What happened between the Testaments? How did the Intertestamental Period prepare Judah, and the world, for the coming of the Messiah and the preaching of the gospel?ĭuring this historical period in general, the exile left its permanent stamp on Judaism as well as on the Jews.
In the New Testament, Rome is in command. The Old Testament period ended under the imperial control of Persia. But these 400 missing years-known as the Intertestamental Period-were alive with the activity that shaped the world into which Jesus was born. This time also marks a proliferation of law in the pharisaical tradition exalting the letter at the expense of the spirit- calling for a New Covenant antidote or solution in which minute regulations give way to principles.įor most of us, Israel's history stops abruptly with the prophet Malachi-to be resumed briefly, four hundred years later, in the New Testament period. Internally, the terrible cataclysms gave rise to literature containing ardent Messianic expectation- including the Septuagint, with Malachi serving as the connecting link making a smooth transition between the Old and New Testaments. The Inter-Testamental period is a dark time in history, approximately 400 years between the time of Malachi and Matthew, a time of intense political and intellectual fermentation.
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