What’s a Massa?

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The prophetic collection of books in the Hebrew Bible ends with three massa’ot (singular, massa’). So what’s a massa (pronounced mah-SAH)?

The prophetic collection of books in the Hebrew Bible also ends with the little Book of Malachi. Who’s Malachi? Answer: He’s nobody. He’s simply the last massa.

So, once again, what’s a massa?

Let’s focus in from the broadest perspective:

The Hebrew Bible is a trilogy; it consists of three collections: (1) The Torah, also known as the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses; (2) the Nevi’im, which means Prophets; and (3) the Kethuvim, or Writings.

From this comes the Jewish title for the entire corpus: TeNaK, variously spelled tanach or tanakh. Tanakh, as Jews call the Hebrew Bible, is an acronym consisting of T for Torah, N for Nevi’im and K for Kethuvim.

The first two of these collections, the Torah and the Prophets, were apparently known in some form as completed collections by the time of Jesus, for the New Testament Gospels frequently refer to the Law (that is, the Torah) and the Prophets.

In Jewish tradition, the collection known as the Prophets is divided into the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. Each consists of four great scrolls. The Former Prophets are really historical books that pick up after the death of Moses (where the Torah ends) and end with the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century B.C.E.^a The Former Prophets consist of (1) Joshua, (2) Judges, (3) Samuel, likely a double scroll, and (4) Kings, also a double scroll.

The Latter Prophets what Christians think of as the prophetic books^b—also consist of four great scrolls: (1) Isaiah, (2) Jeremiah, (3) Ezekiel and (4) the Book of the Twelve. The Book of the Twelve, sometimes called the Minor Prophets, is a collection of 12 shorter prophetic works that bear the names of (1) Hosea, (2) Joel, (3) Amos, (4) Obadiah, (5) Jonah, (6) Micah, (7) Nahum, (8) Habakkuk, (9) Zephaniah, (10) Haggai, (11) Zechariah and (12) Malachi.

Even if we didn’t read the entire list, we should look back at the last two names. Those are the two books on which we will focus here—but not even all of Zechariah, just the last six chapters (Zechariah 9–14). Scholars agree that there is an authorial break after Zechariah 8. The first eight chapters were not written by the same person who wrote the last six. The person who wrote Zechariah 9–14 is sometimes called deutero-Zechariah to distinguish him from his earlier namesake.^c

Malachi is a tiny book of only three chapters (in 024the Revised Standard Version and the King James Version it is 4 chapters; verses 3:1–12 become 4:1–6)—and with it ends the prophetic collection.

Something binds Zechariah 9–14 to Malachi. That is the Hebrew word massa (mem, sin, aleph). The text from Zechariah 9 to the end of Malachi can be divided into three sections, each beginning with the word massa. The three massa’ot are as follows: The first massa: Zechariah 9–11.

The second massa: Zechariah 12–14.

The third massa: Malachi 1–3.

Many commentaries treat the three massa’ot together. For example, in the Anchor Bible series, Eric and Carol Meyers included Zechariah 1–8 In a volume with Haggai. Now they are working on a second volume that will include Zechariah 9–14 with Malachi.

The word massa derives from a root meaning a load, a burden or a tribute. The first three Hebrew words that begin each massa are massa d’var YHWH.^d Early English translators wrote the phrase as “The burden of the word of the Lord.”

The burden referred to seems to be an utterance of some kind, as we can see from a usage in Isaiah 14:28: “In the year of King Ahaz’s death, this utterance [massa] was made.”

So massa is also translated “utterance,” “pronouncement,” “proclamation,” “oracle” and even “message.” Usually the word is treated as a title, divided from the two Hebrew words that follow: “A pronouncement: The word of the Lord.”

So that’s what a massa is. But why is Malachi nobody?

In the first massa (Zechariah 9:1) the sentence seems to end with the first three words: “A proclamation: The word of the Lord.” The parallel sentence in the second massa (Zechariah 12:1) is a bit longer: “A proclamation. The word of the LORD concerning Israel [el-Yisrael].”

The parallel sentence in the third massa (Malachi 1:1) is even longer. It adds two more words in Hebrew: “beyad mal’akhi:” “A proclamation: The word of the Lord concerning Israel from the hand of Malachi.” That is how we get the name of the prophet Malachi. To him is ascribed the three chapters with which the collection of prophets ends, the last massa. And with the addition of Malachi, we get the magic number of 12 Minor Prophets (the same number as the tribes of Israel).

But mal’akhi means simply “my messenger.” The sentence could as easily, and more properly, be translated: A proclamation: The word of the Lord by the hand of my messenger.” Given the parallel with the first two massa’ot, there is no reason to believe that the third massa was uttered through a different prophet from the first two. Hence, there probably was no prophet named Malachi, and all three massa’ot are anonymous. The Targum, an early Aramaic translation of the Bible, attributes this passage not to someone named Malachi, but to Ezra.^e

In early Jewish tradition, Malachi, or mal’akhi, became the harbinger of the messianic age, the Age to Come (ha’olam habba’, the end of time). The passage on which this is based is Malachi 3:1, which reads:

“Behold, I am sending mal’akhi to prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall come to his temple suddenly.”

How should mal’akhi be translated in the foregoing passage? Most Bibles translate it “my messenger” even though in Malachi 1:1, the opening verse of the massa, they translate the same word as a prophet named Malachi.

To early Christians, steeped in this Jewish religious and cultural milieu, this passage came to define the role of the prophet of the Jordan, John the Baptist. Because of that, this little prophetic collection became and remains extraordinarily important for Christian theology.

The texts of all three massa’ot are generally considered difficult to understand. One commentator expresses this point of view well by writing, “These oracles contain some of the most obscure and difficult passages of all the prophetic literature of the Old Testament.”¹ For one thing, the text features as much faulty transmission (often labeled “textual corruption”) as any of the prophetic texts of the Bible. Yet the failure to see the three massa’ot as connected units with a central theme creates even more difficulties, leading many commentators to dismiss the difficulties by labeling the material “apocalyptic.”

The term “apocalyptic” (derived from Greek) really means ‘revelatory” (derived from Latin). When properly used, it refers to material that reveals previously unknown, or secret, information. Hence the title and content of the New Testament Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation to John. In our time, unfortunately, apocalyptic has taken on other connotations that cause responsible Bible commentators to shy away from using the term.

Actually little of the material in these three massa’ot is apocalyptic. For the most part it is commentary (or midrash) on events of the late fourth, third and perhaps early second centuries B.C.E. with 025a single central theme. That theme is the city of Jerusalem with the Holy Temple in its midst.

The first massa (Zechariah 9–11) begins with a recitation of several of the sites conquered by Alexander the Great as he swept southward toward Egypt following his victory over the Persians at Issues in 333 B.C.E. Therefore we may take the opening lines to be a Jewish prophet’s reactions to the events of that time.

Despite Alexander’s conquests, the prophet tells us, “Rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion. Raise a, shout, daughters of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 9:9). Thus begins the song of Jerusalem’s redemption.

Immediately after this comes material especially dear to Christians: the description of Jerusalem’s king riding into the city “on an ass, upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Not understanding the special parallelism known as hendiadys^f in the Hebrew text, some of Europe’s greatest preachers and artists took the text—which they saw as a prefiguration of Jesus—to mean on two donkeys instead of one, thus they depicted Jesus astride two donkeys!) The significant thing about this messiah song for our purposes, however, is the peaceful power of this king. He contrasts sharply with the mighty warrior, Alexander.

It was Jesus’ silent ride into Jerusalem that moved many of its citizens to recall this song and shout, “Hoshe’anna [Hosanna] hen David!” (Save us, son of David!), as the Gospel accounts (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9; John 12:13) inform us.^g

From that point on the first massa speaks of the restoration of Jerusalem, “the daughter of Zion,” of its significance as God’s strength, of the gifts of nature with which God sustains it and of, the responsibilities of its leaders (Zechariah 9:14–17). References to strengthening the House of Judah and the House of Joseph express a longing for the reunification of the estranged tribal groups of Israel (Zechariah 10:4–12). Yet it ends, sadly, with the declaration that the brotherhood between Judah and Israel has been annulled (Zechariah 11:4–17). This surely refers to the final breach between Samaritans and Jews that the first-century Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities, Books 11 and 12) places at this time in history, in the aftermath of Alexander’s invasion.

The second massa (Zechariah 12–14) begins with a beautiful declaration of the creator God who formed the breath of Adam within him. Apocalyptic material about what will become of Jerusalem immediately follows (Zechariah 12:2 and following). Neither Samaria nor the tribes of the north are mentioned. Jerusalem stands alone; its symbolic leader is David. Jerusalem is to be the scene of a catastrophic battle of the nations (Zechariah 14:2 and following). Yet it shall mean victory for the tents of Judah. When this happens, the House of David shall be “before them like God, like a messenger of YHWH.” (Keep this passage about YHWH’s messenger in mind when we analyze the final massa.) Events from Judah’s past are here brought into the prophet’s present to help him understand what occurs in his day. As these events purge and cleanse, we see YHWH as a gigantic form standing with his feet planted on the Mount of Olives, “and the Mount of Olives shall split across from east to west … until a gorge separates it northward and southward” (Zechariah 14:4).

Through that gorge, fresh water will flow from Jerusalem, “part of it to the Eastern Sea [the Dead Sea] and part to the Western Sea [the Mediterranean]” (Zechariah 14:8). Jerusalem will become a perpetual source of life in both summer and winter. YHWH will be king over all the earth and the name of YHWH shall be one—surely an echo of the great Shema, “Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” from Deuteronomy 6:4.

At the very end of this massa we are at the season of Sukkoth, the Feast of Booths, when God’s grace and blessings were most boisterously celebrated by Jerusalem’s citizens and pilgrims. At that time, “All who survive of all those nations that came up against Jerusalem shall make a pilgrimage … to bow low to the King Lord of Hosts and to observe the Feast of Booths” (Zechariah 14:16). From that delightful scene we move to the third massa, which we all know as the Book of Malachi.

Before proceeding to this third massa, it is necessary to consider what Jerusalem was like from the late sixth century B.C.E. onward. The returned exiles from Babylonia completed the rebuilding of the Temple in 510–515 B.C.E. under the inspired leadership of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Jerusalem became a destination for pilgrims from throughout the Jewish world. From far and wide the pilgrims came up to Jerusalem for the great feasts of Jewish tradition: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (the celebration of the giving of the Law) and Sukkoth (Tabernacles). The exultant spirit of those pilgrimages, the faith in God’s love and power, is captured by Psalms 120–134, the songs of ascent.

To understand the, prophetic critique in Malachi, the third massa, it is necessary to know some details about what happened in Jerusalem during the pilgrimages. At least two of the great feasts, Passover and the High Holy Days that preceded Sukkoth, plus the new moon festivities, called for the sacrifice of animals. Pilgrims normally could not 026bring their own animals over long distances, not to mention the fact that most of them were no longer herdsmen, farmers or shepherds. Therefore local stock had to be purchased on arrival.

In the first of the five distinct parts of the final massa, in a dialogue between God and his Levitical priests, God accuses the priests of dishonoring him by accepting inferior animals for sacrifice. The first part (Malachi 1:6–2:9), like each of the following four, is introduced with a keynote quotation. These are the words for part one: “A son should honor a father … but if I am a father, where is my honor?” Having to purchase animals at the site meant that 027some worshippers inevitably brought less than spotless specimens and some priests were apparently accepting them! This was considered dishonor.

The second segment (Malachi 2:10–2:17) is introduced by these questions: “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we break faith with each other and profane the covenant of our fathers?” The audience is Judah and perhaps all its pilgrim visitors. The issue is Judah’s divorce of the wife of his youth and his marriage to the daughters of alien gods, recalling what Ezra (chap. 10) and Nehemiah (13:23–30) had said about marrying “foreign women.” It also recalls the accusations of adultery found in Hosea and Ezekiel, though here the accused is the unfaithful husband rather than the unfaithful wife. As the reader may recall, the opening chapters of Hosea revolve around a situation in which the prophet is married to a harlot as an experience analogous to what he sees as the situation between the Lord and Israel, asserting that the nation of Israel was being unfaithful to the husband-God. In Ezekiel 16 and 23 the same theme is pursued, first in reference to Jerusalem and then in regard to both Samaria and Jerusalem.

The third segment (Malachi 3:1–5) begins:

“Behold me! I am sending my messenger [mal’akhi in Hebrew]. He is clearing [or “has cleared” or “will clear,” —the Hebrew verb form allows all those alternatives] a way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”

The gist of what follows is that the messenger will purge and purify the sons of Levi and

“refine them like gold and silver so that they shall present offerings in righteousness. Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of yore and the years of old” (Malachi 3:3–4).

This is the segment of the text that excites Christians, for the early Christian communities identified John the Baptist as the messenger who prepared the way for the Lord—though the story of Jesus’ own cleansing of the Temple must have confused them because it was Jesus, rather than John, who actually performed a cleansing act in the Temple (John 2:13–25; Mark 11:15–19).

The massa’s fourth segment appears to be Malachi 3:6–12 and is introduced: “For I am the Lord. I have not changed and you, descendants of Jacob, have not been consumed …. Return to me that I may return to you.” It is a comforting statement. God is still God, it says, and Jacob still lives. But Jacob’s descendants are accused of withholding the tithes they owe to God, perhaps because of devastating locust plagues. Repeating a message once spoken by Haggai (2:6–9), it proclaims that God says, “Put me to the test …. I will open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings upon you …. And all the nations shall count you happy, for you shall be the most desired of lands” (Malachi 3:10–12).

The keynote lines of the final segment are these:

“Your words against me have been strong …. You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his charge?’” (Malachi 3:13–14). With this the argument of the entire massa comes to a concluding focus. The people who worshipped God in Jerusalem were not sure that it paid to do that, and so some were slack. Against such doubts they are told that “the arrogant and evildoers shall be straw” and the day of divine judgment that is coming “shall burn to ashes …. But for you who revere my name a sun of victory shall rise to bring healing” (Malachi 4:1–2; 3:19–20 in Hebrew).

The third massa—the Book of Malachi—is about serving God at the Temple in the face of all odds. It cries out against the halfhearted service of the priesthood and the unfaithful behavior of the people. The massa is about the struggle to stay faithful in times when doubt came easily, yet times when the commandment to observe the festivals by coming up to Jerusalem still drew thousands of pilgrims to temple every year.

This massa concludes with two statements that were surely meant to close the Book of the Twelve—if not the entire prophetic collection—rather than merely the third massa. The first of these two concluding statements is:

“Remember the Torah of my servant Moses, whom I commanded at Horeb concerning laws and judgments for all Israel.”

The scribes who gathered the scared writings of Jewish tradition wanted the Torah to be the basic revelation; the prophets were to be interpreted in light of the Torah.

The second and final statement is longer:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Lord. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with annihilation” (Malachi 3:23–24).

The very last word is the prophetic judgment—a hope in the time to come. The day of the Lord will be a day of purging wrath, but also a day of salvation and reconciliation.

The prophetic collection of books in the Hebrew Bible ends with three massa’ot (singular, massa’). So what’s a massa (pronounced mah-SAH)? The prophetic collection of books in the Hebrew Bible also ends with the little Book of Malachi. Who’s Malachi? Answer: He’s nobody. He’s simply the last massa. So, once again, what’s a massa? Let’s focus in from the broadest perspective: The Hebrew Bible is a trilogy; it consists of three collections: (1) The Torah, also known as the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses; (2) the Nevi’im, which means Prophets; and (3) the Kethuvim, or Writings. From […]