Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 11/03/2006 15:52, Karl Randolph wrote:
> Peter:
>
> You're right. Now that you mention it, I remember 
> the words.
>
> Where do you get the idea that such mention is 
> anachronistic? In my reading of Tanakh, I get the 
> impression that Cyrus' command allowing Jews to 
> return to Judea and rebuild the temple and 
> Nehemiah's commission to rebuild Jerusalem's walls 
> were two completely separate events with a century 
> spanning the interval between them.
>
> Chronicles was written after the Exile, so its 
> mention is an explanation, while Nehemiah and Ezra 
> were writing about their own time, ca. 420 to 400 
> BC, or well after Darius 1.
>
>   
I suggest that these accounts are anachronistic because, although they 
were written or finally edited after the time of Darius I (certainly for 
Ezra and Nehemiah which mentions Artaxerxes, very probably for 1 
Chronicles not least because of this reference to darics), the events 
referred to took place (according to the text) before the time of 
Darius. Note that this is true even of Nehemiah 7: while most of 
Nehemiah is from after the time of Darius, 7:6-73a, which is very 
similar to Ezra 2:1-70, is mush earlier: it is a record (see 7:5) of the 
first company of those who returned from exile, under Sheshbazzar and 
Zerubbabel (who may have been the same person), in the reign of Cyrus. 
This is very clear from the chronology of Ezra. Of course any reference 
to darics in relation to events in the reign of Cyrus is anachronistic, 
because they were first minted in the reign of Darius after whom they 
were named.

> Could it be that counting the tithe as a percentage 
> of money started at about that time? As a nod to 
> those Jews who lived in Babylon while Jews who 
> returned to Judea tithed in the traditional manner?
>
>   
Maybe, but the offerings in darics of gold and minas of silver mentioned 
in these verses appear to have been freewill offerings rather than tithes.

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



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