XI. The Second-Temple World the New Testament Breathes

The Bible has a roughly 400-year gap between the close of Malachi (~430 BC) and Matthew 1. The KJV places the Apocrypha in this gap; most Protestant Bibles skip it. That gap is the formative period for everything the NT assumes.

Between Malachi and Matthew: - Persian rule → Alexander's conquest (332 BC) → Greek (Ptolemaic, then Seleucid) rule → Maccabean revolt (167–164 BC) → Hasmonean independence → Roman conquest (63 BC). Jesus is born under Roman occupation with Herod the Great on the throne. - The Septuagint (LXX) is translated — Hebrew Bible into Greek, beginning ~250 BC. This is the Bible most NT writers quote. - The Pharisees and Sadducees emerge as parties. - The synagogue system develops — no temple visit required to study Torah. - Apocalyptic literature flourishes — 1 Enoch, Jubilees, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch. Not Scripture, but the air the NT writers breathe. - The Qumran community writes the Community Rule, the War Scroll, and the Messianic Apocalypse (4Q521 — predicts a messiah who "raises the dead, heals the sick, preaches to the poor" — literally what Jesus tells John's disciples about Himself in Matt 11:5).

When Jesus says "the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), He uses a phrase already loaded with two centuries of expectation. He is not introducing a new term — He is claiming a long-anticipated event has arrived. To His hearers, "kingdom of God" meant: God breaks into history, defeats the pagan powers, restores Israel, establishes justice, ushers in the age to come.