Matthew 11:10 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 10 This is the one about whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
Matthew 11:10 The Greek-English New Testament Interlinear (GENTI) 10 οὗτός ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου, ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου.
Exodus 23:20 The Greek Septuagint Καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου πρὸ προσώπου σου ἵνα φυλάξῃ σε ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ὅπως εἰσαγάγῃ σε εἰς τὴν γῆν ἣν ἡτοίμασά σοι
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 120 books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Malachi 3:1 The Lexham English Septuagint
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will observe the way before my face. And immediately, the Lord, whom you seek, will come into his own temple. And the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:1 The Lexham English Septuagint
‘Indeed, listen! I myself am sending out my messenger ⌊to go before you⌋ (lit. before face, your), in order that he may watch over you in the way, in order that he may guide you to the land that I have prepared for you.
What Matthew has done here at 11:10 is he has combined Malachi 3:1 and Exodus 23:20. The first half of Matthew’s quotation is identical to the Greek Septuagint of Exodus 23:20. It literally reads,
The second half of Matthew’s quotation is not identical to the Greek Septuagint of Malachi 3:1. It literally reads,
Matthew 10:11
ὃς κατασκευάσει τὴν ὁδόν σου ἔμπροσθέν σου.
Malachi 3:1
ἐπιβλέψεται ὁδὸν πρὸ προσώπου μου
You will notice (ὁδὸν) has become (τὴν ὁδόν σου) and (Heb. לְפָנָי /Gr προσώπου μου) has become (ἔμπροσθέν σου).
On this John Nolland writes,
The latter change allows the conflate text to report a conversation between God and one who is to come after the messenger, whose way the messenger is to prepare. The one who is to come after is to make the visit that, according to Mal. 3:1, God has promised to make. The same preparatory role has been attributed to John at Mt. 3:2, where the wilderness location is also noted. Since John will be identified with Elijah in 11:14, the Mal. 3:1 link probably already implies an identification between the messenger of 3:1 and Elijah in 3:23 (ET 4:5). An identical conflation of Ex. 23:20 and Mal. 3:1 (except for the emphatic ‘I’ and the final ‘before you’) is found in Mk. 1:2.[1]
Matthew 11:10 Updated American Standard Version (UASV) 10 This is the one about whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
This is the one about whom it was written: The passage of Scripture here quoted is found in Malachi 3:1 and Exodus 23:20. The basis of it is contained also in Isaiah 40:3.
Behold or Look: The Greek interjection (ἰδού idou) can be rendered different way depending on the context. Some feel that it is impossible to translate it with the perfect English equivalent. It can be used to add excitement to a narrative, to interject new events, or to add emphasis. The basic objective is to get the reader’s attention before what follows.
My messenger: This is referring to God’s messenger, so the reader should not assume it is referring to Jesus’ messenger.
Before your face: This is not to be taken literally but figuratively, which means that the messenger was to be sent ahead of Jesus.
Who will prepare your way before you: This means that John the Baptist was going to get the way, road, or path ready for Jesus’ journey.
Here in Matthew 11:10, Jesus is telling his audience and us who the messenger is, namely, John the Baptist, who has come six months before the Messiah to prepare the way for the Son of God, who was now in prison and would soon be beheaded. “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ ” (Matt. 11:10) This six months of preaching that John the Baptist had done prior to Jesus, gave him the opportunity to get a small number of Israelites ready to be receptive to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus was telling the crowd that John was the “messenger” of God foretold in Malachi 3:1 and was also the prophet Elijah foretold in Malachi 4:5-6. He, therefore, praises John as being greater than any prophet who had lived before him because John had been the forerunner to the Messiah. He explained: “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist! Yet, the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence.” – Matthew 11:11-12.
Stuart K. Weber writes,
In the quote of 11:10, Jesus identified John as the messenger of Malachi 3:1. The Book of Malachi takes the form of a dialogue or a series of question-and-answer exchanges between hypocritical Israel (particularly the corrupt leaders) and the Lord. At the end of Malachi 2, the Lord says he is wearied with Israel’s complaints about injustice (when, in reality, they themselves were guilty of causing much injustice). They asked. “Where is the God of justice?” In response to their complaints, the Lord answers: “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. So I will come near to you for judgment” (Mal. 3:1–5). Jesus’ quote of Malachi 3:1 made a statement about John the Baptizer. But for those who knew its context, the quote made an even more significant statement about Jesus himself. The messenger would prepare the way for One who would bring justice that the complainers of Israel would not welcome. He would come to the temple (Matt. 21:1–17, 23–27). He would be “the messenger of the covenant,” proclaiming judgment on them as the breakers of the covenant (Matt. 23).[2]
Let us take a moment to consider how we are to understand a prophecy written by an Old Testament writer that is then used by a New Testament writer. Both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament had a meaning that the original audience would have understood. It served as a means of guidance for the initial people, as well as for succeeding generations, down to our day. This is not to say that the prophetic message itself always had an immediate application, but that its meaning is beneficial to all.
The New Testament writers used Old Testament writers in one of two ways. (1) The New Testament writer took the one grammatical-historical interpretation of the Old Testament passage. In this case, we are talking about a fulfillment of the Old Testament passage, and we are perfectly fine to word it that way. In other words, the Old Testament passage was written as a prophecy for that future event, not some immediate fulfillment. (2) The New Testament writer goes beyond what the Old Testament writer penned, assigning it additional meaning that is applicable to the New Testament context. In other words, the Old Testament writer’s grammatical-historical interpretation would have been a fulfillment for him and his audience, not just a hope. The New Testament writer then made the information applicable to his situation, by adding to it, which fit his context. With number (1), we have the New Testament writer staying with the literal sense of the Old Testament writer. With number (2), we have the New Testament writer adding a whole other meaning.
Just as a reminder, seeing fulfillment is subjective, an opinion, just like our allegory and typology. If Matthew is assigning a different meaning to Moses and Malachi’s words, it is his meaning, and it is subjective. This is perfectly fine because Matthew and the other NT authors had the authority to offer subjective meaning; he was an inspired Bible writer and was moved along by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, if the NT authors had a license, the authority to add an additional sense or fuller sense than what had been penned in the Old Testament; then, certainly this would be true of Jesus even more so.
Exodus 23:20 tells us “Behold, I am sending (Heb. מַלְאָךְ malak; Gr. ἄγγελόν) an angel ahead of you to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared.” The meaning here by Moses is a literal angel. When Matthew says Jesus said, “Behold, I send my (ἄγγελόν) messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.” Matthew has assigned a different meaning to the Greek word (ἄγγελόν), a messenger, namely, John the Baptist. The most powerful angel in the Bible is Michael, the archangel. (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7) Because of his superiority and his being called “Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your [God’s] people” (Dan. 12:1), we can strongly infer that he was the angel who led the Israelites through the wilderness. (Ex 23:20-23)
[1] John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2005), 456.
[2] Stuart K. Weber, Matthew, vol. 1, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 163.
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