 Good morning, everyone Welcome to today's session. I hope each of us had a good weekend as Still our students are logging in. Can we start the session with a word of prayer? Let me pray. Let's pray Dear God, we thank you. We praise you. We love you. We honor you. We glorify your name Lord We submit ourselves and this day the session especially in your hand Lord, we pray that You will minister to each one of us. You will teach Lord, I pray that you will cover me and you will put your words into me And you will speak to each one of us Lord with clarity with the insight from your word and You will give us your understanding Lord as We study your word of Father Holy Spirit of God I pray that you will minister to each one of us in the place where we are Lord. Thank you father I surrender ourselves and the session in your hand in Jesus mighty name. We pray amen Amen, amen So today we're going to study on the inter-testimonyl period Yes, we are going to see the different types of error that was present and that 400 silent period So during the 400 years the inter-testimonyl period especially God's people experienced a significant challenges and a spiritual decline So this 400 year period was character characterized by six Historical errors. So what are they? They were the Persian era which ruled from 397 BC to 336 BC and then we had the Greek era from about 336 to 323 BC and then the Egyptian era about 323 to 198 BC and then we had the Syrian era and then the Maccabeean era and then the Roman era with the time period well the Syrian era was 198 to 165 BC and the Maccabeean era was from 165 to 63 BC and then the Roman era was from 63 BC to about 4 BC. Well, we can study what happened with the Persian era era This era actually dates Persian conquering the Babylon in 536 BC Yes, we're going to study. I'm not going to go deep into the history But then a few information that each of us needed for us to understand the significance on each era. We'll cover them Yes So as it continued into the early years of this inter-testimonyl period We see that first thing that the Persia Contributed to the people of Israel as a foreign policy We need to remember that the history of the people of Israel like once in the Solomon Goes off the scene the kingdom as in the last class we started after the Solomon rule The kingdom was divided into two that is the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom The northern kingdom eventually was called as Israel and the southern kingdom was known as Judah And we know the capital city of these places the northern kingdom is right in Israel The capital was Samaria in the southern kingdom. The capital was Judah The northern kingdom the capital city was Judah and that was Samaria Well, the northern kingdom of Israel was scattered all over What happened was the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian and the southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonian And what happened after they conquered these two places? They took Israelite as captives and they scattered them throughout the region wherever the Syrian Empire was and the same goes with the Babylonian Wherever the Babylonian where they scattered the Israelites there So wherever the settlement where they're so Persia eventually You know conquer even the Babylonian and when they do They foreign policy was to let the people of Judah return to their homeland. So when under the Persian rule Some of the Israelites returned back to Jerusalem with the leadership of Israel and later Again, there was a certain batch of exile returned back through the leadership of Nehemiah So we see that God used Persia to deliver Israel from the Babylonian captivity We also see that when we study the book of Daniel and this allowed the Jewish exiles to return back to their land for what they Rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem and also they rebuild the temple of Jerusalem and they restored back the worship at the temple You choose note something happened once I can please How do I unpin? Once I can please Yeah, sorry about it. I by mistake clicked on the pin for Abu Bakr and now I released it. Okay So what happened? So these significant things that happened during the Persia Let the people of Israel do and it all related to the foreign policy So about 100 years after the close of the Old Testament from the book of Malachi to the New Testament there was a complete silence and During the season we see the Judea continue to be under the Persian territory under the governor of Syria, but the high priest exercising a measure of civil Authority so the Jewish people were allowed to observe their Religious tradition without any governmental interference So we see and later we see The Persian attitude was a little bit tolerant about the Jewish Worship related to their worship the traditional style of following But later the Jewish people were pretty much left undisturbed by the Persian during this period And what happened in the time of the Greek era? So between 334 BC and 331 BC Alexander the Great defeated the Persian king derives the third So there was a three consecutive battle and that gave him the control of the land of the Persian Empire So what happened now? Alexander the Great has been regarded by the historians as the greatest conqueror of all types And he was far away from the central figure of the brief period and he conquered the Persia The Babylon the Palestine the Syria the Egypt as well and as some of the Western India although he only reigned over the Greece for about 13 years and he died at a very young age when he was about 33 year old but He left a great influence Which even lived after his death They cherished the desires of Alexander that he found to be the worldwide empire Unified with a common language. There should be a single custom and a civilization But what we see under his rule was a great influence influence about the Western Western world to speak and study the Greek language and This process was called as Hellenization including the adoption of the Greek culture and their Religion in all parts of the world So what we see here is the Hellenism became so popular and It persisted and was encouraged even through the Roman era and the New Testament times So it was Alexander's goal to bring a Greek culture to the land yet conquered and he wished to create a world United by the Greek language and thinking So this is a very crucial element that Greece brought to the table. So what did the Greece do they bought? They made sure that there was a common language and there's a common religious impact on the people and They want to be implemented among the places where they ruled and read So there was a faithful Jews Resisted strong influence of this pagan polytheism although the Greek language was sufficiently widespread by 270 BC but Resulted in bringing about a Greek Translation of the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament into the Greek translation and This was known as Sector Gent with this we will move on to the next era that is the Egyptian era I hope we are getting it. Are we getting it? I'm not going too fast. I'm going it slow And I'm giving the main information that we could get from each era Is it okay, or am I going too fast? No, ma'am, it is fine. It is fine. Thank you. Thank you for confirming said, okay Now the third one we are starting on the Egyptian era, which was between 323 BC to 198 BC When the Alexander the great died in 323 BC The Greek Emperor Empire became divided into four segments under his four generals So under the Alexander there were four generals one was Ptolemy the second was Lyceumus and the third was Cassander and the fourth was Salamis now Ptolemy Sotter the first of the Ptolemy dynasty Received Egypt and soon dominated the nearby Israel So he dealt severely with the Jews at the first but toward the end of his reign and on the rule of the Ptolemy Philadelphias Was a successor the Jews were treated favorably And it was in this season or in this time The Septuagint was authorized. That is the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament Well, the policy of this toleration followed by the Ptolemy's By which the Judaism or the Hellenism co-existed they both co-has existed peacefully But at the same time It was very dangerous for the faith of the Jews What happened? gradually During this period Jewish people started to worship The influence to become more External than the internal worship. So this was very dangerous for the Jews So there were two religious parties emerged during this time who are they? Pro Syrian Hellenism party and the other was orthodox Jews So there was always a struggle between these two groups and This resulted to the Polarization of the Jews along the other areas that is the political cultural and the religious Sectors well, you also see the Jews had prospered until you know the near end of the Ptolemy dynasty when the conflict between the Egypt and Syria Escalated well what we see here is Israel was again caught in the middle When the Syrian defeated the Egypt the Battle of Panion in 198 BC Judea was conquered by Syria now we move on to the next era that is the Syrian era Which took place between 198 BC to 165 BC now what happened under this era Under the rule of the Antiochus 3 the great and the successor Celus's fellow factor Flow flow pattern. Yeah, I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing it correctly kindly. Excuse me Well, the Jews came under this Control of Syria What happened here is they treated Israelites very harshly. They were rude to them They didn't allow them to worship in the way they had to and there was a local rule under the high priest and all the reasonably well until the Hellenizing party decided to have a person person they favored So it was Jason who replaced the high priest favored by the orthodox Jews and they brought this about by bribing Celulus's successor Celula Celulica's successor was Antiochus So this set up a political conflict that finally brought Antiochus to Jerusalem and he was very angry and Then 168 BC he set up about you know He went went about to go and destroy and every distinct Jewish fate He forbade it all the sacrifices and he outlawed all the rights of Circumcision and he canceled the observance of Sabbath and he went ahead and he also stopped the offering of sacrifices in the temple and he He also disallowed the feast which they celebrated yearly Additionally, he also destroyed the nearby Destroyed the nearby copies of the Hebrew Bible. So Jews were forced He also went to an extent of forcing the Jews to eat poke or un Religious food which was under which was against their belief and also he forced them to Make sacrifice to their idols to the pagan gods and his final act of all these Was you know and also he went towards Desiccrating the holy place by building an altar in the temple and offering the sacrifice for the god of Zezos So many Jews died in This season due to persecution perhaps. We also see reminder of God's way of working with man is needed at this point We see man seeking God's help at the season He creates or allows these type of desperate situation and then he makes the man call unto the God the creator to help Same way sometimes when we face the situation these days, isn't it? We also see that there are some desperate situation that has been created in our life in our city in our country Where it is beyond our man's ability and we seek God to intervene To help us the same thing happened then and We see how God was simply setting the stage for the coming of his deliverer Jesus the only Messiah Though he was silent, but he was working behind the scene and we see that during this time God's plan everything was in God's plan There was nothing hidden. God was not wondering. What should I do now? No, everything was in God's plan But there was silence, but still everything was according to God's plan with this We will move on to the next error. That is the Maccabean era from 165 BC to 63 BC We see an elderly priest called Matthias he was from the house of Hassemen who lived with his five sons in a village near northwest of Jerusalem and when a Syrian official tried to enforce the pagan sacrifice in that village Matthias Revaulted and he killed the renegade Who tried or who offered a sacrifice he slew the Syrian official and fled to the mountains with this family he fled And then what happened? The when he fled the very act of this Matthias and his sons made some of the faithful Jews to join him And they also went along with him to the mountain and The history says that one of the most noble demonstration of the holy zealous To honor God was found in Matthias The very act of him so after the death of Matthias three of his sons carried on the maccabean revolt in So the three sons where the first one was Judas any ruled from 166 to 160 BC and then Jonathan is another son who ruled from 160 to 142 BC and the last son was Simon who ruled from 142 to 134 BC and these three men had such success that by 165 BC they had retaken Jerusalem Lends the temple and restored the biblical worship and this event Commemorated even today as the feast of dedication And which is also known in the Jewish culture as Hanukkah Which we also see that in the book of John chapter 10 verse 22 Where Jesus was entering the temple during the feast of dedication When we read that John chapter 10 verse 22, so we see that Though they were fighting against the Syrian continued an outline area, but the Jewish people finally received their independence during the leadership of the Simon who ruled in 142 BC and Under his rule the Jewish had the freedom to worship and practice their religious custom And there were also two parties who co-existed during this time. Those were the Pharisees and Sadducees With that we will move on to the next era. That is the Roman era Which took place from 63 BC to 4 BC So the independence of the Jews ended in 63 BC when a Roman general called Pompey conquered Syrian and ended Israel and entered Israel What happened? when Arti Aristo blueless second of Israel claimed to be the king of Israel Locked Pompey out of Jerusalem and the Roman leader He took the city by force and by doing so he reduced the size of Judah So what happened? Antipa was appointed as Procurator of Judah by Julius Caesar in 47 BC as some of us Will recall that Antipa's son was Herod eventually he became the king of the Jews around 40 BC although Herod the great as he was called during that time Planned and carried out to build on to the new temple in Jerusalem He was a devoted Hellenist and hated Hasmonean family until he went and killed the descendants of Hasmoneans including his own wife the granddaughter of John hike Hierarchanus and as well as his two of his own sons he killed Remember this Herod was the man who was on the throne when Jesus was born in Bethlehem So we we should know like How his rule would have been when he can kill his own wife and two sons for him The political power was very important. So during this era We see the Pharisees believed in the strict Hadarans to the scripture that is the written law and As well to the misna that is the oral law which sought to apply the written law to destroy Written law in everyday life. Whereas the Pharisees was strongly Connected with the scribes with the Sadducees Well, the Sadducees were strongly related to the high priest The priest seemed to have tended toward the more of the social political and earthly aspects of their position Well, this position was obviously more attractive toward the well these social-minded Jewish leaders so we see the rule of Romans and Under this rule among the Jewish people there were two Two parties that is the Pharisees and Sadducees and their rule continued even in time of Jesus. So lastly the Roman brought in Many many advantage During the era. So what did they brought they brought the law they brought peace among the city They also stabilized the government rule they brought in a system among their rule and also they also brought slavery and Like we see that the Romans brought the roads they built the roads all over the empire And they were freeway builders of their days and what happened was these roads connected the empire to her together and that was Very important where to spread the gospel this helped the mission of the disciples to carry the gospel into all the world So God used each of these various nations to fill up the time and Also prepare the way for the Messiah was to come the one that they had been Hoping and waiting for If you also see in John chapter 1 verse 10 to 11 we see that when but when he came The Messiah whom they were waiting and hoping for when he came They did not recognize him or receive him. So with this we just went towards the 400 years of the silent period But it was God's purpose it was God's purpose for them to remain silent because God did send many prophets before Many messengers before but people never heeded their voice So what did God do? God remained silent. They also called us the dark period But even during this time Though God did not send any messenger, but God was working behind the scene He was Jay Jess paving the path for the Messiah to come to send the messenger that was John the Baptist in the New Testament He comes He comes and after that the Messiah is on the way So with this we can move on to the New Testament. That is The four gospels we can we can discuss on the introduction of the four gospel But before that, I would like to know if there's anyone would like to share add-on to what we said Please feel free What we discussed you can add on or share something Class please feel free. It shouldn't be like very monotonous. Please feel free. You can unmute and speak. Yes Please go ahead Nikki Hi pastor, I just wanted to know I Have always been confused by the 400 years of silence of why God chose to do that But I want to know if there's any other biblical reference way Maybe is there any reference or connection to the time when they were in Egypt or me any other kind of connection or Logically, I'm not able to make any sense of why there was silence and how the people went about in that period of Search Thanks. Thanks Nikki. That's a good question. But then yes God There's no scripture or so between the 400 But then the timeline from the book of Malachi to to the New Testament You know the history says as a timeline and then there's a 400 and exactly if you see The history says for 25 years of silence, but then you know, there's always a variance between the time period They say for some says 400 some says 425. So exactly They just say 400 years, but then There was silence because the people did not heed to the Prophet's voice God did send many prophets We see Isaiah Jeremiah Daniel and many other prophets were there Malachi Amos all the major and minor prophets that we studied in the Old Testament They were telling the Jews in the exile or People who were Left out in the region God sent these prophets for them to repent Come out from the pagan culture, but then people never heard Heeded the voice of these prophets. In fact, they also stoned them the rebuked them They call them the mad people they rejected them Literally we see Jeremiah cry and weep out, you know to let them know to repent and come out But they never heeded and we also see when we studied the book of Ezekiel, you know how we enacted himself He tied his hands he tied his legs to show that you are in bondage. You need to come out of it But then people never heeded their voice. So that is how it was they were so much a Deaf to the voice of God, but later, you know when we study the history of this 400 period when People literally were seeking for the voice of God through the prophets, but then there were no prophets during this time There were no prophets God stopped talking to people through prophets Malachi was the last So what happened some of the people When you when we study the history, we see that some people say that so much we have sinned Our sin has grown so much that it has made our years deaf to the voice of God Or it has made God stop talking to us anymore through So this was the extent that the sin had grown among the people and people started realizing that Even when they were going through different errors under the different rule. Yes Jewish people with You know, they had their own set of trouble. They were persecuted. They were ups and downs in their life Yes, there was certain time they had freedom certain time. They didn't have freedom. They could not worship God You know, they had to go different season in each rule But each rule paved a path for the man to seek God to cry out to God so that When God when God talks to them or when God sends a messenger, they will hear they will repent Because God tried doing it many times among Through the major and minor prophets, but then the people did not hear them So what happened during the season? Sometimes God remains silent so that People will realize and they will cry out to God and now this time when God speaks, they will hear they will hear and yes, that's how This 400 years paved a path for the Messiah to come And before the messiah could come God sends the messenger That's John the Baptist so That's how it was prepared. I hope this answered your question. Nikki. There's no actual verse Or any scripture what happened in 400 years, but that's how because it was silent. That's how this 400 years have been Said it is silent from the book of malachi to the start of the new testament was 400 and change years And it was a silent period for the dark period they say Yeah, yes, Prasthit. Thank you just Quick thing. Is this why some people also say that prophecy is no longer the new testament Is this the reference they give like I've heard some people say but I mean, I believe in prophecy just clarify No, I didn't understand. What was that? Sorry. No, some people say that prophecy and miracles and all were dead What will happen only in the old testament? I've heard some old preachers say that is is this the reference they usually give because of this I'm not sure. Nikki They were comparing to or relating to exactly. I don't know. I've not heard anything as such So I'm not able to say exactly what exactly they were pointing out to but then All the old testament prophecies. That's what we will be studying when we study The introduction of the four gospel of the new testament that all the prophecies of jesus from the old testament Way fulfilled in the new testament through jesus everything All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So any other questions Or anything that you would like to add on see i've not gone into deep history of each one because it becomes too much of theory And what is required for us to understand what would have happened in the intertestinal period is what I shared but then You're free for more understanding because in our class we have different students So to cater to everyone, I've just taken up the important points But then if somebody is interested in more of social and would like to know in depth in the background I would request recommend you all to please do a research and learn more. Yes And so that you get a greater and deeper understanding on each era And yes, I have a question. Yes. Yes, please So we discussed about certain eras which uh occurred during the intertestinal period and is that the reason why the new testament was written in Greek or was the new testament written in hebrew also One thing we see that The new testament was written in greek because the greek has well established by then and they had the common language They also translated the hebrew of old testament into greek at certain period We discussed when we were sharing and yes, the new testament was written in greek because the common language Was well established as greek because of alexander that great And yeah, so so the speaking language was Aramic and Yes, yes, so even when we see jesus spoke aramic Speaking language was aramic, but when it was written it was written in greek All right. Yeah, thanks Thank you. I'm back. Yes Is is my voice clear or is it breaking? It's very clear. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Sometimes because of the net Poor connection sometimes it breaks well if there's anything as such you can please let me know Okay, anyone would like to add on because the time is up We have another 10 minutes. I don't think in 10 minutes. I can start the introduction to the gospel anyone would like to share add on And we can study on the introduction to the new testament or to the four gospels tomorrow Okay, so if anyone i've studied through these error, would you like to add some point? Understand that you're okay. Was there any question? Anything from the class that you would like to Yes, brother lubega, please go ahead It is a question Yes, please It is it true that uh, that guy they call was it anti anti course the fourth Went ahead even to slaughter pig in the In the temple because There was a rule Just give me a minute, please see, um Yes, you're right. His full name was I was just searching for his full name. His full name was No, uh, they Celusias Celusias was a successor of Antiochus epiphanes and under his political conflict where he brought in this slaughtering of pig in the temple and he forced the Jews to Eat the pork and he made them to sacrifice to their pagan god so it was Celusias who was the successor of Antiochus ep Epiphanes epiphanes Lubega did that answer your question? Yes, thank you so much pastor. Thank you. Thank you We see another question from said Wanted to know that we worship a god Oostrinity father son and the holy spirit. I was thinking like Are we worshiping the god of jews? Yahweh Or somebody else what difference between Jehovah and Yahweh? Both are the names of god Both are the names of the father Uh, in in jewish culture, they would uh, you know, it is the different way like, you know Both are the same name of god Jehovah or Yahweh. It is different Uh Hebrew I guess they called as Yahweh and in fact they used to not call Yahweh it is In Hebrew it is known as Yahweh Wadi So, uh, even when they write in the scriptures um The scribes when they write in the scripture They would so fearful to write the name of god You know even to write they used to go have bath wash their hands and then come and write Yahweh each time and that too not in the full form for example, uh, if the uh, if the spelling was why Hey, H W E H They used to write it as Y iPhone H Or a not H Y iPhone W iPhone H something like that They used to miss few letters in between for example if they had to Uh, if they had to uh mention god, they used to not write G O D with a capital G They used to not write that way. They used to write G iPhone god So when they read You know, they used to give all reference reverence to that name They had so much of fear to the very name of god, even when it comes to uh, Jehovah They used to write J E H space H something like that. They used to not write full They had a lot of reverence and both relates the same. It's the father who is I am Sid did that answer your question? Yes, ma'am. Thank you ma'am for the information Okay Yes, this is more to uh, yes, please go ahead brother Lou Bega In fact, it's because of the lack of vowels that we get a combination of names like Jehovah Yahweh in the same spelling because you know the Greeks at at first Is it the Greeks? No the Hebrews In the Hebrew language at first they were not putting their Vowels so because of that lack of vowels. This is where we get the difference in names. We get Jehovah. We get Yahweh in the same spelling. Thank you pastor Thank you. Thank you brother Lou Bega for adding that. Okay, Sid maybe one of the reason that is also there Anyone else would like to add on to something in today that we studied in line with what we covered today Before we could close our session with a word of prayer. Okay. I see Silence. Okay. Well I hope this was this class was interesting to each one of us and very informative So before we could end the session, can I request one of us to please close the session with a word of prayer? Rosalind, can you close the session with a word of prayer? Thank you lord Jesus. Hallelujah lord. Wonderful lord Jesus. We want to thank you father. Thank you for this Wonderful session that we had lord even You know lord even or maybe we haven't understood it clearly, but holy spirit. We need your guidance We need your help Help us guide us enlighten our eyes of understanding that we may understand whatever we hear in this session lord And not only be the hearers, but also that also the doers of the word lord We thank you and we bless our dear pastor anoint her lord and use her mightily. Thank you once again. Jesus Amen Thank you so much for joining in today's session. See you all tomorrow same time. God bless. Thank you Thank you. Good place