The inter-testamental period
Introduction
The Old Testament ends more than four hundred years before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ (around 425 BC). Israel had been under the domination of the Persian Empire and a game lived in exile in Babylon. Different prophets exercised their ministry with the people of God during this period : Daniel, Ezekiel and Jeremiah took care of the exiles while act, Zacharie, Esdras, Nehemia and Malachia took care of the people who returned to his country. It was at the end of this prophetic era that the Israelites entered the intestamentary period.
This period of 4 centuries between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament had great changes : the Jews were under the domination of the Romans.
The Old Testament ended with an exhortation, Malachia 4 : 4 Remember the law of Moses, my servant, to whom I prescribed in Horeb, for all Israel, precepts and ordinances. 5 Here, I will send you Elijah, the Prophet, before the day of the Lord arrives, this great and formidable day. (It was Jean Baptiste because he is compared to Elijah. Indeed he came with the spirit and the power of it. They spoke cruel to the kings : Élie à Achab ; Jean in Herod, which earned his death).
The story was dark ; the situation was desperate because the Lord had stopped speaking through prophets. This is a period during which God did not reveal anything again to his people.
However, many books, recognized as writings by Roman Catholicism were written at that time (as a reminder Israel was under Roman domination, therefore the Romans will introduce their belief and only those who fear the Lord will be faithful to him).
Have the 400 years were silent in intertestamentary history ?
The pseudo silence of God had to worry the Jewish people ; Some would demand that he act as he had always done. Others would probably believe that man was too sinner to hear him, and that his lack of faith was the cause of his silence (when certain things do not work in our lives, men may think about it). So others will abandon the way of the Lord. However, men and women still worked in fear of the Lord and awaited the promised Savior ; Luke 2 : 25 And here, there was in Jerusalem a man called Simeon. This man was fair and pious, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 He had been divinely warned by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before having seen the Christ of the Lord (it was not after the birth of the Savior that he appeared and was warned but well before).
Luke 2 : 34 Siméon blesses them, and said to Mary, her mother : Behold, this child is intended to bring the fall and the recovery of many to Israel (and even in the world), and to become a sign that will cause contradiction (Islam and other religions contradict what Christ is and what he said), 35 and to yourself a sword will be unveiled. (he experienced the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise).
Luke 2 : 36 There was also a prophetess, Anne, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was very old -fashioned, and had lived seven years with her husband since her virginity. 37 Stayed widowed, and aged ninety-four, she did not leave the temple, and she served God night and day in fasting and in prayer. 38 Having also occurred at the same time, she praised God, and she spoke of Jesus to all those who were waiting for the deliverance of Jerusalem.
The ways of God escape man, they are unfathomable Isaiah 55 : 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord. 9 As much as the heavens are raised above the earth, my ways are raised above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts (this is the case for the arrival of our Lord, many had desperate but it was accomplished).
God generally let an desperate situation arise before presenting his message or providing his deliverance : the cases of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the judges and so on us.
There were about 400 years during which no prophet spoke in the land of Israel, and no official text of the Scriptures was developed except that of the Romans used by the Catholic Church (the apocryphals). And there you will see people who will say that the Church began with the Roman Catholic Church. It’s wrong. In 70 AD, the Romans will take Jerusalem, bring Jews in captivity. Therefore imposing their way of doing things ; Acts 16 :21 These are Jews, who announce customs that it is not allowed to receive or follow, to us who are Roman. A Roman law prohibited under penalty of deportation or death the introduction of a new religion. Judaism was allowed but not the teaching of the apostles. It was colonization. Glory is returned to God who did not allow the extinction of the truth. For others, the evangelical church began with the Lutheran reform, by Martin Luther in 1517. There were Christians when Luther revolted against the lie to make the truth known. After him there was the Gregorian reform, Calvinism. Today we are talking about church reform in Burkina Faso. The reforms are when you see a drift and you have to crop. So the church did not start with the reform. It existed long before).
You have to understand that, even if God was silent, he was not absent. Matthieu 3 : 1 at that time appeared Jean Baptiste, preaching in the desert of Judea. 2 He said : repent, because the kingdom of heaven is close. 3 John is the one who had been announced by Isaiah, the Prophet, when he says : It is here the voice of the one who screams in the desert : prepare the way of the Lord, flatten his trails. 4 jeans had a camel hair clothing, and a leather belt around the kidneys. It fed on locusts and wild honey. 5 The inhabitants of Jerusalem, all of Judea and the whole country around the Jordan, went to him ; 6 And, confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan river. (strange as early evangelization)
Some impatiently awaited a Messiah who would establish the kingdom of God on earth ; Acts 1 : 6 So the Apostles gathered asked him : Lord, is it in this time that you will restore the kingdom of Israel ? 7 He replied : It is not up to you to know the times or the moments that the father has set for his own authority. (Jesus speaks here in his humanity because all power has been given to him)
Important events occurred during the intestance period ; Galatians 4 : 4-5 : « When the times were accomplished, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he would buy those who were under the law, so that we will receive the filial adoption. The times have been accomplished, apply to these 400 years surrounded by Pseudo Silence.
To understand what happened during this 400 -year -old period, it is necessary to understand the three dominant elements of that time :
-the leaders who reigned over the country (Romans) ;
-the texts written there (the apocryphal) ;
-The religion of the time [Christianity (prohibited), Catholicism, Judaism (authorized)…].
The importance of these three elements lies in their contextual impact on the world of the New Testament and in the texts that we read (it is because of the other religions that the primitive Church had been fought).
There were literature of the intestamentary period
In reality, many writings were written at that time, especially within the Jewish community. The Jewish people were not only very educated, but also deeply attached to their culture and to the principles of Judaism ; So it was a cultivated people.
The most important writings of inter-testament were the apocrypha of the Roman Catholic Church (which means hidden things). However, they are not accepted by the canon (test of verification of the authenticity of the writings. The accepted books each contain the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not the case for the apocryphals who are additives ; but apocalypse 22 : 18 I declare it to anyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book : if someone will add the scourges, God This book ; 19 And if someone takes something from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take his share from the Tree of Life and the Holy City, described in this book.).
The impact of the intestamentary period on Judaism
Another key to understanding the intertestional years is that of religion ; the temple and the synagogue. Although worship in the temple was restored during the intestance period, it experienced difficulties. The priests were more and more politically linked to the sovereign (king).
It was therefore necessary to create a local education institution : the synagogue, where teachers exercised their functions in these localities and taught the people. The synagogue was much more instructive, moral and ethical.
It is also necessary to take into account the different ethnic groups that have appeared.
The first group was called the Sadducees whose origin is little known. However, they would be the descendants of the high priest Tsadok in the time of King David and priests of the first temple of Jerusalem.They were linked to the temple. The high priest, like most priests came from this group. They were very close to the leaders of the country, to the Greeks, which made them very important within the Jewish community.
They are attached to Rome (who was a master of Israel) because they want to stay in power. Being a servant of the temple was synonymous with power, wealth, prestige, for them and they obviously wish to keep it.
They are also the members of a current of Judaism.
Their fellow men were the group of teachers who taught in the synagogue, the Pharisees (local teachers). They were much more popular. They were scholars.
There was another group called the Sanhedrin. It is a leading Jewish advice that had managed to stay in power since the Greeks’ era. They responded to the leaders, but they constituted this group of Jews who reigned at that time. Jesus himself met the Sanhedrin because they were threatened by his power and authority ; So they wondered what to do with him ; Matthew 26 : 59 The main priests and all the Sanhedrin were looking for some false testimony against Jesus, sufficient to kill him.
Unlike the Sanhedrin, there was a group that had no connection with the policy of the time ; the scribes. The period of the scribes began with the return of the Jews of Babylonian captivity ; They were very involved teachers in the preservation of Hebrew Scriptures. They were responsible for making the scriptures better understand ; (Matthew 23 :13 Magheur to you, Hypocritical scribes and Pharisees ! Because you close to men the kingdom of heaven ; you do not enter it yourself, and you do not let those who want to enter. 14 Mishent to you, hypocritical scribes and pharis ! You will be judged more severely.
Another group during the last century before Jesus Christ was that of the Herodians ; it was a group of Jews, who were closely linked to Roman leaders. They tended to be a group of wealthy people who attached their wealth to Rome because the Herodes came there (like the African leaders who put their property in banks at the Occident).
The last two groups are publicans and zealots.
The publicans were the tax collectors of the time, and Rome was still arranging to choose men from a modest class as tax collectors. One reason justified this mode of selection : Rome wanted the people to hate tax collectors, rather than their Roman leaders ; Proverb 30 : 21 Three things make the earth tremble, and there are four that she cannot bear : 22 A slave who comes to reign, an insane who is full of bread, 23 a disdained woman who marries, and a servant who inherits her mistress. (The tax collectors were rich because they generally demanded more when they had a salary, case of zache ; Luke 19 : 1 Jesus, having entered Jericho, crossed the city. 2 And here, a rich man, called Zache, chief of the publicans, sought to see who was Jesus).
The publicans were therefore not a appreciated group because they were closely linked to Rome, from which they drew their income. Their tax collection method was simple : I take what Rome wants, and if I receive more, I keep it ! As a result, they often overcharged people, and even fraudulently extorted them from money for their silence ; Luke 3 : 12 He also came from publicans to be baptized, and they said : Master, what should we do ? 13 He replied : Do not require anything beyond what was ordered to you.
Luke 19: 8 But Zache, standing before the Lord, said to him, Behold, Lord, I give the poor half of my property, and if I was wrong with something to someone, I give him the quadruple. The publicans were not the most favored in the country; they were considered to be traitors and apostates.
Unlike the publicans, there was the zealots, the militant Jewish patriots who encouraged the division with Rome, but with more violence. They believed that violence was justified if it released the nation from its foreign oppressors. We can identified them with the extremists who provoked war with Rome in 66 after our Lord Jesus Christ. The zealots were therefore "Jewish terrorists" who hated Rome with passion and did everything possible to overthrow Roman power by violence; Luke 6:15 Matthieu; Thomas; Jacques, son of Alphée; Simon, called the zealot.
CONCLUSION
The intestamentary period was a time when some abandoned the faith because there was no more prophecy but others remained firm. It was a time of apostasy because of the domination that Israel knew from Rome. But God's plan has been accomplished. Whatever the difficulty experienced by the Church today, we must be like Simeon, Anne and many other people were pleasant to the Lord after this dark period of Christian history.