Peter Kirk asked:Thank you. So a combination of this evidence and that of Nehemiah 8:1 that Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries seems to prove that Ezra was around in the time of Artaxerxes I, not II, in the mid 5th century BCE, not the early 4th century.
I don't in fact know why no one seems to suggest that Nehemiah's Artaxerxes was also Artaxerxes II.
The reason is simple: Shemaiah and Delaiah, sons of Sanbalat, are mentioned in one the Elephantine papyri dated (independently) to 402/1, year 3 of Artaxerxes II. This would mean that Nehemiah, Snabalat's contemporary, would have had to have lived before that date. The only possibility is Artaxerxes I, whose 20th year was 445. So that the date of Nehemiah's arrival as governor of Yehud is "fixed" at 445. The question that remains is the arrival of Ezra and his relationship with Nehemiah.
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