A fair number of unsupported (or poorly supported) assertions wander about in popular Christian theology. One that I read or hear relatively often is the idea that there were '400 silent years' between Old and New Testament times. Now, we can certainly estimate that there were 400-430 years between the writing of the last book of the OT and the birth of Jesus Christ. But why would we state without proof that those years were silent?
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| Simeon & Jesus |
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| Anna & Jesus |
Or, someone might say, "There were no prophets during those 400 years." Scripture doesn't say that; and it does say that there was a prophetess, Anna (Lk 2:36-38). It seems quite unlikely that she had only begun being a prophetess a year or two before Christ's birth.
As a final defense of this concept, it might be suggested that for 400 years, there was no authoritative Scripture recorded. Certainly that would seem to be true, but this is a very different claim from 'silent years.' If this is the case, we should probably use a number greater than 400, since even an early dating for 1 Thessalonians, Matthew, James, or Galatians would make the count close to 450-500 years. Yet, wouldn't it be ludicrous to describe many of those years as silent?
I realize that is a very narrow point to make, but do we really believe that God was silent for 400 years? Prophets or prophetesses and Scripture were not speaking? to say nothing of the Spirit of God who even in the darkest times never leaves Himself without a witness! Sometimes the voice of God is 'rare' or 'precious' in its scarcity, but I see no evidence of silence, particularly in a ~400-year epoch where Scriptures simply do not tell us authoritatively what happened.
Hmmm... Good food for thought. However, taking these thoughts into account, I would still tend to characterize those years as a period of silence from God. The gap is unlike any other gap in biblical history. I don't doubt there were still a few prophets or individuals who were given specific visions, etc. But there seems to be a clear enough indication that God ceased His communication with the nation of Israel as a whole, and that His purpose in doing so was a) fulfillment of prophecy (Amos 8:11-12), and b) to judge them. It's rather abrupt, and He says He would do it before He does it. Yes, perhaps God was not absolutely silent to all Jews during this time. So I agree that we can't call it a complete period of silence from God to humans. And yes, most people forget about Anna and Simeon when they claim Zechariah was the first to hear from God after the gap (I've been guilty of saying that). But I don't think most people mean a literal period of 400 years of zero communication between God and mankind, recorded or not. Two cents. :)
ReplyDeleteSo, I am sure our disagreement is relatively small, but what I am trying to express is that there are only about 1,100 years (~1400-400BC, AD0-100) of speaking from God in the '400 silent year' approach. It is certainly an argument from silence to say that God didn't (or did) speak to Israel as a whole for those 400 years. The deutrocanonical books might provide some non-authoritative perspective on this, but my reading of them has been very spotty.
DeleteI think that the prophecy that you mention from Amos could well speak to those years; thanks for that! But I wonder... if the 400 years was such a time of silence, then certainly the last 1900 of silence, especially from a dispensational perspective, is a time of silence and judgment for Israel.
(Also, the 400 years in Egypt might be a parallel situation; however, they came before written revelation started.)
As I said, practically I think we agree - mostly I just wish people would quit using the phrase '400 silent years.'