The Intertestamental Period

Message Outline:

The Bible

Part Nine: Intertestamental Period

Intertestamental Period A.K.A 400 Silent Years

● Absence of Divine Revelation (Special Revelation)

● Occurrence of Political, Social, Cultural, and Religious Judaism

Political Change

● The Basis of Our Study–The Book of Daniel

● Babylonian Empire (605-539 B.C.)

● Media/Persian Empire (539-331 B.C.)

● Greek Empire (331-168 B.C.)

● The Hasmonean Dynasty, a.k.a. The Maccabean Period (110-63 B.C.)

􀀁 The House of Herod

● Roman Empire (168 B.C. - 479 B.C.)

Social, Cultural, and Religious Change

● The Synagogue

􀀁 synagoge

􀀁 required 10 Jewish men

􀀁 ruler (arche); synagogue (synagoge) = archisynagogos

􀀁 hub of Jewish social life

● The Chief Priests

􀀁 priests were Jewish nobility

􀀁 ruler (arche); priest (hiereus) = archiereus (high priest; chief priests)

􀀁 controlled the temple and its auxiliary systems and structures

● The Scribes

􀀁 grammateus

􀀁 Ezra prefigures this office

􀀁 soper (man learned in the Torah; Rabbi); soperim (Scribes or Rabbis)

􀀁 required ordination

● The Pharisees

􀀁 lay teachers

􀀁 control the conscience of the people

􀀁 ritual purity, tithing, the Law of Moses

􀀁 part of the Sanhedrin

● The Sadducees

􀀁 mixture of laymen and priests (aristocrats)

􀀁 part of the Sanhedrin

● The Septuagint and the Growth of the Diaspora!