Gain clarity in your reading of the Gospels with a study of the intertestamental period. The decline of the Persian Empire, the rise of Alexander the Great, Israel’s military engagements and religious movements—the events between the final book of the Old Testament and the first Gospel are a backdrop for Christ’s appearance and the development of Christianity. Intertestamental history clarifies the context of New Testament writers for a deeper, more robust understanding of Scripture.
“how Israel was caught in the middle and experienced no fewer than five major wars in a 125-year period of time” (source)
“Herod died we think in 4 bc, and then one of the first to rise up and claim authority is someone called Judas. Josephus tells us he’s the son of Hezekiah, or Ezikias in the Greek, ‘the bandit.’ This is somebody who had fought against Herod himself back in the 30s bc, and Herod had defeated him and executed him, Now, thirty-some years later, his own son rises up in the aftermath of Herod’s death, probably seen as a chance to grab power in the vacuum that was created when Herod died.” (source)
“On his coins, it would note that he was a god, ‘King Antiochus, God, Manifested Conqueror’—and that’s what the word Epiphanes means, ‘manifestation.’ Manifestation of what? Of divinity.” (source)
“Jesus had no problem with the village priests; it’s the aristocratic priests who tended to be oppressive and corrupt and hypocritical, who were in bed with the Romans.” (source)
“Israel’s independence was not long-lived—from the 160s bc until the 60s bc, about a hundred years, before Rome itself stepped in and took over.” (source)