The Bible Study Podcast, episode 611, today the Bible Study podcast starts a study of the book of Ezra.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. So we just finished the study of the

book of Mark, but before that, you may recall, we did four books in a row, which were the history

of the Jewish people from the time of the kings. And so we did first and second Samuel,

first and second kings. We did not do first and second

Chronicle, which retells the same story as first and second kings, but from a different point of

view. And then at the end of that story, we left the people of Israel going into exile in Babylon.

And a lot has happened since we left to them there.

One of the things that has happened is Babylon has fallen.

And we would read about that in the book of Daniel,

but we're not doing Daniel at this time,

although this might be an appropriate time to put in Daniel.

And the Babylonian Empire was a very mighty empire,

but very, very short period of time.

And basically, they fell,

and they were overtaken by the Medes and the Persians.

And so we begin the start of the Persian Empire,

and the Persian Empire will continue on

past the end of the Old Testament into that intertestimental period, that time between the Old

Testament and the New Testament, and they will be conquered in turn by Alexander the Great. And so

the book of Maccabees, for instance, in the Apocrypha,

those books that are not included in a Protestant Bible, but you'd find them in a Catholic Bible.

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