The Intertestamental Period

Between Malachi's final words and the angel's announcement to Zechariah lie roughly four centuries the Bible does not narrate — the 'silent years.' No canonical Scripture was written, and no recognized prophet spoke. Yet these were not empty years. God was at work behind the scenes, reshaping the world into the stage on which the Gospel would be told.

Politically the age is one of upheaval. Persian rule gives way to Alexander the Great, whose conquests blanket the Near East in Greek language and culture — so that, providentially, the New Testament could later be written in Greek and read across the known world. After Alexander, his successors fight over the land; under the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrates the temple, the Jewish Maccabees revolt and win a hard-fought independence, remembered in the festival of Hanukkah. That independence is eventually swallowed by Rome, whose general Pompey takes Jerusalem in 63 BC, and the Roman peace — with its roads, common tongue, and order — sets the conditions for the spread of the faith. Within Judaism, synagogues, the scribes, and parties like the Pharisees and Sadducees emerge, and longing for the promised Messiah runs high.

The 'silence' refers only to the absence of inspired Scripture; much was written, including the Apocrypha and the histories of the Maccabees, which we note as valuable historical sources rather than canonical revelation. Dates run from Malachi (c. 430 BC) to the eve of Jesus' birth. Theologically the period demonstrates that God's silence is not God's absence. He was arranging empires, languages, and expectations so that, as the New Testament puts it, 'when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son.' The stage was being set.