Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 12:25 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] First temple destroyed 586 or 587 BCE?


> On 24/09/2004 05:23, Yigal Levin wrote:
>
> >Where did all this come from? ...
> >
>
>  From the book of Daniel, obviously. Karl prefers to trust that
> historical source more than the sources you are using. And it is far
> from certain that your sources are telling the full story.


> >... Cyrus II (The Great) became king of the
> >Persians in 559, and conquered Babylon in 539. His proclamation was
issued
> >in that year or the next. He died in 530 and was succeeded by his son
> >Cambyses. Cambyses stabbed himself to death under strange circumstances
in
> >522, which is when Darius took over. "Darius the Mede" is an invention of
> >Daniel - there was no such king.
> >
> >
>
> The difficulties are not just in Daniel. 2 Chronicles 36:22 and Ezra 1:1
> (cf. Daniel 10:1) both date the order for the return to Jerusalem in the
> *first* year of Cyrus. In 2 Chronicles this verse immediately follows
> the statement that the land (not the city or the temple) had enjoyed 70
> years of desolation. Perhaps the point is (as in NIV Study Bible notes)
> that the biblical regnal years of Cyrus were counted from his capture of
> Babylon, so this refers to the first year of his reign over Babylon.

That's the usual explanation, and it makes perfect sense.

But
> the text doesn't say so.

The nature of biblical texts is that they don't waste time with unneccesary
details.
>
> As for your "there was no such king", arguments from silence are
> dangerous. This Darius (son of Ahasuerus, 62 years old, according to
> Daniel 5:30, 9:1), could have been Cyrus' co-regent or governor of
> Babylon - perhaps to be identified with the Gubaru, governor of Babylon,
> known from ancient records.

We have so many ducuments from Persian-period Babylon, Susa, Syria, Egypt
and other places, even without Herodotus, that to postulate a king,
otherwise unknown, based on a book written 300 years later or so, is not
reasonable.


Yigal

>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
>
>
>