Anything but silent
During the intertestamental period, God was working to prepare the world for Messiah.
The prophecies of Daniel were fulfilled through the rise of the Greco Roman empires giving us a greek speaking world along with the Septuagint, LXX, the bible of Jesus and the Apostles.
Roman gave us the a unified empire and road system to facilitate the spread of the Gospel.
The diaspora gave us synagogues throughout that world for the Apostles to use as base camps to preach the gospel and plant chuches.
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The period between the end of the O.T. canon and the beginning of the N.T. has been called “the four hundred silent years.” They may indeed have been silent insofar as there was no great prophetic voice, or any appearance of directly inspired Scripture. If, however, we were to think of Divine Activity, these four hundred years were anything but silent.
Tremendous and far-reaching changes took place in every sphere of human life. Great world empires vanished, and others appeared. The Jews were scattered throughout the inhabited earth, and wherever they went they gathered together for worship and study, and became a testimony of the living God to the Gentiles. The Word of God, the very revelation of God Himself, was translated in its entirety into Greek, and thus millions became aware of something before hidden.
The Promised Land itself was prepared, as were the nations – culturally, politically, and religiously – for the coming of the Messiah. The canon of the O.T. was finally recognized as complete – the witness to the coming Saviour of the world. In view of all this, it is then of real importance that we should investigate this period.
See linked article by Lance Lambert
https://web.archive.org/web/20140222...silent-part-1/