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Nuevo Testamento


Four Hundred Years of Silence


K.R.


2014






Table of Contents
I. Introduction.3
II. The Four Hundred Years of Silence...4
III. Background of the Years of Silence ..5
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IV. The Necessity of the Interstamental
Period..... 6
V. Conclusion...9
VI. Works
Cited..10

















Introduction
I will be discussing the four hundred years of silence in depth and what occurred during those
years. The four hundred years of silence is called the interstamental period. The interstamental
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period refers to a time in history where God did not send his message through prophets, no
prophecy was heard and he seemed to be silenced through the four hundred years. Even though
there was silence God is always working, we may not hear his voice but he is still working. I am
going to discuss what occurred during this time frame.
It is the time frame between the old and new testament where the voice of God was not heard,
no scripture was written and no direct revelation came through prophets (Benware 18). Though
the era is called the silent years it does not mean that no information is known about this period.
This is why I am researching more about the interstamental period to know exactly what
occurred during time frame.
During the internstamental period the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt.
Gerizim. This is one of the reasons that Jesus hated the Samaritans and regarded them as fools
(Benware 47). One of the reasons the Jewish leaders called him a Samaritan found in (John
8:48) was because they were expressing audacity toward Lord Jesus.



The Four Hundred Years of Silence


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As stated above many questioned what occurred during the four hundred years of silence after
the last inspired prophets and the first writers of the New Testament began to write? In Galatians
4:4 Paul states in his epistle where it states: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law. This states that the four hundred years of
silence, was for the birth of Jesus Christ was the hour chosen by God in which it would take
much time needed to prepare. Most of the interesting planning took its place during the four
hundred years and would seem to comprehend the New Testament if one understood the historic
accomplishment which occurred between the old and New Testament. In Malachi we are able to
foresee when Malachi states the prophecies and the canon of the old testament, when the number
of the old testament and prophets inspired by God stopped communicating, God permitted a time
in where the teachings of the old testament would penetrate to the new world. It was during this
time, in where a disposition of the historic scenes in where in a stage they prepare the scene, the
props and characters before the curtain is lifted and a new scene takes place.





Background of the Four Hundred Years of Silence
When the prophet Malachi stopped writing around the year 435 B.C the world began to change
from the eastern to western. Up until that time, Babylonia was the worlds richest country, but
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after this the Medopersa Empire followed. This changed had been prophesied by Daniel, who
said that a bear would rise in where it would rise taller on one side than the other, which would
represent the division between Persia and Media. This was all occurring between the last book of
the Old Testament and before Matthew. In the year 330 B.C a terrible war stroke out with the
Persians and Greeks in which changed history itself. In that war, there was a young man in his
twenties called Alexander Magno, lead the army of Greece to victory and won over the Persians
and destroyed all of their empire. The central power had shifted even more due to this
phenomenal even and this is how the Persian Empire came to be. A year after Alexand the Great
had won the war, he lead his troops to the Syrian nation toward the direction of Egypt. On his
way he also decided to have Israel. Word came around of Magnos coming in Israel and a priest
called Jadua (one who is mentioned on the bible by the way in the book of Nehemiah) took the
scriptures of the prophet Daniel, with many priests draped in their white robes, went and spoke to
Alexander out of the city. Alexander went and spoke to the priest and told him God had given
him a vision an elderly man with white robes who was to show him something of great
importance to him. The priest went to Alexander and showed him the sacred scriptures of Daniel.
All of this information known to us is by the Jewish historian Joseph. In the prophecies
Alexander could the prophecies of Daniel and everything written in them had come true. Its as if
they were talking about him (which he knew they were). To this day this is what is told, but
everyone knows as the years transgress the story could change a bit; anyways this is what is said.

The Necessity of the Interstamental Period
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The four hundred years of silence may not have seen as important years, but in essence they
were. God was preparing the perfect timing for the birth of Jesus Christ to occur and everything
that needed to take place. This is when we see the word of God come to life. In Ecclesiastes; it
states the following: 1 to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
heaven:
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A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is
planted;
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A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
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A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
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A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time
to refrain from embracing;
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A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
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A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
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A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
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What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
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I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
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He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that
no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
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I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
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And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift
of God.
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I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing
taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
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That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that
which is past.
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And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the
place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
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I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for
every purpose and for every work.
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I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them,
and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
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For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the
one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence
above a beast: for all is vanity.
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All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth?
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Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own
works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? (Bible
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NJKV). Sometimes in the time of silence we get so desperate just to hear the voice of God
because we think that God has forgotten about us, but in reality he is just testing us to see our
faithfulness in quiet times. Four hundred years is a long time for the voice of God not to be heard
in the world. Even though there was no current prophecy, what the people had was the sacred
scriptures in which prophecies had been fulfilled, and those waiting to be fulfilled. Chapter 3 of
Ecclesiastes brings to me that for God everything is perfect, even when to us (humans) in our
natural mind do not seem to comprehend why certain things in our lives are not going as
planned. Why did I not get this job? Or why did I not get in to this school? Maybe if we see the
bigger picture we can comprehend that God has a time for everything. In my perspective the four
hundred years were necessary to his people to wait on him, not to depend on prophecies, but to
delay themselves on his faithfulness and love he has for his children.






Conclusion
In conclusion the four hundred years of silence has a great historic evidence of its existence.
While it is not written much in the bible we can see from the historians the conquering of
Alexander the Great and how Gods prophecy had been fulfilled through the prophet Daniel.
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The four hundred years of silence was a time for his children to delay themselves onto the Lord
and worship his greatness. May it had been a time for God to prepare the coming of Jesus Christ,
who died on the Calvary cross for our sins and resurrected on the third day and is now with God.
The four hundred years of silence may have been silent but God was still working behind the
scenes and there is nothing silent about that!










Works Cited
NKJV Exhaustive Concordance: New King James Version. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1992. Print.
Benware, Paul N. Survey of the New Testament. Chicago: Moody, 1990. Print.
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