AGGEUS (Hebrew Iaggaj, “solemn”; LXX 'Ayyātoç). — Prophet, the tenth in the series of the “Minor Prophets,” the first among those who lived after the exile. He is identical with the prophet mentioned in Ezra 5:1; 6:14. His brief activity, which took place entirely in 520 B.C., concerned the rebuilding of the Temple after the return from Babylon. Aggeus delivered on this matter four oracles, transmitted to us in the two chapters of his book (1:2-11; 2:4-10; 2:12-20 and 22-24). After a rough settlement of the families had been made in the first six months, attention turned to the place of worship: the altar was restored on the site where it had stood before the destruction (Ezra 3:2), and then the foundations of the Temple were laid (Ezra 3:7 ff.). But due to various difficulties (Ezra 4), the work was soon abandoned and showed no signs of resuming. To shake the people from their inertia, to revive the work, and to sustain its continuation was the mission of Aggeus.
He began to speak in the presence of the governor Zorobabel and the high priest Josua on the tenth day of the sixth month of the twentieth year of Darius I (29 August 520 B.C.), reproaching them for their neglect of the house of Jahweh compared to the haste with which private dwellings had been rebuilt; a poor harvest would be the punishment for such negligence (chap. 1). The message of the prophet, perhaps supported by the aid of new repatriates, was heeded, and the work was resumed from the beginning (1:1-4), since nothing was to remain of what little had been done (which would explain Aggeus’ silence on the earlier work mentioned by Ezra). With applause (1:13), he rekindled enthusiasm with an address on the twenty-first day of the seventh month (10 October): the humble Temple that was rising would surpass the glory of the first, for with the coming of the Messiah there would be peace (2:1-10). The third oracle (2:11-20) on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (18 December) promised that only the completion of the Temple would bring true purity (cf. Lev. 6:27 ff.; Num. 19:22). Meanwhile, to the word of Aggeus was added that of the prophet Zacharias (q.v.).
The book is an important source for the post-exilic history of the small Jewish community, which was beset by countless internal and external difficulties. The land, left barren by abandonment, was plagued by drought (1:9 ff.; 2:17); commerce struggled to get underway, and famine raged (1:6). Once work was resumed, a fear crept into the hearts of the Jahwists at the thought of the new building’s inferiority to the old, and Aggeus foretold salvation in the coming of the Messiah: the nations would flock to the Temple in the universal divine kingdom (2:7-10; vv. 7 ff. are quoted and interpreted in Heb. 12:26-28).
The exegesis of the well-known messianic passage (2:8) is difficult, also because the Vulgate (“et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus”) does not agree with the Hebrew text or with the ancient Greek and Syriac versions (cf. A. Skrinjar, in Verbum Domini, 15 [1935], pp. 356-62; J. Knabenauer, Comm. in Proph. Minores, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1924, pp. 183-99; J. Corluy, Spicilegium dogmatico-biblicum, I, Ghent 1884, pp. 515-24). A messianic (perhaps typical) sense is also attributed to the concluding prophecy on the election of Zorobabel as a “sign” amid the ruin of the nations (2:22-24; cf. Knabenauer, op. cit., p. 206 ff.).