1) Why is it that there was a “gap” of 400 silent years? 2) Is this prophesied in the OT just like the other prophecies fulfilled in the NT? 3) What is the importance of studying this “400 Silent Years”? 4) Does it has a bearing in our spiritual belief and in our salvation? 5) Were these events during this intertestamental period have influences in the Jewish beliefs and in Christianity? 6) Did it affect the Jewish belief? Favorably or unfavorably? Yours truly, Gabriel M. Policarpio
The only biblical explanation of which I am aware for there being a gap of 400 years between the ending of Old Testament prophecy and the commencement of the New Testament era is that both the ending of Old Testament prophecy and the commencement of the New Testament era with resumption of divine revelation corresponded to the divine timetable. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 emphasis added). “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). See also Ephesians 1:10 and 1 Timothy 2:6.
I am not aware of Old Testament prophecy that predicts 400 years of silence between the testaments, but it is a mistaken notion that prophecy or revelation from God was constant anyway, even during eras when God gave new revelation through his prophets. Samuel represented a resumption of prophecy from God after some time of no new revelation from God (1 Samuel 3). The 400 years of silence between the testaments should be thought no stranger than the nearly 2,000 years of silence from the close of the first century until now.
Studying the 400 silent years yields historical information relative to the Jews and how they became subject to the Romans. In the absence of revelation during those 400 years, those silent years have no direct bearing on either God-authorized Judaism (which has been replaced with Christianity) or upon Christianity. The 400 years of silence between the testaments correspond to secular history for the Jews and nations with which they interacted, but they have no direct bearing upon Christianity. However, the 400 silent years between the testaments at least provide a buffer between revelation from God relative to the Old Testament and revelation from God relative to the New Testament, making it easier to distinguish between the testaments.
