Malachi 4:6 - Hearts of the Children to their Fathers, and Hearts of the Fathers to their Children

  • Thread starter Thread starter DeepDeepTrouble3
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Dear Eli Rotello,

It’s important to remember that the Church has always interpreted the Fourth Commandment in an extended fashion, as referring not just to parents but to legitimate authority. 🙂
 
Not all versions of the Bible classify the book of Malachi into 4 chapters. The DRV Bible does.

The New American Bible OTOH classifies the book of Malachi into 3 chapters. So in the NAB we find that the equivalent coordinates of Malachi 4:5-6 , are actually Malachi 3:23-24 .

There’s a fairly comprehensive commentary on Malachi 3:23-24 found in this online pdf :

The Prophet Elijah in Jewish and Christian Traditions

The most pertinent section is found by scrolling to pg 25 - to the section subtitled Elijah the Peacemaker: Jewish and Early Christian Interpretations of Malachi 3:23-24 ;Lawrence E. Frizzell . It includes some insight from St Jerome and St Augustine. I clipped a couple of the salient points and pasted them below (highlights mine).
In his commentaries on the prophets, Jerome frequently cites Jewish traditions and his works bear witness to themes that are preserved only in part in Jewish texts that can be dated early.
Click to expand...
He reports that the Jews understand «Behold, I send my messenger…» (Mal 3:1) of Elijah the prophet, and what follows about the messenger of the Covenant «they refer to eleimmenos, that is their Christ, whom they say will come on the last day.»24 Because Jesus links John the Baptist with Elijah, Jerome applies Malachi 3:23 to him. His lengthy comment on the last verses of Malachi deserves our attention.
Click to expand...
«After Moses, whose commandments we have taught should be kept spiritually, (Malachi) says that Elijah is to be sent; Moses signifying the law and Elijah prophecy, as Abraham says to a certain rich man in purple: ‘They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them!’ (Luke16:28)…The Lord sent in Elijah (which means ‘my God’), who is from the town Thesbi (which resounds conversion and penance), the entire chorus of prophets, who turn the heart of fathers to sons, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs, that their descendants may believe in the Savior Lord, in whom they believed. ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day.’ (John 8:56). Or, ‘the heart of the father to the son,’ that is, the heart of God to everyone who will accept the spirit of adoption. And, ‘the heart of the children to their fathers’ that both Jews and Christians, who now disagree among themselves, agree to Christ by like religion. Whence it is to the apostles, who proclaim the plantation of the Gospel throughout the whole world: ‘Instead of your fathers shall be your sons.’ (Ps 45:17). If, however, Elijah does not turn the heart of fathers to sons before, when the great and horrible day of the Lord comes… the true and just judge will strike, not heaven, nor those meditating on it, but the earth with a curse, those who do earthly things. Jews and Judaizing heretics think that Elijah will come before their eleimmenos and restore all things. Hence the question is posed to Christ in the Gospel: ‘Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?’ (Mark 9:11) and he replies: ‘Elijah does come first…’ (9: 12), understanding Elijah to be John.»
Click to expand...
Knowing the traditions about Elijah’s role in reconciling Israelites among themselves, and causing them to return to God (as his names «Elijah the Thisbite» imply), Jerome places the task within a Christological framework. Then he argues against a Jewish eschatological hope by referring to the Gospel.
Click to expand...
**Augustine **devotes a chapter of The City of God (XX:29) to the Malachi passage, with an emphasis on Elijah’s work in converting the Jews. Although there are themes in common with Jerome, his thought develops from the Septuagint wording.
Click to expand...
(Elijah) will turn the heart of the father toward the son’… the seventy translators used the singular for the plural. The meaning, then, is that the sons, that is, the Jews, will interpret the Law as their fathers - that is, the prophets, including Moses himself - interpreted it. For it is thus that the heart of the fathers will be turned toward the children when the understanding of the fathers is brought to the understanding of the children. And ‘the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers’ when the children share the views of their fathers. The Septuagint here says, ‘the heart of a man to his neighbor’ - for fathers and sons are the closest of neighbors.
Click to expand...
However, another and a more attractive meaning… is that Elijah is to turn the heart of God the Father toward the Son, not, of course, by causing the Father to love the Son, but by teaching men that the Father loves the Son, so that the Jews also, who first hated the Son, will love this same Son, who is our Christ.» (XX:29)
Click to expand...
 
Malachias 4:6
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
“Ask and forgive,”

and the heart of the children to their fathers:
“Ask and forgive,”

lest I come, and strike the earth with anathema.
 
Ask and forgive are imperitive commands, and they are how to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. There are no two words that can do that as well as these.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top