Between the Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent S. Brown (published 2002) is an overview of the changing Jewish traditions and events from 600 B.C. to the life of Jesus Christ. It detailed the history of Jews returning to the homeland from Babylon after the exile and the varying degrees of righteousness among the people. It discussed all kinds of Jewish writings, from those in the Bible to others discovered but not canonized.
Between the Testaments was not always chronological from beginning to end but rather it addressed each major topic chronologically (History, Writings, Faith, etc.). It talked about how Jewish worship traditions shifted into sects like the Pharisees, and how Herod was actually quite helpful in helping finish the temple and improving conditions. (Herod was actually part Jewish. He also was an immoral paranoid man.) Between the Testaments also gave an overview of the world that Jesus lived in. All this history is couched in doctrinal understandings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as far as they are relevant.
For me, it was a very superficial book. In fact, I read the whole thing in two afternoons! It has 250 pages but it is written for an audience very unfamiliar with the basic gospel history that surrounds the Old Testament. I probably skimmed over parts of it. One reason is I spent a summer in Jerusalem studying various aspects of that history. Before I left, I had reading extensively about the city itself in books like Jerusalem: The Eternal City by some other BYU gospel scholars (reread and reviewed in 2010).
So, Between the Testaments was not an ideal book for me, but it will be for the beginning reader who knows little about the subject. It did spur me to do more reading about the subject! I would like to reread Jerusalem: The Eternal City, and I’ve found a long but scholarly book, From Jesus to Christianity, which covers the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Sp far, so good! (and long)
