***Information was primarily obtained and/or copied from Zondervan's NIV Study Bible***
The time between the final word of God in the Old Testament and the first word of God in the New Testaments is referred to as the intertestamental period. It was roughly 400 years (from about 430 BC to about 5 AD.) The Protestant Bible contains no information about God speaking or acting during this time. The last prophet recorded to be sent by God before this 400 year period was Malachi (or some believe possibly Joel) with a call for Israel to repent and turn back to God, or else face God's wrath.
Then in about 5 AD, angels (messengers of God) appear in Judea, first to Mary and Joseph to inform them that the Savior is going to be born through Mary, and then to a priest named Zechariah, to inform him that his wife Elizabeth is going to bear him a son who "will be great in the sight of the Lord... will be filled with the Holy Spirit...and will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" Luke 1:15-17.
So what was going on during this long period of time when God was seemingly silent to His people Israel? Actually quite a bit. There were major events, literature, and social & religious developments that took place that influenced the world including the people and place of Israel, the surrounding culture, and the New Testament.
History
With the Babylonian exile, Israel was no longer its own nation, but under the control and the influence of large empires such as Babylon, Persia, and Macedon (ancient Greece). As early as the Babylonian exile, the Hebrew language was replaced by Aramaic, which became the primary language of the Jews.
Not much is known about what took place in Israel during Persia's domination, because the Jewish historian Josephus, who is our primary source for the intertestamental period, either did not record it, or we do not have his record of it.
During the Macedon conquest, Alexander the Great implemented a policy called Hellenization, which was intended to unite the world by the use of the Greek language and culture. This no doubt greatly impacted the Jews. Many of them were Hellenized and Greek became their primary language.
After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his generals, one of which founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt, and another who founded the Seleucid Empire in West Asia. These two dynasties contended for the land of Israel for over a century. The Ptolemies allowed the Jews to practice their religious beliefs, but that changed after the Seleucids took control and Antiochus IV Epiphanes became ruler and implemented radical Hellenization policies and attempted to eradicate the Jewish religion. To illustrate what he thought of himself, the meaning of his title is "God made manifest". He prohibited the Jews to employ some of the primary elements of Jewish practice, attempted to destroy all copies of the Torah, and required offerings to the Greek god Zeus. He went so far as to erect a statue of Zeus in the Jewish temple as well as sacrifice a pig on the temple's altar, which some Christians believe is "the abomination of desolation" that was revealed to the prophet Daniel.
Though many of the Jews had adopted Greek ways by Hellenization, the majority of them were outraged by Antiochus Epiphanies and revolted against him. This opposition was led by an elderly man named Mattathias who was from a family of Jewish priests, and his five sons, after he destroyed a Greek altar that was erected in his village and killed the Seleucid emissary. Mattathias's actions caused a 24 year war called the Maccabean revolt, which resulted in Judah's independence until Rome took control in 63 BC.
Mattathias and his sons founded the Hasmonian dynasty which, after the death of his last son Simon, became a Hellenistic regime similar to the Seleucid dynasty they had fought against. Other than a small number of Orthodox Jews, the majority of Hasmonians supported the Jewish Hellenizers under the reign of Simon's son, John Hyrcanus. Later, Jewish Pharisees were persecuted under the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, the second king of the Hasmonian dynasty (103-76 BC).
The Hasmonian dynasty came to an end when the expanding Roman empire took control of the land in 63 BC after intervening in a conflict between the two sons of Jannaeus, Aristobolus II and Hyracanus II. The Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem after a three month siege. He is said to have massacred Jewish priests while conducting their priestly duties, and to have entered the Most Holy Place of the temple, demonstrating to the Jews that Rome was not going to respect their religion or their God.
Literature
During the intertestamental period, the Jewish people produced literature that both recorded and addressed this era. Three significant works produced during this time are the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Septuagint. With Alexander the Great's conquest and the rise of Greek empires, some Jews in the diaspora were Hellenized, and therefore Greek became their primary language. Because of this, a Greek translation of the Scriptures was necessary. This Greek translation is called the Septuagint, (LXX), which, according to the Letter of Aristeas, is a result of an Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philadelphus, who in the third century, commissioned seventy two Jewish translators to translate the Torah (Penteteuch) into Greek for his library in Alexandria. These seventy two Jewish translators were comprised of six men from each tribe of Israel. The term "Septuagint" means "seventy", and refers to the seventy-two translators. Seventy-two is rounded down to seventy, hence the Roman numeral, LXX. The Septuagint was widely accepted and used in many synagogues, especially those who did not live in Israel who no longer spoke Hebrew. The remainder of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament were translated by others throughout the next century.
The Septuagint's influence and importance can not be over estimated. It made the Scriptures available to both Jews who did not speak or read Hebrew, and to the entire Greek speaking world. It was later used by the early church as its source for the Scriptures, and contributed to the Apocrypha's inclusion in the Bible by some Christians.
Apocrypha. Derived from a Greek word that means "hidden", but has acquired the meaning "false". The Apocrypha are a variety of books and additions to canonical books that were written during the intertestamental period, with the exception of 2 Esdras (90 AD). They are recognized as authoritative in Roman and Eastern Christianity, as well as by some in Western Christianity.
The Hebrew canon contained in the Old Testament was likely established by the beginning of the second century AD. Though there were disagreements between some of the church fathers as to which books were canonical and which were not, the Apocryphal books, which were included in the Septuagint, continued to be used by most Christians until the Reformation. After that, most Protestants decided to follow the original Hebrew canon, while Rome accepted the Alexandrian canon, which includes the Apocrypha, at the Council of Trent in 1546 and then again at the First Vatican Council in 1869-70.
According to Protestant scholars, there is no clear evidence that Jesus or the apostles ever quoted any Apocryphal works as inspired Scripture. Furthermore, practitioners of Judaism renounced them as Scripture, even though it was the Jewish people who produced them. The sermons by the apostles recorded in Acts do not mention them. And finally, some of them claim to be authored by the person who the book is titled after, even though the books were written by Jews sometimes thousands of years later.
According to Protestant scholars, the Apocrypha have nothing of theological value that is not found in canonical Scripture, and they contain material that runs counter to, or contradicts its teachings. However the Apocrypha does contain valuable information regarding the intertestamental period.
Dead Sea Scrolls. Discovered in 1947 by a shepherd in a cave located in the hills overlooking the southwest shore of the Dead Sea, and called the "greatest manuscript discovery of modern times." The documents contained Old Testament books, some Apocryphal books, apocalyptic writings, pseudepigrapha, and several books that are unique to those who produced them.
Approximately one third of the documents are Biblical, with the books of Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, which are most often quoted in the New Testament, occurring most frequently. A complete scroll of Isaiah, measuring 24 feet long, was among the documents discovered.
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide copies of manuscripts that are 1,000 years closer to the originals than what was previously known, therefore they have contributed to a more accurate interpretation of the Old Testament. They have provided a significant increase of understanding of the Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic languages, as well as increased knowledge of how Judaism developed during the intertestamental period. It is extremely important for readers of the Bible to understand the care that was taken to copy the Old Testament texts, and by doing so the copiests provided texts that are reliable.
Social Developments
The religion of Judaism that existed at the time that Jesus came was primarily the result of changes that occurred in response to the pressures of the intertestamental period.
Diaspora. The diaspora (dispersion) of Israel which began with the exile accelerated during the intertestamental period until writers of the day could say that Jews filled "every land and sea."
Jews outside of Israel and cut off from the temple focused on study of the Torah and the life of the synagogue. The early church began its ministries among the Diaspora, using the Septuagint.
Sadducees. The Greek world made its greatest impact through the party of the Saducees. It was made up of aristocrats and became the temple party. They wielded disproportionate political power and controlled the high priesthood. They rejected all religious writings except the Torah, as well as any doctrines not found within those five books. They believed in a literal interpretation of the Scriptures and did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, an afterlife, or the existence of angels and demons.
Synagogue. During the Babylonian exile, Israel was cut off from the temple, divested of nationhood, and surrounded by pagan religious practices. The nation's faith was threatened with extinction. Under these circumstances, the exiles turned their religious focus from what they had lost to what they had retained - the Torah and the belief that they were God's people. They concentrated on the law rather than the nationhood, on personal piety rather than sacramental rectitude, and on prayer as an acceptable replacement for the sacrifices denied them.
When they returned from exile they brought with them this new form of religious expression, as well as the synagogue (its center), and Judaism became a faith that could be practiced wherever the Torah could be carried. The emphasis on personal piety and a relationship with God, which characterized synagogue worship, not only helped preserve Judaism but also prepared the way for the Christian gospel.
Pharisees. As the party of the synagogue, the Pharisees strove to reinterpret the law. They built a "hedge" around it to enable Jews to live righteously before God in a world that had changed drastically since the days of Moses. Although they were comparatively few in number, the Pharisees enjoyed the support of the people and influenced popular opinion if not national policy. They believed in the oral tradition alongside the written Torah and were more representative of the common people. They were known for their belief in the resurrection of the dead, an afterlife, and the existence of angels and demons. They were the only party to survive the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and were the spiritual progenitors of modern Judaism, influential in the development of Rabbinical Judaism after the destruction of the temple. Today, Orthodox Jews associate themselves with the Pharisees.
Essenes. An almost forgotten Jewish sect (but referred to by Josephus) until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes were a small separist group that grew out of the conflicts of the Maccabean age. Like the Pharisees, they stressed strict legal observance, but they considered the temple priesthood corrupt and rejected much of the temple ritual and sacrificial system. Mentioned by several ancient writers, the precise nature of the Essenes is still not certain, though it is generally agreed that the Qumran community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls was an Essenes group.
Because they were convinced that they were the true remnant, these Qumran Essenes had separated themselves from Judaism at large and devoted themselves to personal purity and preparation for the final war between the "Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness." They practiced an apocalyptic faith, looking back to the contributions of their "Teacher of Righteousness", and forward to the coming of the two, and possibly three, Messiahs. The destruction of the temple in AD 70, however, seems to have delivered a death blow to their apocalyptic expectations.
Attempts have been made to equate aspects of the beliefs of the Qumran community with the origins of Christianity. Some have seen a prototype of Jesus in their "Teacher of Righteousness", and both John the Baptist and Jesus have been assigned membership in the sect. There is, however, only a superficial, speculative base for these conjectures.
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Then in about 5 AD, angels (messengers of God) appear in Judea, first to Mary and Joseph to inform them that the Savior who is God, is going to be born through Mary, and then to a priest named Zechariah, to inform him that his wife Elizabeth is going to bear him a son who "will be great in the sight of the Lord... will be filled with the Holy Spirit...and will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" Luke 1:15-17.
Later, both the Savior, Jesus, and "Elijah", John, go to their own people preaching repentance because the kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven was near, and to believe this good news because the time had come. John is also recorded as saying to the Jewish crowds who were coming to him to be baptized, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" (Luke 3:7), which seems to elude to Malachi's, as well as the other prophets' warnings to Israel, to repent or else face God's coming wrath. History shows that they did not repent and God's wrath did come upon them as predicted by the prophets, about 40 years later when they revolted against Rome because of her governing policies, causing Rome to destroy both the city of Jerusalem and their temple.