The Time Between the Old and New Testaments

The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles contain books that the Protestant Bible does not.  These books, known as "the Apocrypha" were eliminated during the Reformation.

The Old Testament is made up of books that the Jewish religion has accepted as important, and the books of the Apocrypha are not included in the Jewish scriptures. 

Two of these books, I and II Maccabees, tell the stories of how and why Judea fought for and gained its independence in the second century.

The New Testament begins with the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus.

Matthew 2: 1-12

¹  After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 

²  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 

⁴  When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

⁵  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁷  Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 

⁸  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹  After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 

¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 

¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

December 2016
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