HAGGAI: INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY STRUCTURE

 

The following is abstracted from a chapter in my unpublished book The Structure of Scripture. I will send a copy by email attachment to anyone requesting it at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.                

Although the style of the the Book of Haggai has often been disparaged, others defend it ably. It is hoped that the reader will have a greater appreciation of the overall organization of this small, but not insignificant, prophetic book by the end of this analysis.

One note is in order before proceeding with a structural analysis. A complicating issue concerns the relationship of the book of Haggai to Zechariah 1-8. This subject will be addressed in a future posting.

Structural Proposal

This book would seemingly be easy to analyze, not only because of its brevity but also due to the abundant dates that serve as literary markers. The dates are presented variously, but all are given in terms of King Darius' reign and appear in chronological order.

Several of these act to introduce major oracles or narrative sections in the book. Each of the resulting individual sections can be shown to possesses its own thematic and literary unity. Linguistic and thematic similarities also pair together the similarly lettered sections shown below.

Figure 1: The Structure of Haggai

Cycle I (1:1-2:9)

A. This people is not ready to build (1:1-2)

B. “Consider your ways” (1:3-15a)

1. up to the present (1:3-6)

                                                            2. the future if you build (building begins) (1:7-15a)

C. Shaking of the heavens and the earth (1:15b-2:9)

Cycle II (2:10-23)

A'. This people offers unclean work (2:10-14)

B'. “Consider from this day onward” (2:15-19)

1. up to the present (2:15-17)

                                                            2. the future since building began (2:18-19)

C'. Shaking of the heavens and the earth (2:20-23)

This proposed structure is helpful in answering several specific questions regarding the book:

1. Haggai 1:15 One controversy can perhaps be settled by consideration of the structure proposed in Fig. 1. Scholarly opinion is fairly evenly divided between those who feel that the last part of Haggai 1:15, “in the second year of Darius the king,” belongs to the date that precedes and those who feel 1:15b follows it. If the analysis in Fig. 1 is correct, then the most likely placement of 1:15b, from a strictly structural viewpoint, is with the following date formula. This would result in the first and last sections of Cycle I beginning with an identical date format: year, month, day.

2. Recipients A second point is in regards to the intended audience of the various oracles in the book. Breaking out the first two verses as a separate section, as in Fig. 1, resolves some of the ambiguity regarding the recipients in Haggai 1. If there is some degree of true parallelism between the two halves of the book, the recipients of the various messages would appear to be as follows:

Section A: leadership

Section B: people

Section C: those who had witnessed the earlier temple

Section A': priests

Section B': people

Section C': Zerubbabel

Multiple leadership figures are addressed in A and A'; the entire nation is the audience for B and B'; and C and C' are directed toward select members of the community.

3. Haggai 2:10-19 A more fundamental controversy concerns the proper understanding of the these verses. The date in 2:18 given for the temple foundation laying (December 18, 520 BC) appears to be at odds both with the date several months earlier in 1:15a and Ezra's date of 537 BC (Ezra 3:10-13). Due to this supposed inconsistency, many critical scholars opt for moving 2:15-19 to a position in the book after 1:13 with a concomitant change of the date to the sixth month to restore the supposed original text. It can be seen that any such major emendation of the text would completely destroy the structure of Fig. 1. A more conservative approach adopted by some commentators is to treat the foundation laying as a formal consecration or re-dedication event in distinction to the original dedication during Ezra's time and to the preliminary work on the temple mentioned in Haggai 1:12-15a that began three months earlier.

4. Haggai 2:20-23 The proper understanding of this oracle is of importance mainly because it has been cited as an example of a failed prophecy. The historical Zerubbabel apparently never gained the political prominence hinted at here. But these verses can be understood alternatively within an eschatological time frame, whether as an indication of Zerubbabel's future position in the New Jerusalem or as his role in the Davidic line of the coming Messiah. A recasting of Fig. 1 in terms of the time frames of the events is given in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Time Frame of Haggai's Oracles

Cycle I

Section A: Present (before temple building began) (Aug. 520 BC)

Section B1: Immediate Past

Section B2: Near Future

Section C: Eschatological Future

Cycle II

Section A': Present (after temple building began) (Dec. 520 BC)

Section B'1: Immediate Past

Section B'2: Near Future

Section C': Eschatological Future

Note that within each prophetic cycle, there is a forward progression chronologically. In addition, Cycle II advances the action slightly over Cycle I in regards to time (a common device utilized in apocalyptic literature such as the books of Daniel and Revelation). And since the ornate temple described in Section C would seem to apply at the earliest to Herod's Temple, that means that the prophecy concerning Zerubbabel will take place no sooner than its construction. Thus, an eschatological understanding of the final oracle in Haggai is seen to be more than a fallback position, but is probably the intended interpretation.