Posted on August 11, 2026 by John Valade
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When the Old Testament closes, Jerusalem has a rebuilt temple and walls after the Babylonian exile (Ezra, Nehemiah). Malachi leaves us with a promise: an Elijah figure will come, and the Lord will come to His temple (Malachi 3:1; 4:5–6). Then the Scriptures go quiet.
By the time we open the New Testament in Matthew, Rome is in charge and Herod is on the throne. This overview traces what happened in between, and then draws some parallels to the modern State of Israel and to God’s covenant people today.
The Maccabean Revolt and the Hasmonean Dynasty
After Alexander the Great, Greek rule spread over the eastern Mediterranean, including Judea. Under the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes, things turned especially dark. He tried to impose Greek religion and even attempted to set up an image of Jupiter in the temple. The Babylonians had once taken temple treasures but at least stored them; Antiochus tried to profane God’s house itself.
That provoked the Maccabean revolt around 167 BC, led first by Mattathias and then by his son Judas Maccabeus. The revolt was not an instant victory. It took years of conflict and only gradually pushed back Seleucid control. Eventually, by about 141 BC, Simon, a later leader, secured practical independence. He became an ethnarch, a kind of tribal ruler and high priest, and this began what is known as the Hasmonean dynasty.
At first, this was less a true monarchy and more a high-priestly rulership. Later, in about 104 BC, Aristobulus I took the Greek title basileus, “king,” and Judea became a kingdom in name as well as in practice.
Civil War and the Invitation to Rome
Power rarely sits quietly. In time, two Hasmonean brothers, Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II, went to war over who would rule. Instead of resolving their conflict internally, Hyrcanus appealed to Rome for help.
Rome sent Pompey the Great, one of the powerful figures of the late Republic. He sided with Hyrcanus, defeated Aristobulus, and effectively brought Judea under Roman control. Hyrcanus kept his position, but only as a puppet. Real authority now rested with Rome. This happened around 63 BC.
This pattern—inviting a stronger empire in to solve a local crisis and then losing true independence—had already appeared in Israel’s history when the northern kingdom sought Assyrian help centuries earlier.
Over time, Roman oversight tightened. What began as “help” ended as domination, moving eventually to direct provincial rule.
Parthians, Herod, and the End of Hasmonean Claims
In the 40s BC, another power, the Parthian Empire, pushed back against Rome and invaded parts of Roman territory, including Judea. The situation became chaotic. The Hasmonean line was still present, but unstable. Herod’s father, Antipater, had been a key advisor to the Judean leadership. After his assassination, Herod stepped into a leading role.
When the Parthians invaded, Herod fled to Rome, sought help, and cleverly positioned himself as Rome’s solution to the eastern crisis. With Roman support, he campaigned for about three years and drove out the Parthians. As a reward, Rome named him king of Judea.
To remove any rival claims, Herod eventually executed Antigonus (a Parthian-backed Hasmonean king) and later Hyrcanus II, the last surviving male Hasmonean with a serious claim to rule. By 37 BC, Herod was firmly installed as king under Roman authority—a “client king” or puppet, but a capable and ruthless one.
Herod died around 4 BC. His son could not hold the kingdom together, and Rome finally replaced the royal line with a governor. Judea became a full Roman province. That is the political world Jesus was born into.
From Ancient Judea to the Modern State of Israel
The Hasmonean “independent” kingdom lasted a little over a century, but much of that time it lived under the shadow or control of larger empires. Independence on paper did not always mean real sovereignty.
The modern State of Israel shows a similar tension. It is internationally recognized as independent, yet its survival and choices are deeply entangled with the support and pressure of other nations, especially powerful Western countries. It is not the theocracy founded directly by God, as in the days of David, but a modern secular state, founded through international decisions and political movements. In that sense, it is “Israel allowed by the Gentiles,” not “Israel established by God’s direct rule.”
This does not mean there is no prophetic significance. Just as there needed to be a Jerusalem for Jesus’ first coming, there seems to be a need for a functioning Jerusalem for His return. But a modern government bearing the name “Israel” is not automatically identical with the faithful covenant people of God.
Covenant Curses and Present Realities
Deuteronomy 28 describes blessings and curses under the old covenant. When Israel persisted in disobedience, God warned that they would be scattered among the nations, live in fear, and experience constant insecurity (Deuteronomy 28:64–67).
These themes echo in Jewish and Israeli experience: dispersion, persecution, and a sense of constant danger—even within the land itself. Suicide bombings, internal tensions, and international hostility all fit the pattern of a people living under ongoing covenant curses rather than under the fullness of covenant blessing.
At the same time, the new covenant was promised “to the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31–34). Gentile believers are grafted into that same covenant people through Christ (Romans 11). In that sense, Christians who are united to Jesus are part of Israel in the covenantal sense, even if they are not citizens of the modern State of Israel.
This calls for a careful distinction between:
- The modern political state that bears the name Israel.
- The scattered physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- The covenant people of God in Christ, Jews and Gentiles together, under the new covenant.
Without that distinction, political loyalty, ethnic identity, and spiritual calling easily get confused.
Politics, Law, and the Question of Anti‑Semitism
There is also the difficulty of defining and policing anti‑Semitism in law. Is disagreement with a secular or atheistic Jewish person anti‑Semitic? Is criticism of Israeli government policy anti‑Semitic? There is a difference between hatred of Jews as a people and honest disagreement with particular individuals or governments.
Scripture calls for love toward the Jewish people, as toward all peoples, and for recognition of God’s continuing purposes for Israel. At the same time, it does not grant any earthly government, Jewish or Gentile, a blank moral cheque. The prophets repeatedly confronted Israel’s own kings when they acted unjustly. That prophetic pattern still matters.
Daniel, Revelation, and Gentile Rule Until Christ Returns
The book of Daniel, especially chapter 2, pictures a statue representing successive Gentile empires, with God’s kingdom arriving like a stone that shatters the statue and fills the earth. This suggests that Gentile rule continues, in one form or another, until Christ Himself returns and establishes His unshakeable kingdom.
Revelation picks up similar themes, showing worldly systems rising and falling, opposing God and persecuting His people, until Jesus finally appears to judge and to reign.
In that light, no present state—whether Israel, America, or any other nation—can claim to be the final expression of God’s kingdom. All human governments are “man’s government,” provisional and flawed, and often under judgment. The ultimate hope is not in any present arrangement of borders or alliances, but in the return of the King of Kings, who will finally unite justice, peace, and truth.
Living as Grafted‑In Israel
For believers, the central issue is not choosing sides in today’s political struggles, but remembering who we are and where our deepest loyalty lies.
Those who are in Christ are grafted into God’s covenant people. They share in the promises of the new covenant and also in the world’s hostility toward God’s ways. The suffering of Jews and Christians alike is part of a much larger story of covenant, rebellion, mercy, and final restoration.
This points toward several responses: praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), seeking justice and repentance in every nation, longing for Jews and Gentiles alike to come to faith in Messiah, and guarding our own hearts from being captured by any earthly kingdom. The story between Malachi and Matthew—and the story from then until now—shows how easily God’s people are entangled with empires, and how desperately the world needs the true King to come.
John Valade 
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