Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Pieter A. Verhoef on the imagery of wings in Malachi 4:2

  

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves as the stall. (Mal 4:2 [Heb 3:20])

 

in its wings. Most interpreters combine the figurative use of the wings of a bird with the rays of the sun, while attaching to it alternative meanings, for instance, as symbol of protection with reference to a hen and her chickens (Luther), or of rapid movement (Reinke), while the majority of interpreters follow Wellhausen in his reference to the comparable motif of the sun depicted as a wing disk in Near Eastern religion and culture. The similarity between the “wings” of the sun-righteousness and the winged disk of Israel’s Umwelt is indeed remarkable. In the astral religions of the ancient Near East the sun did play a major role. The sun-god Shamash was the god of righteousness and the protector of the poor. The possibility of such an association in the metaphor of our text with similar notions in the religion and culture of that time cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, there is an aspect that we must not forget. The sun disk of the Assyrians and Persians was a symbol of dominion and therefore a sign of violence or destruction will be found, but healing, redemption, everlasting life, and peace. (Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi [NICOT; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1987], 330-31)

 

Further Reading


"The Wings of God" in the Psalter, the ANE, and Jesus's Words in Matthew 23:37//3 Nephi 10:4-6