Approximately 400 years elapsed between the Old and New Testament accounts. Obviously, time did not stop. At this juncture, we must look outside of the Bible, to world history, in relation to what impacted Israel in that biblically unmentioned time.
Israel, (freed from Babylonian captivity), is now known as Judea and was under Persian rule. However, the power of the nation of Greece was on the rise. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle became renowned philosophers.
Aristotle mentored a young lad, who, would become known as Alexander the Great. In 338 B.C., he conquered the Persians and Judea. He also spread the Greek language and the culture far and wide. The Old Testament was translated into Greek and referred to as the Septuagint.
Alexander died. In 320 B.C., Judea fell under the yoke of Egypt. In 198 B.C., it was re-conquered by the Syrian king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who forcibly placed his own ‘high priest’ in control over Jerusalem, forbidding the Jews the practice of their religion.
Antiochus goes off to war to conquer Egypt, but he is stopped by the forces of the rising Roman empire.
Distraught and angry, he returns to Jerusalem and takes his anger out on the Jews, slaughtering 40,000 and selling off an equal number into slavery.
Antiochus tried to ‘Hellenize’ the remaining Jews, (i.e. trying to coerce them into adopting Greek culture, speech and religion). This led to the Maccabean revolt in 168 B.C., where Judah Maccabee led a guerilla war against the Syrian king, winning Judean independence in 164 B.C.
Ironically, the Maccabean rule denigrated into corruption and became pagan as well. The Jews who opposed the Maccabean rule hired the Roman General Pompey to put them down. He did, but he brought Roman rule with him.
During all this time, Jewish religion itself was undergoing a transformation. It began to shift away from Temple-centered worship, into a strictly moral-based practice. To reach this moral perfection, (according to its adherents), one had to rely on instruction from the Jewish priests – the Rabbis.
But the Rabbis brought their own interpretations to the Mosaic Law, and even inserted ‘laws’ of their own manufacturing. It all became a mishmash of paganism, whereupon even the Rabbis disagreed over what was true – giving rise to various ‘sects,’ most famously the Pharisees and the Sadducees. All the while, during these 400 years of political and religious turmoil, the Jews were still waiting for their Messiah…
Get ready for the New Testament and your salvation – next time!
Goodnight and God bless.