Texts in Conversation
Genesis describes the flood waters released through the openings of heaven, while Malachi promises that those same windows can pour out blessing when offerings are given. Both reflect common imagery from ancient Near Eastern cosmology.
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Genesis 7:11
Hebrew Bible
9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him. 10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. 13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Malachi 3:10
Hebrew Bible
8 Can a person rob God? You are indeed robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions! 9 You are bound for judgment because you are robbing me—this whole nation is guilty. 10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it all. 11 Then I will stop the plague from ruining your crops, and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “All nations will call you blessed, for you indeed will live in a delightful land,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The “open heaven” motif (also in Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21; Acts 7:56; 10:11; Revelation 19:11) is found in the Old Testament only in Ezekiel 1:1 where Ezekiel has his vision of the glory of God. Genesis 7:11, Isaiah 24:18 and Malachi 3:10 have the window of heaven open, and Psalm 78:23 provides a picture of the door of heaven open, but only Ezekiel has an open heaven. One other possibility pointed out by Schnackenburg is in Isaiah 63:19 (64:1 in the RSV) where the people cry out for the heavens to be rent so that God will come down ..."
Fowler, William G.
The Influence of Ezekiel in the Fourth Gospel: Intertextuality and Interpretation
(p. 77) Brill, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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