I hear occasionally over pulpits and on the internet that 400 years of silence persisted between the Old and New Testaments. This allegedly marks the time between Malachi’s prediction of the future coming of Elijah (Malachi 4:5–6) and the arrival of John the Baptist, interpreted as the coming of the new Elijah (Matt 11:13–14; Mark 9:11–13; Luke 1:17). However, nowhere in Scripture does the Bible clearly speak of a period of four hundred years of silence between Testaments, whether in... Read more