W did it, we finally finished the Old Testament and have begun looking a the life of Jesus!
But first, we had to address the 400 year gap known as the Intertestemental History.
When you finish Malachi and move onto Matthew you soon notice that there is a huge difference in the story's context. What happened to the Persian Empire that had been in charge of Judah? When did the Romans gain such power? What's a synagogue, a Pharisee, a Sadducee? Why is everyone speaking Greek? At first glance the New Testament seems almost completely unrelated to the Old - the main characters even have a new name 'Jews' instead of 'Israelites'.
So what happened?
The prophets of the Old Testament warned that those from Israel and Judah would be carried off to exile if they didn't stop worshiping idols and turn back to God. And that's exactly what we see happen in Kings and Chronicles. Israel, the northern kingdom, is conquered and exiled by the Assyrian empire; and not too long after the southern kingdom of Judah is carried off by the next major world power - Babylon. But around 7 years later, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, a new empire is in charge - lead by King Cyrus - who lets the people of Judah return to Jerusalem. A new temple is built and though the people are not completely free to do as they like - still being under the rule of Cyrus - they are, at least, home.
But the Persian Empire was not to last. Around 336BC, Greek conqueror Alexander the Great set out to destroy Persia. Within two years he had conquered a huge amount of the known world - including Judah and it's people. As he conquered he spread the Greek language - and he is to thank for the rapid spread of the gospel after Jesus rose from the dead. Because the entire empire spoke the same language the message about Jesus was able to be spread quickly and easily. But it's not the Greeks we see in charge during the Old Testament, but the Romans.
When Alexander died in 323BC, the empire was divided by his generals, and for several hundred years Palestine (the region that included Israel) was the rope in a giant game of tug--o-war. The area was an important one for trade - being right in the middle of the old empire. One 'Team' was happy to let the Jewish (they were called Jews because they came from Judah) people continue with their religious practices. But when the other 'team' took over things got messy. Bribes were given to the government to let the wrong people become High Priests, temple items were stolen to pay for the bribes, a pig (an unclean animal) was sacrificed in the temple, parents could not circumcise their sons, the Sabbath was illegal, and many copies of the law were burned. Being Jewish was now illegal.
This was a bad move on the part of those in charge. The Jews were not going to stand for such treatment. The idea of exile through disobedience was still fresh in their minds and they were not going to let anything get in the way of their worship. The Jews became strong in guerrilla warfare, and with the emperor concerned in other affairs elsewhere it only took three years for the Jews to overcome the relatively few troops in Palestine and for them to gain control of Jerusalem. The Jews cleaned and rededicated the temple - and it is this event that is celebrated during Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication - which Jesus celebrated (see John 10:22-24).
Alexander's broken empire continued to fight amongst itself until around 63BC - when Rome came and took control.
The Romans contributed two key things to the spread of the Gospel. They built roads everywhere throughout the empire, making travel vastly easier than it had ever been. And they enforced Pax Roma - the Roman Peace. For the first time it was safe to travel throughout the empire. Travelers would no longer face attack on the roads. With the arrival of the Romans also came freedom once again for the Jewish people to practice their religion without fear of punishment. King Herod even built a bigger and better temple for the Jews. It was during this time that the 4 main Jewish groups developed. The Pharisees were concerned about making sure they did everything right to fulfill God's law in hopes that God would once more free them from being ruled by other nations. While we mostly see them getting told off by Jesus, they did start out with good intentions, missing out the main point somewhere along the way. God's concerned with a person's heart, and no amount of obeying the law will fix a corrupt heart. The Sadducees wanted to stay on the Romans' good side, as they knew that they had a pretty good deal going on compared to earlier. By sucking up to the Romans the Sadducees found themselves with a decent amount of power, and they didn't want anything to jeopardize that - which is why they hated Jesus, as well as the third group. The Zealots wanted the Romans out and were going to do it their way. They were into guerrilla warfare and rioting. Finally are the Essenes, who aren't mentioned in the Bible, but who are the reason we have the Bible. They were a group of hermits or monks, who had withdrawn to the desert to worship God as they pleased. They preserved the scriptures -and in fact had kept them safe earlier when many copies were being burned.
We can look at Malachi and Matthew and think, "Why did God wait so long to send Jesus?" But once we look at the Intertestamental history we see all the things God was doing to put in place what was needed to spread his blessing to the whole world. If He had acted in a hurry the spread of the Gospel would have been inhibited by language barriers, unsafe travel and the inability to get from place to place. With this understanding we can jump into the New Testament with fresh eyes.
But first, we had to address the 400 year gap known as the Intertestemental History.
When you finish Malachi and move onto Matthew you soon notice that there is a huge difference in the story's context. What happened to the Persian Empire that had been in charge of Judah? When did the Romans gain such power? What's a synagogue, a Pharisee, a Sadducee? Why is everyone speaking Greek? At first glance the New Testament seems almost completely unrelated to the Old - the main characters even have a new name 'Jews' instead of 'Israelites'.
So what happened?
The prophets of the Old Testament warned that those from Israel and Judah would be carried off to exile if they didn't stop worshiping idols and turn back to God. And that's exactly what we see happen in Kings and Chronicles. Israel, the northern kingdom, is conquered and exiled by the Assyrian empire; and not too long after the southern kingdom of Judah is carried off by the next major world power - Babylon. But around 7 years later, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, a new empire is in charge - lead by King Cyrus - who lets the people of Judah return to Jerusalem. A new temple is built and though the people are not completely free to do as they like - still being under the rule of Cyrus - they are, at least, home.
But the Persian Empire was not to last. Around 336BC, Greek conqueror Alexander the Great set out to destroy Persia. Within two years he had conquered a huge amount of the known world - including Judah and it's people. As he conquered he spread the Greek language - and he is to thank for the rapid spread of the gospel after Jesus rose from the dead. Because the entire empire spoke the same language the message about Jesus was able to be spread quickly and easily. But it's not the Greeks we see in charge during the Old Testament, but the Romans.
When Alexander died in 323BC, the empire was divided by his generals, and for several hundred years Palestine (the region that included Israel) was the rope in a giant game of tug--o-war. The area was an important one for trade - being right in the middle of the old empire. One 'Team' was happy to let the Jewish (they were called Jews because they came from Judah) people continue with their religious practices. But when the other 'team' took over things got messy. Bribes were given to the government to let the wrong people become High Priests, temple items were stolen to pay for the bribes, a pig (an unclean animal) was sacrificed in the temple, parents could not circumcise their sons, the Sabbath was illegal, and many copies of the law were burned. Being Jewish was now illegal.
This was a bad move on the part of those in charge. The Jews were not going to stand for such treatment. The idea of exile through disobedience was still fresh in their minds and they were not going to let anything get in the way of their worship. The Jews became strong in guerrilla warfare, and with the emperor concerned in other affairs elsewhere it only took three years for the Jews to overcome the relatively few troops in Palestine and for them to gain control of Jerusalem. The Jews cleaned and rededicated the temple - and it is this event that is celebrated during Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication - which Jesus celebrated (see John 10:22-24).
Alexander's broken empire continued to fight amongst itself until around 63BC - when Rome came and took control.
The Romans contributed two key things to the spread of the Gospel. They built roads everywhere throughout the empire, making travel vastly easier than it had ever been. And they enforced Pax Roma - the Roman Peace. For the first time it was safe to travel throughout the empire. Travelers would no longer face attack on the roads. With the arrival of the Romans also came freedom once again for the Jewish people to practice their religion without fear of punishment. King Herod even built a bigger and better temple for the Jews. It was during this time that the 4 main Jewish groups developed. The Pharisees were concerned about making sure they did everything right to fulfill God's law in hopes that God would once more free them from being ruled by other nations. While we mostly see them getting told off by Jesus, they did start out with good intentions, missing out the main point somewhere along the way. God's concerned with a person's heart, and no amount of obeying the law will fix a corrupt heart. The Sadducees wanted to stay on the Romans' good side, as they knew that they had a pretty good deal going on compared to earlier. By sucking up to the Romans the Sadducees found themselves with a decent amount of power, and they didn't want anything to jeopardize that - which is why they hated Jesus, as well as the third group. The Zealots wanted the Romans out and were going to do it their way. They were into guerrilla warfare and rioting. Finally are the Essenes, who aren't mentioned in the Bible, but who are the reason we have the Bible. They were a group of hermits or monks, who had withdrawn to the desert to worship God as they pleased. They preserved the scriptures -and in fact had kept them safe earlier when many copies were being burned.
We can look at Malachi and Matthew and think, "Why did God wait so long to send Jesus?" But once we look at the Intertestamental history we see all the things God was doing to put in place what was needed to spread his blessing to the whole world. If He had acted in a hurry the spread of the Gospel would have been inhibited by language barriers, unsafe travel and the inability to get from place to place. With this understanding we can jump into the New Testament with fresh eyes.