Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent!
Did you know there are 400 silent years between the Old and New Testaments? Between the books of Malachi (last in the Old) and Matthew (first in the New) there were four centuries when the voice of God was not heard. What was going on?
The Greeks
At the beginning of this period (approx. 400 BC) Persia was the superpower of the day. They had conquered the Babylonians who had exiled the Jews in the first place. Their leaders (Cyrus and Darius) had graciously allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Israel. A remnant did. The books of Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi refer to this period.
Most Jews, however, stayed in Persia where they had become rooted and prosperous. The book of Esther refers to this period. But as Persian power began to decline, a new power began to emerge. The Greeks under Alexander the Great launched their worldwide conquest. Although vastly outnumbered by the Persians, Greek military training and strategy was superior.
In 333 BC (easy to remember), the Greeks decisively defeated the Persians in the Battle of Issus.
The power balance had shifted. The new superpower was now Greece, the first European nation to dominate the known world. The Greek language and culture (called “Hellenism”) now spread throughout the civilized world.
However, only ten years after his great victory over Persia, Alexander died at the age of 33 in 323 BC (Jesus would die at the same age about 350 years later). Alexander’s empire was divided between his four generals – Cassander, Ptolemy, Antigonus and Seleucus.
During this time, God was silent. There was no prophetic voice.
The Maccabees
When the silent years began, the Jewish people were spiritually demoralized, disobedient and indifferent. That would change. A spiritual revival began to take place under Nehemiah and Ezra and the Jews who had returned to their homeland. The Jews in Palestine were oppressed first by the Greek rulers of Egypt and then of Syria. It came to a head when Antiochus Epiphanes massacred thousands of Jews and desecrated their temple in Jerusalem by offering a pig on the holy altar.
One family, the Maccabees, led the resistance and rebellion. The Maccabean leaders were Judas and his four brothers (their history can be found in several books in the Apocrypha part of the Catholic Bible). They succeeded to liberate the region of Judah from the Greeks for about 70 years. They paid a heavy price for their rebellion but it showed that Jewish pride and faith was still alive.
However, God was still silent. There was no prophetic voice.
The Romans
Then the power structure on the world stage shifted again. The emerging super-power was another European people group – the Romans. Their city state, of course, was Rome and their well-trained armies (like the Greeks before them) began to conquer the known world. They defeated the Greeks and began to build an empire that would stretch from Europe to Africa to Asia. As the years we know as BC (before Christ) came to an end, Caesar Augustus was the undisputed Roman emperor. Palestine was a backwater province on the fringe of the Empire.
For 400 years God had not spoken. There had been no prophetic voice.
But finally, the silence was broken… by the cry of a baby in Bethlehem. The first Christmas had arrived.
Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor (who loves history).
