The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended Part 13

The Priests who returned. The Priests who sealed.

_Nehemiah._ _Ezra_ ii. 2. _Nehemiah._

_Serajah._ _Serajah._

* _Azariah._

_Jeremiah._ _Jeremiah._

_Ezra._ _Ezra._ _Nehem._ 8.

* _Pashur._

_Amariah._ _Amariah._

_Malluch_: or _Melicu_, _Neh._ _Malchijah._ xii. 2, 14.

_Hattush_. _Hattush._

_Shechaniah_ or _Shebaniah_, _Shebaniah._ _Neh._ xii. 3, 14.

* _Malluch._

_Rehum_: or _Harim_, _ib._ 3, _Harim._ 15.

_Meremoth._ _Meremoth._

_Iddo._ _Obadiah_ or _Obdia_.

* _Daniel._

_Ginnetho_: or _Ginnethon_, _Ginnethon._ _Neh._ xii. 4, 16.

* _Baruch._

* _Meshullam._

_Abijah._ _Abijah._

_Miamin._ _Mijamin._

_Maadiah._ _Maaziah._

_Bilgah._ _Bilgai._

_Shemajah._ _Shemajah._

_Jeshua._ _Jeshua._

_Binnui._ _Binnui._

_Kadmiel._ _Kadmiel._

_Sherebiah._ ?????. _Shebaniah._ ?????.

_Judah_: or _Hodaviah_, _Hodijah._ _Ezra_ ii. 40. & iii. 9.

Od???a; _Septuag._

The _Levites_, _Jeshua_, _Kadmiel_, and _Hodaviah_ or _Judah_, here mentioned, are reckoned chief fathers among the people who returned with _Zerubbabel_, _Ezra_ ii. 40. and they a.s.sisted as well in laying the foundation of the Temple, _Ezra_ iii. 9. as in reading the law, and making and sealing the covenant, _Nehem._ viii. 7. & ix. 5. & x. 9, 10.

Comparing therefore the books of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ together; the history of the _Jews_ under _Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, and _Darius Hystaspis_, is that they returned from captivity under _Zerubbabel_, in the first year of _Cyrus_, with the Holy Vessels and a commission to build the Temple; and came to _Jerusalem_ and _Judah_, every one to his city, and dwelt in their cities untill the seventh month; and then coming to _Jerusalem_, they first built the Altar, and on the first day of the seventh month began to offer the daily burnt-offerings, and read in the book of the Law, and they kept a solemn fast, and sealed a Covenant; and thenceforward the Rulers of the people dwelt at _Jerusalem_, and the rest of the people cast lots, to dwell one in ten at _Jerusalem_, and the rest in the cities of _Judah_: and in the second year of their coming, in the second month, which was six years before the death of _Cyrus_, they laid the foundation of the Temple; but _the adversaries of _Judah_ troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them all the days of _Cyrus__, and longer, _even until the Reign of _Darius_ King of _Persia__: but in the second year of his Reign, by the prophesying of _Haggai_ and _Zechariah_, they returned to the work; and by the help of a new decree from _Darius_, finished it on the third day of the month _Adar_, in the sixth year of his Reign, and kept the Dedication with joy, and the Pa.s.sover, and Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now this _Darius_ was not _Darius Nothus_, but _Darius Hystaspis_, as I gather by considering that the second year of this _Darius_ was the seventieth of the indignation against _Jerusalem_, and the cities of _Judah_, which indignation commenced with the invasion of _Jerusalem_, and the cities of _Judah_ by _Nebuchadnezzar_, in the ninth year of _Zedekiah_, _Zech._ i. 12. _Jer._ x.x.xiv. 1, 7, 22. & x.x.xix. 1. and that the fourth year of this _Darius_, was the seventieth from the burning of the Temple in the eleventh year of _Zedekiah_, _Zech._ vii. 5. & _Jer._ lii. 12. both which are exactly true of _Darius Hystaspis_: and that in the second year of this _Darius_ there were men living who had seen the first Temple, _Hagg._ ii.

3. whereas the second year of _Darius Nothus_ was 166 years after the desolation of the Temple and City. And further, if the finis.h.i.+ng of the Temple be deferred to the sixth year of _Darius Nothus_, _Jeshua_ and _Zerubbabel_ must have been the one High-Priest, the other Captain of the people an hundred and eighteen years together, besides their ages before; which is surely too long: for in the first year of _Cyrus_ the chief Priests were _Serajah_, _Jeremiah_, _Ezra_, _Amariah_, _Malluch_, _Shechaniah_, _Rehum_, _Meremoth_, _Iddo_, _Ginnetho_, _Abijah_, _Miamin_, _Maadiah_, _Bilgah_, _Shemajah_, _Joiarib_, _Jedaiah_, _Sallu_, _Amok_, _Hilkiah_, _Jedaiah_: these were Priests in the days of _Jeshua_, and the eldest sons of them all, _Merajah_ the son of _Serajah_, _Hananiah_ the son of _Jeremiah_, _Meshullam_ the son of _Ezra_, &c. were chief Priests in the days of _Joiakim_ the son of _Jeshua_: _Nehem._ xii. and therefore the High Priest-hood of _Jeshua_ was but of an ordinary length.

I have now stated the history of the _Jews_ in the Reigns of _Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, and _Darius Hystaspis_: it remains that I state their history in the Reigns of _Xerxes_, and _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_: for I place the history of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ in the Reign of this _Artaxerxes_, and not in that of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_: for during all the _Persian_ Monarchy, until the last _Darius_ mentioned in Scripture, whom I take to be _Darius Nothus_, there were but six High-Priests in continual succession of father and son, namely, _Jeshua_, _Joiakim_, _Elias.h.i.+b_, _Joiada_, _Jonathan_, _Jaddua_, and the seventh High-Priest was _Onias_ the son of _Jaddua_, and the eighth was _Simeon Justus_, the Son of _Onias_, and the ninth was _Eleazar_ the younger brother of _Simeon_. Now, at a mean reckoning, we should allow about 27 or 28 years only to a Generation by the eldest sons of a family, one Generation with another, as above; but if in this case we allow 30 years to a Generation, and may further suppose that _Jeshua_, at the return of the captivity in the first year of the Empire of the _Persians_, was about 30 or 40 years old; _Joiakim_ will be of about that age in the 16th year of _Darius Hystaspis_, _Elias.h.i.+b_ in the tenth year of _Xerxes_, _Joiada_ in the 19th year of _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, _Jonathan_ in the 8th year of _Darius Nothus_, _Jaddua_ in the 19th year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, _Onias_ in the 3d year of _Artaxerxes Ochus_, and _Simeon Justus_ two years before the death of _Alexander_ the Great: and this reckoning, as it is according to the course of nature, so it agrees perfectly well with history; for thus _Elias.h.i.+b_ might be High-Priest, and have grandsons, before the seventh year of _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, _Ezra_ x. 6. and without exceeding the age which many old men attain unto, continue High-Priest 'till after the 32d year of that King, _Nehem._ xiii.

6, 7. and his grandson _Johanan_, or _Jonathan_, might have a chamber in the Temple in the seventh year of that King, _Ezra_ x. 6. and be High-Priest before _Ezra_ wrote the sons of _Levi_ in the book of _Chronicles_; _Nehem._ xii. 23. and in his High-Priesthood, he might slay his younger brother _Jesus_ in the Temple, before the end of the Reign of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_: _Joseph. Antiq._ l. xi. c. 7. and _Jaddua_ might be High-Priest before the death of _Sanballat_, _Joseph._ _ib._ and before the death of _Nehemiah_, _Nehem._ xii. 22. and also before the end of the Reign of _Darius Nothus_; and he might thereby give occasion to _Josephus_ and the later _Jews_, who took this King for the last _Darius_, to fall into an opinion that _Sanballat, Jaddua_, and _Mana.s.seh_ the younger brother of _Jaddua_, lived till the end of the Reign of the last _Darius_: _Joseph._ _Antiq._ l. xi. c. 7, 8. and the said _Mana.s.seh_ might marry _Nicaso_ the daughter of _Sanballat_, and for that offence be chased from _Nehemiah_, before the end of the Reign of _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_; _Nehem_. xiii. 28.

_Joseph._ _Antiq._ l. xi. c. 7, 8. and _Sanballat_ might at that time be _Satrapa_ of _Samaria_, and in the Reign of _Darius Nothus_, or soon after, build the Temple of the _Samaritans_ in _Mount Gerizim_, for his son-in-law _Mana.s.seh_, the first High-Priest of that Temple; _Joseph._ _ib._ and _Simeon Justus_ might be High-Priest when the _Persian_ Empire was invaded by _Alexander_ the Great, as the _Jews_ represent, _Joma_ fol. 69. 1.

_Liber Juchasis. R. Gedaliah_, &c. and for that reason he might be taken by some of the _Jews_ for the same High-Priest with _Jaddua_, and be dead some time before the book of _Ecclesiasticus_ was writ in _Hebrew_ at _Jerusalem_, by the grandfather of him, who in the 38th year of the _Egyptian_ aera of _Dionysius_, that is in the 77th year after the death of _Alexander_ the Great, met with a copy of it in _Egypt_, and there translated it into _Greek: Ecclesiast._ ch. 50. & _in Prolog._ and _Eleazar_, the younger brother and successor of _Simeon_, might cause the Law to be translated into _Greek_, in the beginning of the Reign of _Ptolemaus Philadelphus_: _Joseph._ _Antiq._ l. xii. c. 2. and _Onias_ the son of _Simeon Justus_, who was a child at his father's death, and by consequence was born in his father's old age, might be so old in the Reign of _Ptolemaeus Euergetes_, as to have his follies excused to that King, by representing that he was then grown childish with old age. _Joseph._ _Antiq._ l. xii. c. 4. In this manner the actions of all these High-Priests suit with the Reigns of the Kings, without any straining from the course of nature: and according to this reckoning the days of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ fall in with the Reign of the first _Artaxerxes_; for _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ flourished in the High Priesthood of _Elias.h.i.+b_, _Ezra_ x. 6. _Nehem._ iii.

1. & xiii. 4, 28. But if _Elias.h.i.+b_, _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ be placed in the Reign of the second _Artaxerxes_, since they lived beyond the 32d year of _Artaxerxes_, _Nehem._ xiii. 28, there must be at least 160 years allotted to the three first High-Priests, and but 42 to the four or five last, a division too unequal: for the High Priesthoods of _Jeshua_, _Joiakim_, and _Elias.h.i.+b_, were but of an ordinary length, that of _Jeshua_ fell in with one Generation of the chief Priests, and that of _Joiakim_ with the next Generation, as we have shewed already; and that of _Elias.h.i.+b_ fell in with the third Generation: for at the dedication of the wall, _Zechariah_ the son of _Jonathan_, the son of _Shemaiah_, was one of the Priests, _Nehem._ xii. 35, and _Jonathan_ and his father _Shemaiah_, were contemporaries to _Joiakim_ and his father _Jeshua_: _Nehem._ xii. 6, 18. I observe further that in the first year of _Cyrus_, _Jeshua_, and _Bani_, or _Binnui_, were chief fathers of the _Levites_, _Nehem_. vii. 7. 15. & _Ezra_ ii. 2. 10. & iii. 9. and that _Jozabad_ the son of _Jeshua_, and _Noadiah_ the son of _Binnui_, were chief Levites in the seventh year of _Artaxerxes_, when _Ezra_ came to _Jerusalem_, _Ezra_ viii. 33. so that this _Artaxerxes_ began his Reign before the end of the second Generation: and that he Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances more; for _Meshullam_ the son of _Berechiah_, the son of _Meshezabeel_, and _Azariah_ the son of _Maaseiah_, the son of _Ananiah_, were fathers of their houses at the repairing of the wall; _Nehem._ iii. 4, 23. and their grandfathers, _Meshazabeel_ and _Hananiah_, subscribed the covenant in the Reign of _Cyrus_: _Nehem._ x. 21, 23. Yea _Nehemiah_, this same _Nehemiah_ the son of _Hachaliah_, was the _Tirshatha_, and subscribed it, _Nehem._ x.

1, & viii. 9, & _Ezra_ ii. 2, 63. and therefore in the 32d year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too great. The same may be said of _Ezra_, if he was that Priest and Scribe who read the Law, _Nehem._ viii. for he is the son of _Serajah_, the son of _Azariah_, the son of _Hilkiah_, the son of _Shallum_, &c. _Ezra_ vii. 1.

and this _Serajah_ went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and was there slain, 1 _Chron._ vi. 14. 2 _King._ xxv. 18. and from his death, to the twentieth year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, is above 200 years; an age too great for _Ezra_.

I consider further that _Ezra_, chap. iv. names _Cyrus_, *, _Darius_, _Ahasuerus_, and _Artaxerxes_, in continual order, as successors to one another, and these names agree to _Cyrus_, *, _Darius Hystaspis_, _Xerxes_, and _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, and to no other Kings of _Persia_: some take this _Artaxerxes_ to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of _Darius Hystaspis_, not considering that in his Reign the _Jews_ were busy in building the City and the Wall, _Ezra_ iv. 12. and by consequence had finished the Temple before. _Ezra_ describes first how the people of the land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of _Cyrus_, and further, untill the Reign of _Darius_; and after the Temple was built, how they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign of _Cyrus_ and _Darius_; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of _Ezra_ with the book of _Esdras_: for if in the book of _Ezra_ you omit the story of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and in that of _Esdras_ you omit the same story of _Artaxerxes_, and that of the three wise men, the two books will agree: and therefore the book of _Esdras_, if you except the story of the three wise men, was originally copied from authentic writings of Sacred Authority. Now the story of _Artaxerxes_, which, with that of _Ahasuerus_, in the book of _Ezra_ interrupts the story of _Darius_, doth not interrupt it in the book of _Esdras_, but is there inferred into the story of _Cyrus_, between the first and second chapter of _Ezra_; and all the rest of the story of _Cyrus_, and that of _Darius_, is told in the book of _Esdras_ in continual order, without any interruption: so that the _Darius_ which in the book of _Ezra_ precedes _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and the _Darius_ which in the same book follows them, is, by the book of _Esdras_, one and the same _Darius_; and I take the book of _Esdras_ to be the best interpreter of the book of _Ezra_: so the _Darius_ mentioned between _Cyrus_ and _Ahasuerus_, is _Darius Hysaspis_; and therefore _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_ who succeed him, are _Xerxes_ and _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_; and the _Jews_ who came up from _Artaxerxes_ to _Jerusalem_, and began to build the city and the wall, _Ezra_ iv. 13. are _Ezra_ with his companions: which being understood, the history of the _Jews_ in the Reign of these Kings will be as follows.

After the Temple was built, and _Darius Hystaspis_ was dead, the enemies of the _Jews_ in the beginning of the Reign of his successor _Ahasuerus_ or _Xerxes_, wrote unto him an accusation against them; _Ezra_ iv. 6. but in the seventh year of his successor _Artaxerxes_, _Ezra_ and his companions went up from _Babylon_ with Offerings and Vessels for the Temple, and power to bestow on it out of the King's Treasure what should be requisite; _Ezra_ vii. whence the Temple is said to be finished, _according to the commandment of _Cyrus_, and _Darius_, and _Artaxerxes_ King of _Persia__: _Ezra_ vi. 14. Their commission was also to set Magistrates and Judges over the land, and thereby becoming a new Body Politic, they called a great Council or Sanhedrim to separate the people from strange wives; and they were also encouraged to attempt the building of _Jerusalem_ with its wall: and thence _Ezra_ saith in his prayer, that _G.o.d had extended mercy unto them in the sight of the Kings of _Persia_, and given them a reviving to set up the house of their G.o.d, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give them a WALL in _Judah_, even in _Jerusalem__. _Ezra_ ix. 9. But when they had begun to repair the wall, their enemies wrote against them to _Artaxerxes_: _Be it known_, say they, _unto the King, that the _Jews_ which came up from thee to us, are come unto _Jerusalem_, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations_, &c. And the King wrote back that the _Jews_ should cease and the city not be built, until another commandment should be given from him: whereupon their enemies _went up to _Jerusalem_, and made them cease by force and power_; _Ezra_ iv. but in the twentieth year of the King, _Nehemiah_ hearing that the _Jews_ were in great affliction and distress, and that the wall of _Jerusalem_, that wall which had been newly repaired by _Ezra_, _was broken down, and the gates thereof burnt wth fire_; he obtained leave of the King to go and build the city, and the Governour's house, _Nehem._ i. 3. & ii. 6, 8, 17. and coming to _Jerusalem_ the same year, he continued Governor twelve years, and built the wall; and being opposed by _Sanballat_, _Tobiah_ and _Geshem_, he persisted in the work with great resolution and patience, until the breaches were made up: then _Sanballat_ and _Geshem_ sent messengers unto him five times to hinder him from setting up the doors upon the gates: but notwithstanding he persisted in the work, until the doors were also set up: so the wall was finished in the eight and twentieth year of the King, _Joseph._ _Antiq._ l. xi. c. 5.

in the five and twentieth day of the month _Elul_, or sixth month, in fifty and two days after the breaches were made up, and they began to work upon the gates. While the timber for the gates was preparing and seasoning, they made up the breaches of the wall; both were works of time, and are not jointly to be reckoned within the 52 days: this is the time of the last work of the wall, the work of setting up the gates after the timber was seasoned and the breaches made up. When he had set up the gates, he dedicated the wall with great solemnity, and appointed Officers _over the chambers for the Treasure, for the Offerings, for the First-Fruits, and for the t.i.thes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities, the portions appointed by the law for the Priests and Levites; and the Singers and the Porters kept the ward of their G.o.d_; Nehem. xii. _but the people in the city were but few, and the houses were unbuilt_: _Nehem._ vii. 1, 4.

and in this condition he left _Jerusalem_ in the 32d year of the King; and after sometime returning back from the King, he reformed such abuses as had been committed in his absence. _Nehem._ xiii. In the mean time, the Genealogies of the Priests and Levites were recorded in the book of the _Chronicles_, in the days of _Elias.h.i.+b_, _Joiada_, _Jonathan_, and _Jaddua_, until the Reign of the next King _Darius Nothus_, whom _Nehemiah_ calls _Darius_ the _Persian_: _Nehem._ xii. 11, 22, 23. whence it follows that _Nehemiah_ was Governor of the _Jews_ until the Reign of _Darius Nothus_. And here ends the Sacred History of the _Jews_.

The histories of the _Persians_ now extant in the East, represent that the oldest Dynasties of the Kings of _Persia_, were those whom they call _Pischdadians_ and _Kaianides_, and that the Dynasty of the _Kaianides_ immediately succeeded that of the _Pischdadians_. They derive the name _Kaianides_ from the word _Kai_, which, they say, in the old _Persian_ language signified a Giant or great King; and they call the first four Kings of this Dynasty, _Kai-Cobad, Kai-Caus, Kai-Cosroes_, and _Lohorasp_, and by _Lohorasp_ mean _Kai-Axeres_, or _Cyaxeres_: for they say that _Lohorasp_ was the first of their Kings who reduced their armies to good order and discipline, and _Herodotus_ affirms the same thing of _Cyaxeres_: and they say further, that _Lohorasp_ went eastward, and conquered many Provinces of _Persia_, and that one of his Generals, whom the _Hebrews_ call _Nebuchadnezzar_, the _Arabians_ _Bocktana.s.sar_, and others _Raham_ and _Gudars_, went westward, and conquered all _Syria_ and _Judaea_, and took the city of _Jerusalem_ and destroyed it: they seem to call _Nebuchadnezzar_ the General of _Lohorasp_, because he a.s.sisted him in some of his wars. The fifth King of this Dynasty, they call _Kischtasp_, and by this name mean sometimes _Darius Medus_, and sometimes _Darius Hystaspis_: for they say that he was contemporary to _Ozair_ or _Ezra_, and to _Zaradust_ or _Zoroastres_, the Legislator of the _Ghebers_ or fire-wors.h.i.+ppers, and established his doctrines throughout all _Persia_; and here they take him for _Darius Hystaspis_: they say also that he was contemporary to _Jeremiah_, and to _Daniel_, and that he was the son and successor of _Lohorasp_, and here they take him for _Darius_ the _Mede_.

The sixth King of the _Kaianides_, they call _Bahaman_, and tell us that _Bahaman_ was _Ardschir Diraz_, that is _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, so called from the great extent of his power: and yet they say that _Bahaman_ went westward into _Mesopotamia_ and _Syria_, and conquered _Belshazzar_ the son of _Nebuchadnezzar_, and gave the Kingdom to _Cyrus_ his Lieutenant-General over _Media_: and here they take _Bahaman_ for _Darius Medus_. Next after _Ardschir Diraz_, they place _Homai_ a Queen, the mother of _Darius Nothus_, tho' really she did not Reign: and the two next and last Kings of the _Kaianides_, they call _Darab_ the b.a.s.t.a.r.d son of _Ardschir Diraz_, and _Darab_ who was conquered by _Ascander Roumi_, that is _Darius Nothus_, and _Darius_ who was conquered by _Alexander_ the _Greek_: and the Kings between these two _Darius's_ they omit, as they do also _Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, and _Xerxes_. The Dynasty of the _Kaianides_, was therefore that of the _Medes_ and _Persians_, beginning with the defection of the _Medes_ from the _a.s.syrians_, in the end of the Reign of _Sennacherib_, and ending with the conquest of _Persia_ by _Alexander_ the Great. But their account of this Dynasty is very imperfect, some Kings being omitted, and others being confounded with one another: and their Chronology of this Dynasty is still worse; for to the first King they a.s.sign a Reign of 120 years, to the second a Reign of 150 years, to the third a Reign of 60 years, to the fourth a Reign of 120 years, to the fifth as much, and to the sixth a Reign of 112 years.

This Dynasty being the Monarchy of the _Medes_, and _Persians_; the Dynasty of the _Pischdadians_ which immediately preceded it, must be that of the _a.s.syrians_: and according to the oriental historians this was the oldest Kingdom in the world, some of its Kings living a thousand years a-piece, and one of them Reigning five hundred years, another seven hundred years, and another a thousand years.

We need not then wonder, that the _Egyptians_ have made the Kings in the first Dynasty of their Monarchy, that which was seated at _Thebes_ in the days of _David_, _Solomon_, and _Rehoboam_, so very ancient and so long lived; since the _Persians_ have done the like to their Kings, who began to Reign in _a.s.syria_ two hundred years after the death of _Solomon_; and the _Syrians_ of _Damascus_ have done the like to their Kings _Adar_ and _Hazael_, who Reigned an hundred years after the death of _Solomon_, _wors.h.i.+pping them as G.o.ds, and boasting their antiquity, and not knowing_, saith _Josephus_, _that they were but modern_.

And whilst all these nations have magnified their Antiquities so exceedingly, we need not wonder that the _Greeks_ and _Latines_ have made their first Kings a little older than the truth.

FINIS.