Episode 115 – Perfectly Quiet – The Intertestamental Period 1

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script:

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.

Malachi, chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, New International Version

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VK: Hello. I’m Victoria K and today on Anchored by Truth we are starting a new study series brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In this series we’re going to take a look at what is normally referred to as “The Intertestamental Period.” This is the 400 plus year period between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. I’m in the studio today with RD Fierro, author and Founder Crystal Sea Books. Now RD, Anchored by Truth focuses on demonstrating the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible. So, why do you think that it’s important for us to look at the period during which no new books of the Bible were being written? It would seem to be counterintuitive for a program that focuses on the Bible to take time out to focus on a time when books of the Bible weren’t being produced.

RD: Well, greetings to all the Anchored by Truth listeners. And I think your question is a very good one …

VK: Thank you. I thought it was.

RD: So, there’s a short answer to your question and a long answer.

VK: There usually is. So, what’s the short answer?

RD: The short answer is that it’s impossible to understand the relationship between the two testaments without knowing something about the period that elapsed in between them. A lot of people may not realize that there was a period of about 450 years that separated the writing of the last books of the Old Testament and the preparation of the first books of the New Testament. Because our Bibles are complete today, and you can turn one page and go from Malachi to Matthew, a lot of people don’t realize that turning that page spans a gap of over 400 years and perhaps over 450 years. If we don’t know what happened during that gap our understanding of much of the gospels and the New Testament will be incomplete. I’ve named this series Perfectly Quiet – the Intertestamental Period. The period was quiet in the sense that during that period God gave no new special revelations to one of his prophets or messengers. But as we will see as this series progresses that period was also perfect in its duration and perfect in how God was preparing the world for the arrival of Jesus.

VK: And what’s the long answer?

RD: Well, the long answer to for the listeners to keep listening because that’s why we’re doing this series.

VK: Hmmmm. Well, let’s at least do an illustration of what you’re thinking about – something we’re going to learn about as we go through the longer answer.

RD: Ok. Here’s a good example of things that we need to be familiar with in order to have a solid understanding of the New Testament. The last few books chronologically in the Old Testament are two historical books, Ezra and Nehemiah, and one of the so-called Minor Prophets, Malachi. They were all written about the middle of the 5th century B.C. – around the years 430 B.C. to 450 B.C. When these books were written the Jews were living in their homeland but they were a vassal state of the Persian Empire. In other words, they really weren’t an independent country. They were ruled by the Persians. When the New Testament opens with the arrival of John the Baptist the Jews still lived in their homeland and they still weren’t a truly independent nation. But now rather than being a part of the Persian Empire they were part of the Roman Empire. Pretty much everybody is familiar with the name Herod. Herod was actually a family name of a number of successive kings who ruled Judea. Although the Herods actually came from the region that had been called Edom the family had more-or-less converted to Judaism. So, it’s correct to think of the Herod who is featured in the Gospels as a Jew. But Herod took his orders largely from Rome.

VK: In other words the status of the Hebrew homeland hadn’t changed during those 450 years – just the foreign empire that controlled it. And I suspect you’re going to tell us that that change in control was important to the Bible story.

RD: Actually it was very important. Here’s a quick example of why. There were a number of ancient empires that exercised hegemony over Israel. The various empires permitted varying degrees of autonomy in their vassal states. Well, under the Romans the Jews did have a fair amount of latitude in control of their daily affairs. But, as was true throughout the empire, there were certain decisions the Romans reserved for themselves – and one of those areas had to do with censuses and taxation.

VK: And that’s why in Luke, chapter 2, Luke notes that Caesar Augustus ordered that “a census be taken of the entire Roman world.” In order to get accurate counts of their population, people had to return back to their ancestral homes. That meant Joseph had to leave Nazareth where he lived and go back to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the ancestral home for people, like Joseph, who traced their lineage to David. In doing so Joseph took his pregnant wife with him. So, God used an edict from a pagan emperor as part of His plan to have Jesus, the Messiah, be born in Bethlehem. But it was important in God’s planning that the control of Palestine had shifted to an empire that took their censuses in that way. If Caesar Augustus hadn’t issued the edict Mary and Joseph would have been in the wrong place at the time of Jesus’ birth. They had no other reason to travel to Bethlehem at that time.

RD: Right. But of course, in His providence, God was going to take whatever action was necessary to fulfill His plans. God is sovereign over not only the ends but the means. But the fact that during the intertestamental period God had shifted control of Palestine from one pagan empire to another is an illustration of why we need to pay attention to the intertestamental period. Even though books of the Bible weren’t being actively produced during that time, it doesn’t mean that nothing was happening with respect to God’s superintendence of history or Him directing the plan of salvation to its appointed end.

VK: Well, I think that’s a good illustration of why we wanted to do this series. As we said earlier turning the page from Malachi to Matthew crosses a gap of almost 450 years. We do that so easily that it’s easy to forget how long a time span that really is. That’s more than two centuries longer than the United States has been in existence. Today, we think of events from the 1990’s as being old. So, where do you want to go from here?

RD: With a caveat.

VK: Yikes. We haven’t even gotten started and already you’re hedging.

RD: Yes. I am. But it’s a necessary hedge and it will get us started on additional understanding what was going on during the intertestamental period. First, let’s remind everyone that in the Bibles most commonly used by Protestant denominations there are 66 books. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. As we’ve mentioned, the last book of the Old Testament was written by a so-called Minor Prophet named Malachi. Malachi means “messenger of Jehovah” or “my messenger.” And most commentators date the book of Malachi during the same time period in which Ezra and Nehemiah were helping the Hebrew people recover from the Babylonian Captivity.

VK: As a refresher - after Solomon died the nation that King David had unified split into the northern and southern kingdoms. The northern kingdom was called Israel and the southern kingdom was called Judah. Israel disappeared from the pages of history in 722 B.C. when it was conquered by the Assyrians. Judah was also conquered about 140 years later, but it was conquered by the Babylonians. And the Babylonians had earlier conquered the Assyrians in 605 B.C. However, unlike the northern kingdom Judah did not disappear entirely. Even though they spent a period of 70 years away from their homeland they ultimately were allowed to return by a Persian emperor named Cyrus. Cyrus had conquered the Babylonians in 539 B.C. You know, there was a lot of conquering going on in those days.

RD: Yes. There was. Most of the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament were written before the period of the Babylonian captivity but a few were written during the period of the captivity or after it. For instance, the major prophetic books of Daniel and Ezekiel were written during the period of the Babylonian captivity. No major prophetic books were written after the captivity but three of the Minor Prophets wrote afterward: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And all 3 of these are regarded as being written in the 5th century B.C. with Malachi typically dated the latest.

VK: And in the arrangement of our current Bibles Malachi is normally placed as the last book of the Old Testament, right?

RD: Right.

VK: But, you just said most of the 39 books of the “Protestant Old Testament.” So, I’m guessing that is the caveat that you want to discuss?

RD: Exactly. I’ve said 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament because there are 7 more books that are often referred to as the Apocrypha that are included in most Bibles used by Catholics and the Orthodox traditions. These seven books include Sirach, Baruch, Wisdom, Judith, Tobit, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. These books are sometimes referred to as “deuterocanonical” or books of the “second canon.” And some lists of the Apocrypha include other books such as 3 and 4 Esdras, Bel and the Dragon, and Susanna. So, the caveat is that those faith traditions that accept the Apocrypha as being canonical believe that there were some books that belong in the Bible that were produced during this intertestamental period. For instance, 1 and 2 Maccabees were written during the 2nd century B.C. or around the middle of the period we’ve been talking about.

VK: In other words there are some groups or faith traditions within Christianity that use different versions of the Bible. And in the versions they use there are some books that would fall outside the general time periods we’ve been talking about. So, how can we know which version of the Bible is correct?

RD: The question of whether the Apocrypha are canonical or not is essentially a historical question. It boils down to what was included in the Hebrew canon. Or said differently, what did the Jews at the time of Jesus regard as their scriptures? Or to put an even more fine point on it, what did Jesus regard as the scriptures? Those who accept the Apocrypha as a second canon have reasons they do so, and those who do not accept them have reasons that they do not. The feelings can be quite strong on both sides.

VK: So, at a high level, what are some of the reasons they do or do not regard the Apocrypha as being canonical?

RD: One of the major points of discussion is whether or not the Apocrypha were included in the Septuagint which was the Greek version of the Jewish scriptures that was widely circulated during the time of Jesus’ ministry and during the days of the early church. There are scholars who believe the Apocrypha were included in the Septuagint and there are scholars who believe they weren’t. Another point is what the early church fathers such as Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, or Jerome believed the Apocrypha were canonical. These three among others did not consider the Apocrypha to be canonical.

VK: But just because these early church fathers did not consider the Apocrypha to be canonical doesn’t mean that they didn’t believe the Apocrypha were valuable books, right?

RD: Right. Some of the early church fathers held the Apocrypha in high esteem they just didn’t believe them to be inspired or at the same level of authority as the books that were accepted as canonical. One of the reasons that many scholars do not regard the Apocrypha as canonical is because there are no direct quotations in the New Testament from any of the deuterocanonical books. There are allusions but no direct quotations. As many listeners probably know, Jesus frequently quoted directly from the Old Testament as did the Gospel writers and the other New Testament writers. A New Testament writer, or Jesus, quoting directly from an Old Testament book is an obvious affirmation of that book’s inspiration and canonicity.

VK: So, what you’re trying to point out is that the intertestamental gap might be calculated differently by different observers. But does the existence of the Apocrypha affect our basic confidence in the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture?

RD: No, for this reason. Those of us hold to the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture believe that it is only the original writings that are inspired – what are sometimes referred to as the autographa. Now, I know that “autographa” and “apocrypha” are two very similar words. And since they’re not words that we use every day it can be easy to confuse them. The autographa just refers to the original version of any book of the Bible as it was first written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Even those of us who hold to inerrancy and infallibility don’t hold that any particular translation or version of any book is infallible or inerrant – only the very first version as it was given. As such, we believe that the truly inspired books are discovered not determined. The church doesn’t decide what books belong in the canon. The church discovers them using criteria that we won’t go into today. As I said, whether or not the apocrypha were part of the Old Testament canon is a historical question. So, it’s a question over which there may be legitimate disagreement. But that disagreement, no matter which side someone is on, doesn’t affect the basic principle that the original books as given – whatever the appropriate list is – were recorded under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

VK: In a way it’s like works produced by master artists who lived hundreds of years ago. Art scholars might disagree over the exact list of paintings or art works that the artist actually produced but disagreement over a few doesn’t affect the authenticity of the genuine works. If there are – say - a hundred works of art that are attributed to the artist there might be disagreement on 10 of those. Some art scholars might believe the artist in question created the 10 pieces. Other art scholars might believe the artist did not. But the disagreement on the 10 pieces does not affect the authenticity of the other 90. So, a disagreement on the inspiration of the apocrypha doesn’t affect the inspiration of the books that are common to all the different faith traditions or denominations. We can continue to work on the historical research to gain a better understanding of which books were part of the Hebrew canon. But, in the meantime, we can still be confident about the inspiration of those where agreement has been reached.

RD: Exactly. The primary reason I wanted listeners to be aware of this discussion is – as I said – to provide a possible caveat to the opinion that I am going to express during this series: that there was a gap of approximately 450 years between the close of the Old Testament canon and the start of the New Testament. For those who regard the Apocrypha as canonical there would still be a gap but it wouldn’t be as long. And the observations we’re going to make would still be applicable. No matter which books someone regards as being in the Old Testament you still need to have a good understanding of how the two testaments relate to one another and that’s not possible if you don’t have some awareness of what was going on in the intertestamental period.

VK: Ok. Well, after that rather lengthy caveat we don’t have a lot of time remaining in this first episode of the series. So, what would you like to discuss in the limited amount of time we have left?

RD: Well, let’s start by remembering that the Christian faith is a faith of place and time.

VK: What you mean is that the Christian faith is tied to and expressed through historical events that occurred in places you can locate on a map. And those events happened at times that can be cited on a calendar – regardless of which particular calendar you may be using. The Christian faith certainly has a supernatural dimension. And the Bible is not shy about talking about things we normally don’t see like angels and demons. And the Bible is not shy about talking about places we haven’t seen yet – like heaven or the New Jerusalem. But the overwhelming majority of the Bible is set in the history of certain people and specific places.

RD: Exactly. And because the Lord is the Lord of both place and time He is always superintending the unfolding of history. And He was doing that during the intertestamental period. So, to trace the entire history that is relevant to the arrival of Jesus in place and time it’s very helpful to understand some of the events of that period. So, one of the subjects we’ll be covering is what was going on historically in the Mideast during the intertestamental period.

VK: Again, we need to remember that the vast majority of the Bible’s events are focused around countries that we today label the Mideast. Many of the names that we see in the Bible are still represented in modern counterparts. Israel, Egypt, Syria, Gaza, Jerusalem – all of these, and more, are places named in the Bible that we can still see on our maps today.

RD: Right. The place names are the same but that doesn’t mean that dynamic events didn’t take place during the intertestamental period that affected those places. They did. And those events affected not only who ruled Palestine but they also affected the people living their especially the Jews. It’s not much of a stretch to say that during that 450 years of perfect silence God was continuing His preparations for the arrival of His Anointed One.

VK: The term “Messiah” means the Anointed One. So, you’re saying that during the intertestamental period God was preparing the world for the arrival of the Jesus. And since Jesus was going to arrive in the Mideast, in Bethlehem, we need to trace some of what going on in and around Israel.

RD: Exactly. And when we do, we will see that Jesus arrived exactly on schedule. And the mere fact that there was a period of 450 years between the last inspired record of the Old Testament and the first inspired record of the New didn’t mean that God’s plan had been changed, or delayed, or set back in any way.

VK: That’s a great lesson isn’t it? 450 years may be a long time to us but it’s not even a drop in a bucket for our eternal God. And while we get concerned when our plans don’t pan out in a few days, weeks, or months, God doesn’t. When Malachi put his pen down and wrote the words we heard in our opening scripture God had completed his revelation – for that time. But He hadn’t completed His revelation for all time or His work. There was a pause in God’s special revelation but there was never a pause in the plans that He was making for our salvation.

RD: Yes. And while we’ll have to delve into this subject more deeply on our upcoming shows for now let’s introduce two more thoughts for today. First, God began His covenant of grace long before He had Moses write the first book of the Bible, Genesis. And since we live over 2,000 years since Jesus’ arrival on this earth we know that God has continued His plan of salvation long after He closed the canon. So when we view the totality of history we see a continued progression of the grand saga of creation, the fall, and redemption throughout history regardless of whether God was making a special revelation at that moment. Second, God is continuing with the plan of redemption today but today we not only have the special revelation of God’s word we know that God sent Jesus as the Word made flesh so we have an even greater understanding of His plan. The Old Testament saints, even those who lived during the times when the prophets were writing, did not possess the entirety of God’s special revelation. We do. We possess an even fuller revelation than most of the people who lived during Jesus’ earthly ministry because the final books of the New Testament weren’t completed until decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

VK: But the fact that we do possess that complete revelation is only meaningful if we take advantage of it. That means reading the Bible regularly. That means listening to programs like Anchored by Truth to help amplify our understanding about the times and events that are contained in the Bible. And it means spending some time in meditation and prayer to absorb into our lives and thinking the wisdom that can only come from an Almighty God. Sounds to me like a good time for a prayer. Today's prayer comes from another one of Crystal Seas’ offerings, the book Purposeful Prayers and is a prayer for the restoration of the worship of the one true God:

---- PRAYER FOR RESTORATION OF THE WORSHIP OF THE ONE TRUE GOD (MARCUS).

We hope you’ll be with us next time and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

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(Bible Quote from the New International Version)

Malachi, chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, New International Version