We are riding along our trip through the Bible.  There is a wide and deep canyon between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Most Protestant pastors do not admit it, but there is a large gap in our Bibles between the return of the exiles in 500 BC and the beginning of the New Testament, which starts with the birth of Jesus some 500 years after the exile. Protestants do not have any books between the Old and New Testament in our Bibles.  The Orthodox and Catholic Church have several books about this period of time in their Bibles, known as the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books.  There are some odd books in the Apocrypha that are attributed to Ezra and Enoch. Enoch was a mysterious figure originally mentioned in the book of Genesis who does not die but is just taken up to heaven and describes what he sees there. This account later became the basis for the Roman Catholic's use of the concept of purgatory. Enoch's testimony was written in Greek, though Greek didn't even exist until over 1000 years after Enoch's death. The thus Reformation took these books out of the Bible because we know that Enoch did not write these books. 

 

Not all of the books of the Apocrypha mystical theologies, and in fact a few of these books are helpful for us in understanding the larger story of the Bible a little better. The books 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees inform us about what happens between the Old Testament and New Testament. Chronologically, Alexander the Great and the Romans reigned between the books of Malachi and Matthew. Alexander the Great conquered the Promised Land with several major battles and sieges of cities. The High Priest welcomed Alexander into Jerusalem while reading the words from the book of Daniel which described the coming power of the Greeks. Alexander is impressed and keeps conquering the rest of the known world, namely the area from Greece down to Egypt and all the way over to India. Alexander died at a young age and his kingdom his top generals fought over his empire for the next two hundred years. Two of his generals in particular fight over the Promised Land: the Seleucids in Damascas and the Ptolemies in Egypt. The Jews broke free from the Seleucids long enough to establish their own kingdom again in what is known as the Maccabee revolt.  Unfortunately, their freedom did not last long before the Romans regained Alexander’s land in 63 BC. The various groups of Jews left in this new Exodus could not work together, which should not be a surprise considering the Old Testament and the way that Jesus is treated. One of the fighting factions of the Jews in Jerusalem did manage to make their way through the city's gates. This return from Babylon to Jerusalem is chronicled in the book of Malachi. This is where we will pick up this week in our Road Trip Through the Bible - joins us for the rest of the story!