The Intertestamental Period

A Historical Bridge from Malachi to Matthew

When you turn the page from Malachi to Matthew, the change can feel sudden.

The final historical setting reflected in the Old Testament is a world shaped by Persian rule and the restoration of Jerusalem after exile.

The New Testament opens with Judea under Roman power, Herod ruling as king, synagogues established throughout Jewish communities, and groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees appearing in the story.

What happened between the Testaments?

Several centuries of history stand between these worlds.

Understanding some of that history can help us enter the New Testament with greater clarity and recognise the political, cultural and religious setting into which Jesus was born.

This study is therefore different from the Bible-book studies surrounding it.

It is not another book of Scripture.

It is a historical bridge from Malachi to Matthew.

A Note Before You Begin

The Intertestamental Period is the name commonly given to the centuries between the close of the Old Testament era and the beginning of the New Testament era.

You may also have heard this period described as the “400 years of silence.”

That expression can be helpful if it simply means that the biblical canon records no Old Testament prophetic books arising from this period.

But we should be careful not to make the phrase say more than Scripture says.

The Bible does not give us a continuous inspired account of these centuries, nor does it tell us that God had ceased all activity or communication.

Much of what we know about this period comes from historical and archaeological sources and ancient writings outside the Protestant biblical canon.

So as we walk through these centuries, we will distinguish between biblical revelation and historical background.

The history can help us understand the world of the New Testament.

Scripture remains the authority through which we understand God, His character and His redemptive purposes.

From Malachi Towards Matthew

Malachi closes with Israel still waiting.

God had restored His people from exile, the temple had been rebuilt, and Jerusalem was inhabited again.

Yet the great promises associated with God’s redemptive purposes had not reached their fulfilment.

Malachi looked forward.

Among its closing words is the promise:

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”
— Malachi 4:5

When Matthew opens centuries later, the world surrounding God’s covenant people looks very different.

To understand how we arrived there, we need to walk briefly through the history between them.

1. Persian Rule

At the end of the Old Testament period, the Jewish people lived within the Persian Empire.

Persian rulers had permitted Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

This is the world we encounter in books such as Ezra and Nehemiah.

The Second Temple had been completed, Jerusalem’s walls had been rebuilt, and Jewish life once again centred significantly around Jerusalem, the temple and the Scriptures.

But Persia would not remain the dominant world power.

Another empire was rising.

2. Alexander the Great and the Greek World

In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the Persian Empire and brought vast territories under Greek rule.

Alexander’s reign was brief, but Greek influence outlived him.

After his death in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his successors.

Greek language and culture—often described as Hellenism—spread widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Near East.

This would have lasting consequences.

Greek became a common language across much of the region.

Over time, many Jewish communities also lived outside Judea in Greek-speaking areas.

It was within this broader Greek-speaking world that an important translation of the Hebrew Scriptures emerged.

3. The Septuagint

Beginning several centuries before Christ, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek.

This Greek translation became known as the Septuagint, often abbreviated LXX.

It became important particularly among Greek-speaking Jewish communities who no longer used Hebrew as their everyday language.

The existence of Greek translations of the Scriptures also helps us understand the linguistic world into which the New Testament emerged.

The New Testament itself would later be written in Greek, and its writers frequently used wording associated with the Greek Old Testament.

This does not mean that every linguistic development of the period should be interpreted as a hidden divine prediction.

It simply helps us understand the historical world in which the gospel would later be proclaimed.

4. Hellenistic Influence and Jewish Identity

Greek influence involved much more than language.

It affected education, philosophy, customs, political structures and public life.

For Jewish communities, this created difficult questions.

How should God’s covenant people live faithfully while surrounded by powerful cultural influences?

Some Jews adopted aspects of Greek culture readily.

Others resisted them strongly.

These tensions became especially severe under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century BC.

His policies towards Jewish religious practice and his actions involving the Jerusalem temple provoked a crisis that would reshape Jewish history.

5. The Maccabean Revolt

In the 160s BC, opposition to Seleucid oppression erupted into revolt.

A Jewish priestly family associated with Mattathias and his sons led the resistance.

One of his sons, Judas, became known as Judas Maccabeus.

The revolt eventually resulted in the recapture and rededication of the Jerusalem temple.

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah commemorates this rededication.

The New Testament itself refers to the Feast of Dedication in John 10:22.

For a period afterwards, Judea experienced a measure of Jewish self-rule under the Hasmonean dynasty.

But independence would not last.

Another empire was expanding.

6. Rome Takes Control

In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey entered Jerusalem, bringing Judea increasingly under Roman power.

By the time Jesus was born, Rome dominated the region.

Roman political authority forms an important part of the New Testament setting.

This helps explain why we encounter:

Roman governors.

Roman soldiers.

Roman taxation.

Roman crucifixion.

And Jewish hopes for deliverance unfolding within a land living under foreign rule.

Eventually Herod the Great ruled Judea as a Roman-supported king.

This is the Herod we meet near the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel.

Suddenly, the opening chapters of Matthew begin to make more historical sense.

7. Herod the Great

Herod the Great was a powerful and politically astute ruler whose reign was closely tied to Rome.

He became known for enormous building projects, including a major expansion and renovation of the Jerusalem temple.

The magnificent temple complex encountered during Jesus’ ministry belonged to this period of rebuilding and expansion.

But Herod’s reign was also marked by political insecurity and violence.

That background helps us understand the Herod portrayed in Matthew 2 when visitors from the east arrive asking:

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”

To Herod, those words were not merely religious.

They carried political implications.

Matthew’s account places the birth of Jesus directly into a world of earthly kings, imperial power and competing claims to authority.

8. Synagogues and Jewish Life

By the New Testament period, synagogues had become important centres of Jewish communal and religious life.

Unlike the temple, which stood in Jerusalem and held a unique role in Jewish worship, synagogues could exist within local communities.

They provided places for gathering, prayer and engagement with Scripture.

This explains why the Gospels repeatedly describe Jesus entering synagogues and teaching.

It also helps us understand the book of Acts, where Paul frequently begins his ministry in a city by entering the local synagogue.

The synagogue was already an established feature of the Jewish world when the New Testament story begins.

9. Pharisees, Sadducees and Other Jewish Groups

Several Jewish groups and movements appear in or around the world of the New Testament.

Understanding them historically helps prevent us from treating first-century Judaism as though everyone believed and practised exactly the same things.

Pharisees

The Pharisees were a Jewish movement deeply concerned with faithfulness to God’s law and with traditions surrounding its interpretation and application.

The Gospels record significant conflict between Jesus and some Pharisees, particularly concerning hypocrisy, interpretations of the law and human traditions.

Yet we should be careful not to reduce every Pharisee to a caricature.

The New Testament gives us individual Pharisees in different circumstances, including Nicodemus, who came to Jesus, and Paul, who described his own background as Pharisaic.

Sadducees

The Sadducees were associated particularly with the priestly and aristocratic establishment.

The New Testament specifically tells us that they denied the resurrection, distinguishing them from the Pharisees on this important question.

Their influence was closely connected with Jerusalem and the temple establishment.

Essenes

The Essenes are not named in the New Testament.

Ancient sources describe Jewish communities commonly associated with strict communal and religious practices.

Scholars have long discussed possible connections between an Essene community and the Dead Sea Scrolls, although the precise relationship remains debated.

Zealots

The New Testament uses the designation “the Zealot” for Simon, one of Jesus’ disciples.

The terminology surrounding organised revolutionary movements developed across the first century, so care is needed when applying later political categories to the earlier ministry of Jesus.

What is clear is that resistance to Roman rule formed part of the broader political world of first-century Judea.

10. A People Still Waiting

Political rulers had changed.

Empires had risen and fallen.

Persia had given way to Greece.

Greek kingdoms had given way to Roman domination.

Jewish communities had experienced persecution, revolt, independence and renewed foreign control.

But the larger biblical story remained unfinished.

Israel still awaited the fulfilment of God’s promises.

And when the New Testament opens, expectation is everywhere.

Matthew begins by identifying Jesus as:

“Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
— Matthew 1:1

Luke introduces people such as Simeon, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and Anna, who spoke about Jesus to those waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

John the Baptist appears proclaiming:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The centuries between the Testaments help us understand the world hearing those words.

But Scripture itself tells us what those words ultimately mean.

11. The Fullness of Time

When the New Testament reflects upon the coming of Christ, Paul writes:

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.”
— Galatians 4:4–5

This is where we can speak confidently about God’s redemptive purpose.

Paul does not ask us to identify every political development, road, language or empire as a secret prophetic sign.

He directs our attention to Christ.

At the appointed time, God sent His Son.

History matters because Jesus entered real history.

He was born into a particular people, under particular rulers, within a particular political and religious world.

Yet the centre of the story is not Persia.

It is not Greece.

It is not Rome.

It is Jesus.

What Does This Historical Bridge Help Us See?

The Intertestamental Period does not add another chapter to Scripture.

Instead, it helps illuminate the historical world surrounding Scripture.

It explains why Matthew opens under Roman rule.

It helps us understand why Greek was widely used.

It introduces the background to groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees.

It explains why Herod sits on a throne in Judea.

It gives context to Jewish concerns about identity, purity, foreign rule and hopes for deliverance.

And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us to read the New Testament as something that happened within real human history.

Christian faith is not built upon an abstract spiritual idea.

The Gospel announces that God acted within history through Jesus Christ.

God’s Heart in the Story

We should resist the temptation to turn these centuries into promises about what God must be secretly arranging in our individual circumstances.

Scripture does not give us that conclusion.

But Scripture does give us something far stronger.

God remained faithful to His redemptive purposes.

Empires changed.

Human rulers came and went.

Political circumstances shifted dramatically.

Yet none of those powers could prevent God’s promises from reaching their fulfilment in Christ.

The New Testament does not open by announcing that humanity finally found its way to God.

It opens with God acting.

God sends His Son.

God keeps His promises.

God enters our history.

And through Jesus, God’s long unfolding work of redemption moves towards its fulfilment.

Transformation: Learning to Read the Story Faithfully

Understanding historical context can transform the way you read Scripture.

Instead of treating biblical people as though they lived in an undefined religious world, you begin to see the real pressures surrounding them.

Foreign occupation.

Competing religious interpretations.

Political instability.

Cultural influence.

Messianic expectation.

Questions about faithfulness to God.

Then Jesus steps into that world.

And He does not simply fit neatly into anyone’s existing expectations.

He announces God’s Kingdom.

He confronts hypocrisy.

He welcomes outsiders.

He calls people to repentance and faith.

He reveals the Father.

He gives His life.

And He rises again.

Historical background helps us see the stage more clearly.

But Jesus remains the One Scripture asks us to look at.

Gentle Reflection

Take a few moments to consider what this historical bridge has helped you notice.

1. What feels clearer about the world of the New Testament now that you understand some of what happened between Malachi and Matthew?

2. How might knowing the historical background of Scripture help you read biblical passages more carefully rather than immediately applying them to your own circumstances?

3. What do the changing empires of this period remind you about the difference between temporary human power and God’s enduring redemptive purposes?

4. When you read Galatians 4:4–5, what does Paul identify as the central significance of the “fullness of time”?

5. As you prepare to enter Matthew, what do you now want to notice more carefully about Jesus, His Kingdom and the world into which He came?

From the Old Testament to the New

You have reached a threshold in the Conservatory Library.

Behind you lies the unfolding Old Testament story—creation, covenant, kingdom, exile, restoration and promise.

Ahead lies the New Testament.

The setting has changed.

New rulers occupy the land.

New groups appear.

The language and political landscape are different.

But the biblical story has not begun again.

It continues.

And Matthew’s opening words immediately reach backwards:

Abraham.

David.

Messiah.

The promises and hopes of the Old Testament are about to converge upon one Person.

Jesus Christ.

Ready to Step into the New Testament?

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