person · P0050 · second-temple
Chaggai חגי הנביא
First of the three last prophets. In the second year of Daryavesh he roused Zerubavel, Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, and the people to resume building the Second Temple. A named member of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah in Rambam's listing; with the death of Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, prophecy ceased from Israel.
Who
- Hebrew
- חגי הנביא
- Also known as
- Haggai
- Era
- second-temple
- Received the mesorah from
- Baruch ben Neriah
- Colleagues
- Zechariah (the prophet), Malachi
When
- Traditional
- c. 3390–3448 AM (prophesied in the second year of Daryavesh, 3408 AM)
- Civil (computed)
- 3390–3448 AM · 371–313 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- fl. 520 BCE (second year of Darius I)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈58 years
- Precision
- approximate
Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| A member of the court of Ezra — the Men of the Great Assembly — in Rambam's enumeration, which received the Oral Torah from Baruch ben Neriah and his court.
Confidence is for the chain as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "In the second year of Daryavesh the king... the word of God came through Chaggai the prophet to Zerubavel ben She'altiel governor of Yehudah and to Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak the Kohen Gadol" — the call to rebuild the Temple.
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| "When the last prophets — Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi — died, the ruach hakodesh departed from Israel." | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| His prophecy is dated to the second year of Daryavesh — 3408 AM in traditional reckoning, 520 BCE academically. The two systems diverge by roughly 166 years in the Persian period and are stated separately, never merged.
Schematic traditional dating alongside a firmly dated academic anchor. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| No source records Chaggai's birth; the window shown here is the atlas's schematic convention, anchored to his one hard date — the second year of Daryavesh (Chaggai 1:1). Whether he himself saw the First Temple is not established: his famous question, "Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory?" (מי בכם הנשאר אשר ראה את הבית הזה בכבודו הראשון), attests eyewitnesses in his audience, not the prophet. His reception from Baruch ben Neriah's court (per the Rambam's chain, above) would place his formation in the exile generation — plausibly earlier than the schematic window — but nothing licenses dating his birth before the churban.
A documented absence, added after a reader asked how a post-churban birth squares with tradition: it doesn't have to — the birth is unrecorded, the window is schematic, and 2:3 speaks of the audience. The Baruch-reception implication is stated without being converted into a date.
|
reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |