HAGER, hd'ger, KONRAD: German religious
reformer of the fourteenth century. In Feb., 1342, he was tried by the Inquisition at Würzburg. He
admitted that he bad opposed the collection
of offerings for masses, and also the holding of masses
and supplications for the dead, thus alienating many
from the teachings of the Church. The trial ended
with his recantation; but later he adopted his
former heretical views, and, it is said, suffered death
at the stake. He is supposed to have been under
the influence of Waldensian doctrines.
Herman Haupt.
Bibliography:
Monumenta Boica, xl. 381, 388-396, Munich, 1870; H. Haupt,
Die religiösen Sekten in
Franken
vor der Reformation, pp. 20-21, wiirsburg, 1882.
HAGGAI, hag'ga-ai: The tenth in order of arrangement of the Minor Prophets, and the earliest
of the post-exilie prophets. The book is an important source for early postexilic
history. The contents are in brief as follows: In the second year of
Darius (520 B.C.), Haggai was commanded to oppose before Zerubbabel and Joshua the current
opinion in Judea that the time had not come to
rebuild the Temple; the result was a commencement of the work
(i. 1-11). A second oracle rebuked
the faintheartedness of the people due to their
lowly condition by promising a stirring among the
nations which should pour treasures in abundance
into it (li. 1-9). A third and a fourth oracle, a
month later, promised the wakening of the nations,
the overthrow of the heathen kingdoms, and the
acknowledgment of Zerubbabel as Yahweh's signet
(ii. 11-19, 20-23).
The contents of this book make clear that the
building of the Temple had not been accomplished
during the reign of Cyrus and according to his edict
(Ezra i. 3),
and supplements the account in
Ezra iv. 1-5;
though there is no trace in either Haggai
or Zechariah that the foundations had already been
laid
(Ezra iii. 12).
Haggai speaks as though the
fault was that of the Jews themselves, but he shows
also that they had suffered from drought and failure of crops (i. 6, 9, ii. 16), and the people were few
in number, so that they had tried to proselyte, a
process which had brought its own difficulties
(Isa. lvi.-lxvi.). The course of events stated or
implied is as follows: The first address on the first
day of the sixth month, 520 B.C.;
a further encouraging word between that date and the twentyfourth; discouragement followed the first efforts,
hence a new delivery on the twenty-first day of the
seventh month, parallel to Isa. Ix.; to remove
evident discouragement came a new stimulus in
the address delivered on the twenty-fourth day of the
ninth month, followed by an address later on the
same day and of different tenor, in which Zerubbabel
is called by God to a special mission. He is God's
signet, his representative; and this can point only
to the reestablishment of the kingdom. And with
this was bound up also the realization of certain
Messianic hopes. Doubtless the stimulus to this
was given in the stormy condition of affairs in the
East, which looked toward the destruction of the
Persian empire and seemed favorable to the erection
of the Messianic kingdom in Judea.
(R. Kittel.)
Bibliography:
T. K. Cheyne, Jewish Religious Life
aft'
the Exile, New York, 1898; A. Köhler, Weieaapunpm
Hagpaie, Erlangen, 1860; P. H. Hunter, Afer the Exile.
vol. i., chap. vii., Edinburgh, 1890; J. Wellhausen, Bkizaen and
Vorarbeiten, vol. v., Berlin, 1893; E. Meyer, Die
Entstehung des Judenthums, Halle, 1896; Bah-e. in
ZATW, vii. (1887), pp. 215 sqq.; W. Nowack, Kleine
Propheten, Göttingen, 1897; G. A. Smith, The Book of
the Twelve, vol. ii., London, 1898; DB, ii. 279-281; EB, ii.
1935-37; JE, vi. 146-149.
