Book of Mormon Evidence: Wordplay on Malachi

Evidence Summary

According to Mormon, Jesus commanded the Nephites “that they should write the words which the Father had given unto Malachi, which he should tell unto them. … Thus said the Father unto Malachi—Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant” (3 Nephi 24:1; cf. Malachi 3:1). The fact that Jesus began his quotation at Malachi 3:1 (rather than, say, Malachi 1:1) immediately after he introduced Malachi by name may be significant. This is because the close juxtaposition of the name Malachi with the term messenger invokes a Hebrew-based wordplay.

According to Matthew Bowen, “The form of the name Malachi—Hebrew malʾākî—suggests the meaning ‘my messenger’ or ‘my angel.’”1 It has also been proposed that Malachi may be a shortened form of a longer name, which could mean “messenger of Yahweh” or even “Yahweh is my angel”/“Yahweh is my messenger.”2 However the name was specifically understood, the connection between “messenger” and “Malachi” in Hebrew is unmistakable. By starting his quotation right at this point, Jesus was able to place these terms in close proximity in a manner that doesn’t appear in the book of Malachi itself.3

Mormon’s Use of “Angels” and “Work”

Another indication that the Book of Mormon authors understood Hebrew concepts connected to these terms comes from a statement made by Mormon: “neither have angels [Hebrew malʾākîm] ceased to minister unto the children of men. … And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work [Hebrew mĕleʾket] of the covenants of the Father” (Moroni 7:29–31).4 The reader will notice that “angels” (malʾākîm) and “work” (mĕleʾket) have a close consonantal relationship in Hebrew. According to Bowen,

The noun mĕlāʾkâ/mĕleʾket denotes “work” or “business”—originally, “work” or “business” to which or on which one is “sent”—i.e., a “mission.” … A look at the root lʾk in cognate Semitic languages also helps round out an etymological and semantic picture for malʾāk and mĕlāʾkâ. The Ugaritic verb lʾk meant “to send (a message)” or “entrust with a message.” The derived nouns mlak (“messenger”) and mlakt (“message, mission, missive, [and] embassy”) closely match their Hebrew cognates in form and meaning. The Ethiopic verb laʾaka, “send, commission,” the derived nouns malʾak, “messenger, angel, governor, prefect, prince, chief, captain, ruler, commander” and mal(ĕ)ʾĕkt, “letter, message, epistle, duty, business, service, cult mission, ministry, function, office, legation” all show how productive lʾk became in that language.5

In other words, these concepts (angels and work) have a much closer phonetic and semantic relationship in ancient Semitic languages than they do in English. On a technical level, Bowen classifies Mormon’s use of these terms as an example of polyptoton (words that share the same root) and even argues that they constitute “something of a miniature etiology” (explanation of origin).6

Mormon’s Allusion to Malachi 3

Mormon’s statements in Moroni 7:29–32 become even more fascinating once it is recognized that he was likely alluding directly to Malachi 3:1. The following chart helps illustrate this textual relationship with color-coded parallel elements:7

As concluded by Bowen,

The shared terminology of Malachi 3:1/3 Nephi 24:1 and Moroni 7:29–32 makes textual dependence of the latter upon the former highly likely. Mormon appears to have used the version of Malachi 3:1 dictated by Jesus and recorded by scribes at the temple in Bountiful to adumbrate the doctrine of the ministering of “angels” as “messengers” of the covenant who “prepare the way” and “fulfill and do the work of the covenants of the Father.”8

Conclusion

On its own, the manner in which Jesus twice invoked the name Malach, right before quoting Malachi’s prophecy about the messenger who would suddenly appear at the temple, hints at intentional wordplay (3 Nephi 24:1). Mormon’s later discussion in Moroni 7:29–32 of “angels” with a special “work” to do, given in a context which strongly alludes to 3 Nephi 24:1, helps solidify the proposal. Whoever authored Moroni 7 seems to have understood that these terms—Malachi, angels, messengers, work—were semantically and phonetically related in ancient Semitic languages.

At the same time, the Book of Mormon’s integration of these ideas is thematically sophisticated. When read in context, Christ’s quotation of Malachi is more than appropriate since to a significant degree his ministry among the Nephites was filling Malachi’s prophecy at that very moment. “All that Jesus did at the temple in Bountiful—just as everything he did in life, death, and resurrection—he did in his capacity as ‘messenger of the covenant’,” writes Bowen.9