A Thousand Years of Jewish History / From the days of Alexander the Great to the Moslem Conquest of Spain

by Maurice H. Harris

JUDEA, A VASSAL STATE.

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CHAPTER I.

UNDER PERSIAN SWAY.

PERSIA		JUDEA		FAMOUS
				CONTEMPORARIES
	B.C.E.		B.C.E.		B.C.E
Cyrus conquers		Return of Judah
the Babylonians	538	from Exile	536
Cambyses	529	Haggai and
Darius	522	Zechariah,
defeated at		prophets	520-516
Marathon	490	Second Temple		FLOURISHED
Xerxes	485	rebuilt	516
Artaxerxes I		Esther and		Gautama Buddha	500
(Longimanus)	465	Mordecai	485	Confucius	500
		Ezra goes to
		Jerusalem with
		second group
		of exiles	458
		Nehemiah's first
		visit	444
		Nehemiah Governor
		of Judah	432	Socrates	430
		Malachi the prophet
		about	430
Darius II	424			Xenophon	400
Artaxerxes II
Artaxerxes III						Plato d.	347
(Mnemon)	404
(Ochus)	358
Alexander, the Greek, overthrows the Persian Empire					332

The story covered by the early dates in this table is not yet post-Biblical. It is already told in the later Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah i-viii. The history of this volume begins with the close of the life-work of these men.

The restoration of the Jews to Judea did not materialize as gloriously as Isaiah of Babylon had prefigured in his sublime addresses (Isaiah xl-xlvi.) Life's realizations very often disappoint their anticipations. Cyrus, the Persian king, opened the door; but only a poor remnant returned to a poor land. Even then, enemies made their appearance, envious of the royal grant, and plotted against their welfare. So it took many years to rebuild the Temple and many more to rebuild Jerusalem and to reorganize a new community. This service we owe to Nehemiah.

Political Silence.

After the chronicle of Nehemiah's service in placing the Jewish settlement on a working basis, we are told hardly anything more of the doings of Israel in this epoch. Either there was no further historic incident of the Jews under Persian sway, or it has never been told. There is a silence of about a hundred years after the last chapter of Nehemiah, which is, roughly speaking, the last chapter of Jewish history in the Bible. One reason for this silence of course, is that the Jews had no separate political life. They were a subject people; their State was gone. What there is to tell can be disposed of in a few sentences.