We continue our inquiries on the 400-year period between Malachi and John the Baptist, the opening of the New Testament era.
By 445 B.C., the walls of Jerusalem were finished under the leadership of Nehemiah. Obstacles were overcome: Tobiah, Sanballat, Geshem, and an indifferent and/or discouraged constituency. At this time in redemptive history, Israel was a small, struggling nation.[1] Israel had become a geo-political football between the nations of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, the Ptolemies and Seleucids, and the Romans.
Assyria had been a major player in the eight century B.C. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylonian culture were significant in the 7th-6th centuries. There was the domination of the Medo-Persian Empire till the end of the 4th century B.C.[2] Then, the Greek Ptolemies and Seleucids exercised influence over Israel only to yield to the Roman occupation.
Alexander the Great, 331-323, a young student of Aristotle, would rise to dominion. He would become acquainted with Aristotle’s physics, logic and Nicomachian Ethics.[3] If Aristotle, like Plato, sought to understand the “one and many” problem, or the issue of “unity,” then perhaps Alexander the Great was the “political Aristotle,” seeking unity amongst his holdings.[4] He would conquer Macedonia, Asia Minor or Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Babylonia and its holdings, Persia and, with varying successes, eastern parts including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
An active program of syncretism and Hellenization was one result of his advances. Cultural and linguistic hegemonism would lay the groundwork for the production of the Greek Old Testament at Alexandria, Egypt, in the Ptolemaic period, c. 250 B.C., a book that would inform and be used by Greek Christians. Coinage, language, philosophy, culture, various units of measurement, plays, music, theatres, amphitheatres, sports, games, and the conquest of the nations’ riches, treasures, lands, taxes and women informed Alexander’s conquests, including inter-cultural and multi-cultural interchanges.[5]
Upon the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom fell to brutal disputes amongst his generals. As an aside, some say he died of syphilis and others that it was typhoid fever; his boyhood friend and fellow warrior, Patroclus, also died. The kingdom was divided; for our interests in terms of the New Testament, two of the four Generals are important for our study, the Ptolemies and Seleucids.
It would be fair to say that three Greek titans strongly influenced Western history: Plato, Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Although Alexander the Great was not a philosopher, but a warrior, he wanted, like his master Aristotle, a “unity in philosophy.” It is reported, perhaps apocryphally, that Alexander the Great kept Aristotle’s writings near him, even in his sleeping quarters. That he had a penchant for academia is well-reported inasmuch as he took philosophers, literary men, and scientists on his journeys.[6] They would collect flora and fauna of the nations so it could enter the stream of scientific knowledge. We are reminded of Aristotle’s point that a man was not educated until he was a physician; this is a reason why science studies are required for undergraduates as a part of expanding one's horizons.
Yet, despite the tumults, Israel continued to survive, struggling but tenaciously embracing their Old Testament Scriptures and their identity as the people of God. She faced polytheistic cultures, the battle over assimilation and syncretism, relativism, weak and false shepherds and prophets, and apathy and ignorance. There was a battle royale over ideas and beliefs, including the consequences in behaviour.
As an aside, while reading Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind (Simon and Shuster, 1987), I was reminded about the imperialism, imperiousness, and an imposing self-view that emerges from relativism and the absence of a theological and ideological anchor. It also creates indifference. For believers, it creates a strengthening, if not hardening, in one’s own position. This drew my mind to the imperialism of the Roman period that was exercised over Israel.
We ask this in terms of the varied influences on Israelite leaders, as well as the rank and file Israelite.
We bring an excellent statement that describes this period (and all periods) from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter V, 1.
“God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.”
We close with a prayer from our wise, balanced, and thoughtful Book of Common Prayer. First, it is an excellent prayer. Second, we oppose the anti-liturgists who are enthusiasts and self-reliant--seeing no need for biblically-shaped prayers continually and constantly for individuals and the Church Militant on earth. Third, we like prayers with biblical phrases and doctrines, antidotes to clerical or cultural biases, omissions, and ignorances. While this is direct and personal, this prayer goes beyond ourselves. We also give thanks for the providential perseveration of the Church through the ages, specific to the inquiries before us. The possessive pronoun in the prayer for “our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life” surely includes the thanksgiving for the preservation of our fellow-believers during the Intertestamental Period.
"Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and lovingkindness to us, and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen."
[1] Questions: (1) Can you summarize the facts of this 400-year history after Malachi? (2) How did people, of varied sorts, feel at this time? How would this have fanned Messianic expectations? (3) How does this Messianic expectation correlate to the Second Coming of Christ? How does Advent in the calendar incorporate both themes, the first and second advents of Christ? (4) What Study Bibles do you use, own or recommend? (5) Can and should history be read in a moral-theological way, as suggested by the Rev. Dr. John H. Gerstner in his lectures on Systematic Theology and Church History?
[2] We must defer comment and refer the reader to the Old Testament lectures.
[3] Thomas Aquinas and the medieval Schoolmen would take up Aristotle. An Aristotelian view of the Eucharist to this day still informs Roman Catholic Schoolmen and followers. Aquinas’ Summa Theologica is still the staple and central text for systematic theology in every single Roman seminary, worldwide. I actually met some academically-inclined Roman priests during my Navy and Marine Corps travels who routinely read, thought and discussed Aquinas. The majority of Roman priests did not do that, but I met several who did.
[4] This vision has not disappeared. One hears of a one-world government, a one-world order, with a one-world religion. Europe has afforded one such example of a federated group of states. Sometimes, one will hear of a federation between Canada and the US, such as coinage, etc.
[5] These questions are perennially important. How has culture affected you? How about the Marines in Jacksonville or Richlands, NC? As a military man and Churchman/ Churchwoman, how have the frequent moves affected your worldview, your values, your beliefs and/or your family’s? How did your home life affect you? What changes, for or against, should be made when you review that of your parents and grandparents? How has your church affected you? Or, a husband or wife? Books? Movies? Music? We are aware of one scientific study concerning rock/loud music and the creation of pre-dispositions in the listener towards “Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.” Have you ever seen some lad or lass with earphones, ipod, and blasting music you can hear from yards away?
[6] We hope in future editions to collect important URL’s and book recommendations. One handy volume is Everett Harrison’s Introduction to the New Testament, which we have consulted in connection with this edition and summarization of my college notes. We are mindful of others such as Donald Guthrie’s Introduction to the New Testament. The latter view is a must-have and must-buy for the shelf, the lap and the eyes. We would point the student to the Encyclopedia Britannica and The International Bible Encyclopedia for relevant articles on: Malachi, Nehemiah, Esther, Ezra, the Graeco-Roman period, Roman history, Greek history, the Hittite culture, Homer, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Maccabeus, Seleucids, Ptolemies, Alexandria (Egypt), Julius Caesar, Pompei, Herod the Great, Herodian Temple, Octavius Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. While Greek would inform the lingua franca of the early church, Pax Romana, coinage, political stability, roads, and other evidences of imperial dominion would afford the early church an infrastructure for the advance of the Gospel in the Roman Empire—from the sands of the sub-Saharan deserts to the glistening sea of the Atlantic in the far west, to the Highlands of Scotland, and eastwards to the headwaters of the Tigris-Euphrates River.
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