What Was God Doing in the 400 Silent Years Between the Testaments? | Daily Devotional & Bible Study

The Silent Years: What God Was Doing in the 400 Years Between the Old and New Testaments

There are about 400 years between the last page of the Old Testament and the first page of the New. Most of us turn that page without ever noticing. Scholars call it the intertestamental period, but most people know it as the silent years, because there was no prophet speaking in Israel and no Scripture being written. And yet when you look at what was actually happening in that stretch of history, you find something that will change how you think about the silent seasons of your own life. God was not absent. He was setting a stage.

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Why do they call it the silent years?

The name comes from what was missing. There were no prophets in Israel during this period, and no books of the Bible were being written. After Malachi, the prophetic voice that had guided Israel for centuries goes quiet. But silence is not the same thing as absence. Some of the most important groundwork in redemptive history was laid in exactly this window, which is why the episode lands where it does: sometimes when God is silent, He is doing some of His best work.

If no Scripture was written, how do we know what happened?

We know a great deal, because plenty was being written even though none of it entered the canon of the evangelical Bible. The books of the Apocrypha, including Maccabees, Tobit, and 1 Esdras, are read in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and give us a real window into the period. The historian Josephus records much of it. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered rolled in jars in caves along the Dead Sea and first found by a young shepherd boy, were largely written during this time. And the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, was produced in this era.

How did God prepare the world for Jesus during the silence?

This is where it gets remarkable. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and spread Greek language and Hellenistic culture across the known world, which meant that by the time Jesus came, a common language existed for the gospel to travel in. Meanwhile, rabbis rose to prominence as teachers alongside the priests, and local synagogues became places of worship, prayer, and hearing the Torah. Scripture that had once been accessible only to the elite was now within reach of ordinary people. Luke tells us Jesus went to the synagogue regularly, an institution that did not exist in the Old Testament. None of that was accidental.

What was the Maccabean revolt, and where does Hanukkah come from?

After Alexander died in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his generals. Under Antiochus, the Jews suffered badly. He banned core Jewish practices, seized the temple, and ordered pigs sacrificed on the altar. An elderly priest and his sons refused to comply, and their zeal sparked the Maccabean revolt beginning in 167 BC. By 164 BC the Maccabees had retaken and cleansed the temple. The eight-day celebration that followed became Hanukkah, and the Gospel of John records Jesus Himself in Jerusalem for that festival.

What happened after the Maccabees won?

Here is the sobering turn. The Maccabean family formed the Hasmonean dynasty, and over time the very Hellenistic influence they had been repulsed by became something they embraced. That drift sparked opposition groups like the Pharisees and the Essenes, all wrestling with the same question of how to be faithful in a Greek world. Rome eventually ended the dynasty when Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC. Herod the Great was named king of the Jews, ruled cruelly, and rebuilt the temple complex into the largest temple to a single deity in the world. He died in 4 BC, and scholars believe Jesus was born not far from Herod's own burial grounds. The Zealots later revolted, and the temple was destroyed in AD 70.

What does this mean for my own silent season?

These years were anything but silent. The political, cultural, and spiritual climate all had to be primed before Jesus walked onto the scene, and God was doing that work the entire time no one could hear Him. The question to sit with is this one: where in your own life has God been working in ways you could not see or hear? He may not have been silent at all. He may have been setting the stage.

Featured quote

"Sometimes when God is silent, He's doing some of His best work. Just because God is silent doesn't mean He isn't moving and acting."

Scripture and sources referenced

John 10:22-23 (Jesus at the Feast of Dedication), Luke 4:16 (Jesus in the synagogue), Malachi as the close of the Old Testament. Extra-biblical sources discussed include 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, 1 Esdras, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint.

Timestamps (approximate)

00:00 Welcome and what's ahead in the fall Luke series

01:24 Why we're covering the gospel genre before opening the text

01:51 How the study will run, and why Luke and Acts belong together

03:05 The teaching begins: the 400 years between the testaments

04:30 Why they're called the silent years

05:00 Where our information comes from: Maccabees, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls

06:20 The Septuagint and the rise of Greek

07:15 Rabbis, synagogues, and Scripture made accessible

08:30 Alexander the Great and Hellenization

09:45 Antiochus, the desecrated temple, and the Maccabean revolt

11:00 The origin of Hanukkah

12:15 The Hasmonean drift back toward Greek culture

13:30 Rome, Pompey, and Herod the Great

15:00 The Zealots and the destruction of the temple in AD 70

16:00 These years were anything but silent 1

7:20 Where has God been working in your silence?

Frequently asked questions

What is the intertestamental period? It's the roughly 400-year span between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, commonly dated 400 BC to 1 BC. You may also hear it called the Second Temple period in academic settings.

Are the books of the Apocrypha part of the Bible? They're included in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles but not in the evangelical Protestant canon. They aren't treated as Scripture here, but they are useful historical sources for understanding the period.

When does the Luke series start? Right after this week's two review episodes. We'll begin with an introduction to who Luke was, then work through the text at a spirit-led pace, with Luke and Acts studied together as one work. Expect the series to run through the end of the year.

How do I ask a question about the series? There's a SpeakPipe link in the show notes where you can leave a voicemail, or you can always reach out by email.

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