What happened between Malachi and Matthew?

What happened between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew’s gospel?

As in, did the world really go silent for 400 years?

Of course not.

But the prophets disappeared in Israel.

Which caused confusion when John the Baptist appeared on the scene.

But I digress.

Why the question?

We just finished studying Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi in my Bible study.

As we discussed our next subject, they asked me what I wanted to lead.

Advent started this week in 2022, and everyone knows the Gospels well, why not review the beginning of the Church?

How about the book of Acts?

We’re looking at evangelism in our own church these days. What better way to learn than to follow the early Christian’s example?

In the meantime, though, what happened between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New?

This is what I explained at that first Acts study.

Malachi as the final Old Testament Book

The prophet Malachi wrote a short two-chapter book that finished off the Old Testament.

Some scholars do not believe Malachi’s book was the original ending choice.

The Bible Project blog explained:

What we now refer to as the Old Testament did not end with Malachi. In fact, it wasn’t even a single volume book. Rather, it was a collection of separate scrolls that were made to be read as a unified collection, and the book designed as the concluding crown jewel was Chronicles! 

Bible Project blog post 2018

Read the post for a full explanation, but suffice to say no sooner did Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi warn the Israelites, than the people returned to their corrupt ways.

Even their exile in Babylon hadn’t driven out all their wickedness.

And then more conquerors came.

The three final Old Testament books review the Israelite apostasy, and end with Malachi’s disconcerting words:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.”

Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Malachi 2: 17 ESV

Some Bible translations like to substitute Malachi 2:16b for the ending, instead: “guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

The translator’s goal is to be encouraging.

But, the current version actually makes a lot of sense.

Where was that God of justice in Israel circa 420 BC?

He shows up in the next book: the New Testament’s Matthew 1:1, with a genealogical summary leading up to Jesus.

So, what happened between Malachi 2:17 and Matthew 1:1–in world events?

Plenty

Bible teacher Ray Stedman noted:

When you open the New Testament to the book of Matthew, you discover an entirely different atmosphere — almost a different world. Rome is now the dominant power of the earth. The Roman legions have spread throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world.

The center of power has shifted from the East to the West, to Rome. Palestine is still a puppet state . . . but this king is the descendant of Esau instead of Jacob . . Herod the Great.

The high priests who now sit in the seat of religious authority . . . are hired priests to whom the office is sold as political patronage.

The temple is still the center of Jewish worship, although the building has been partially destroyed and rebuilt about a half-dozen times since the close of the Old Testament.

But now the synagogues that have sprung up in every Jewish city seem to be the center of Jewish life even more than the temple.

Ray Stedman: The 400 Years Between the Old and New Testaments

This fascinating podcast, Undeceptions, explains the “intertestamental period,” very well.

The major historical points after Malachi lived circa 420 BC

• 322 BC Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and took Judea.
• 323 BC At Alexander’s death, General Ptolemy ruled Israel and Egypt.
• 198 BC General Seleucus Nicator’s descendants conquered Judea.
• Circa 170 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected a statue of Zeus and sacrificed a pig in the Temple.
• Circa 167 Mattathias rebelled and won Judean independence.
• 167 BC Following the Maccabean Revolt, Temple purified. (Hanukkah)
• 63 BC Roman Empire established control of Judea.
• Insert Cleopatra during this period
• 37 BC Herod the Great begins his family’s rule.
• 27BC Herod begins remodeling the temple.
• The Greek Septuagint translated during this period.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls are hidden at Qumran.

What happened to the prophets and what did it mean?

This 400-years-or-so period is often called “the Silent Years.”

It really wasn’t a silent period. Many books written during this time, however, are not considered part of the modern Biblical canon.

That includes the Apocrypha books such as the Book of Tobit, Baruch, and the Maccabees.

No new prophets were raised up whose words appear in the modern Bible.

But people lived their lives, families grew, and synagogues, particularly in Alexandria, Egypt, developed.

Into that corner of the world about 3 BCE a star began to shine in the night sky.

And everything changed.

The Gospel of Matthew picked up the storyline.

Tweetables

What happened in the world between the Bible’s New and Old Testament? Click to Tweet

Did the world go silent after the Old Testament’s Malachi? Click to Tweet