The Silent Years
12.14.22
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds… (Hebrews 1:1, 2)
Before we delve into a survey of the books of the New Testament, we would do well to pause and consider the four hundred years between the books of Malachi and Matthew, the silent years.
There was no prophetic word from God following the last words of Malachi (4:4-6), in approximately 397 BC, until the words of the angel to Zacharias concerning the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20), somewhere around 1 AD. We therefore call these 400 years the Silent Years. This is also referred to as the inter-testamental period, the time between the OT and the NT. What occurred during those years?
Though it was a period of silence as far as God’s voice is concerned, it was not an empty time. Many important events occurred. The Babylonian Empire fell. Various dynasties arose and fell in Egypt, India and China. The Greek Empire rose and fell. Many famous philosophers lived and wrote during this time—Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus. There were men of science and mathematics—Hippocrates, Euclid, Archimedes. This era produced great poets—Virgil and Ovid. There were political and military leaders—Alexander the Great, Spartacus, Octavius, Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and Julius Caesar. Rome was captured, destroyed and rebuilt many times [it “was not built in a day,” as they say]. Our current way of measuring time, the Julian calendar was adopted. The Rosetta Stone was engraved. The Great Wall of China was built. It may have been silent as to God’s voice, but surely it was an active era.
How do we know about these things? Our primary sources are the Book of Daniel, the Apocryphal books, and the works of Shakespeare.
Speaking of the Apocryphal books, we are referring to such books as: Tobias, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, The Song of the Three Hebrew Children, and Bel and the Dragon. They are thought to have been written primarily between 300 BC and 100 AD.
Why do we not accept these books as being a part of the OT Canon?
The word canon means ‘a rule or standard by which something is judged.’ In this context it refers to the books that belong in the Bible. The rule in reference to biblical books is divine authorship. In order for a book to be canonical, it must consist wholly of the words of God, spoken through a prophet of God. The OT view of a true prophet is found in 1 Kings 22:14:
As the LORD lives, what the LORD says unto me, that will I speak.
It is true that the 39 OT books were canonized by a council of men [the Jews in the days of Ezra]. Yet ultimately it is that the books are the words of God that make them a part of the Bible. Our Lord, His disciples, and the NT church accepted these books. Jesus and His apostles quoted and sanctioned the OT in all of its divisions: the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.
No one is quite sure how these Apocryphal books got into some Bibles, but because they were not judged to be canonical, authentic, we will not be studying them.
Next up in our survey of the Word of God will be the book of Matthew, the Gospel of the King.