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Keypoints on this page
	There is a gap of almost 500 years between the end of the Old Testament of the Bible and the start of the New Testament.
	Some of the Old Testament prophecies describe events that happened during this time gap.
	With the rise of the Roman empire, the time was right for Christ to be born, for the gospel to be preached and for Christianity to flourish.
	Since the New Testament was written, many more Bible prophecies have been fulfilled. The Bible shows that the time is now right for Christ to return.

The Old Testament of the Bible closes with the book of Malachi but the exact date of writing is unknown. We know from the prophet’s references to the temple and the priests, that Malachi lived after the rebuilding of the temple around BC 516. In the first chapter of this prophecy there is reference to the governor and this is generally recognised as the Persian ruler [Malachi 1.8]. The state of affairs during the prophet’s ministry are similar to that described at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and various commentators agree that the date of writing was around BC 460.

The Gospel of Matthew is the first of the New Testament books and is reckoned to have been written towards the middle of the first century AD. It takes up the narrative with the events surrounding Christ’s birth and his miraculous conception and birth of the virgin Mary. The background to the times of Jesus saw Israel under the control of Rome with an army of occupation in the land and an uneasy relationship existing between the Romans and the Jews. During this period there was dual authority over the land with the Jewish leaders being responsible for the general religious and moral laws of the people and the Romans providing their own legal framework to control the conquered land.

Herod the Great was Prefect of Galilee and his family, although nominally Jewish, were Idumeans or Edomites. The Romans had appointed his grandfather Antipas governor of Idumea and Julius Caesar made his father procurator of Judea. It was Mark Anthony who appointed Herod the Great Tetrarch of Galilee in 37BC and he died in 4BC with a Roman procurator governing the province. There were five Roman Governors in office during the period covered by the New Testament namely Rufus, Gratus, Pilate, Felix and Festus.

If you are familiar with the prophecy of Daniel, you will know that chapter two refers to a great metallic image which represented the four great Empires which had rule over the Land of Israel, beginning with Babylon then followed by Medo-Persia, Greece and finally Rome.

The prophet Malachi lived at the end of Persian supremacy but Matthew lived at the time when Rome had conquered this area. Therefore the gap between the Old and New Testaments was a period when Greece ruled supreme. This period was represented by the belly and thighs of brass – part of Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel’s prophecy. This was a period of some four hundred years, during which time there were no prophets through which God would communicate to the nation of Israel. There were no new revelations for the faithful to cling to, but they were not forgotten or forsaken in the Divine plan.

The period between the message of Jesus to John in Revelation (the last book of the New Testament) whilst he was in exile on the Island of Patmos and now, has some similarities for believers today. Both the Old and New Testaments tell us about God’s promises and the coming of the Messiah and contain the inspired writings to provide us with information on which we must hope and be patient. This was the message of James to believers in the 1st Century:

‘Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord’ [James 5.7].

The period of Grecian domination saw the rise of Alexander the Great. The first Greek victory over Persia was fought outside a place called Marathon. From there a runner was sent to tell the news to the Greeks at the Parthenon in Athens, where he died after he had given his account. From this event springs the basis of the modern marathon race which is 26 miles long, the same distance covered by the Greek runner.

Diagram of the Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great.

Ezekiel’s prophecy also refers to the destruction of the city of Tyre [Ezekiel chapter 26]. This was fulfilled when Alexander used the remains of old mainland Tyre to create a causeway from the mainland to the island fortress of new Tyre, which took seven months to complete. Ezekiel tells us that it was Nebuchadnezzar who, some 250 years earlier destroyed old Tyre on the mainland after a siege of 13 years. It was the rubble from this event that was so cleverly used by Alexander to reach the island. We read in Ezekiel chapter 26:

‘They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock…they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water’ [Ezekiel 26.4,12].

After this Alexander the Great moved down the coast and totally destroyed Gaza. At the same time Alexander had his eyes firmly set on Jerusalem and he sent a notice to its leaders that the city would be his next conquest.

We read from contemporary sources that the people were alarmed and Judah the High Priest at Jerusalem claimed to have had a vision from God. His solution was to hang garlands around the city, throw open the gates on the approach of Alexander and his army and go out to meet the enemy in his pontifical robes with the priests in ceremonial attire all dressed in white.

This they did and to everyone’s surprise Alexander fell prostrate in adoration and when one of his close aides asked him why, he replied that he had seen a vision of this event before he left Greece.

The historian Josephus tells us that Judah talked to Alexander about the prophecies of Daniel and how Greece was destined to succeed Persia. As a result it is claimed that Judea escaped from any tax in the form of tribute money, although some say this is partly a legend built up by the Jews.

Later Alexander’s exploits took him down into Egypt and it is accepted that he removed 100,000 Jews into his new colony in Egypt. He had a great influence on Middle Eastern culture. The Greeks also translated the Old Testament Scriptures into Greek, Ptolemy Philadelphus sponsoring the Septuagint version of the Bible.

In the book of Daniel (chapter 8) we find a prophecy regarding the conquests of Alexander the Great and his sucessors. [Daniel chapter 8] He died in BC 323 at the age of 32 and the kingdom was divided among his four generals as the prophet’s words had foretold.

Statue of Alexander the Great at Salonika in Northern Greece.

After Alexander’s death, the area of Judaea came under the control of one of his generals named Laomedon. Later Egypt took Jerusalem and for many years the Jews were pawns in a tug of war between Egypt and Syria as the power of Greece receded.

So in the terms of Daniel’s prophecy the iron legs of the image emerged as the power of Rome and they became the dominant ruler [Daniel 2.40]. Under their regime the background was set for the Messiah to arrive and for the events of his life and death in fulfillment of the words of the Old Testament prophets.

Under the Romans with their organisation, roads, communication and common language, the ideal time arrived to give Christianity the opportunity to spread and become established throughout Asia Minor reaching even into Europe and North Africa.

Conclusion
So we see that the events in Israel changed rapidly during the period between the Testaments and it was only the zeal of some Jews in the land that kept them separate and full of hope, hanging onto all the words of the prophets.

As we have seen from this short summary of events, the period between the Testaments was eventful although there were no recorded books or accounts to add to the canon of Scripture. There are ancient records of these events including the books of the Maccabees which were added to the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. These are now included in the Apocrypha which is not regarded as part of the canon of Scripture.

The events which took place were in accordance with prophecies made many years before, like those in the book of Daniel around BC 600. This gives us great confidence that God’s hand is in control in the international events which affect His chosen people Israel and His wider people who accept his promises and commit their way to following Jesus.

Just as the Old Testament Prophets looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, we should do the same in confidence remembering the words which the Apostle Paul addressed to the Greeks of his day in Athens:

‘God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead’ [Acts 17.31]