For most Christians, traveling from the Old Testament to the New Testament takes about a second.
Malachi ends. We turn a page. Matthew begins.
That simple page turn can obscure nearly four centuries of history.
We sometimes call those centuries the intertestamental period or the 400 silent years. Both descriptions make sense from the perspective of our Christian Bibles — the period lies between the writings collected in the Old and New Testaments, and for Protestants especially, no additional books from those centuries were eventually included in the Old Testament canon.
But the page between Malachi and Matthew can create an unfortunate assumption. It can suggest those centuries were empty, as though the biblical story stopped while everyone waited for Jesus to arrive.
Historically, nothing could be further from the truth.
When the Old Testament Story Ends
The last books of the Old Testament leave us in a very different world from the one we encounter when the New Testament opens.
The Babylonian exile has ended. Some of the Jewish people have returned to their ancestral land, Jerusalem has been rebuilt, and a new Temple is in place (Ezra 1–6; Neh. 1–12). Israel has returned to the land, but the glory days of David and Solomon have not returned with them.
The Jewish people remain under the authority of foreign empires. Persia controls the region as the Old Testament period comes to a close. The exile may be over in one sense, but Israel’s larger story still feels unfinished. Many Jews continue living outside the land.
The prophets have hinted at a time of restoration, renewed faithfulness, and a coming king. Some of those promises have begun to take shape. Others still seem to be waiting for fulfillment.
Then the biblical narrative grows quiet, but history does not.
Empires Change
In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great swept through the ancient world and brought Persian dominance to an end. His conquests spread Greek language and culture throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, including the lands inhabited by the Jewish people.
Alexander’s empire did not remain united after his death in 323 BC. His successors divided it, and Judea eventually found itself caught between competing Greek kingdoms. Political control changed hands, but the influence of Greek culture remained.
This process, commonly called Hellenization, profoundly shaped the world of the New Testament. Greek became a common language across much of the region, and Jewish communities were scattered throughout the Mediterranean world, living within cultures quite different from their Old Testament ancestors.
Yet dispersion did not mean the disappearance of Jewish faith. Jewish communities continued reading their Scriptures, practicing circumcision, observing Sabbath, celebrating their festivals, and ordering their lives around Israel’s God.
The political world had changed. Israel’s covenantal story continued.
The Scriptures Begin Speaking Greek
One development during these centuries would become particularly important for the world of the New Testament. As generations of Jewish people lived throughout the Greek-speaking world, many became more comfortable speaking Greek than Hebrew, and eventually the Hebrew Scriptures began to be translated into Greek.
We know this translation by the name Septuagint, often abbreviated LXX. The process appears to have begun with the Torah (the first five OT books) in Alexandria, probably during the third century BC, with other biblical books translated over time.
The significance is difficult to overstate. Israel’s Scriptures could now be read in the dominant language of much of the Mediterranean world. By the first century, the Septuagint had become an important scriptural text for Greek-speaking Jews and would later be widely used by the earliest Christians. Most Old Testament quotations found in the New Testament reflect its wording.
Even during the centuries in which our biblical canon appears silent, the Scriptures themselves were traveling — copied, translated, read, interpreted, and carried into communities far beyond Jerusalem.
A Crisis Over Faithfulness
The pressure of Hellenization eventually produced one of the defining crises of the period.
In the second century BC, the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to impose policies that directly threatened Jewish religious practice. Traditional observances were suppressed, and the Jerusalem Temple was desecrated. For many Jews, the issue was no longer simply political control — the question had become whether they would remain faithful to the covenant practices that distinguished Israel from the nations.
Resistance followed.
Around 167 BC, a priest named Mattathias and his sons launched the revolt we now associate with the Maccabees. Against extraordinary odds, the rebels eventually regained Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple in 164 BC.
The revolt also reminds us of something important for our purposes. These centuries were not simply a historical waiting room between two religious systems. Jewish people were making costly decisions about what faithfulness to God required.
Some accommodated themselves to the surrounding culture. Others resisted. Some were willing to die rather than abandon practices they believed God had commanded.
Independence—For a Time
The Maccabean revolt eventually produced something the Jewish people had not experienced for centuries: a significant period of political independence.
The Hasmonean dynasty that emerged from the revolt ruled an independent Jewish state for roughly a century. It was hardly an uncomplicated time — internal conflict, questions about leadership, and struggles over the priesthood all complicated their independence.
Still, for the first time since the Babylonian conquest, Jewish rulers governed Judea without direct foreign control.
But it didn’t last. Internal disputes eventually gave Rome an opportunity to intervene. In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey brought Judea under Roman dominance. By the time the New Testament story begins, Rome is the imperial power ruling the land.
A Changing Jewish World
The “four centuries of silence” actually produced the Jewish world we encounter in the Gospels.
Synagogues became important centers of Scripture reading and community life, especially for communities living far from Jerusalem. Religious questions were intensely debated and produced very different responses. Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and other Jewish movements emerged.
That matters because modern readers can easily flatten the Jewish world of Jesus into one religious system represented primarily by the opponents we encounter in the Gospels. The actual world was far more diverse.
There were disagreements, corrupt leaders, and competing interpretations. But there were also people seeking to live faithfully within Israel’s covenant traditions. Similar to the Old Testament times, the centuries between the Testaments had not produced a spiritually uniform people.
Between Testaments Is Not Between Covenants
This brings us to a distinction that is particularly important for reading the New Testament.
The intertestamental period is a useful description of where these centuries appear in our Bibles. It is not necessarily a description of Israel’s covenantal status during those centuries.
The Old Testament ends, but God’s work in the world does not.
The Temple continues to stand. Priests continue to serve. Sacrifices continue to be offered. Jewish boys continue to be circumcised. Sabbath continues to be observed. Passover and the other festivals continue to shape the calendar. The Scriptures continue to be read, taught, copied, translated, and debated.
Whatever we eventually conclude about the relationship between the old and new covenants, we should not allow the physical arrangement of our Bibles to suggest a gap in chronology. Israel was still living within the covenantal world inherited from the Hebrew Scriptures.
Between the Testaments is not the same thing as between the covenants.
Were the “Silent Years” Really Silent?
Calling this period the 400 silent years can therefore be helpful, as long as we’re clear about what we mean.
From the perspective of the Protestant canon, the prophetic voice recorded in the Old Testament has grown quiet. But God has not disappeared from thought, worship, or expectation. The Scriptures have not been forgotten, and history certainly has not stopped.
Empires rise and fall. Greek becomes a dominant language. The Scriptures are translated. The Temple is desecrated and rededicated. Jewish rebels fight for religious freedom. Independence comes and goes. Rome arrives.
In the previous essay, we traced a pattern stretching across the Old Testament: even during periods of widespread rebellion, judgment, exile, and foreign domination, a faithful remnant of people continued trusting God.
Should we assume that pattern suddenly stopped when Malachi ended?
By the time we arrive at the opening of the New Testament, the world has changed dramatically. Yet some things remain remarkably familiar. The Temple still stands. Priests still serve. The Scriptures are still read. Sabbath is still observed. Israel’s festivals continue. God’s promises have not been forgotten.
The page between Malachi and Matthew may be blank, but history was not. And if the Old Testament has taught us to expect faithful people even during Israel’s darkest moments, perhaps we should turn that page with one more question in mind:
Who was still waiting when the story resumed?
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