The Intertestamental Period

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00:01
Good evening, I Want you to look around and just remember that every class starts full and every class ends basically like this and I don't know if that's because It's just heavy or if it's because people lose interest I don't know what it is But every class begins, you know up to 20 or so people sometimes we've had even 30 people Pack the class and we always end with around 12.
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And so We have tonight nine so Plus me.
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We'll go ten at least get us in double digits So if you include if you include me, but I am thankful that you are here tonight It's the last class in our survey of the Old Testament.
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We're going to be looking at the Intertestamental period that is the period between Malachi and Matthew that historical period Where we do not have any inspired texts that address that there are many non Uninspired texts or what? We would simply say historical works that take place during that time the Maccabees and others And so it's not as if we have no information, but what we do have is not what we would say Scripture so we just make that distinction what is and what is not scripture? so With that in mind I want to ask this question Have you ever wondered why when you read the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament There are entire groups of people in the new that are never mentioned in the old Like for instance the Pharisees you never read about the Pharisees in the Old Testament or the Sadducees But when you begin to read the Gospels, it's assumed that you know who these people are.
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It doesn't explain them It doesn't give a historical account it simply says the Pharisees and the Sadducees and I mentioned some other ones as well such as the Herodians which were a political party and When we leave off the Old Testament history The Persians are in power But when we arrive in the Gospels the Romans are in power and so obviously in that 400 year period of time there were a lot of religious and political changes and We will not be addressing all of them And I will go ahead and tell you you may ask a question tonight But I don't know the answer to because there is a lot that can happen in 400 years our nation It's not even 400 years old.
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And if somebody were to ask me a question about the history of America I don't know that I can give a perfect answer every time.
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So if you ask me something, I don't know the answer I'll just say I don't know but the things I do know we're going to try to address tonight things that I think are important Such as the rise in certain religious and political sects I want to quote somebody that you might find autumn a quote Louie Giglio.
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I just like this quote.
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He's Interesting guy, but this is a quote he Gave about this period.
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He said we go from Malachi to Matthew in one page of our scriptures But that one piece of paper that separates the Old Testament from the New Testament represents 400 years of history 400 years where there wasn't a prophet 400 years where God's voice wasn't heard and That silence was broken with the cry of a baby on Christmas night Just thought that was kind of poetic kind of nice You know God spoke through Malachi and then he was quiet for 400 years from a historical perspective What other time do we say God was relatively? Quiet that was also about 400 years No, the exile wasn't 400 years That's right, that's right after the time of Joshua we have a 400 year period before the rise of Moses So it's interesting that there's two periods of history that both have about a 400 year span that both ended with a vast giving of God's revelation Because at the end of the 400 year period of slavery in Egypt God gives a vast revelation the law of Moses and then after the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew There's a vast revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And so it's just an interesting Parallel historically of two major events which were superseded by or preceded rather by a 400 or so year period of relative silence All right So we're going to ask this question tonight.
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What happened between Malachi and Matthew the period between the last book Written in the Old Testament and the first words of the New Testament are sometimes called the silent years Because as we just said it is believed that God gave no prophetic revelation during that time Now Between the last writings of the Old Testament and the appearance of Christ several major developments set the stage for the gospel story the political religious and social atmosphere of Palestine Changed significantly during this time And this lesson is going to focus on those Changes.
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So here's our outline if you want to take your if you want to write that line down Outline is going to be we're going to look first at the political changes then we're going to look at the religious changes and then we're going to look at points of interest and Interpretive challenges we try to do that as well Now I want to also mention one other thing This lesson may not be as long as some of the other lessons go We'll do you know what we have and then we'll draw to a close But there is going to be an extra portion at the end where we talk about the paper if you are planning today Or if you're planning to earn a certificate for this class, then we are going to assign to you tonight your paper Requirements, so just keep that in mind if you are not doing a paper You don't necessarily have to stay for that part But I would encourage you to because I do in case you ever want to do it future I give you some insight into how that works All right Let's look first at the political changes Israel was under the control of the Persian Empire from 532 to 332 BC The Persians allowed the Jews to practice their religion with little interference They were even allowed to rebuild and worship at the temple.
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We see this in 2nd Chronicles chapter 36 Verses 22 and 23 and Ezra chapter 1 verses 1 to 4 this period included the last 100 or so years of the Old Testament period and about the first hundred years of the intertestamental period This relatively peaceful and content time was just the calm before the storm Because as we'll see this second your second note here Alexander the Great defeated Darius or Darius of Persia bringing Greek rulership to the world Alexander was a student of a man named Aristotle you probably heard the name Aristotle he was a philosopher a Greek philosopher and he was Alexander the Great was educated by Aristotle and he was so well educated in Greek philosophy and Politics by him and he required that that culture be promoted in every land that he conquered You ever wonder why the New Testament is written in Greek and not Hebrew it's because the Greeks had Conquered the world and there was a type of language that became known as Koine The word koine in Greek means common.
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So the common language of The people and it was the language of commerce during the time of Christ would have been the Greek language the koine language.
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There is a great video if anybody's interested There's a great video called all things are better in koine It was put together by a group of seminary students who were taking a Greek class and they just happened to be musicians And they do a very funny skit called all things are better in koine and they talk about why everybody should learn in Greek So that they can study their Bibles better, but it's a great little video if you're interested in looking that up so Alexander required the Greek culture and language to be promoted in every land that he conquered and As a result the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek becoming becoming what was known as the sect The sect again, this is the Greek Translation of the Hebrew Bible This is an important work.
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Why why is this an important works? And I'm going to tell me what makes the Septuagint so important Well explain a little more tell me what you're saying Ever made Well, yes, that's what it is for sure that that's absolutely true But I'm digging a little deeper and asking what makes that significant.
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Why is that important Cory? Potentially but that's not quite what I'm looking for that that that's true, but not quite what I'm looking for.
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Yes Yes, still not quite what I'm looking for.
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All those things are true.
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I'm looking for something very specific Yeah, yeah I'll just give you an answer because I feel like I'm fishing for something.
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I'm not getting it's the Bible that many of the New Testament books reference and we know this based upon their quotations of the Old Testament many of Paul's books when they quotes the Old Testament is quoting directly from the Septuagint translation and Even in Acts we see sometimes references to the Septuagint translation So we would say the Septuagint was the was the Bible of much of the early church, especially the Greek speaking Jews and the Gentiles who also would have spoken Greek remember in Acts chapter 8 The first deacons were assigned because of what the Hellenists which were the Greek speaking Jews Were not receiving the rations of daily food that they were supposed to receive And so there was a division in the church The division was between the Hellenists and the Hebrews the Hellenists were the Greek speaking Jews and the Hellenists were the Hebrew speaking Jews And there was a divide within the church.
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And so the Apostle stepped in and made a difference But the point I'm making is there were Greek speaking Jews and there were Gentiles What Bible would they have been using because they didn't have a New Testament yet They would have been using the Septuagint.
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So this Bible was the Bible of the early church now It also has another very important a Historical point the Septuagint was written about 200 years prior to Christ.
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So about 200 years BC Give or take it stands Really as the oldest witness to what the Old Testament says Because our oldest Hebrew manuscripts are nowhere near that old The oldest Hebrew manuscripts that we possess today are well after the time of Christ The Masoretic text is what is usually we talk about the our Bibles are based on the Masoretic Hebrew text is much later It's because copies of the Hebrew Bible were not maintained and kept they were they were destroyed when new ones were created And so we don't have witnesses that go back that old Like we do with the Greek we actually have older versions of Greek New Testament than we do of Hebrew Old Testament Now this was in fact Case in point.
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Why were the Dead Sea Scrolls so important the Dead Sea Scrolls when they were discovered in Qumran? What made them so valuable? they were witnesses that went back over a Thousand years to the Hebrew text because at that time our earliest manuscripts were somewhere around 900 These went back to a hundred years before Christ And so they took the they took the manuscript tradition of the Hebrew text back a thousand years This is very important historically when we get to how we got the Bible and why we trust what the Bible says So all this is important so like I said the Septuagint bears witness to what the Hebrew wrote because it's obviously a translation of the Hebrew and It precedes our oldest Hebrew manuscripts That's why the Septuagint has such an important place in the history of the church it bears witness to the to the Tenacity of the text that hasn't been lost or corrupted.
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Yes Book So it's the Holy Bible Holy Book Yep That's right, that's why if you ever see a Spanish Bible it's called the Santa Biblia means Holy Bible or Holy Book Biblia the R word Bible comes from the word Biblia Yep Biblos means Yeah, Biblos is a And I don't know what it is But yeah, there would be a Hebrew word there would been the words the word for scriptures like in Greek There's the word graph a which means writings or scriptures The Tanakh is the three is is the the the Torah the net of him and the Ketubim That's a that's an acronym for the collection of books well each each collection of those three like the Torah's the five books of Moses the the net of being the prophets and the writings and Yeah, I remember the day we all just decided we're gonna put these Oh Yes, yeah Because you know the Torah specifically was used for certain things at certain times There are readings that were done from the Torah readings that were done from the prophets But we know that that threefold division was used at least at the time of Christ because Christ mentions it in Luke 24 I believe so I may be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure they do or the scriptures.
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They may just say the scriptures Yeah, all right, so getting back to the Under the second line here Alexander the Great defeated Darius of Persia Alexander did Alexander allowed the Jews religious freedom though.
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He strongly promoted Greek lifestyle This was not a good turn of events for Israel since Greek culture was very worldly humanistic and ungodly Greek culture was a threat To their religion and so I want to read to you now from Josephus now if you're familiar with Josephus.
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He was a historian in the first century and he writes about Alexander sparing Jerusalem now this is a couple of paragraphs that take a minute to read this, but I want you to read what he wrote Josephus recounts how Alexander's troops Surrounded the city and readied themselves for attack Suddenly the city gates swung open and out came the high priest with his entourage Josephus writes this quote for Alexander when he saw the multitude at a distance and white garments while the priesthood clothed with fine linen and high priests and Purple and scarlet clothing with his mitre on his head having the golden plate where in the name of God was engraved he approached by himself and adored that name and First saluted the high priest whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised that what Alexander had done and Supposed him disordered in his mind however, Parmenoi Alone went up to him and asked him how it came to pass that when all others adored him He should adore the high priest of Jews Quote to whom he replied I did not adore him But the God who hath honored him with his priesthood for I saw this very person in a dream In this very clothing when I was at Dias of Macedonia who exhorted me to make no delay But boldly to pass over the sea for that he would conduct my army and would give me the Dominion over the Persians Whence now seeing this person in it and remembering that vision I believe that I bring this army under the divine conduct and When the book of Daniel was showed him wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the Empire of the Persians He supposed that himself was the person intended and as he was then glad he bade them ask what favors they asked of him Whereupon the high priest desired that they might pay no tribute on the seventh year and he granted all of their desires Now that is a quote from the Antiquities of the Jews book 11 Chapter 8 part 5.
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All right.
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So just to give you a little history now Obviously, this is something that was believed and was written did it happen exactly as Josephus wrote it.
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We don't know He is he's not an eyewitness He's writing from History he's writing from what was probably Jewish tradition and belief but wouldn't that be an amazing sight to see Alexander the Great the man who is conquering the known world to come to Jerusalem and to have the high priest walk out in his regalia and to have Alexander the Great honor the God of Scripture I mean a wonderful truth if it is and I'm not saying it's not or it is I'd say I We can't say with certainty because it's not scripture, but it's an interesting historical note all the same After Alexander died Judea was ruled by a series of successors culminating in a man named Antiochus Epiphanes Antiochus did far more than refuse religious freedom to the Jews and Around 167 BC.
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He overthrew the rightful line of the priesthood.
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He desecrated the temple He defiled it with unclean animals and a pagan altar.
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We see this referenced in Mark chapter 13 talks about the desolate abomination of desolation Well, it's it's referencing that event How do we know what? Well, let me double-check that look up mark 13 14, I believe this is because I don't have that passage I want to make sure I'm not misspeaking here mark 13 14 Okay the point that this term abomination of desolation Was used to reference that event However, Jesus is talking about something yet to come So I'm not saying this is the fullness of that event They're what we call the immediate and the not yet the now and the not yet there are times where there's multiple filaments and there times where there are greater fulfillments in the future and Christ I think is talking about in that passage something that's going to happen and when the when Jerusalem falls in 8070 because he's talking to them about something that's not yet occurred, but the abomination of desolation is Also referenced as the time when Antiochus brought in the statue of Zeus and set it up in the temple and it was the Maccabees who went in and took that back and took down took the head of the statue off Yeah cutting off the head of Zeus was kind of a Well, it was it was it was yeah.
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Yeah, it was it was it was to show that Zeus was not the god of that temple Yeah.
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All right Eventually Jewish resistance to Antiochus here.
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Let me pull up the next page Eventually Jewish resistance Antiochus under the Maccabees restored the rightful priests and rescued the temple the period that followed this was still one of war violence and infighting and then around 63 BC Pompeii of Rome conquered Palestine putting all of Judea under the control of the Caesars So we go from Greek control to Roman control in around 63 BC this eventually leads to Herod being made king of Judea by the Roman Emperor and the Senate now Herod was a Idumean I talked about this I think last week the Edomites were also known as the Idumeans Herod was an Idumean and He was chosen to be the king and He was set up by Rome basically he was a he was a Puppet regime.
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Yeah now think about what's what happens next Because this is the nation that would tax and control the Jews and eventually be the one that God uses to bring about the crucifixion and We see in Jerusalem now in that area Judea We see a mixture of Romans Greeks and Jews So think back to all the times you read in the gospel Where it talks about a Roman soldier came to Jesus or a Greek speaking person came to Jesus or the Greeks So, you know think about in John 12 when when when the Greeks are brought to Jesus and he says if I'd be lifted up I would draw all men unto myself all there being all kinds of men because it's not just he's not just here to say the Hebrews so there's a lot of political things that are bringing together all of these different groups into this one area at one time and There's a common language, which is the Greek language There's a political power the Romans which is a Fulfillment of the prophecy which was given by Daniel again referencing back to Daniel's prophecy because remember in Daniel's prophecy it was what the Babylonians and then the Medes and the Persians with Medo-Persians and then it was the Greeks and Then it was the Romans and the Romans were in charge when Christ came All right So this takes us from the time of Malachi to the time of Matthew from a political perspective now on to the religious changes During the span of the Greek and Roman occupations two important political and religious groups emerged in Palestine the Pharisees Were the religious conservatives this group added to the law of Moses through oral tradition and Eventually considered their own laws to be even greater than the law of Moses Though they probably wouldn't say that But you remember what Jesus said of them you teach as Commandments the traditions of men they had taken their traditions and elevated them to the point of Law now what other group does that now takes their traditions and elevates them to the point of law? Oh Frank I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with J.
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Just guess he's correct The Roman Catholics make what did you say brother? I'm sorry Matt.
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Yeah Yeah, the Roman Catholics make no bones about the fact that they believe that tradition and scripture on the same level because they believe that tradition is Is inspired like scripture and tradition has the same authority and so they have things like for instance Why does a Roman Catholic pray the Rosary? That's not in the Bible In fact, there are things in the Bible that we would say clearly contradict the Rosary such as Matthew chapter 6 Which says do not pray in vain repetition and you're sitting there literally going hail Mary full of grace Lord is with me pray for sinners now the power of our death, you know You're going through this repetition Every time you get to a certain color bead you're doing that prayer and then when you get to a different color bead you say Our father at art in heaven, how would be that name that kingdom come, you know, you do it 50 Hail Mary's and 15 Our fathers and you you know, you've given penance for whatever you've done.
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That's a tradition.
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That's not in Scripture But it's held by the Roman Catholics as if it were law Well, the same thing was done with the Pharisees.
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They added to the law of God and They made their tradition to be Essentially equivalent or greater than the law of God While Christ teaching often agreed with the Pharisees he railed against their hollow legalism and their lack of compassion There were times when Jesus said the Pharisees are right, but their heart is wrong What did he call them whitewashed? Sepulchers right which is basically I don't know if you've ever been to the Jacksonville National Cemetery I go there very regularly.
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I'll be there this Friday at the Jacksonville National Cemetery if you stand at the front and you look out there is a sea of white of White tombstones and they're and they're kept bright white.
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They are kept clean and the whole place is gorgeous but ultimately all of those white tombstones are marking posts for dead bodies their corpses, that's right and Jesus said you yourselves are like whitewash sepulchers, you're like you're you're you're outside you look great, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and that was Christ's reference to the Pharisees Now there was another group known as the Sadducees The Sadducees would might might be described as the religious liberal movement and by that I'll give you a few ideas as to why they were They represented the aristocrats and the more wealthy They wielded power through the Supreme Court like Sanhedrin, which you've probably read in the Bible about the Sanhedrin They rejected most of the Old Testament except for the law of Moses They did not believe in the resurrection and They were generally shadows of the Greeks whom they greatly admired much of their philosophy and teaching Was from the worldly perspective of the Greeks rather than from the scriptures.
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They did not believe Basically, they were anti Supernaturalists, which is interesting when you think about today because the Pharisees and the Sadducees really can Can be described, you know to to Frank's point as The conservative right and the liberal left Right, they they have they they bear a lot of political power They have a lot of religious influence But on the one side you have the the conservatives who are willing to add to the law Demand things that the scripture doesn't demand we see that and then you have those on the other side which are willing to To jettison or deny foundational truths So there's both sides Described in the Pharisees and the Sadducees now The rush of events that set the stage for Christ had a profound impact on the Jewish people Both Jews and pagans from other nations were becoming dissatisfied with religion The pagans were beginning to question the validity of polytheism Romans and Greeks were drawn from their mythologies towards the Hebrew scriptures Now easily readable in Greek and Latin we've mentioned that earlier the Bible now available being to them in Greek They could now read it and it could influence them.
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Thank Cora.
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You mentioned that right? They can now read it The Jews however were despondent because once again, they were a conquered oppressed and polluted people You ever wonder why the Jews are so hostile toward the Gentiles during the time of Christ You know as as as as much as we might have trouble with some of their attitude they were an oppressed people Imagine if well, let's say let's say We don't we're a peninsula.
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So Florida is not a good example I was gonna say imagine if somebody invaded, Florida, the only people who invade Florida would be the Georgians well, I was Another nation, let's say let's say Canada invaded North Dakota First of all, they'd never win But if they invaded right and the North Dakotans Not even sure.
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That's how you say that Were oppressed by the Canadians, you know, they made him they made him be polite, you know They made him they made him fly the flag with the maple leaf, you know Made him have a mounted army or a Smokies or whatever the Canadian mounted.
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Yeah My point is there's a reason why the Jews were They had a bad opinion of the Romans Because they were oppressed and they were again under the occupation of the Roman Empire an outside power these were the people of God as so they Understood themselves to be and yet they were still being oppressed Hope was running low fears were high and faith was Almost non-existent They were convinced That now the only thing that could save them was the Messiah the New Testament tells us how that hope came Not only for the Jews, but for the entire world Christ fulfillment of prophecy was anticipated and recognized by many who sought him out the stories of the Roman Centurion the wise men the Pharisee Nicodemus show how Jesus was recognized as the Messiah by those who lived in his day And the 400 years of silence were broken by the greatest story ever told the gospel of Jesus Christ so we see the Importance of this moment what Paul calls the fullness of time You know What does it say in Galatians when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law That he might redeem those who are under the law and give them redemption an adoption of sons.
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All right Here we have that moment in time this moment this place this Convergence of all of these things major political change major religious change all of these things have happened to bring about this one Major event in human history, and that's the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ And pulls it all together in this moment that Paul calls the fullness time All right Let's look a few points of interest and interpretive challenges.
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The first one is Daniel's prophecies Daniel gives the rise and fall of all four empires in his writings.
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I mentioned this a little while ago Daniel had prophesied without fail the rise of each Empire and even coming the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes Daniel chapter 2 verses 36 to 45 interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the statue and Daniel 7 and 8 gives the vision of the four beasts which also coincide with the four the four elements used in the statute Daniel 7 and 8 the chapter 7 and 8.
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Oh 2 36 to 45.
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That's the Nebuchadnezzar's dream Yeah Some have concluded and I mentioned this when we talked about the book of Daniel a few weeks ago Some have concluded that Daniel must have been written after the events because it's so accurate this however denies as its worldview that a God Exists who can prophesy the future we believe that so there's no reason why we have to doubt that Daniel wrote these things So we have Daniel's prophecies is number one the second thing is The writings of the Essene community now, I've already made reference to these who well, I mean back up I don't want to ask that question I'll ask this question.
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I mentioned earlier the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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I mentioned Qumran Qumran is the area that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found they were found in a cave and They're by the way, we think of Dead Sea Scrolls as being like the like this they're not they're this big They're the the pots that they that they found them in were are massive.
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They're big scrolls.
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They're not these they're not They didn't have little micro scrolls.
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They're big big writing the the the current Isaiah scroll was in a is in a museum over in Jerusalem and The Essene community are those who it is believed to have been the ones who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls in the way and Essene community, I'm sorry Yeah, the Essene community Is the is the community that it's believed of course nobody knows for sure But it is the community that they believe wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Yes What define authentic? Hi, and I'm promising I'm not being pedantic.
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What do you mean by authentic? Yeah See Yeah, they're not they're not saying they're originals The Essene community was a community of scribes By the way, you've heard of scribes was a scribe scribe is a person who writes for a living and at that time They didn't have Copy Macs or you know her office Depot They had scribes and so if you wanted something written down you would take it to a scriptorium and the scriptorium would be where the scribes would work and They were usually experts because they wrote all the time they and and and and knew these things and When we talk about authenticity and the reason why I was asking That is because we talk about authenticity We can date from a historical perspective when something is written based on a few what are called external markers such as Where something is found as far as in the layers of ground that things are dug up That's that's part part of how we determine that and we can also Base it on the materials that are used like for instance the early New Testament manuscripts The earliest New Testament manuscripts were written on something called papyri papyri was an early form of paper later manuscripts were written on vellum and leather which is animal skins and then So if we find a papyri manuscript, we know when that material was used Therefore we can it helps us in the dating process of putting it within a range Okay, we know papyri was used at this particular time and how papyri was made at this particular time based upon other historical evidence The Dead Sea Scrolls were found Yeah, it's been a while I don't remember I don't remember when they were found I don't have today Yeah, I was in it was in 19 Yeah, but based upon the The very very rigorous dating methods that they went to they have dated them sometime around a hundred BC I'm not sure which one Bobby's talking about so I'm not I don't know there have been other texts found like the Nag Hammadi texts the Nag Hammadi texts are the Gnostic texts, I'm not sure what he's talking about Well, they I'll tell you what a really interesting find that happened within the last few years Was there was a mask that was found that was a burial mask and it was a burial mask that was made of a paper mache material and Sort of like what you would you know, they make paper mache They take paper and they use glue and make forms out of it well, they had formed a burial mask and this this was unearthed and as they began to peel the Through a very strict process of trying not to destroy as they began to peel apart the mass they they realized had writing on it, so they began to Interpret and read what was on in comes to find out it was a gospel of Mark That had been used as a as this form and if they are able to take that apart That will be the oldest extant manuscript of Mark that we possess So it's just an interesting these things so there they are being found all the time I'm not sure if that's the one Bobby's referring to they're being found You know as more and more archaeology is done more and more things are being found, right? so getting back to the question of authenticity dating methods materials being used even even handwriting Think like for instance, there's two forms of Hebrew.
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You probably know this as a Jewish person or you're not Jewish But your family's Jewish.
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I guess you're You're Jewish.
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You're of Jewish lands.
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That's what I mean there's old Hebrew and there's Newer Hebrew, right and so when you look at the two, they don't look the same so if you if a text was found that would have the right materials and the right use of the letters you could Date it through those internal methods to a certain period in time That makes sense.
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So that's how they authenticate as well as other ways, but primarily through those internal dating methods All right kind of got me off track a little bit that's okay, that's a very good question That's a good topic to deal with when I when I go through how we got the Bible understanding historical Textual transmission and that's what that is transmission of the text is important.
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So the the Essene community Were a religious group that lived in an area called Qumran near the Dead Sea They were very religious very strict they were few to the other Jews as lawbreakers Actually, they called them covenant breakers.
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So they considered themselves.
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They were the IFB of their day That's my that's my rib to the IP IP is independent fundamentalist Baptist Everybody else is wrong Yeah, or we can say the hyper countenance.
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They did the same thing No, those would come come much later those those terms but the some people believe John the Baptist actually was influenced by the Essene community because of his His separation from the community and living outside the community that he had been influenced by the Essenes There's no evidence of that.
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It's all conjecture We know that John's reason for doing what he did was because God had called him to be the forerunner of the Messiah We don't have to we don't we don't have to key in any external for him.
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But did he ever meet the Essenes likely? We don't know But they had a monastery basically that they lived in and And I have the date here I didn't know I had it the day here in 1946 their library was discovered now become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls These scrolls were found in many caves and large clay pots near the area which the Essene community lived I've actually seen the ruins not there I've never been over there but I've seen the ruins and pictures in archaeology class that I attended in some seminary where it actually shows the the foundations of what was once their their Monastery and it shows how the different rooms were and one of the areas was a baptismal room This is another reason why the whole John Baptist connection is made because before they would write scripture They would go and bathe Because they would have like a ritual cleansing before going in and writing and they considered that to be a form of baptism No, the brains were from Berea that was just a reference to a city that Paul brought the gospel to Yeah, those were Jewish Jewish people that searched the scriptures to see if what Paul said were was true Yeah The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls as we mentioned earlier is that they they confirm the accuracy and transmission of the Old Testament through the Ages and so they do have a very important Very important Historical part to play.
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All right last one on this is the extra biblical history of the Jews also known as the Apocrypha the word Apocrypha is Means hidden we talked about this before and In a In a sense these have been I'm gonna let me just read this quote to you.
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This is from Lightfoot It says this the word Apocrypha is coming to the English language from the Greek and basically means hidden It was used very early in the sense of secretive or concealed But was also used in reference to a book whose origin was doubtful or unknown Eventually the word took on the meaning of non canonical and thus for centuries the non canonical books were known as the Apocryphal books Yet in Protestant circles the Apocrypha is normal Designation is the normal designation for those extra books which are found in the Catholic Old Testament See the Catholics hold to those books and we don't we talked about that in week one Oh writings That should be writings.
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I apologize So we have to and again we talked about this in week one.
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We have to ask are the are the Apocryphal books Valuable answers yes But are the Apocryphal books Scripture? I believe the answer is no, I believe well, I mean by conviction I would say the answer is no But just because something is not Scripture does not mean it's not valuable and that's where I think one of the most dangerous things One of the most dangerous forms of thinking comes into the church is when people begin to equate So less script Torah with so low script Torah and there's a difference just point this out We say so less script Torah and then there are those who say so low script Torah There's a little difference.
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Obviously you can tell what the difference is the last letter So less script Torah means the Bible alone is The only infallible rule for faith and practice the definition of so low script Torah is the the Scripture is the sole Infallible rule of faith and practice.
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So what is the main word in there? The main word is infallible The Scripture is the only infallible rule for faith and practice but what defer differentiates that from sola and solo is When someone says the Bible is the only Rule for faith and practice Now you say what's the difference? Well, if someone says I'm gonna go and have my Bible I'm gonna sit in a corner and I'm not going to look at history and I'm not going to look at anything else I'm just going to have my Bible.
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That's how you end up with the Jehovah Witnesses That's how you end up with the Mormons That's how you end up with a lot of other cult groups because they are not willing to consider anything But them and their interpretation of their Bible that's solo script Torah and What often happens is their interpretation becomes the standard Jehovah Witnesses create what? the Watchtower Bible and tract society the Mormons create what a New Testament of Jesus Christ the new New Testament, right the another Testament of Jesus Christ the the Book of Mormon Right.
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You see what we mustn't do is we must not Jettison What history and the other writings that were given to us by the Jews and through the church? We mustn't throw these away as if they have nothing to say Like I want to ask you a question How many of you have attended churches in the past that encourage you to read the early church fathers? I don't see any hands.
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Okay good Well, not good.
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Let me let me back it up.
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What's that? This is your only church so this I would say this in our church history class, I encourage you to look at the early fathers Now I will say this there are some things that I don't think that they got right.
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That doesn't mean that they are not valuable You say well, why in the world would I want to read origin? Well, why do you read John MacArthur? He's not always right either and Here's the thing origin is Within the first 200 years of the church Justin Martyr was in the first 200 years of the church Irenaeus You don't think any of these men have something valuable to teach us Well, Guston was in the 5th century, but still Absolutely.
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That's my point in the historical writings.
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We think well, I got my Bible and that's all that I'm gonna look at.
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Okay Obviously the Bible tells us that it is the sole infallible rule for faith and practice and it is it is the What second Timothy 316 say Profitable for teaching reproof that the man of God may be equipped The Bible does have the power to equip us and I'm not denying that in any way shape or form but if we think we're the only persons who knows what it means and we never consider other ideas or thoughts and This again going back to some of the issues that I have with some folks who would say I don't want to look at the creeds Confessions and by the way guys who say this are typically what is known as anti Creole so we don't need creeds and confessions Landmark Baptist would be a part of that any group that would say this No creed, but Christ no book, but the Bible you may have heard that and you say that sounds good Problem with that is when somebody says no creed, but Christ you say hold on you just made up a creed So there you go.
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You just became creedle.
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You made a creed no creed, but Christ And they say no book with the Bible.
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Okay, which Bob the Roman Catholic Bible? No, that Bible is wrong.
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How do you know? Based upon what your own interpretation? Okay I would challenge most people to tell me how we got the 66 books of the Bible that we have today and give me a answer that does not include I Well, it didn't come to the council and I say that's a myth but an answer that does not include Some appeal to church tradition.
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Yeah Now I don't believe that the canon is purely based on church tradition But I do believe that we have to understand that God did through Providence Lead the early church in Recognizing what he had inspired No, I don't because the Catholic would say that the church magisterium made that decision and if you say when They can't point to any place See the Roman Catholic Church did not affirm which books were scripture until the Council of Trent the 1500s So does that mean for 1500 years? We didn't know what the Bible was No, that would be dumb.
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But if you ask them before the Council of Trent, when was there ever a Universal ecumenical proclamation by the Church of Rome as to what books were and were not scripture There's not one the scriptures were recognized by the church And as I've said in some of my earlier teachings some books were not recognized as quickly as others the books of Revelation and Jude and even second and third John were considered to be Unsure Like we don't know if we should accept these and I'm I'm kind of glad that the church at least was discerning They didn't take everything that came their way and say this is scripture I mean we could have ended up with things that were not But understand this most people have no idea how the Bible came to be the way it is now They have no sense of history.
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No sense of study Because it's me and my Bible.
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That's all I need well I'm saying you get what I'm saying? The apocrypha has value historically But it does not it is not scripture.
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We must make the distinction.
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Yeah, okay, so I said this was gonna be short So for the Do you think the greatest of apologists Would say about When they put it in the same category as say The Quran and and the Book of Mormon and all of these other other writings of other spiritual religious Content If they use it, you know The thought process of I Need to know what's in oh Okay, I need to know you know what? I mean? I need to know what's in okay? What I believe in the Bible as being God's Word to us and for us But if I don't know If I'm thinking through what you're saying you you got you You sort of changed my course of what I was going to say when you said I need to know what's in them a good apologist should study the original writings of Other faiths so to be able to interact with them better.
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So, you know that that that's a that's a that that's a good statement but I would not put the apocrypha in the same category as the Quran or the Book of Mormon or something like that because The the the apocrypha Is from our perspective.
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It's just historical whereas the books of Mormon and the Quran are Attempting to Undermine what the scripture says particularly the Quran which says things like Cursed is he who says Allah has a son and that's a direct quote from the Quran It says if you say Jesus is God's Son you are accursed So that to me would go under the category of heresy Or false.
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Yeah false religion.
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If you go into my shelf on my bookshelf, you'll find a whole Section of false teaching In fact, it scared a guy one time He was visiting and he just happened to be sitting in the room where my bookshelf was and he looked over and he saw L Ron Hubbard and he saw Mary Baker Eddie and he saw he's a whole list, you know and by the way, Joel Osteen's on there too, I Can show you right where it's at it's sitting It's the bottom shelf left hand of my cabinet and it's it's all of these books Dianetics And I own these, huh? Dianetics is L Ron Hubbard's book, you know, I haven't read it.
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I've read it all the way through.
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I I read at it It was like it was it was like reading Star Wars It's not as cool as Star Wars, but what I'm saying is I have these texts as Tools of engagement they're like weapons like like having your your your opponent's playbook but the Apocrypha I would look at more like as I said like the writings of the early fathers as being an Example of what believers thought at this time, you know Yeah, the Maccabees is part of the Apocrypha the Maccabees is a historical account of the war That went on the War of the Maccabees.
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So yes.
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Yeah, I would say that it has I say I said I would say it has Historical value, but it's not perfect.
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They're like Bell and the Dragon and some of the other stuff that's in there is That's right, that's major difference, yeah Mm-hmm Well, and again if I'm dealing with a new believer, I'm not sending them to the Apocrypha Yeah, you know I I'm I'm saying from you know, this is This is supposed to be like seminary, right? This is our this is our seminary school So I'm saying when you're at the level where you're learning and studying history These books are valuable, but when I have a new believer come in, I'm not sending them to Baruch.
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I'm sending them to John I'm not saying you know, so there is a there's a sense in which there, you know, we got to understand when I say It's valuable Has value from a historic perspective Yep Yeah, there yeah I know what you're talking about one of the books of the Apocrypha one of the arguments of the Against the validity of the Apocrypha is that it says that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Nineveh Which he was not and so it has a clear factual inaccuracy Yeah, all right.
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Let's take our five minutes.
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We come back.
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We're gonna talk about our paper Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to finish out this class.
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I do I do have one screen that I forgot to put up earlier I closed out before I said it, but it's nothing that I didn't say But I just give you this last one Christ is the focus of the entire Bible This concludes the whole class Christ is the focus of the entire Bible that includes the Old Testament the 400 years preceding his birth was a time of tremendous change culminating and what Paul would call the fullness of time and when we come back after Resurrection Sunday, we'll I'll have I'll send out the times and dates for everybody after this class tonight We're officially on break and then when we come back after Easter We'll be in the survey of the New Testament.
01:00:19
If you've already taken the class I know a few of you guys may have and I think Daisy did take it again It's a great class You're gonna use the same Commentary that we use for this class that way you only had to buy one so that's why I bought one that contained both and I will give you the option of buying a book by DA Carson a survey of the New Testament DA Carson book That would be the only other book that I would recommend for that particular course Matt had a question first Same day same time.
01:00:53
Yep, it's going to be Sunday at 5 5 to 6.
01:00:58
Yes Yes, sir, mr.
01:01:01
Pop Julia That's the plan the only issue is I'll tell you after class, but there there it may we may have a little hiccup coming for something But it won't be that class It just may not be the date that I originally planned make it push back a little bit.
01:01:27
I'll tell you why later All right, so Let's talk about the book.
01:01:34
I'm sorry.
01:01:34
Let's talk about the paper If you are taking this class for a credit meaning you receive a certificate for this class You have to do your paper You also have to show me that you've done the notebook assignment and you have to tell me Whether or not you did the reading assignments now, that is an honor system Question because obviously I can't be with you 24 hours a day to know if you actually did the reading assignments but if you did the reading assignments, it should have showed up in your Showed up in your participation in class and most of you have participated fairly well so I'm gonna assume that if you tell me you did I'll believe you I just Know that we're Christians and we should be honorable if you didn't do the reading you still have time You can finish the reading.
01:02:21
You've got four weeks to turn in your paper the notebook assignment is I Just need to see your notebook if you brought your notebook tonight.
01:02:30
I just need to look at it I'll walk around and do that That's not a problem the research project The syllabus that I gave you at the beginning of the class has this on it But if you are you do have it I say if you didn't have it I could I could email you another copy Each student will be assigned one book from the Old Testament The student will write a synopsis of the book including authorship purpose and theme theological insights and Christological significance It will be submitted in the following format the title page.
01:03:07
And by the way, I Thoughts on this if you do not have access to a computer and a printer because a couple times these last Times I've been giving handwritten papers And I accepted it but I did give you I took some points off because The standard would be to have it printed So if just understand if you hand in a handwritten handwritten paper, there will be some points that will be deducted for that Huh? Okay No, no, I just I've never been in a college class that accepted handwritten papers for your final work ever never Not not for your final.
01:03:58
Yeah.
01:03:59
Okay.
01:04:00
I'm just yeah In school, I mean, maybe it was different but no no a final draft Should be cleanly it should be cleanly printed.
01:04:10
The paper should basically look like this give you just an idea Here The paper your front your first page Should have and it's listed on here But I'll make sure I get it exactly as I have it Title page should include the course title, which is survey of the Old Testament.
01:04:32
I'm going to have that at the top middle top middle Then you're going to have The course title which is well, I'm sorry.
01:04:42
That is the course title The number this is BIV 102 It is going to have the students name that is your name if you write your name you'll get an F You understand what I mean, but don't put no hand in a paper that says your name Hand a paper with your name on it, you know, like raise your hand state your name state your name and then You have to put my name Should be dr.
01:05:19
Bedford T.
01:05:19
Foskey, please Just for this, but this is this is I'm trying to give you this is how you are to hand it in at the title page That's all that's on it now your actual paper will be three to five pages of double space type Which is really not a lot guys.
01:05:44
I never understand how you can have a paper that has three to five pages Why people don't do this because three to five pages is not a lot, especially when you're double spacing and If you go more than five pages, that's fine But don't don't do 10 or 15 pages do The reason why I put a limit on both sides is so you don't hand me a paragraph and also so you don't hand me a book because I got to read it and grade this and Then you're going to give me your bibliography page Now your bibliography page is the last page and it will be determined by what format you use you're able to use MLA format or you are able to use APA format I prefer APA format APA format means that when you cite a source in the work, let's say you give a quote And you end the quote you will have a Parenthetical notation of where that source came from.
01:06:42
So let's say you're quoting from your commentary your commentary I don't I don't remember that it's the Believers Bible commentary, but I don't remember who wrote it But I think it's Thomas Nelson.
01:06:50
So it would be like T Nelson Believers Bible commentary You know 1985 whatever whatever the year is right Actually, no, I'm sorry.
01:07:01
I'm doing that wrong The the parenthetical notation doesn't have that current it has the name and it has the page number so page 585 right now that will connect to something on your bibliography page your bibliography page will have the Bibliography information for that so that when I'm reading the quote and I see Thomas Nelson page 585 And I look back at your page.
01:07:26
I know what you're citing That make sense.
01:07:30
Yeah Huh, that's MLA format The reason why I prefer APA is one when I was in college That's the way they made me do it and I like to pass on grievances.
01:07:42
I'm passing it on to you No, actually, there's a benefit of this when you see a number I don't if you've ever read a book that has footnotes that are just numbers You automatically have to go and see what that is connected to But when you have the last name of the author and the page number Then you know what it's referring to and so as you're reading, you know the reference and you can keep going Rather than having to automatically every time you see a number go down That's called footnotes or in notes and it refers to those Numerical notes, it's fine if you do it that way, but just be consistent Don't do it this way for half the paper and the other way for the other half the paper Pick a pick pick a lane and stay in your lane Look up MLA format or APA format follow the rules One of the biggest things is when people cite websites Because websites you would think would be easy just cut and paste the URL.
01:08:41
That's not the way you're supposed to do it There's an actual method for citing websites You are to take the title of the website if the author is available The author is the author of the site the website and then the URL and all that's included in the instructions look up MLA formatting APA formatting if you do not turn in a bibliography page and you have quotations in your page You will lose points for that One time I took a class.
01:09:10
I'll give you a quick story one time.
01:09:11
I took a class and The professor was so specific About his demands He wanted a one-inch binder Not a one and a half inch not a two inch but a one-inch binder.
01:09:26
He wanted your pages to be What's it called the margins to be set at a certain typeface and the margins to be set at a certain point And everything was to be done a very specific way now all of us groaned Because because if you hand it in a one and a half inch binder he gave it back to you I don't accept this.
01:09:52
It's not what I asked for The reason for that is the class was in counseling And he told us from the beginning You have to be conscientious about the details And if you're not It's going to be a problem You're not listening That's a problem So details matter And it was because people brought in that one and a half inch notebook.
01:10:23
I'm not taking it.
01:10:24
It's not what I asked for Okay, so you say why do why should I care? Because this is more than just learning about the Old Testament.
01:10:33
This is learning about how to learn And how to learn is about details Research all these things it's helpful There's there's there's a reason why we do things the way we do them and it's not always just because you got a Professor who likes to give you a hard time All right.
01:10:52
So if you're gonna do the book or if you're gonna do the paper raise your hand Wow You can raise your hand for Deborah at least make me feel better that there's more than three.
01:11:04
All right, so four people, okay Before you leave I need to see your notebook and I'm gonna sign you your book Everyone else we're gonna pray and you're dismissed.
01:11:12
Did you have a question? All right Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
01:11:16
I thank you for your truth I thank you for the opportunity to be here today and I do pray Lord that this study of the Old Testament has been fruitful for all of your people and I pray Lord that as We move on now to a break and then come back to our survey in the New Testament that you would give us Lord a Renewed interest in studying the things of God and I pray all this in Jesus name.