Haggai

3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Haggai
       n 1: a Hebrew minor prophet [syn: {Aggeus}]
       2: an Old Testament book telling the prophecies of Haggai which
          are concerned mainly with rebuilding the temples after the
          Babylonian Captivity [syn: {Aggeus}, {Book of Haggai}]



From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Haggai
     festive, one of the twelve so-called minor prophets. He was the
     first of the three (Zechariah, his contemporary, and Malachi,
     who was about one hundred years later, being the other two)
     whose ministry belonged to the period of Jewish history which
     began after the return from captivity in Babylon. Scarcely
     anything is known of his personal history. He may have been one
     of the captives taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He began his
     ministry about sixteen years after the Return. The work of
     rebuilding the temple had been put a stop to through the
     intrigues of the Samaritans. After having been suspended for
     fifteen years, the work was resumed through the efforts of
     Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 6:14), who by their exhortations
     roused the people from their lethargy, and induced them to take
     advantage of the favourable opportunity that had arisen in a
     change in the policy of the Persian government. (See DARIUS
     ŻT0000975 [2].) Haggai's prophecies have thus been
     characterized:, "There is a ponderous and simple dignity in the
     emphatic reiteration addressed alike to every class of the
     community, prince, priest, and people, 'Be strong, be strong, be
     strong' (2:4). 'Cleave, stick fast, to the work you have to do;'
     or again, 'Consider your ways, consider, consider, consider'
     (1:5, 7;2:15, 18). It is the Hebrew phrase for the endeavour,
     characteristic of the gifted seers of all times, to compel their
     hearers to turn the inside of their hearts outwards to their own
     view, to take the mask from off their consciences, to 'see life
     steadily, and to see it wholly.'", Stanley's Jewish Church. (See {SIGNET}.)
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Haggai, feast; solemnity