Part 5. I'm now moving into the New Testament..with a brief word about the period between the Old and New Testaments. You know, between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew.
Once again, these posts on Clarifying the Bible are a series of posts. Start at the first one and it'll make more sense as you move along the way.
I'm continuing through 20 sentences that will help you have a better handle on your Bible.
Remember...
Bible study is important.
Make it a priority.
Be disciplined.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
As I ended the last post, I briefly mentioned that God was greatly at work during the period of silence between the Old and New Testaments.
And I do mean greatly at work.
A lot of providential events happened.
You might ask, "like what?"
Some High Level Examples:
1. 400 Years have passed. Think about that. The United States is younger than that. Without any word from any prophet. It's been silent.
2. Christ was born.
3. Note: The silence period is also called inter-testamental period. It's also called 2nd Temple Judaism.
4. Greeks and Romans have both come to power in the world.
5. God was silent (but He’s about to scream).
6. Anticipation of the Messiah was building.
Consider these things:
Flipping the page in my Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, how does the language change (of the original texts)? It goes from Aramaic/Hebrew to Aramaic/Greek (Aramaic is basically the language of the Persians). Basically we go from Hebrew to Greek.
What was the nationality of the people who wrote the Old Testament? Hebrew (God’s people).
What language did they speak? Hebrew.
What about the New Testament?Jews (God’s people).
What language did they speak? Greek.
WHAT HAPPENED?!?!
Let's dive into a brief history lesson.
Who took over the Northern Kingdom (of Israel) in the Old Testament? Assyrians.
Who defeated them? Babylonians.
Who defeated them? Persians.
When Babylonians and Assyrians conquered people, what would they do? Carry people away into exile.
Persians didn’t think that was very smart. They had a different theory. Let them go back. Why? They wanted taxes. Hmmm, some things never change.
Who defeats the Persians? The Greeks.
Who was the main Greek guy? Alexander the Great. By the time he was 20, he was king. At 22 he set out to conquer Persia. At 24 he had conquered the known world.
Alexander was marching on Jerusalem. Why didn’t he destroy Jerusalem? According to Josephus (a historian), when Alexander got to Jerusalem the city wall was adorned with wreaths. The High Priest met him outside the gates and Alexander asked him (the high priest) about the wreaths. The High Priest, Jaddus, said God told him to put them there. (DGS Note: There is some discrepancy in the historical account of Alexander the Great and Jaddus. We'll go with this for now. I'll update the entry as I learn more.)
Jaddus took Alexander inside and opened up the Hebrew scripture to Daniel Chapter 8 and says “this is you” in our Holy Book (the great horn of Greece was going to defeat the Persians). Alexander then treats the Jews fairly.
Next, Antiaches Ephiphenes takes over and hates the Jews. They’d attack them on the Sabbath. Jews are getting slaughtered. Then two men rise up.
One of the men who rises up is named Mattathias. He has five sons. One is named Judas the Hammer (translated Maccabees).
One day Mattathias is in the temple and the high priest is about to sacrifice to a Pagan God (the Greeks were making them do that) and Mattathias walks up to him and punches him and says “we will fight.”
Then “the hammer” takes over and they rise up in rebellion and push back the Greeks. Then, there is a civil war in Israel.
Pompey (a Roman) is parked right outside Jerusalem and offers to “settle the civil war.” He takes over then Julius Caesar takes over and the Romans reign.
Anyway…enough history…
In addition to sects (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) being formed, synagogues spring up (Jews are scattered a little).
Not knowing all of this is like walking into New York in the days after the 9/11 World Trade Center Bombing with no knowledge of 9/11 and assuming what your average New Yorker thinks about Muslims.
Priesthood is now up to the highest bidder.
Israel is in a mess. God has been silent.
Then....Luke 2…”good news of great joy which shall be to all the people for today a Savior has been born.” Silence is broken.
Hebrews 1…God has previously spoken through…but now he has spoken through His Son. The silence is broken.
Matthew 2…Herod the king is ruling. Herod killed three of his wives and two of his sons. Caesar Augustus wrote “I’d rather be Herod’s pig than one of his sons.” He hears about the “king of the Jews.” Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Herod wants to know where the Messiah is to be born so he can “worship him.” He loves little baby kings who are going to take over. Yes, this is sarcastic.
The Silence Has Been Broken!!
The bottom line of the past few minutes of discussion is this - don’t flippantly turn your page between the Old and New Testament without trying to understand what that happened in the region.
Just looking at everything from a simple Jewish perspective, the Pharisees are at the end of several hundred years of EVERYONE but GOD ruling them and, based on their history, they think that the reason that others are ruling them is that they are not following the letter of the law…then along comes a guy (Jesus) that says you have read this (in your law), but I say this…etc. That's one reason they might want to kill him!
Now let's keep going with the next of our 20 sentences.
13. The New Testament consists of 27 books written by the early followers of Christ.
Yay! A simple sentence. But yet so, so important.
14. The 27 books of the New Testament are divided into 5 historical books, 21 epistles, and 1 prophetic book.
Let's clarify that a little bit.
History is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (the biographies of Jesus, covering about 33 years) and Acts (also covering about 33 years).
Acts is a historical sequel. Acts is like Luke – Volume 2.
Of the 21 epistles, the first 13 are Pauline, then next 8 are non-Pauline.
Then, the prophetical book – Revelation.
15. The gospels present Jesus Christ from the unique perspective of 4 different authors who were writing to 4 different audiences, together presenting a compelling, complementary (not contradictory) picture of Jesus.
What do I mean by that? I'm glad you asked.
Matthew - He writes from the perspective of the relationship of Jesus to the Jewish Faith. He writes more to a Jewish audience. He denounces the hypocritical outlook of Pharisees. He writes of judgment on the Jews for not responding to the Messiah. Note: The genealogy that Matthew includes goes back to David, then to Abraham…connecting Jesus to the Jewish faith. You see “fulfillment of the prophet” mentioned many times. If this is the king, where is the kingdom? That question is addressed in Matthew. His focus is on the teaching of Jesus.
Mark - He writes more about action than about preaching. Disciples need to be ready to endure the same difficulties that Jesus faced. Jesus chose the humble path. Mark is written more to a Roman audience. Note: The pace is very fast. You see the word "immediately” written many times.
Luke – He writes about the blessings of salvation. Signs, wonders, and miracles of the Messiah. He focused on grace given to undeserving people. Luke sets things out in chronological order. Luke's general audience is the Gentiles or Greeks. Note: Do you notice something familiar from earlier in the post about our discussion of the 400 years of silence? Jews, Romans, Greeks are the people occupying Israel. Jews, Romans, Greeks are the audiences of the first three gospels.) Interesting...
John – He writes about Jesus as one sent by God the Father to be the Savior. John brings eternal significance. John’s audience is THE WORLD. Matthew and Luke start with genealogies. John starts with “In the beginning.” John's gospel is the most theological of the 4. The first three gospels are referred to as the synoptic gospels (meaning the same). 92% of John’s gospel is unique. “I am” statements are in John. (E.g I am the light, the bread, the vine, the door, the truth, the life).
This is a good place to pause. In the next post I'll dive into Acts and the spread of the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world!!
For now...remember...
Bible study is important.
Make it a priority.
Be disciplined.
Note: In this series of posts, I am presenting material from Clarifying the Bible as I learned it in the Downline Institute, purposely giving credit to both Downline and Mitch Maher, the author of the study by the same name.
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