The Silent Years that Weren't

The years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament are erroneously referred to as the “400 Silent Years.” This period has been defined as “The time gap between Malachi the last book of the Old Testament and Matthew the first of the gospels. God did not speak to His people Israel during this time.”

This subject came to my mind when I was writing the series on 21 objections to the Apocrypha. The fact is when one looks at the facts of history and Scripture, he/she would be hard pressed to refer to these years as silent in any sense.

As we saw in dealing with the Apocrypha, God was not silent as far as written Word. He was inspiring the writers of the Apocryphal books during these years. These books were written in a period from about 100 to 300 years before the birth of Christ, thus in the very heart of the “silent” period. If a person denies the canonical status of the Apocrypha, she/he would naturally think of them as silent in this regard.

The question is why? There are other periods in which the Word is not being actively enscripturated. For example, from the Creation to the time of Moses (this is anywhere from 1000’s of years to who knows how long). So all during the time of the Patriarchs, God was silent as far as writing Scripture is concerned.

The ostensibly silent years were not silent as far as prophets speaking from God. As we saw previously, there were prophetic writings even in the Apocrypha itself (recall the book of Widsom’s prophecy about Jesus in Wisdom 2). Anna, who lived during these years, is called a “prophetess.” She was undoubtedly known to prophesy and that during the Silent Years. (See Luke 2: 36-38)

Was God on vacation for 400 years before the coming of Jesus? Even those who deny the Apocrypha’s canonical status, accord it important historical importance. The intertestamental years are replete with divine activity. God was strengthening the Maccabees to defend Israel, giving a mother and her seven sons strength to face martyrdom (II Maccabees 7), and many other wonderful things.

While the Jews deny that the Apocrypha is inspired Scripture, they celebrate a holy day that is mentioned ONLY in the Apocrypha, namely, Hanukkah. This holiday commemorates the re-dedication of the Temple in the 163 BC after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. God performed a miracle when the consecrated oil, sufficient for only one day, was multiplied and burned for eight days until more oil could be pressed and prepared (1 Maccabees 4:56–59).

Therefore, we can see that God was neither silent nor inactive during this time. The fact is He is never inactive or silent; He is ever working and we should all be thankful for that.