Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on the Prophet Haggai

COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET HAGGAI he blessed prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah directed their discourse in general to all the Israelite people, both those of the ten tribes ruled by Samaria and especially those of the tribe of Judah, who dwelt in Jerusalem.1 They accused both in similar fashion of acts of impiety and [476] lawlessness, which they committed in various ways, and went on to mention also the troubles that would thus befall them for sinning without repentance, namely, the fate of the ten tribes, first at the hands of the Assyrians, and later what happened to those of the tribe of Judah under the Babylonians. To these predictions of theirs they attached also the change in their fortunes of the latter, namely, leaving captivity and returning to their own land. Blessed Obadiah mentioned the punishment that would be imposed on the Idumeans at the time of the return. Blessed Jonah threatened the Ninevites with overthrow if they did not change their evil ways. Blessed Nahum clearly disclosed both the siege of Nineveh and the destruction of the whole kingdom of the Assyrians , which they were due to undergo at the hands of the Babylonians . After those in the ten tribes had already been deported by the Assyrians and had suffered total captivity and removal from their own place, the blessed prophets, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, charge those left behind, who were from the tribe of Judah and living in Jerusalem, with their acts of impiety and lawlessness,2 citing the punishment due to be inflicted on 1. As has become clear, it is not the order of The Twelve in the LXX generally , where Amos precedes Hosea, and Micah Joel, that Theodore finds in his Antiochene text, but the order in the Hebrew Bible. 2. After the four eighth-century prophets, there succeed in Theodore’s reckoning three others still prior to the fall of Samaria, and two prior to the fall of Jerusalem in the early sixth century. When cutting to the basics in such an historical summary, he leaves the mythical Gog out of calculation. 306 them for this by God through the Babylonians, and saying that, far from its being long in coming, all the foretold troubles would come on them suddenly and right away. The prophet, Zephaniah, foretold that the realization of the coming troubles would be close at hand. The blessed prophet, Haggai, on the other hand, to whom it falls to us now by the grace of God to bring clarity,3 delivers his prophecy not only after the captivity inflicted on Jerusalem by the Babylonians had happened but when the Israelites were already released from captivity and by divine grace had returned to their own country in defiance of all human expectation. He directs his words to those who had returned and were living in their own country, thanks to such an unexpected favor, and accuses them of indifference to the rebuilding of the Temple. In its rebuilding God had clearly taken great interest, though not for his own sake, as he says of himself, “Heaven is my throne and earth a footstool under my feet: what house is this you are building for me, says the Lord, or what is my resting place?”4 Admittedly, this too is insignificant if words are compared with the divine magnitude, which clearly surpasses everything in existence , to a degree beyond anyone’s capacity to grasp. For the sake of the Israelites, however, the one who has care for human beings sets much store by the rebuilding of the Temple: he provided for them to assemble in that place and Temple, and to render worship of a kind suited to him in accord with the legal provisions, and he wanted the people to adhere to religious practice in all these ways so that appropriately from there at the right moment Christ the Lord according to the flesh might appear for the salvation of all.5 Of necessity, then, he devoted atCOMMENTARY ON HAGGAI, PREFACE 307 3. Theodore sees his task to bring “clarity,” safhvneia, to the often obscure text of the prophets—a goal similar to the one espoused by Theodoret, who in speaking of his work on the Song of Songs, saw it as his role to “bring clarity to obscurity.” 4. Is 66.1. 5. The building of a temple for God’s habitation poses something of a theological problem for eastern theologians committed to upholding divine...