Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 14/09/2006 00:21, K Randolph wrote:
> Dear Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:
>
> First of all, which king Artaxerxes was the king who sent Ezra to
> Jerusalem? In doing a googlewhack and reading several articles, I came
> up with two possibilities, one which would have brought Ezra to
> Jerusalem at 457 BC, the other at 395 BC.
>
> Of the two, the earlier one is used most of the time on online
> articles, and that is entirely because of a reading of 69 sevens of
> years to Jesus' death and resurrection. ...

Not entirely so. If Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in 395 BCE, what is he 
doing there in Nehemiah 8:1, which appears from its context in that book 
to be in the same year, probably 445 BCE, as Nehemiah's building of the 
wall. (I don't in fact know why no one seems to suggest that Nehemiah's 
Artaxerxes was also Artaxerxes II.) Thus a plain reading of the book of 
Nehemiah requires the c.457 BCE date. Maybe the plain reading is not the 
whole story, but this is certainly evidence favouring the earlier date 
quite independent of any interpretation of the 69 sevens.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/