The following document, The Four Hundred Silent Years, is a study that was developed from research gleaned from Dr William McRae of Dallas Theological Seminary. Since he was the researcher we feel it only fair to give him the credit for this document. Not only that but on our ratting line, I give it a Four Star Rating.

Note: However, I have placed the immediate following information here, because during these so called "silent years" I am fully persuaded, that they were really not as silent as we have been led to believe or even deceived into believing. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had always kept a remnant of His people and Daniel was one that lived during the time of the 'head of gold' as well as the chest of silver. Daniel was brought to King Nebuchadnezzar and charged by him to give an interpretation to a dream, that he (the King) would not reveal to anyone. Moving from the head downward, we know today that the statue or idol, was representative of the Empires Babylonian, the Meads-Persians, the Greeks, the Rome (both the Eastern and Western churches set up by Constantine.) I may be the only one to look at it this way, but the feet of iron and clay (because of the ten toes) may represents what we see today, resulting in a weak church with a Humpty-Dumpty form of a gospel. The church of today, at last count is made up of well over twenty-three-thousand pieces called denominations. As the cute little poem goes; all the kings horses and all the kings men can not figure out away to put the Humpty-Dumpty Church together again. With the iron being the theology of the Catholic church and the clay being the ten tribes of the house of Israel (the same tribes that Yehshua referred to as the lost sheep of the house of Israel"), things are a mess to say the least.

Daniel 2:31-45 NASB "You, O king [Nebuchadnezzar], were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. (32) "The head of that statue was made of fine gold [Babylon (Iraq)], its breast and its arms of silver [Meads-Persians (Iran)], its belly and its thighs of bronze [Greece], (33) its legs of iron [Rome], its feet partly of iron [Roman theology] and partly of clay [house of Israel].

(34) "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands [Ephraim and Dan], and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them . (35) "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found [Matthew 3:11-12]. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth [Revelation 7:9-17]. (36) "This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king.

(37) "You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; (38) and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. (39) "After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. (40) "Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. (41) "In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. (42) "As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. (43) "And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.

(44) "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. (45) "Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy."

There are about four hundred years from the closing prophecies of the book of Malachi until the opening statement of the Gospels in our New Testament. This "silent period of history" is totally undocumented other than in certain apocryphal writings that the traditional Protestant Church has historically resisted to be Scriptural. In fact, as we leave the writings of Malachi (where Persia was a world power) when we start reading the Gospels it's jarring to note that the world power at this time in history is Rome. There are also several sects and functions in Israel that grew out of this silent period in history, most predominant of these being the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Sanhedrin. Let's look at these 400 silent years for, the better you understand the historical context, the better you can understand your Bible.

The Persian Period was the last period from 539 BC that we read about in Malachi. Our Biblical history is complete up to this point.

Additional Note: Daniel and his three companions were carried to Babylon and were there from about 586 BC until somewhere around 516 BC, at which time Judah was then allowed to return to Jerusalem, with the purpose of rebuilding the Temple.

The period of time between 323-301 BC is the Alexandrian Period, named after Alexander the Great. Alexander was not a Greek, though he was as educated (or better) than the Greeks of his day. Alexander studied under the noted philosopher Aristotle.

When Alexander built his great war machine and conquered Israel he followed the Persian system of government. Alexander knew that it would be easier to keep these people within his kingdom if he didn't impose religious restrictions on them. He had seen too many empires fall when religion was legislated. His major concern was that the Jews peacefully obey his rule. As long as they complied and avoided revolution, Alexander allowed them to prosper both financially as well as religiously.

Alexander also had a unique method of ruling borrowed from the Persians. After conquering Israel he placed Israel's same leaders back in power, and left them in power, as long as they supported his government. Alexander was a ruling polygamist: That is, he often married women of high ranking families in the nations that he conquered. He did the same in Israel. By doing this, the people felt that Alexander's wife was their "queen", and it further helped keep the people from revolting.

In 323 BC Alexander died. As when any great leader dies suddenly there was a struggle for power, and four of Alexander's Generals emerged triumphant. These Generals divided the kingdom into four parts. The two most significant were Salucius, who controlled Syria and the eastern part of the Kingdom. The other, Ptolomy, controlled Egypt and Palestine.

The Egyptian Period was from 301-198 BC. The Egyptian Period was not started nor controlled by Egyptians, but by Ptolomy (see above), one of Alexander's Generals.

Ptolomy I was the first ruler over Palestine during this reign. He established Alexandria, and created a Great Library in the capital city.

Ptolomy II extended the Library, and encouraged (but did not force) the Jewish people to migrate into Egypt, a Greek speaking culture. The Jews obliged, as commerce was more brisk in Egypt, and they learned Greek well - a little too well. As they learned Greek the Jews forsake their native Hebrew tongue. This caused religious problems, as the Bible was only written in Hebrew. Ptolomy II started the Jewish Scholars to translate the Hebrew Bible into the Greek language. This translation was called the Septuagint, as it was allegedly translated by 70 scholars. In Ptolomy II's reign about 5 books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek so the populace could read it. The remainder of the Septuagint was completed around 200 BC.

The Syrian Period was from 198-167 BC. Again, this period was controlled by one of the parts of Alexander's empire which came to be known as Syria. When Ptolomy II died his infant son was "placed on the throne". Antiochus Epiphanes (Antiochus IV) of Syria saw this as an opportunity for advancement, so he took over Palestine.

Antiochus Epiphanes was more forceful than other rulers, demanding that the Jews adopt both Greek culture and religion if they wanted peace. This ruler claimed to be "a god", and demanded worship. The coins of his kingdom bore the inscription. "God manifest, victory bearer". Antiocus Epiphanes did what Alexander avoided: caused two groups to rise up. One was the Hellenistic Jews, who felt that it was fine to "go with the flow" to keep peace in Israel. The Hellenists also wanted riches and fame, and felt that their obedience would guarantee this.

The conservative Orthodox Jews refused to follow Antiochus Epiphanes, for they felt that such a compromise would anger the true God.

Both the Hellenists and the Orthodox parties wanted their man as High Priest, and this dispute caused a local rebellion. Antiochus Epiphanes, on hearing of the rebellion, mistakenly thought that it was an uprising against his government. He sent troops in who quelled the rebellion after great bloodshed.

After this, Antiochus Epiphanes headed back to Egypt to overthrow it. But while he was settling the dispute in Palestine, Rome had already been there, conquering the whole region. In his anger he went back to Jerusalem, burned all Scriptures, and banned all forms of worship other than his own. In 168 BC he confiscated the Temple treasury, set up an idolatrous altar, and sacrificed a pig on it.

Alexandria was the wife of two ruling sons at different times who after both sons died, took over the throne. She was a good ruling Queen who had two sons, Aristobules and Archanus. Both children wanted the throne, so they appealed to Rome to make the decision.

Pompei, the ruler in Rome, came to Palestine to overthrow it. Rome overthrew the area and placed Judah under their rule. Archanus was placed on the throne as both the religious and governmental leader of Palestine. The people of Israel continued to rebel, so Rome removed their political powers entirely.

With this void, the political powers in Judah naturally started to gravitate toward the High Priest. Over time, the High Priests of Israel became less concerned with spiritual things and more concerned over the worldly political arena. This caused a group of laymen to rise up in Israel to seek and minister to the spiritual needs of the people.

The Idiomeans were a nation of people near Israel. Since Rome misunderstood the Jews, they felt that to place Israel under the Idiomean rule was to "get rid of a bad situation" Plus, they felt that the Israelites wouldn't seek to band together with another nation like Idiomea. Herod the Great came out of this nation. (Matthew 2)

Herod, though a bit mad, was a great builder and administrator, and probably helped Israel a great deal. He married a Jewish woman to better his bond with the people, though he later murdered her for infidelity. Herod was responsible for remodeling and expanding the Temple of Israel.

When Herod died (around 4 BC) his three sons ruled: Archalaus was given Judah and Samaria, though he was removed in 6 AD because of incompetence. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Persia. This Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and met Jesus just before His crucifixion. Philip ruled the districts north of Galilee.

The Scribes came into being early in the post-exile period. The Scribes initially started out as laymen to help minister to the spiritual needs of Israel, while the High Priest concerned himself with worldly political things. The Scribes were meant to be professional Teachers, guardians of the Law. They knew the Hebrew language that others forgot, and thus were able to interpret the Bible for the people. Eventually the Scribes became cold in their work, and were bound up in tradition rather than the application of Scripture. These Rabbis often, in Jesus' day, twisted the Scripture as necessary to meet their own needs.

When Babylon destroyed the Temple, the Jews created the Synagogue. The Synagogue was a place where the Law was studied and prayer was made to God. If as few as ten Jews gathered together in one place, they established that place as a Synagogue.

When the Temple was rebuilt, the Jews continued to meet in the Synagogue. This is because the Priesthood was, to a large part, corrupted, and was too involved in the day's politics. The Synagogue was, to a degree, a parallel to the Local Church of our era.

The Pharisees were the conservative orthodox Jews that sprang up during the Syrian period. The Pharisees refused to follow Antiochus Epiphanes, for they felt that such a compromise would anger the true God. They were straight laced, ultra conservative, Biblical literalists. The Pharisees were seperationists, unwilling to take on either Greek culture or influence. I guess you could call them the Jewish Resistance Party, and were the most popular religious group of that day. The Pharisees were greatly influenced by Jewish tradition called by them the Traditions of the Elders, and this eventually became their stumbling block.

The Pharisees believed in a literal resurrection from the dead, just as Christians do today. They were very similar in belief to Calvinists, and emphasized the Sovereignty of God in daily life.

The Sadducees were the liberal Hellenistic Jews that also sprang up during the Syrian period. They were "pro-Syria", and often sought the easiest path of least resistance insofar as the conquerors were concerned. The Sadducees felt that it was fine to "go with the flow" to keep peace in Israel. They wanted riches and fame, and felt that their obedience would guarantee this. The Sadducees were a minority party that was very unpopular in Israel, though they had great influence in the political Temple and in the Sanhedrin.

The Sadducees did not believe in a literal resurrection from the dead. This is why they were "Sad, You See" (HA! A little way to remember their distinction from the Pharisees). The Sadducees also refused to believe in demons or angels. They were the liberal Theologians of our day.

The first reliable mention that we have of the Sanhedrin is during the reign of Antiochus The Great (223-187 BC). In Greek, the Sanhedrin was called the Senate. The High Priest headed the Sanhedrin, and the Aristocracy were it's members. There were a few Pharisees among it's members, but most were the Sadducees. It was the Sanhedrin that accused and illegally tried Christ as a traitor to Israel.

This is the Pseudopigrapha, or False Scriptural Writings, that came out of the supposedly Four Hundred silent years. The Apocrypha books hold some good historical data about this period, but have been rejected by the Protestant Church as heretical writings. Contrary to the Protestants, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent (1546 AD) canonized these odd books as Scripture.

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