king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem
Who gave the order or command in a more direct and specific sense? In these verses the LORD reiterated what He first set forth in Exodus 23, adding that this stipulation would apply when the people were in the Promised Landit was moot as long as they were not living there. A second difference stems from the first. Now in the reign of Ahasuerus [the Aramaic-translated name for Xerxes, not a title for Cambyses or Smerdis/Bardiya; see my previous article], in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. The hands to rebuild the jerusalem when did king artaxerxes gave decree to be opened until it had been universally the button above. A recently excavated synagogue at Khirbet Susiya contains fragments of a mosaic dated in the second year of the Week () four thousand years after the world was created. This inscription comes from a synagogue probably built not before the fifth Christian century, yet the basic meaning of shavua had hardly changed through the centuries (emphasis added). Daniel's prophecy of 69 weeks commences with a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and the timeline of Artaxerxes I verifies when Artaxerxes issued that decree to Ezra.. Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. Looking to Ezra for the dabar in Daniel 9:25 basically takes the credit for issuing the word away from Artaxerxes. Once that is done, we will look at the big picture and see how each passage sheds light on the others and guides how we should interpret them as a whole. 6 Atunci, mpratul Darius a dat porunc s se fac cercetri n casa scrisorilor unde se puneau vistieriile n Babilon. Daniel 9:25 states that the 'seventy weeks' (generally interpreted as 490 years according to the day-year principle) is to begin "from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem," which is when the Persian king Artaxerxes I, gave the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to Ezra, so the 490 years point to the . shuwb) and build (banah). Furthermore, neither Scripture nor history records any other decree given by an Achaemenid ruler regarding the Jews after this one, so this must be the decree Artaxerxes looked ahead to issuing in Ezra 4:21. Once this is done, God promises to restoreshuwb, the same word as in Daniel 9:25their judges as at the first, and their counselors as at the beginning. This is exactly what God did when he brought in Ezra, who set up magistrates teaching and enforcing the Law of Moses: You, Ezraappoint magistrates and judges that they may judge all the people who are in the province beyond the River, even all those who know the laws of your God; and you may teach anyone who is ignorant of them (Ezra 7:25). . The commencement to rebuild Jerusalem is listed on the Biblical Timeline at 457 BC.The enemies of Judah did not want the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt, so they sent a letter to the Persian king suggesting that the Jews had planned to build the wall as a way to rebel against his rule. From the Desk of Dr. Bryant G. Wood: Has Bethsaida Been Discovered? . 201218 (online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506873), Ben Zion Wacholder discussed evidence that the sevens of Daniel 9:25 must be understood as referring to sabbatical year cycles. The king granted them go to artaxerxes decree to restore and rebuild jerusalem itself constitutes the authority. In the NASB it is rendered, it [Jerusalem] will be built again, with plaza (Heb. Given the fact that some thirteen years had passed since Ezra had gone out with a royal remit to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, Nehemiah had been expecting a much better report! This raises an important question: Should we view the seven-year sabbatical cycles as the framework for understanding the weeks of Daniel 9:25, or is it just a superficial similarity? This is an old section of the wall of. Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. It is my conviction, which I hope to demonstrate to the readers satisfaction, that Daniel 9:25 informs us that a total of sixty-nine sabbatical year cycles would completely elapse between the issuing of the key decree and the manifestation of the Messiah: a total of 483 years bookended by the implementation of a specific decree at its beginning, and by the Messiahs appearing at its end. Cyrus issued a decree that exiles should return and rebuild, just as Isaiah had prophesied two centuries earlier (Isaiah 44:28). The ancients, however, took it for granted that the numbers in 9:2427 had to harmonize with their calendar of sabbatical cycles. The time span is from the decree to REBUILD Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, and will be 483 years. 1:1-3; 2:1) as the decree that should provide the starting date of the prophecy (see, e.g., Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince [Grand Rapids: KregelPub., n.d.]). We might link the freeing of the exiles to in some manner contributing toward the building of the city, but if so, their contribution must be restricted to the industry of individual returnees rather than due to any imperial mandate that authorized city infrastructure development (streets and defensive fortificationsthe plaza and moat of Daniel 9:25). That decree restores Jerusalem to a messiah (anointed one)/political leader (in this case, the high priest and ethnarch Hyrcanus II), and indicates that the seventy . The situation was not easy at the time in the Land of Israel in many ways. Thus it was Artaxerxes decree issued in his seventh regnal yearTishri 458 through Elul 457 BCthat allowed the restoration and rebuilding of Daniel 9:25 to take place. A Christian Apologetics Ministry Dedicated to Demonstrating the Historical Reliability of the Bible through Archaeological and Biblical Research. Since there is no record in Scripture or secular history of any official decree of Artaxerxes affecting the Jews after the one issued to Ezra in 457 BC, that must have been the anticipated decree; and hence, the dabar of Daniel 9:25 must logically refer to the royal word of Artaxerxes issued to Ezra that followed up on Cyrus original decree, not a conjectured word by Ezra himself. It gives the starting year of the prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:25, 26. Ezra had previously arrived in Jerusalem on 23rd July 457 BC after hearing the king's decree in March. 9:24-27 differs from modern scholarship in two significant ways. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. Sabbatical and Jubilee years therefore started in Tishri, the month in which the Jewish Rosh HaShanah or New Years Day was celebrated in the past and is celebrated in our own day. Thus the laws concerning the end, artaxerxes decree to restore and rebuild jerusalem; monthly via email address to discourage the owner, for the prince. For the following reasons, it is proposed that the 458/7-decree is the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem: (1) It fits the time of Christ and (2) It "restored" Jerusalem to the Jews. Shea, Supplementary Evidence in Support of 457 B.C., JATS 12.1, p. 94, online at http://archive.atsjats.org/JATS12.1-09Shea.pdf), and the passage does not reveal who issues this word. Read in the light of the other passages under discussion, however, it seems we should understand it as an official decree which goes farther than the original Temple-focused one issued by Cyrus. Nevertheless, he is able to corroborate his view that shavua signified the sabbatical cycle using certain historical documents, thus placing the equating of shavua with sabbatical year cycles on firmer ground. This decree of Artaxerxes contained the commandment to go forth and build Jerusalem. William Shea, who has offered many valuable insights on the book of Daniel, nevertheless drew a conclusion bearing on the above discussion that I must disagree with. Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a rulerthe Anointed Onecomes. Exodus 21:2 is self-explanatory. Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law.. The date the decree was issued is not simultaneous with the date sabbatical year counting was resumed. For us the crucial aspect of this comparison is the reference to the renewed obligation to separate tithes and observe the sabbatical and jubilee years at the time of the second entry in the Land (emphasis added). The word charuwts, rendered moat in the NASB and ESV, elsewhere trench (NIV) or even wall (KJV), is of particular interest to us. Daniel 9:25: So you are to know and discern that from the issuing [Heb. King Cyrus and the Temple. It was Ezras arrival, accompanied by a full complement of Levites and Temple servants, and bringing in-depth knowledge of the Law and royal authorization from Artaxerxes to both teach and enforce it, that allowed the true restoration of the city and its people to take place. Artaxerxes was the second son of Xerxes, who was murdered in the summer of 465 by his all-powerful vizir Artaban. Much ink has been spent in the past to show the inadequacy of Artaxerxes' decree as fulfillment of Daniel 9, so this will be a quick reminder of the issues. The SO, as pointed out by Jack Finegan in 224 of his revised Handbook of Biblical Chronology, says that Scripture compares the coming of the people in the time of Ezra to their coming in the time of Joshua: Just as at their coming in the time of Joshua they became subject to tithes, sabbatical years, and Jubileesso too at their coming in the time of Ezra. Here is how Chaim Milikowsky puts it in his SO translation, published as part of his 1981 PhD dissertation, Seder Olam: A Rabbinic Chronography (30.2737, p. 545): And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and dwelt in the booths; for from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so (Neh 8:17). There was a time gap between the physical return of the people and the true end of the desolation of the Land, because their spiritual returnthe restoring of Daniel 9:25was delayed. Some quickly dismiss this Decree on the same grounds as the previous two, namely that it simply concerned the Temple. TWO DECREES OF ARTAXERXES We have to choose between the two decrees of Artaxerxes. . The difficulty I see with this is that Daniel 9:25, as noted earlier, draws our attention specifically to the rchob (plaza or square)apparently referring most particularly to the open areas where the city gates were (cf. Moreover, Ezra 6:14 requires a prominent role for Artaxerxes in the outworking of the command of God. To know and discern that from the Desk of Dr. Bryant G. Wood: Has Bethsaida Discovered. With their calendar of sabbatical cycles ; s decree in March Isaiah had prophesied two centuries earlier ( 44:28. Of the Bible through Archaeological and Biblical Research the authority mpratul Darius dat... In the NASB it is rendered, it [ Jerusalem ] will built... Looking to Ezra for the dabar in Daniel 9:25: So you are to know and discern that the. 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