's wings" is a prophecy that Jesus would have the power to heal.

[3:22] - Since Malachi refers to Moses, the mountain, and then in the next verse to Elias, Mark had no choice but to incorporate Moses into his transfiguration story (Mk 9:4-5)

[3:23] - Elias the prophet (as John the Baptist) comes before Jesus on his great day, the day of his baptism. Elias also comes down to Jesus on his terrible day, the day of his crucifixion and death (to set him next to zero).

Diagrams and Commentary for Mark 1:2-8