Haggai

Haggai (Hebrew: חַגַּי, Ḥaggay or "Hag-i") was one of the twelve minor prophets and the author of the Book of Haggai. He was the first of three prophets (with Zechariah, his contemporary, and Malachi, who lived about one hundred years later), whose ministry belonged to the period of Jewish history that began after the return from captivity in Babylon. Though few biographical details are extant, he is notable for his role in promoting the construction of the Second Temple.

Biographical Details

Like many other texts in the prophetic corpus, little is known of the author of the Book of Haggai. His name appears to be derived from the Hebrew stem (hgg), which "means 'make a pilgrimage' or 'observe a pilgrimage feast.' H. W. Wolff suggests that the name, found often in extra-biblical, post-exilic sources, was popular because it was 'an allusion to the birth on a feast day of the person named."^[1] Conversely, it could also be taken as "an abbreviated form of the noun Hággíyyah, [meaning] "my feast is Yahweh", a Jewish proper name found in ... 1 Chronicles 6:30."^[2] Regardless, these etymological possibilities are among the only information available on the author of the text, which lacks even the geographical/genealogical markers that often accompany prophetic accounts.^[3] As a result, the various suppositions concerning his character—that he was over seventy years old,^[4] that he may have been a temple prophet,^[5] or that he was a "Judahite farmer"^[6] — are simply that: educated guesses.

The only other insight into the author that can be gleaned from the source text is that he was a man of some influence, either with the ruling authorities (i.e., Josuha, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor) or with the general public, as the window between his initial prophecy and the completion of the temple is only five years.^[7] Indeed, regardless of the character of the prophet, it is undeniable that he knew how to efficiently disseminate his message. The prophet's spiritual charisma is attested to in Haggai 1:12, which states that "Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord."

In an explicit contrast to the vagueness of biographical details concerning Haggai, the text that bears his name has been more explicitly tied to a specific historical period than virtual any other in the Biblical canon. Specifically, each of the prophecies is superscripted with a particular date of exposition, which has allowed historians to temporally situate Haggai's activity in the four months between August 29th and December 18th of 520 B.C.E. While these superscriptions could have been later editorial insertions,^[8] it is a near universal scholarly consensus that the book had more-or-less attained its present form by 515 B.C.E. (when the Second Temple was built).^[9]

These rebuilding efforts, which seem to have involved both Haggai and Zechariah, are described in the Book of Ezra:

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them (Ezra 5:1-2).

Further, the text later states:

Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence. So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius (Ezra 6:13-15).

<— <lives of the prophets (intro)>

Haggai, who is also messenger/angel, came from Babylon to Jerusalem perhaps as a youth and prophesied explicitly concerning the return of the people and saw, in part, the construction of the Temple. And when he died, he was buried near the tomb of the prophets, with honor, as they were.^[10]

—> The name Haggai, with various vocalizations, is also found in the Book of Esther, as a eunuch servant of the Queen.

Posthumous Legacy

In the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church, his feast day is December 16. He is commemorated with the other Minor prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.

Notes

↑ March, 707.
↑ Gigot (1907).
↑ cf. Zephaniah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah"); Micah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah"; Jonah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai"); Hosea 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel"), etc. (all biblical citations from the New International Version). March provides a brief summary of the scholarly debate on this lacuna: "The absence of a family name suggested to Carol Meyers and Eric Meyers that Haggai had family connections that would have been problematic for the prophet if they were publicly announced. David Petersen, on the other hand, considered the absence of genealogical detail concerning Haggai a deliberate means of focusing attention on the divine authority by which the prophet spoke. Nonetheless, for whatever reason, Haggai, like Amos, Habakkuk, and Obadiah before him, is not provided with a lineage" (707). As such, the lack of contemporaneous sources means that it is not possible to discern the explicit authorial/editorial purpose for this gap.
↑ Hirsch (2002).
↑ This issue of Haggai's "official" prophetic status is touched on in Koch, 162.
↑ An archaic hypothesis that is described in March, 708.
↑ Anchor Bible Dictionary, 20; March, 708; Bandstra, 370-371.
↑ The conclusions of this form critical approach are outlined in detail in Meyers and Meyers, lxviii-lxx. Conversely, recent scholarship by Floyd (1995) notes that there is, in fact, no particular evidence of a change in narrative voice between the prophecies themselves and the alleged "editorial insertions," which would imply a single, unified composition (474-476 C.E.).
↑ March, 708-709: "Scholars basically accept these dates as authentic and believe the book was compiled in its present form only a short time after the prophet spoke, certainly before 515 B.C.E., when the work on the Temple initiated at Haggai's urging was completed." See also: Bandstra, 370-371; Anchor Bible Dictionary, 20.
↑ Excerpt from a Byzantine version of the Lives of the Prophets, quoted in Satran, 36.

References
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Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897 (a document which is now in the public domain)

Bandstra, Barry L. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Second Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999. ISBN 0534527272.
Floyd, Michael H. "The Nature of the Narrative and the Evidence of Redaction in Haggai." Vetus Testamentum 45: Fascicle 4 (October 1995). 470-490.
Freedman, David Noel (editor-in-chief). The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York : Doubleday, 1992. ISBN 0385193513 (v. 1).
Gigot, F. E. "Aggeus (Haggai)" in The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907.
Hirsch, Emile G. "Haggai, Book of" in The Jewish Encyclopedia. 2002.
Koch, Klaus. The Prophets: The Babylonian and Persian Periods. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. ISBN 0800617568.
March, W. Eugene. "Haggai." The New Interpreter's Bible (Vol. VII). Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994-2004. ISBN 0687278201.
Mason, Rex. Preaching the Tradition: Homily and Hermeneutics after the Exile: Based on the "Addresses" in Chronicles, the "Speeches" in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the Post-Exilic Prophetic Books. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 0521383048.
Meyers, Carol L. and Meyers, Eric M. Haggai, Zechariah 1-8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987. ISBN 0385144822.
Satran, David. Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassessing the Lives of the Prophets. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995. ISBN 9004075607.

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[1] March, 707.

[2] Gigot (1907).

[3] . Zephaniah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah"); Micah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah"; Jonah 1:1 ("The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai"); Hosea 1:1 ("The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel"), etc. (all biblical citations from the New International Version). March provides a brief summary of the scholarly debate on this lacuna: "The absence of a family name suggested to Carol Meyers and Eric Meyers that Haggai had family connections that would have been problematic for the prophet if they were publicly announced. David Petersen, on the other hand, considered the absence of genealogical detail concerning Haggai a deliberate means of focusing attention on the divine authority by which the prophet spoke. Nonetheless, for whatever reason, Haggai, like Amos, Habakkuk, and Obadiah before him, is not provided with a lineage" (707). As such, the lack of contemporaneous sources means that it is not possible to discern the explicit authorial/editorial purpose for this gap.

[4] Hirsch (2002).

[5] This issue of Haggai's "official" prophetic status is touched on in Koch, 162.

[6] An archaic hypothesis that is described in March, 708.

[7] Anchor Bible Dictionary, 20; March, 708; Bandstra, 370-371.

[8] The conclusions of this form critical approach are outlined in detail in Meyers and Meyers, lxviii-lxx. Conversely, recent scholarship by Floyd (1995) notes that there is, in fact, no particular evidence of a change in narrative voice between the prophecies themselves and the alleged "editorial insertions," which would imply a single, unified composition (474-476 C.E.).

[9] March, 708-709: "Scholars basically accept these dates as authentic and believe the book was compiled in its present form only a short time after the prophet spoke, certainly before 515 B.C.E., when the work on the Temple initiated at Haggai's urging was completed." See also: Bandstra, 370-371; Anchor Bible Dictionary, 20.

[10] Excerpt from a Byzantine version of the Lives of the Prophets, quoted in Satran, 36.

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