During the 400 years between the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi and first book of the New Testament, Matthew, the people didn’t hear from God. It’s called the Intertestamental Period. What happened during those years? Was God really silent? Did He abandon Israel — His chosen people? In this special 2-part series, we will cover historical accounts that tell us about characters like Alexander the Great, the Maccabees, Cleopatra, Caesar and Marc Antony, the birth of the Jewish sects, the Pharisees and the Saducees and finally, King Herod the Great. Let’s dig in…
God’s Last Words – c 430 BC
4 “Remember to obey the Law of Moses, my servant—all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel.
5 “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
Malachi 4:4-6 NLT
The Old Testament ends with the world “curse”. But wait! What about the Promise of the coming of the Jewish Messiah? It was a promise that God fulfilled, but not until 400 years later — give or take a few. Malachi wrote to the Jews who returned from 70 years of exile in Babylon. The Babylonians invaded Judah, sacked Jerusalem and burned down the beautiful temple that Solomon built in 586 BC. They took the Jews to Babylon. There, the Jews lost the Hebrew language as they learned and adapted the language of the Babylonians — Aramaic.
The Persians and the Medes then conquered Babylon in 397 BC. It was King Cyrus of Persia that sent Zerubbabel and the first contingent of Jews back to Judah to rebuild the temple. Ezra, the priest, then goes to teach the Law of Moses to the returning Jews. Finally, Nehemiah goes to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. The prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi prophesied to these post-exilic Jews.
In Part 1, we’ll cover the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids and the Hellenizing or Greek influence of Judah, through the Maccabean revolt. In Part 2, we cover Cleopatra and the Romans, the birth of the sects — the Pharisees and the Saducees, then Herod the Great.
The End of the Persian Era – 336 BC
Enter Alexander the Great. He was the King of Macedonia and considered a great conqueror. Check out this map of the lands he conquered.
Alexander didn’t just bring the Greek army, he also brought the Greek language, culture, as well as science and philosophy. His tutor, while he was growing up, was Aristotle. It was the Hellenization of the area. Unfortunately, he died very young — in his early 30s. Upon his death, leaving no heirs at the time (a son was born to Roxanne after his death), the kingdom was split up between 5 of his generals. See the map below.
Around 20-30 years later, Seleucus conquered Antigonus and Perdicas to create the Selucid Empire. Here’s another map to give you and idea where poor Israel fell in between the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in the north.
The Ptolemaic Empire
Though the Ptolemies ruled over Egypt, they spoke Greek, the culture and education was Greek. Ptolemy II Philadelphus built one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Library of Alexandria. Alexandria became the capital of knowledge and learning. He wanted to collect all the greatest books of the known world — including the Old Testament. However, he didn’t read Hebrew, nor Egyptian, so had the Hebrew Torah translated into Greek. That became known as the Septuagint, for the 70 scribes hired to translate the books. (We’ll cover this in depth in a future series on the History of the Bible.)
The Ptolemies and the Seleucids, fought each other with poor Judah in the middle. The Ptolemies ruled Judah for some time, then the Seleucids took over.
The Seleucids
Antiochus IV Ephiphanes ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. He wanted all people united under one culture — that is, everyone worshiping the Greek gods and speaking Greek. He imposed the following rules on the Jews to wipe them of everything that was Jewish…
- The Jews could not assemble for worship, sacrifices or prayer
- They could no longer observe the Sabbath
- Possessing scriptures was illegal
- Circumcision was illegal
- Their dietary laws were illegal
Considering that God’s last words in Malachi were to “…obey the Law of Moses, my servant—all the decrees and regulations…”, their king was asking them to sin.
Meanwhile, Antiochus desecrated the Jewish temple by sacrificing a pig and having a statue of Zeus installed. Interestingly enough, the statue looked a lot like Antiochus since no one knew what Zeus looked like. Of course, he was a fake god and didn’t exist — an invention of man. In fact, pagan sacrifices where now mandated. Furthermore, the breaking of these laws was punishable by death.
God May Have Been Silent, But You Still See His Hand
Consequently, God did raise up the Maccabees, a family of priests, yet they were Hellenized Jews. The main phase of their revolt against Antiochus and the Seleucids lasted from 167-160 BC. It ended with the Seleucids in control of Judah. Nevertheless, God stirred Judas Maccabeus (“Maccabeus” means “the Hammer”). They did not give up and their story is told in the historical, apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees — they are not divinely inspired. I covered it thoroughly in the story of the Festival of Hanukkah.
With the help of God, they won the battle and Judah became an independent state for the first time since the death of Solomon. This birthed the Hasmonean dynasty. Their family tree is pictured below. Check out who is at the bottom…
As it turns out, Judah’s independence under the Hasmonean Dynasty lasted only 100 years. Tomorrow we’ll finish with the rest of the story. Subscribe so you don’t miss out!
What’s the point in going over all this history?
First, it’s God’s Story. HIStory is our story — our story as humans and our relationship with the Almighty God. If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. We see that everyday. Biblical history also gives us prophecies and promises of God that were fulfilled. Promises He kept. That gives us the confident HOPE that what He promises us born-again believers in His coming Kingdom, is marvelous. Given that, you must be saved to receive these promises.
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
Believe. Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit.
- Believe — have Faith — that Jesus is the Christ and He died taking your sins away forever and that He rose from the dead 3 days later.
- Repent of your sins — stop sinning! Do a complete 180-degree turn in your life and surrender your life to Him. When you ask Jesus to forgive you He will. ALL your sins will be wiped clean — past, present, and future! And All means ALL!
- Be Baptized by water baptism — show the world and yourself that you have died to your old life and are born again in Christ.
- Receive the gift of Holy Spirit in your heart.
