How 400 Years of Silence Paved the Way for the Messiah

The 400 Years of Silence is the name theologians give to the 400 years between when the Book of Malachi was written and when the events recorded in the Gospels took place. This period was marked by a lack of prophetic word from the Lord, who had been speaking with mankind in different mediums through time, whether walking with them in the Garden, directly as with Abraham, or through prophets like Isaiah.

Just because God was not speaking at that time does not mean this was an uneventful period in Israel’s history. Though He was not speaking, God was working all things out for His glory and for the salvation of humanity. Understanding what happened during that time period can illuminate some of what happened in the Gospels, and demonstrates how God’s hand is always moving, even when it seems He is silent and far away.

The Rise of the Pharisees and Sadducees

During the institution of the Temple System and the priesthood, God created the Levitical line of priests who carried out the duties of the religious worship of the Lord. After the exile to Babylon, this system needed to be rebuilt, along with Solomon’s Temple which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed when his forces invaded Jerusalem in 586 BC. The system that was formed during the post-exile had problems. During the silence, two factions began to arise: the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Pharisees arose in a politically tense environment. Pharisees means separatist, and some scholars think this referred to separation from the Greek influence that was attempting to infiltrate Israel. Their defining characteristic their contemporaries noted was their dedication to the purity rules of the Law, bringing them out of Temple worship and applying them across their whole lives. Their method of worship and living is based on the Law, but takes it to an extreme most people could not live out and was not instituted by God. They would remain a powerful group who eventually gained political and social influence, in addition to their religious power. By the time of Jesus’ birth, the Pharisees had aided the Romans in taking over the city of Jerusalem, in opposition to the influence of the other major religious group at the time - the Sadducees.

This second group came about around the same time as the Pharisees, 167 BC. They came from the high-status members of society and aligned themselves more with the Greek influence that had been growing in Israel since Alexander the Great conquered the land in 334 BC. For awhile, they had tremendous power during the reign of the Seleucid Empire, which was born from Alexander’s Empire.

They disagreed with the Pharisees about several important religious principles, and their tensions were at an all-time high during Jesus’ life and ministry. Some of the questions posed to Jesus and recorded in the Gospel have their roots in this disagreement, as people wanted to know if he agreed with the Pharisees or the Sadducees. One such question was: what happens if a wife has seven husbands in her lifetime, to whom is she married in Heaven?

The Maccabeans, the Herodians, and the Roman Conquest

The Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and carried off many Israelites, completely changing the nation afterwards. While eventually some people returned, they brought certain elements of Babylonian culture with them, and they lost their Temple and their original religious system. Afterward, several other major empires would conquer Israel and influence it. The Sadducees were greatly influenced by, and aligned themselves with, the Seleucid Empire. When Alexander the Great died, many of his territories were broken up into smaller empires, and a man named Seleucid received control of Babylonia and Syria, and eventually took over full control of Israel.

One of the Seleucid emperors, Antiochus IV, believed the High Priest was a political position, and that he had the authority to place or remove someone in that role. The Jews, however, believed priesthood belonged to God, and that no man had the authority to remove a High Priest at will. The brother of the high priest bribed his way into the position, and began to restructure the order of the nation. After some revolts, Antiochus attempted to quash Jewish culture and religion, and force a Hellenization process – to make something more Greek.

A family, known as the Mattathias or Maccabees, led the people in revolt, and successfully drove out the Seleucid empire. This family of brothers, prominently Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, ruled the nation, and Simon even served as high priest. When Simon took the throne, some of his propaganda portrayed him as a Messianic figure. Eventually the nation fell into Civil War, and the Romans took over. The story of the Maccabbeans is recorded in two apocryphal texts, 1 and 2 Maccabees; while the general history outlined in these texts in correct, there are some theological issues with these texts that prevent them from being considered cannon in the Protestant and Evangelical Bible, though it is accepted in the Catholic one. They are also excluded from the Hebrew Bible, though the account of the Maccabean revolt is recorded in the Talmud. Eventually, this empire became the Hasmonean Empire, with its roots in the Maccabean family.

After Rome took over, they needed a ruling family to govern Israel on their behalf. Rome was able to take over Israel due to a civil war between family members of the ruling clan, descendants of the Maccabees. People from within Israel, including some within the order of the Pharisees, invited the Roman army to help them solve the problems. The Romans accepted this invitation, and never left. One man, Herod, had connections with powerful Romans, including Marc Anthony.

On his father’s side, Herod was actually a descendent of Edom whose family converted to Judaism. From a traditional standpoint, Herod was not qualified to be a king or a High Priest in Israel. He was made the governor of Galilee under Julius Caesar, and Marc Antony made him a tetrarch – a leader on behalf of Rome. He later became known as Herod the Great.

Generally, historians would come to characterize his rule as dictatorial, and was defined by its close relationship with a conquering empire. This Herod was the one who ordered the massacre of the children in Bethlehem, and interacted with the Magi. His sons would rule over three distinct parts of his territory after he died, and the second Herod was the one who participated in the trials of Jesus the night leading up to the crucifixion.

Paving the Path for the Messiah

Despite the great conflict and difficulty that defined the time between the last word from the prophets and the rule of Herod, it all was creating the circumstances under which the Messiah would be born. Jesus came to clarify God’s will amongst battling religious orders, both of whom failed to understand the purpose and meaning of the Law. He was the true heir of David, the rightful King of the Jews, something even Rome could not deny, even as they nailed him to the cross.

During that time others would position themselves as Messianic figures, as both king and high priest, but would ultimately die; Jesus, who is the true king and high priest, overcame death and the grave, being fully resurrected. After his death, Christians used Rome’s roads to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. God was always in control.

Sources

Ironside, Henry Allan. The Four Hundred Years of Silence (From Malachi to Matthew). CrossReach Publications, 2017.

Josephus. The Wars of the Jews. 2021.

River, Charles. The Kingdom of Herod the Great The History of the Herodian Dynasty in Ancient Israel During the Life of Jesus. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/manusapon kasosod

Bethany Verrett is a freelance writer who uses her passion for God, reading, and writing to glorify God. She and her husband have lived all over the country serving their Lord and Savior in ministry. She has a blog on graceandgrowing.com.