No 12

(The 400 Silent Years)

The prophet Malachi is a post-exilic prophet who wrote his book between the years 433 – 424 BC during the Medo-Persian reign. The book of Malachi, is the last book of the Old Testament in our bible and, chronologically speaking, in the Jewish bible also amongst the books entitled “The Twelve” . There is a 400-year period between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew. Some call this period “The Silent Four Hundred Years”, others call it “The Inter-Testamental Period”; one thing is very certain, it follows the pattern as outlined in the book of Daniel with exact precision. God was silent during this period but He was actively directing the course of events for the Jewish people. The Medo-Persians reigned for about 200 years and were defeated by the Greeks in 332 BC. Alexander the Great permitted the Jews to observe their laws but he wanted to create a world united by the Greek language; this is called “Hellenism”. This Greek dominence continued with fighting amongst the various rulers and in 170 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes descrated the Jewish temple by killing pigs on the altar and persecuted the priests by forcing them to eat pork. Judas Maccabeus led a revolt against Antiochus and restored the temple. Modern-day Jews commemorate this event by celebrating Hanukkah (Feast of Lights) around the same time as we celebrate Christmas. It is during this 400-year period that the Pharisees and Sadducees came into being and synagogues became the main place of worship. The Romans defeated the Greeks in the year 63 BC.