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Łódzkie Studia Teologiczne

Vol. 33 No. 1 (2024)

Varia

„I will smear your faces with dung” (Mal 2:3b): god’s speech to the priests (Mal 2:1-9) as a manifesto of nehemiah’s reform The Crisis of Priesthood and the Degradation of the Levites in the First Half of the Fifth Century BCE*

  • Arnold Zawadzki
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52097/lst.2024.1.279-325  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2024-05-22

Abstract

The article aims to demonstrate that Mal 2:1-9 is a manifesto of the reform that led to the degradation of the Levites in Nehemiah’s time (mid-fifth century BCE), elevating a new generation of priests, who may have been Zadokites or Aaronites, to the chief priesthood (the OT texts are not conclusive here). On the one hand, Julius Wellhausen’s theory, which indicates that the degradation of the Levites was an aftermath of Josiah’s reform, is challenged, while on the other, certain texts (2 Kgs 23:9-10;
P texts and Ezek 44:10-16) are interpreted as a post-exile attempt to archaically project the degradation of the Levites to the pre-exile period. An exegetical analysis further reveals that Mal 2:1-9 (together with some Deuteronomistic texts) is the youngest and last historical testimony to the Levites’ priesthood prior to their degradation. A new translation and interpretation enriches the previous understanding of the pericope. It is also plausible that a close associate of Nehemiah or Nehemiah himself is disguised as Malachi.

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