The next King was Artaxerxes Mnemon, the son of Darius: he Reigned forty six years, and died Anno Nabonass. 390. Then Reigned Artaxerxes Ochus twenty one years; Arses, or Arogus, two years, and Darius Codomannus four years, unto the battel of Arbela, whereby the Persian Monarchy was translated to the Greeks, Octob. 2. An. Nabonass. 417; but Darius was not slain untill a year and some months after.
I have hitherto stated the times of this Monarchy out of the Greek and Latin writers: for the Jews knew nothing more of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires than what they have out of the sacred books of the old Testament; and therefore own no more Kings, nor years of Kings, than they can find in those books: the Kings they reckon are only Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and Darius the Persian; this last Darius they reckon to be the Artaxerxes, in whose Reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, accounting Artaxerxes a common name of the Persian Kings: Nebuchadnezzar, they say, Reigned forty five years, 2 King. xxv. 27. Belshazzar three years, Dan. viii. 1. and therefore Evilmerodach twenty three, to make up the seventy years captivity; excluding the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, in which they say the Prophesy of the seventy years was given. To Darius the Mede they assign one year, or at most but two, Dan. ix. 1. to Cyrus three years incomplete, Dan. x. 1. to Ahasuerus twelve years 'till the casting of Pur, Esth. iii. 7. one year more 'till the Jews smote their enemies, Esth. ix. 1. and one year more 'till Esther and Mordecai wrote the second letter for the keeping of Purim, Esth. ix. 29. in all fourteen years: and to Darius the Persian they allot thirty two or rather thirty six years, Nehem. xiii. 6. So that the Persian Empire from the building of the Temple in the Second year of Darius Hystaspis, flourished only thirty four years, until Alexander the great overthrew it: thus the Jews reckon in their greater Chronicle, Seder Olam Rabbah. Josephus, out of the sacred and other books, reckons only these Kings of Persia; Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspis, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and Darius: and taking this Darius, who was Darius Nothus, to be one and the same King with the last Darius, whom Alexander the great overcame; by means of this reckoning he makes Sanballat and Jaddua alive when Alexander the great overthrew the Persian Empire. Thus all the Jews conclude the Persian Empire with Artaxerxes Longimanus, and Darius Nothus, allowing no more Kings of Persia, than they found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and referring to the Reigns of this Artaxerxes, and this Darius, whatever they met with in profane history concerning the following Kings of the same names: so as to take Artaxerxes Longimanus, Artaxerxes Mnemon and Artaxerxes Ochus, for one and the same Artaxerxes; and Darius Nothus, and Darius Codomannus, for one and the same Darius; and Jaddua, and Simeon Justus, for one and the same High-Priest. Those Jews who took Herod for the Messiah, and were thence called Herodians, seem to have grounded their opinion upon the seventy weeks of years, which they found between the Reign of Cyrus and that of Herod: but afterwards, in applying the Prophesy to Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, and at length to Barchochab, they seem to have shortned the Reign of the Kingdom of Persia. These accounts being very imperfect, it was necessary to have recourse to the records of the Greeks and Latines, and to the Canon recited by Ptolemy, for stating the times of this Empire. Which being done, we have a better ground for understanding the history of the Jews set down in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and adjusting it; for this history having suffered by time, wants some illustration: and first I shall state the history of the Jews under Zerubbabel, in the Reigns of Cyrus, Cambysis, and Darius Hystaspis.
This history is contained partly in the three first chapters of the book of Ezra, and first five verses of the fourth; and partly in the book of Nehemiah, from the 5th verse of the seventh chapter to the 9th verse of the twelfth: for Nehemiah copied all this out of the Chronicles of the Jews, written before his days; as may appear by reading the place, and considering that the Priests and Levites who sealed the Covenant on the 24th day of the seventh month, Nehem. x. were the very same with those who returned from captivity in the first year of Cyrus, Nehem. xii. and that all those who returned sealed it: this will be perceived by the following comparison of their names.
| The Priests who returned. | The Priests who sealed. |
| Nehemiah. Ezra ii. 2. | Nehemiah. |
| Serajah. | Serajah. |
| * | Azariah. |
| Jeremiah. | Jeremiah. |
| Ezra. | Ezra. Nehem. 8. |
| * | Pashur. |
| Amariah. | Amariah. |
| Malluch: or Melicu, Neh. xii. 2, 14. | Malchijah. |
| Hattush. | Hattush. |
| Shechaniah or Shebaniah, Neh. xii. 3, 14. | Shebaniah. |
| * | Malluch. |
| Rehum: or Harim, ib. 3, 15. | Harim. |
| Meremoth. | Meremoth. |
| Iddo. | Obadiah or Obdia. |
| * | Daniel. |
| Ginnetho: or Ginnethon, Neh. xii. 4, 16. | Ginnethon. |
| * | Baruch. |
| * | Meshullam. |
| Abijah. | Abijah. |
| Miamin. | Mijamin. |
| Maadiah. | Maaziah. |
| Bilgah. | Bilgai. |
| Shemajah. | Shemajah. |
| Jeshua. | Jeshua. |
| Binnui. | Binnui. |
| Kadmiel. | Kadmiel. |
| Sherebiah. שרביה. | Shebaniah. שבניה. |
| Judah: or Hodaviah, Ezra ii. 40. & iii. 9. Ωδουια; Septuag. | Hodijah. |
The Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, and Hodaviah or Judah, here mentioned, are reckoned chief fathers among the people who returned with Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. 40. and they assisted as well in laying the foundation of the Temple, Ezra iii. 9. as in reading the law, and making and sealing the covenant, Nehem. viii. 7. & ix. 5. & x. 9, 10.
Comparing therefore the books of Ezra and Nehemiah together; the history of the Jews under Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis, is that they returned from captivity under Zerubbabel, in the first year of Cyrus, with the Holy Vessels and a commission to build the Temple; and came to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his city, and dwelt in their cities untill the seventh month; and then coming to Jerusalem, they first built the Altar, and on the first day of the seventh month began to offer the daily burnt-offerings, and read in the book of the Law, and they kept a solemn fast, and sealed a Covenant; and thenceforward the Rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots, to dwell one in ten at Jerusalem, and the rest in the cities of Judah: and in the second year of their coming, in the second month, which was six years before the death of Cyrus, they laid the foundation of the Temple; but the adversaries of Judah troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them all the days of Cyrus, and longer, even until the Reign of Darius King of Persia: but in the second year of his Reign, by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, they returned to the work; and by the help of a new decree from Darius, finished it on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of his Reign, and kept the Dedication with joy, and the Passover, and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Now this Darius was not Darius Nothus, but Darius Hystaspis, as I gather by considering that the second year of this Darius was the seventieth of the indignation against Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, which indignation commenced with the invasion of Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, Zech. i. 12. Jer. xxxiv. 1, 7, 22. & xxxix. 1. and that the fourth year of this Darius, was the seventieth from the burning of the Temple in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, Zech. vii. 5. & Jer. lii. 12. both which are exactly true of Darius Hystaspis: and that in the second year of this Darius there were men living who had seen the first Temple, Hagg. ii. 3. whereas the second year of Darius Nothus was 166 years after the desolation of the Temple and City. And further, if the finishing of the Temple be deferred to the sixth year of Darius Nothus, Jeshua and Zerubbabel must have been the one High-Priest, the other Captain of the people an hundred and eighteen years together, besides their ages before; which is surely too long: for in the first year of Cyrus the chief Priests were Serajah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malluch, Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah, Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, Shemajah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah: these were Priests in the days of Jeshua, and the eldest sons of them all, Merajah the son of Serajah, Hananiah the son of Jeremiah, Meshullam the son of Ezra, &c. were chief Priests in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua: Nehem. xii. and therefore the High Priest-hood of Jeshua was but of an ordinary length.
I have now stated the history of the Jews in the Reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis: it remains that I state their history in the Reigns of Xerxes, and Artaxerxes Longimanus: for I place the history of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Reign of this Artaxerxes, and not in that of Artaxerxes Mnemon: for during all the Persian Monarchy, until the last Darius mentioned in Scripture, whom I take to be Darius Nothus, there were but six High-Priests in continual succession of father and son, namely, Jeshua, Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, Jaddua, and the seventh High-Priest was Onias the son of Jaddua, and the eighth was Simeon Justus, the Son of Onias, and the ninth was Eleazar the younger brother of Simeon. Now, at a mean reckoning, we should allow about 27 or 28 years only to a Generation by the eldest sons of a family, one Generation with another, as above; but if in this case we allow 30 years to a Generation, and may further suppose that Jeshua, at the return of the captivity in the first year of the Empire of the Persians, was about 30 or 40 years old; Joiakim will be of about that age in the 16th year of Darius Hystaspis, Eliashib in the tenth year of Xerxes, Joiada in the 19th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Jonathan in the 8th year of Darius Nothus, Jaddua in the 19th year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Onias in the 3d year of Artaxerxes Ochus, and Simeon Justus two years before the death of Alexander the Great: and this reckoning, as it is according to the course of nature, so it agrees perfectly well with history; for thus Eliashib might be High-Priest, and have grandsons, before the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Ezra x. 6. and without exceeding the age which many old men attain unto, continue High-Priest 'till after the 32d year of that King, Nehem. xiii. 6, 7. and his grandson Johanan, or Jonathan, might have a chamber in the Temple in the seventh year of that King, Ezra x. 6. and be High-Priest before Ezra wrote the sons of Levi in the book of Chronicles; Nehem. xii. 23. and in his High-Priesthood, he might slay his younger brother Jesus in the Temple, before the end of the Reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon: Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7. and Jaddua might be High-Priest before the death of Sanballat, Joseph. ib. and before the death of Nehemiah, Nehem. xii. 22. and also before the end of the Reign of Darius Nothus; and he might thereby give occasion to Josephus and the later Jews, who took this King for the last Darius, to fall into an opinion that Sanballat, Jaddua, and Manasseh the younger brother of Jaddua, lived till the end of the Reign of the last Darius: Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7, 8. and the said Manasseh might marry Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat, and for that offence be chased from Nehemiah, before the end of the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus; Nehem. xiii. 28. Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7, 8. and Sanballat might at that time be Satrapa of Samaria, and in the Reign of Darius Nothus, or soon after, build the Temple of the Samaritans in Mount Gerizim, for his son-in-law Manasseh, the first High-Priest of that Temple; Joseph. ib. and Simeon Justus might be High-Priest when the Persian Empire was invaded by Alexander the Great, as the Jews represent, Joma fol. 69. 1. Liber Juchasis. R. Gedaliah, &c. and for that reason he might be taken by some of the Jews for the same High-Priest with Jaddua, and be dead some time before the book of Ecclesiasticus was writ in Hebrew at Jerusalem, by the grandfather of him, who in the 38th year of the Egyptian Æra of Dionysius, that is in the 77th year after the death of Alexander the Great, met with a copy of it in Egypt, and there translated it into Greek: Ecclesiast. ch. 50. & in Prolog. and Eleazar, the younger brother and successor of Simeon, might cause the Law to be translated into Greek, in the beginning of the Reign of Ptolemaus Philadelphus: Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 2. and Onias the son of Simeon Justus, who was a child at his father's death, and by consequence was born in his father's old age, might be so old in the Reign of Ptolemæus Euergetes, as to have his follies excused to that King, by representing that he was then grown childish with old age. Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 4. In this manner the actions of all these High-Priests suit with the Reigns of the Kings, without any straining from the course of nature: and according to this reckoning the days of Ezra and Nehemiah fall in with the Reign of the first Artaxerxes; for Ezra and Nehemiah flourished in the High Priesthood of Eliashib, Ezra x. 6. Nehem. iii. 1. & xiii. 4, 28. But if Eliashib, Ezra and Nehemiah be placed in the Reign of the second Artaxerxes, since they lived beyond the 32d year of Artaxerxes, Nehem. xiii. 28, there must be at least 160 years allotted to the three first High-Priests, and but 42 to the four or five last, a division too unequal: for the High Priesthoods of Jeshua, Joiakim, and Eliashib, were but of an ordinary length, that of Jeshua fell in with one Generation of the chief Priests, and that of Joiakim with the next Generation, as we have shewed already; and that of Eliashib fell in with the third Generation: for at the dedication of the wall, Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, was one of the Priests, Nehem. xii. 35, and Jonathan and his father Shemaiah, were contemporaries to Joiakim and his father Jeshua: Nehem. xii. 6, 18. I observe further that in the first year of Cyrus, Jeshua, and Bani, or Binnui, were chief fathers of the Levites, Nehem. vii. 7. 15. & Ezra ii. 2. 10. & iii. 9. and that Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, were chief Levites in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, when Ezra came to Jerusalem, Ezra viii. 33. so that this Artaxerxes began his Reign before the end of the second Generation: and that he Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances more; for Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel, and Azariah the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, were fathers of their houses at the repairing of the wall; Nehem. iii. 4, 23. and their grandfathers, Meshazabeel and Hananiah, subscribed the covenant in the Reign of Cyrus: Nehem. x. 21, 23. Yea Nehemiah, this same Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah, was the Tirshatha, and subscribed it, Nehem. x. 1, & viii. 9, & Ezra ii. 2, 63. and therefore in the 32d year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too great. The same may be said of Ezra, if he was that Priest and Scribe who read the Law, Nehem. viii. for he is the son of Serajah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, &c. Ezra vii. 1. and this Serajah went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and was there slain, 1 Chron. vi. 14. 2 King. xxv. 18. and from his death, to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, is above 200 years; an age too great for Ezra.
I consider further that Ezra, chap. iv. names Cyrus, *, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes, in continual order, as successors to one another, and these names agree to Cyrus, *, Darius Hystaspis, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes Longimanus, and to no other Kings of Persia: some take this Artaxerxes to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of Darius Hystaspis, not considering that in his Reign the Jews were busy in building the City and the Wall, Ezra iv. 12. and by consequence had finished the Temple before. Ezra describes first how the people of the land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of Cyrus, and further, untill the Reign of Darius; and after the Temple was built, how they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign of Cyrus and Darius; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of Ezra with the book of Esdras: for if in the book of Ezra you omit the story of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and in that of Esdras you omit the same story of Artaxerxes, and that of the three wise men, the two books will agree: and therefore the book of Esdras, if you except the story of the three wise men, was originally copied from authentic writings of Sacred Authority. Now the story of Artaxerxes, which, with that of Ahasuerus, in the book of Ezra interrupts the story of Darius, doth not interrupt it in the book of Esdras, but is there inferred into the story of Cyrus, between the first and second chapter of Ezra; and all the rest of the story of Cyrus, and that of Darius, is told in the book of Esdras in continual order, without any interruption: so that the Darius which in the book of Ezra precedes Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and the Darius which in the same book follows them, is, by the book of Esdras, one and the same Darius; and I take the book of Esdras to be the best interpreter of the book of Ezra: so the Darius mentioned between Cyrus and Ahasuerus, is Darius Hysaspis; and therefore Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes who succeed him, are Xerxes and Artaxerxes Longimanus; and the Jews who came up from Artaxerxes to Jerusalem, and began to build the city and the wall, Ezra iv. 13. are Ezra with his companions: which being understood, the history of the Jews in the Reign of these Kings will be as follows.
After the Temple was built, and Darius Hystaspis was dead, the enemies of the Jews in the beginning of the Reign of his successor Ahasuerus or Xerxes, wrote unto him an accusation against them; Ezra iv. 6. but in the seventh year of his successor Artaxerxes, Ezra and his companions went up from Babylon with Offerings and Vessels for the Temple, and power to bestow on it out of the King's Treasure what should be requisite; Ezra vii. whence the Temple is said to be finished, according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes King of Persia: Ezra vi. 14. Their commission was also to set Magistrates and Judges over the land, and thereby becoming a new Body Politic, they called a great Council or Sanhedrim to separate the people from strange wives; and they were also encouraged to attempt the building of Jerusalem with its wall: and thence Ezra saith in his prayer, that God had extended mercy unto them in the sight of the Kings of Persia, and given them a reviving to set up the house of their God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give them a WALL in Judah, even in Jerusalem. Ezra ix. 9. But when they had begun to repair the wall, their enemies wrote against them to Artaxerxes: Be it known, say they, unto the King, that the Jews which came up from thee to us, are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations, &c. And the King wrote back that the Jews should cease and the city not be built, until another commandment should be given from him: whereupon their enemies went up to Jerusalem, and made them cease by force and power; Ezra iv. but in the twentieth year of the King, Nehemiah hearing that the Jews were in great affliction and distress, and that the wall of Jerusalem, that wall which had been newly repaired by Ezra, was broken down, and the gates thereof burnt wth fire; he obtained leave of the King to go and build the city, and the Governour's house, Nehem. i. 3. & ii. 6, 8, 17. and coming to Jerusalem the same year, he continued Governor twelve years, and built the wall; and being opposed by Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, he persisted in the work with great resolution and patience, until the breaches were made up: then Sanballat and Geshem sent messengers unto him five times to hinder him from setting up the doors upon the gates: but notwithstanding he persisted in the work, until the doors were also set up: so the wall was finished in the eight and twentieth year of the King, Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 5. in the five and twentieth day of the month Elul, or sixth month, in fifty and two days after the breaches were made up, and they began to work upon the gates. While the timber for the gates was preparing and seasoning, they made up the breaches of the wall; both were works of time, and are not jointly to be reckoned within the 52 days: this is the time of the last work of the wall, the work of setting up the gates after the timber was seasoned and the breaches made up. When he had set up the gates, he dedicated the wall with great solemnity, and appointed Officers over the chambers for the Treasure, for the Offerings, for the First-Fruits, and for the Tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities, the portions appointed by the law for the Priests and Levites; and the Singers and the Porters kept the ward of their God; Nehem. xii. but the people in the city were but few, and the houses were unbuilt: Nehem. vii. 1, 4. and in this condition he left Jerusalem in the 32d year of the King; and after sometime returning back from the King, he reformed such abuses as had been committed in his absence. Nehem. xiii. In the mean time, the Genealogies of the Priests and Levites were recorded in the book of the Chronicles, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, and Jaddua, until the Reign of the next King Darius Nothus, whom Nehemiah calls Darius the Persian: Nehem. xii. 11, 22, 23. whence it follows that Nehemiah was Governor of the Jews until the Reign of Darius Nothus. And here ends the Sacred History of the Jews.