![]() Before his death, however, Greek culture was spreading throughout the newly conquered lands. at the age of just 32 years, Alexander died of a fever in Babylon. But Alexander did not have the opportunity to enjoy his new empire for long. This included Israel, Egypt, Syria and the territory stretching all the way to India. Alexander was in control of the territory that Persia had formerly ruled. Alexander first made himself ruler of all of Greece and then headed east to defeat the Persians. The new world power that next arose was Greece under mighty Alexander the Great. That means that the Persians continued to rule Israel until about 100 years after the time of Malachi, Ezra, and Nehemiah. This Persian Empire lasted from 539-331 B.C. The Jews in Israel too were under Persian rule with a Persian governor stationed in Jerusalem. When Malachi was writing the last Old Testament book, the Persians were still in control of the ancient world. But in another sense, they were very “loud years.” There were military, political, and religious clashes during those years that we need to know about to help us better understand New Testament times. They were “400 silent years” in the sense that no inspired writings from God came to us during that time. ![]() ![]() But between those two books there is a period of over 400 years. Our Bibles move directly from the Book of Malachi (400 B.C.) to the Book of Matthew (50 A.D.).
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