Everyone needs a little history. And if the history you need is a bit wacky, then may I suggest you read any of Leland Gregory’s books on “Stupid History.” My favorite story that he includes in his first volume is the story of the famous Greek playwright, Aeschylus. Aeschylus lived a great life until he didn’t, but to understand his demise you have to understand the hunting practices of eagles. Apparently, eagles found tortoise meat a real delicacy. However, there was an obvious problem: that meat was covered by a hard shell. But eagles are incredibly smart. They figured out that if they dropped a tortoise on a rock from a sufficient enough height, it would crack open and provide a great feast for the working eagle. Now, eagles have great eyesight, but on one tragic day, an eagle mistook Aeschylus’ bald head for a shiny rock and dropped a tortoise on it. The plummet killed Aeschylus immediately. It also did not do much good for the tortoise either. The eagle, however, must have reveled in its mistake, getting two meals for the price of one. Aldous Huxley once said: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” Maybe the takeaway here is, when in doubt and eagles are around, it may be best to wear a hat.
History is filled with wacky things. One of the wackiest, in terms of our discussion, is that the 400 silent years were silent. I grew up believing that nothing important happened in those gap years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, at least nothing related to our spiritual lives or our understanding of Jesus and his world. But now we know that this is not even close to being true. And we also know that to understand the impact of these years, we have to understand the history. But as Hajo Holborn said, “History gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions.” So, let’s ask a few questions.
- After such a prolific time of writing during the Old Testament years, why was there such a drop-off during the 400 silent years?
The quick answer is, it didn’t! These 400 years were an intense period of writing. The problem is that none of those “books” made it into the Jewish or Protestant Bible. For instance, the Apocrypha was written during these years (books like Tobit, Sirach, Maccabees, and Esdras) and other books like 1 Enoch, Jubilees, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra. Also, consider the Dead Sea Scrolls. There have been over 900 different books found in the caves of Qumran. Many are copies of biblical books. There are major works that interpret various books from the Bible. There are numerous guides that speak to the community. And there are many liturgical texts with poems and hymns and the giving of thanks. And there are still other books that speak about the future. But here’s the thing: many of these books, books that were kept out of the Bible, were of critical importance for different Jewish groups.
- What issues did the books written during this time discuss?
Matthias Henze in his book, Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testaments Helps us Understand Jesus (Fortress Press, 2017) writes:
“There is a long list of religious topics that we might think today have been debated in Judaism since biblical times. But a closer look reveals that we find either very little or no discussion of them at all in the Old Testament. It was only during the gap years that these topics became a prominent part of religious discourse. Such topics include the expectations of a messiah, a divine agent who will come at the end of time to bring about the restoration of Israel; an interest in cosmology, demons, and unclean spirits; a focus on the Torah as the rule book that defines Jewish practice and identity; a concern about what will happen to humans after we die; and the hope for the resurrection of the dead and the afterlife.”
All these topics are totally missing in the Old Testament, but they show up in a big way in the books written in the Second Temple period.
- What is the Second Temple period?
Because the 400 silent years is such a misnomer, scholars have begun calling this period and the years that surround it, the Second Temple period. Think of it this way. While most people divide the history of Israel into three parts, pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic (or anything that happened before the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE, during the Babylonian exile from 587 to 538 BCE, or after the Babylonian exile ended in 538), it might be better to divide it into two parts, the First Temple period and the Second Temple period. The First Temple was built by Solomon in the 10th century BCE and lasted until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE. The Second Temple was built under Ezra in 515 BCE and lasted until it was destroyed by the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 CE. From this brief synopsis, you can already tell that the Babylonian exile was incredibly important in the life of Israel, as was the temple. These two items shaped Israel’s history more than we can even begin to imagine.
- What was the unique struggle of the Second Temple Period?
It is hard to answer that question because the Second Temple period was not a single bolt of cloth. Instead, it was marked by four different eras and four different powers. And each of these eras called for a slightly different response. Think about it.
The first era was the Persian. When the Persians defeated Babylon, Persia claimed all of the nations that were enslaved to Babylon. Not surprisingly, Israel was one of those nations. Israel remained under Persian domination for two hundred years (539-332 BCE). Remember, some of these years, Israel was living in Babylon; and for many of those years, Israel was without a temple. These three things, living in exile, living without a temple, and living under the rule of another nation, caused an intense debate among the people about what it meant to be a Jew; and for the first time, being a Jew was defined more in a religious category and not a national one. The question, “who are we if we don’t have a temple and our own land?” was answered by a heart commitment rather than a temple.
The second era was the Greek period (think Alexander the Great conquering the known world). This Hellenistic period lasted from 332 to 63 BCE. That’s only 270 years, but the impact Greece made on Israel is immeasurable. Hellenism sought to change the world by introducing Greek language, culture, religion, lifestyle and politics; and Israel was no exception to their subterfuges. Now, some aspects of Greek life were adopted without question (the acceptance of Greek language being the most obvious), but other aspects were imposed upon them, some on penalty of death. This pressure to conform resulted in another struggle for the Jewish people. Matthias Henze writes:
“The challenge for the Jews during the Hellenistic period, both in Israel and in the diaspora, was to determine how much to become Hellenized while still being truthful to their own roots and Jewish identity. . . . The task was to incorporate those aspects they considered compatible with their own religion without compromising their Jewish identity.”
The question, “how can we remain Jewish and live in a Greek culture?” was answered by discerning two things: “how to live out Israel’s religion in a different (non-Jewish) culture?” and “where do we need to resist Greek culture so that we can retain our Jewish identity?”
The third era was the Hasmonean era. Now, technically, this is not a distinct period, since it did not replace the Hellenistic period, but it dramatically changed life for those in Judea. It occupied the years 164 to 63 BCE. See, the Persian and Greek eras were mostly characterized by peace. But that changed in 167 BCE when the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes demanded that the Jews in Jerusalem embrace all of Greek culture. When they refused, he plundered the temple and erected an altar for Zeus in the temple and the sacrificed a pig on it. He also outlawed many Jewish practices. Circumcision was forbidden. Sabbath-keeping was outlawed. Failure to comply resulted in severe persecution. Many capitulated. But some rose up against Greece; and before long, war broke out, which we know today as the Maccabean Revolt. And in 164 BCE, the Maccabees (aka, the Hasmoneans) ousted the Greeks and reclaimed Jerusalem. And for the next one hundred years, there was an independent Jewish state surrounded by a seriously Hellenistic world. The question, “how do you respond when culture wants you to abandon your faith?” was answered in two words, “You resist.”
The fourth era was the Roman era. In 63 BCE, the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and made Judea a part of the Roman empire. This was the end of Jewish independence. Roman rule lasted until 70 CE when, as I said earlier, the Jews revolted and Rome crushed Jerusalem and brought an end to the Second Temple period because there was no more temple. The question, “how do you live out your faith in an oppressive culture?” was answered in four different ways. You assimilate. You become strongly counter-cultural by living out your faith passionately. You resist. Or you run. And these four ways reflect the four major groups in Israel during the days of Jesus. We have the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Zealots and the Essenes. Our history shapes us (if you were looking for some theological gold nugget, you just passed it!).
- How does the Old Testament end?
That sounds like a silly question. The answer is Malachi and, more specifically, Malachi 4:5-6:
“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.”
What a great introduction to Matthew’s genealogy and to the ministry of John the Baptizer! However, in the Jewish Bible, Malachi doesn’t come at the end, but is found in the middle. Meanwhile, Chronicles ends things. 2 Chronicles 36:23 says,
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.’”
Not such a great introduction to Matthew. And while Malachi and Chronicles were written roughly at the same time (somewhere around 450 BCE), that means that there is at least a 430-year gap between the end of the Old Testament and the ministry of Jesus and a 500-plus-year gap between the writing of Malachi and the writing of Matthew. Think about how much change has taken place in the last 500 years? Remember that when you start reading the New Testament.
And that brings us to the point stated so eloquently by Henze: “The gap is a literary phenomenon of the Protestant Bible; it is not a historical phenomenon of ancient Israel.” And that proves it: everyone needs a little history.
