THE period which elapsed between the last of the Old Testament writings and the events recorded in the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, was one of at least 400 years―no insignificant period, even in the life of a nation whose history extends over so vast a time as that of the children of Israel. It is a period roughly corresponding to that which, in the history of our own land, has passed since the murder of the two princes in the Tower and the reign of Richard III.
The changes which time ever brings with it, were not absent in Israel’s history, though in those days, and among an Eastern people, there was not the impetuous rush of events which is so marked a characteristic of our own times. Yet they were momentous days for Israel, as we shall see. But as to what happened during those centuries, the inspired records give hardly any intimation. Prophecy, indeed, ― “the history of events before they come to pass”―had briefly and exactly sketched part of the period, but the Evangelists take up their record without any “introductory chapter.” Their object, we need hardly say, was not to connect their times with the Old Testament days, or to write mere history. It was to present a fourfold witness to the Christ.
Familiar as most of us have been with our Bibles from childhood, there is a possibility of our overlooking the great historical gap between the two Testaments, and the many new features presented by the New; just as one familiar from his boyhood with some striking scene is not so impressed with its features as a stranger would be. Hence many are barely conscious of the chasm in the history of that people which God calls His people, and the land which is His land. Yet there is much to awaken our attention: very frequently the Gospels present something which is new, or which is different from the order mentioned in the close of the Old Testament, or that is otherwise so striking that it might well excite interest. To mention only one or two examples of this: ―We find on reading the Gospels that though “the people” are in the land, they are there in a subject condition. Everywhere we meet with tokens of Roman authority, for the eagle, and not Judah’s lion, is the symbol of the ruling power. The current money bears the image and superscription of Cesar; Roman legions garrison the cities; Roman publicani collect the odious and extortionate imposts; an Edomite―under Rome’s control―holds his debased court where David’s Son should have reigned―that Son working as a carpenter in a humble village. We meet at every turn with party names new to us―Pharisees and Sadducees, Zealots and Herodians. Very little information, it will be remembered, is given in the New Testament concerning these; the writers refer to them as to names well known.
It is designed in these papers briefly to sketch the history of Israel from the days of Israel’s last prophet to the New Testament history; that is from the close of the Old Testament canon to the appearing of that Saviour, concerning whom the ancient scriptures bore so exact a witness.
The precise date of the exercise by Malachi of his prophetic office is not known; but it can be pretty well gathered by a comparison of his prophecy with the latest historical book the of Old Testament— Nehemiah. It will be seen that Malachi rebukes the people for the very corruptions which Nehemiah found upon his sojourn a second time in Jerusalem. It is plain that the Temple had been rebuilt (which calls for a later date than Haggai; and it is painfully plain, too, that (as is the base with so many movements which have been really from the Spirit of God) there was speedily a grave falling away from the zeal and devotedness which marked those who had gone back to the land of their fathers. Both Malachi and Nehemiah are called upon to contend against the withholding of tithes, the neglect of the sanctuary, and intermarriage with forbidden races. This seems to point to their being contemporaneous, and gives the date of about B.C. 420.
At the time, then, of the close of the Old Testament, the state of things was briefly this: “The Remnant” was settled in the land, under mild Persian control, ruled by a faithful and generous governor in Nehemiah, and with equal faithfulness warned by the Lord’s prophet. He, with stern denunciations of much evil which was rife, spake precious words to such as “feared the Lord and thought upon His Name” of the Sun of Righteousness who should arise―the Messenger of the Lord who suddenly should come.
Malachi (of whom nothing whatever is certainly known) died, the last of the prophets― “the Seal,” as the Rabbis called him―and the voice of prophecy ceased. Many years passed in quiet subjection to the Medo Persian power, the immediate administration of affairs being entrusted to the Jewish high priest. For a long period (i.e., from the death of Nehemiah till the reign of Alexander―nearly 100 years) the history of the people is a blank. Only one event, and that because of its shocking character, stands on prominently during that time. When Eliashib, the high priest died, he was succeeded by his son Judah, and he by his son John. Bagnoses, the Persian governor, had promised to procure the office for Joshua, the brother of John. Relying upon his support, Joshua quarreled with John in the holy precincts, and the rupture ended in the murder of the former, whereby John not only became a murderer, but also a profaner of the Temple. In revenge, Bagnoses came up to Jerusalem, entered the Temple, thus, as a Gentile, further polluting it, and imposed a fine of fifty drachmas upon every lamb offered in sacrifice, amounting altogether to about ₤1720 per annum. This tribute was levied for seven years, and seems to have ceased with a change of governors.
John held the priesthood for thirty-two years, and was succeeded by Jaddua, who is the latest person mentioned (chronologically) in the Old Testament. It was in the days of the latter that the Macedonian power was gaining its ascendency, and the Persian falling before it. Alexander (afterward called “the Great”), the “mighty king” of Daniel’s prophecy, came into Syria (B.C. 331), took Damascus and Sidon, and while besieging Tyre, sent a letter to the Jewish high priest, demanding that he should send him auxiliaries and provisions. He ordered that the tokens of submission formerly sent to Darius should be sent to him, and that the high priest should choose the friendship of the Macedonians or Greeks. Loyally (according to Josephus) did Jaddua reply that he had sworn never to bear arms against Darius, and that he would not do so while that prince was living. Incensed at the answer, Alexander sent reply that he would teach all men to whom they should keep their oaths, and upon the fall of Tyre, he marched to Jerusalem.
With much fear, Jaddua commanded supplications and sacrifices to be made, if, indeed, God would be merciful to His people, and deliver them from their perils. Warned in a dream, Jaddua adorned the city upon the approach of Alexander, and threw open its gates, attired himself in his glorious robes of purple and scarlet, set upon his head the miter and golden petalon having the sacred name of Jehovah, and accompanied by a great throng of white-robed priests and people, he went out as far as to Sapha, to meet the conqueror. To the immense astonishment of Alexander’s followers, who were eager for the command to sack and plunder and torture, the conqueror went forward alone, and did reverence before the high priest. Certain kings of Syria who were with him thought, perhaps naturally, that he was mad! Why, asked one, should he, whom all adored, adore the high priest of the Jews? Alexander answered, “I did not adore him, but the God who path honored him with his high-priesthood. I saw this very person, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army and give me the dominion over the Persians.”
Alexander gave the priest his right hand, accompanied him into the city, offered sacrifice at the Temple, and treated the priests kindly. On their part the priests showed to him the book of Daniel, with its predictions that a Greek should destroy the Persian empire, and Alexander at once concluded that it was he who was therein marked out. Possessing a kind of superstitious natural religion, it is quite possible that those circumstances helped to confirm him in the belief he himself expressed as to his “divine mission.” With great joy he bade the people ask what they would, and readily granted to them that they might observe their own laws, and be exempt from tribute every seventh year. On these conditions many of the Jews enlisted in his army, and Jerusalem and the Jews passed out of the second (the Medo-Persian) into the third great world empire―the Grecian. Jr.