Smoodock's Blog

One of the problems of dating the events of Ezra and Nehemiah is the fact that titles are confused with names. We wouldn’t confuse the titles of Pharaoh or Caesar by claiming that they were the names of Egyptian kings or Roman Emperors, but we do confuse similar titles in identifying many of the Persian kings. Notice what Bible scholar, Dr. E. W. Bullinger,[1] wrote:

“It must be noted that the confusion which has hitherto been experienced arises from the fact that appellatives have been mistaken for proper names; to say nothing of the confusion arising from their transliteration or translation into other languages.

“These appellatives are, like Pharaoh and Abimelech, the general titles of a line of kings, such as the modern Czar, Sultan, Shah etc. Hence:

“AHASUERUS means “the Mighty” and “is the name, or rather the title, of four Median and Persian monarchs” (Kitto, Bib. Encycl. I, p.91). “In every case the identificatioin of the person named is a matter of controversy”. See The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11^th (Cambridge) edition, vol. I, p.429.

“ARTAXERXES means Great King, or Kingdom, and is synonymous with Artachashast (Arta = Great, and Kshaatza = Kingdom, preserved in the modern “Shah”)…

“DARIUS means the Restrainer (Her. VI. 98); or according to Professor Sayce, the Maintainer. DARIUS “appears to be originally an appellative meaning ‘king’, ‘ruler’”, (Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient., Article ‘Dara’); Herodotus (VI. 98) renders it Erxeies = Coercer. “It was assumed as his throne-name by Ochus (= Darius Nothus), son and successor of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Catesias, de Reb. Pers., 48, 57, Muller)”. See Kitto, Bib. Cycl., vol. I, p.625.

XERXES, in his inscription at Persepolis, actually calls himself “Darius”; one paragraph beginning “Xerxes the great king, “and the next beginning ‘Darius the king.’”

With this in mind, we can see that perhaps the identities traditionally assumed in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, Haggai and Zechariah would apply better to other monarchs than what history and religious tradition assumes.

The chart below represents the period of time it took to rebuild the Temple and the walls around Jerusalem, that is, 49 years represented in the reigns of the four kings of Persia listed below. The last king, known to us in history as Xerxes, continued to reign afterward, but his first seven years completed the 49 years it took to rebuild the Temple and the walls around Jerusalem. This period represents the first seven weeks of Daniels 70 Weeks Prophecy as seen in Daniel 9:24-25. There are 7 weeks (7 x 7 or 49 years) that it took to rebuild the Temple and the walls; and then there are the 62 weeks (7 x 62 or 434 years) to the coming of the Messiah. That is, 7 weeks + 62 weeks (69 weeks) or a total of 483 years from the time Cyrus’ decree was first put into action on the first day of the seventh month of the first year the captives were set free (or BC 457; see Ezra 3:1-6) until the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, in AD 27 on the first day of the seventh month declaring he was the Messiah (Luke 4:16-20). Jesus was offered to the Jews as the Messiah for one week (Daniel 9:27), but he was “cut off” in the middle of the week (Daniel 9:26-27) or 3 1/2 years into his public ministry. The final 3 1/2 years were fulfilled to the time the first blood was shed in his Name at the stoning of Stephen and the persecution that broke out at the time of his death (Acts 7:59-60 & 8:1). The kings listed below number the first 49 years of this key Prophecy.

As noted above, all four of the Persian kings are mentioned in the book of Ezra. Remembering that these names should more accurately be termed titles, it will be easier to identify who they are and where they fall in the chronicle of Ezra and Nehemiah. The first, of course, was Cyrus, and he is mentioned by name in the very beginning of the book of Ezra, because it is he who was used by God to release exiled Jews from Babylonian captivity to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple (cp. Ezra 1:1-8; Isaiah 44:24-28).

Cyrus’ son is called Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6 but known in history as Cambyses. Josephus says that he stopped the building of the city and the Temple.[2] It stands to reason, therefore, if Cambyses stopped the Jews from building Jerusalem and the Temple, construction had begun according to the decree of Cyrus.

The third king mentioned is Artaxerxes in Ezra 4:7. This is the same Artaxerxes of whom Nehemiah speaks in his own chronicle (see Nehemiah chapter 2). This Artaxerxes is called ‘Darius Hystaspes’ in secular history and should not be confused with the Darius mentioned in Ezra 4:24.

The fourth king is called Darius in Ezra 4:24, and in chapters 5 & 6; but in Ezra 7:7 and the rest of this chapter, he is called Artaxerxes; and this same monarch is known as Ahasuerus throughout the book of Esther. In secular history he is known as Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystaspes. This will give a timeframe for the Biblical works that concern the return of the Jews from captivity and represents a kind of outline upon which I hope build my case (Daniel 10:1 & 11:2.)

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[1] Dr. E.W. Bullinger The Companion Bible: Appendix 57

[2] JOSEPHUS: Antiquities of the Jews; 11.2.22. “…When this epistle (from Cambyses) was read, Rathumus, and Semellius the scribe, and their associates, got suddenly on horseback, and made haste to Jerusalem; they also brought a great company with them, and forbade the Jews to build the city and the temple.”