The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

I. The Interim between the Two Testaments

Four centuries stretch across the interim that separates the close of the Old Testament from the beginning of the New. This period is sometimes referred to as the “Blank Leaf” between those earlier and later pages of church history that are familiar to all. Others call them the “silent” centuries. Let us draw aside the veil that obscures them, and glance at the high lights of these intriguing years. Tremendous changes took place between the falling of the curtain at the close of the Old Testament, and its rising again with the New Testament. At the close of the former period Palestine was part of a Persian satrapy. At the beginning of the latter the Holy Land was part of a Roman province under the iron heel of Rome, which then ruled the Mediterranean world. PFF1 67.2

It was an era of violent changes. Persia had passed. Greece had come and gone. And religion had been affected as well. At the time of Ezra neither Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, nor Herodians had yet developed as sects in the Jewish church. This so—called silent interim was not, however, a voiceless age. In some sections men were still very vocal, and tremendously active. During this period a sizable amount of religious literature was produced, a portion of which found entrance into the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And not long thereafter Christianity was destined to spring from the bosom of Judaism. ¹ PFF1 68.1

With the return of more than forty thousand Jewish exiles to Palestine, under the edict of Cyrus of Persia—about two hundred years before Alexander the Great—a new name was entered upon the page of history. It was the term Jew, or Judean. Originally restricted to the tribe of Judah, it was henceforth extended to cover all Hebrews. The exiles returned to a land of desolation and hostilities; nevertheless, with invincible courage and vigor they soon developed a degree of order out of the confusion. The decree of Cyrus marked the natal day of the restored church. Other edicts followed, and Jerusalem became again the honored center of the nation. PFF1 68.2

It was a time of protest against a developing conformity to heathen customs. The Samaritans sought admission into what might have been a reunited church, but their exclusion made them schismatics. The caste concept was introduced into the Jewish church. Race purity and perfection through the law were stressed. Prophetism died away into silence when “scribism” took over the guardianship of the spiritual welfare of the people by making a hedge about the law. The high priesthood grew in dignity and power, and became the rallying point of the nation. It was a living symbol that the church and the nation were one. The Sanhedrin, as a political organization, came into being. A change in language had taken place, the exiles having learned the language of their conquerors. And when they returned from exile a new speech was on their lips—the Chaldee, or Eastern Aramaic. PFF1 68.3

Then came Alexander the Great. Until his day Greece had been largely oblivious of Palestine. Despite the loyal fidelity of the Jews to their treaty with Persia, Alexander’s favor and patronage were won. Next followed the fourfold division of Alexander’s empire ²—and Palestine lay on the frontier between Syria and Egypt, the most powerful two of the four. For a century Palestine was chiefly held by the Ptolemies of Egypt. Then the Syrian kings asserted their supremacy, with the climax coming under Antiochus Epiphanes. PFF1 69.1

During the Persian period large groups of Jews ha remained outside the Holy Land, with Babylonia as their center. Now in the Grecian period, Alexandria of Egypt became the new center. The founding of the city, which for a period became the metropolis of the Mediterranean world, was designed to perpetuate the fame of Alexander, and was akin to Constantine’s selection of Constantinople as the new capital of that later empire. Thousands of Jewish emigrants settled in Alexandria, forming a prosperous and influential section of the populace. Greek ideas, customs, and speech made their impress, and were readily accepted. The Jews were fascinated by the charm of Greek art and literature, and the nation began to be swayed by its enticing customs and culture. These Hellenizing influences also penetrated into Palestine. PFF1 69.2

Jewish liberalism was sympathetic toward Greek learning, but the conservatives of the day fought against it. Two systems of thought developed: the Pharisees, who were in reality innovators, believing that besides the written Torah—the Law of the Old Testament.—there is an unwritten one (the rabbinical tradition) which unfolds the meaning of the Torah with ever greater clearness, covering those points which are not expressly mentioned in the written Torah. They made the Torah, written and unwritten, the supreme guide of life in thought, word, and deed. ³ But the Sadducees, who were guardians of the ancient order, denied flatly the validity of the unwritten. Torah. Although in full allegiance to the Torah, they considered it fully justifiable to make use of their own pintelligence in the conduct of public affairs. ⁴ PFF1 69.3

Then followed the Maccabean Wars, during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (c. 176—164 B.C.), who, while seeking to unify his kingdom by the medium of a common religion, suppressed all resisting elements with utmost cruelty, forbidding all distinctive Jewish customs. He desecrated the temple. The worship of the Jews was forbidden, and the temple was transformed into an idolatrous sanctuary. But let us draw the curtain over the ensuing wars, and come to 100 B.C. PFF1 70.1

In the political life of the nation we find the Herodians, who were partisans of the Idumean dynasty, and the Zealots, who were extreme nationalists. The Pharisees had the masses on their side, and the Sadducees, the classes. These latter became the party of privilege, prestige, and often of the priesthood. They could be compared with the conformists, whereas the Pharisees were the nonconformists, similar to the rigid Puritans of English history, or the stern Covenanters of Scottish lore. They stood for the resurrection of the dead, for human probation, and future judgment. On the other hand, the Sadducees considered themselves the superior ones; they sought to compromise and to soften the Jewish asperities. PFF1 70.2

And now the Roman was at the gate. The successful campaign against the kings of Asia Minor was closing, and Jerusalem was invested. Then Pompey appeared on the scene. The Holy City fell, and with it went national independence. But Pompey, puzzled by the lack of any idol in the inner shrine of the temple, refused to touch its accumulated treasures. He appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest, calling him an ethnarch, and depriving him of the title of king. And he restricted the territory to the confines of the old kingdom of Judah. This was in 63 B.C. PFF1 70.3

Jewish history now emerges from obscurity and stands revealed in the light of Roman literature. At the time of Cicero, Crassus, Cassius, Caesar, Antony, Octavius, and Cleopatra, Palestine was suddenly brought to the attention of the Western world. Thousands of Jewish captives were sold as slaves, and many others compelled to settle in Rome. Thus the Jewish colony in the imperial city was established, and grew to great size. Julius Caesar had just become the Pontifex Maximus, and was about to enter upon his conquests in Gaul and Britain. Then the storm broke over Jerusalem for the second time within the century, as it was once more invested by a combined Roman and Herodian army. After the horrors of a six—month siege, it fell, in 37 B.C. Thus we come to Herod, the king of the Jews when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. PFF1 71.1

Prophetism had died out of the church, and various substitutes had taken its place. The first was scribism, as noted. To the scribe the law was perfect. It was the end goal. Grant summarizes it in this way: PFF1 71.2

“To add to it was presumption; to alter it was sin. All that the Church could do was to comment on it, to annotate and defend it. The Law was to be the instrument of Israel’s glory. Therefore it was to be placed first, more precious and more to be prized than even national independence.” ⁵ PFF1 71.3

Scribism looked forward to a triumphant law, not to a secular independence.—not even to a prophesied Messiah to come. And the Pharisee was the logical product of scribism. Then there was Sadduceeism. It was essentially rationalist and worldly. It set itself to make the most, or perhaps the best, of this present life, for the Sadducee believed in no other. He dismissed “illusions,” and was content with what he held to be realities. “A triumphant Law, an expected Messiah, a universal dominion,” were all simply shadows and delusions. Instead, pontifical state, priestly prestige, and high ecclesiastical office were to him the substantial realities to be sought. PFF1 71.4

And then there were those to whom scribism and Sadduceeism were alike unsatisfactory. To such the magnificent law and the glorified temple were both of small moment. The important thing was that men should be pure, that they should be separate from an impure world. This group cared little for either the written Word or oral tradition, for priest or temple. These were the Essenes. PFF1 72.1

There were also a scattered few who based their hopes on the visions of the canonical prophets of the past. ⁶ Like Abraham, they rejoiced to see Messiah’s day. Their hope lay in the coming and reign of the prophesied Messiah. They looked to a dispensation of the future. Theirs was the protest of spiritual religion against the formalism of the scribes and Pharisees and the secularism of the Sadducees. They kept alive the blessed prophetic hope. Such was the strange admixture to be found in Jewish religious leadership as we come to the prophesied times of the Messiah. PFF1 72.2