Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Dear Yigal,

First of all, Happy New Year to you and yours.

Second, I wrote you previously about the addition of the name of Ezra to 
Nehemiah’s memoir, I don’t know if you got it, I can send it again.

Third, You asked me why I think that Nisan of the 7th yr of Artaxerxes begins 
just after the end of the 6th year of Darius. I quoted Rashi, and you 
countered that you wanted a Hellenistic source.

So, we are back to Daniel again. Who are the three kings or four in Daniel 
11:2? The fourth one is Darius who was conquered by Alexander, he is Darius 
the Persian. The first one is Darius the Mede, then Cyrus. Then Ahasueros, 
then Darius the Persian Those are the four kings.

The difficulty is that they know that Darius is the king conquered by 
Alexander, but they do not know of more than one Darius. Thus the Rabbis, 
Seder Olam, and I presume Daniel, considers that the Artaxerxes under whom 
both Nehemiah and Ezra served is the throne name of Darius the Persian.

Best,

Liz Fried