Torah and Jewish Idea > Torah and Jewish Idea
Book Of Esther - Time Line & Persian Kings
Christian Zionist:
Ahasuerus, meaning the Mighty or Venerable king, was a title of certain Persian kings. Some think the one here was Xerxes, the son of Darius Hystapis, but this could not be , for the events of the book had to take place much earlier than this. It is clear from v2:5-7 that Mordecai was the cousin of Esther. She was his uncle's daughter, and he had brought her up because she had no father or mother. Mordecai had been taken captive with Jehoiachin a.k.a Coniah/Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 36:8-9; Jeremiah 52:31) , king of Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar. This was 11 years before the final captivity of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:1-25,30; Jeremiah 25:1). The servitude to Babylon for 70 years began in the 4th years of Jehoikim (Jeremiah 25:1, 9:11)
If Mordecai was a young man, say 20 years old at the time of his captivity 11 years after the beginning of the 70 years servitude - about 627 B.C.E. - and Xerxes reigned 485-464 B.C.E., this would make Mordechai 162 years old in the first year of Xerxes. Esther would be an old woman by this time also.
The fact is that Esther was the young and beautiful wife of Darius the Mede, of Daniel chapter 5 and the mother of Cyrus, the commander of the Persian armies which took Babylon at the end of the 70 years of servitude. This Dairus (the father of Cyrus) reigned 35 years, 33 of which were during the later part of the 70 years of servitude of Israel to Babylon. This fits into all the historical facts about Mordecai being carried away captive with Jehoiachin as very young man. It is possible that he lived throughout the entire captivity. He could have easily been the Mordecai of Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7. Some Jews did live through the 70 years of servitude and returned to see the foundation of the temple laid (Ezra 3:12)
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Daniel 11:2
1. Cyrus reigned 2 years after Astyages or Darius the Mede had taken Babylon in 538 B.C.E. and resigned 9 years.
2. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, reigned 7 years over Persia, 527-520 B.C.E.
3. Darius-1 reigned 35 years, 520-485 B.C.E. He was the first king of Persia to invade Greece, but was defeated at the battle of Marathon 490 B.C.E.
4. Xerxes reigned 21 years, 485-464 B.C.E. He was the Persian king that stirred up all against the realm of Grecia fulfulling Daniel 11:2. He also was defeated by the Greeks in 480-479 B.C.E.
Kings of Persia After Xerxes:
1. Artaxerxes-1 surnamed "The long-armed" reigned 41 years, 464-424 B.C.E.
2. Xerxes-1 reigned only 1 year 423 B.C.E.
3. Darius-2 reigned 19 years, 423-404 B.C.E.
4. Artaxerxes-2 reigned 46 years, 404-358 B.C.E.
5. Artaxerxes-3 reigned 20 years, 358-338 B.C.E.
6. Darius-3 reigned 8 years 338-330 B.C.E.
Darius-3 is the king that was defeated by Alexander the Great whose empire succeeded the Medo-Persian empire.
jdl4ever:
--- Quote from: Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim on March 04, 2007, 12:02:36 AM ---The Temple was destroyed in 586 B.C.E.. Religious Jewish Historical dating puts this in 400 something B.C.E. and Purim in 300 something B.C.E.. This is because The Bible combines the names of many Persian kings into one person. This was done because The Jewish Calendar was reset during this period for mystical reasons having to do with The Final Redemption as well as the beginning of the tradition of reading The Blessing of The Sun every 28 years on a Wednesday. I think the sages deleted about 231 years from the calendar. Therefore, in reality it should be should be 5998, not 5767. That is the only to describe Historical inaccuracies in later Biblical chronology.
Queen Esther was the wife of King Xerxes (Achashverosh) and mother of King Artaxerxes. King Cyrus came before that. The traditional 70 years of exile didn't end with Cyrus but rather Artaxerxes. We must remember that the 70 years lasted well over 100 years. I don't think Mordechai was exiled from Jerusalem but rather his father or grandfather.
--- End quote ---
Yacov, the idea that Chazal deleted years from the calender is NOT ACCEPTED by most (99.9%) people. It is a radical idea made up by one person and never was accepted. No JEw I know thinks that years were purposely deleted from the calender! The scholars have a different account of events than the secular calender to account for the kings but I am not an expert in this area so you need to look it up. There is like a 170-200 year gap between the secular and Jewish calenders (not 220). I am not so certain that the secular calender is correct since it can be off by 170-200 years in ancient events since archeology is not exact. For many years until the late 1800's the secular idiots didn't believe that Nevuchadnetzer existed until they dug up his palace. The literal account is that Mordechai was exiled and not his parents. I don't know if the king of the Megilla was Xerxes since the hebrew surname of the king might bear no relationship to the Persion names of the kings. He could have been a different king. There are a lot of theories I saw. Some say that the Darius of the Bible was not the guy currently known as Darius since Darius was a general name for all Persion kings and the same could apply to Achasverosh which no one knows for certain which king he was since the Hebrew name is not listed anywhere in the Persion achealogical digs.
Christian Zionist:
--- Quote from: Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim on March 04, 2007, 12:02:36 AM ---I don't think Mordechai was exiled from Jerusalem but rather his father or grandfather.
--- End quote ---
Esther 2:5-7
v.5: Now there was a Jew in Susa the capital whose name was Mor'decai, the son of Ja'ir, son of Shim'e-i, son of Kish, a Benjaminite,
v.6: who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconi'ah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon had carried away.
v:7: He had brought up Hadas'sah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother; the maiden was beautiful and lovely, and when her father and her mother died, Mor'decai adopted her as his own daughter.
jdl4ever:
According to most traditional Jewish commentators, from the destruction of the first temple to the destruction of the second one was about 490 years as stated in Daniel 9:21 "seventy weeks have been decreed for your people....". 70 weeks refers to 70 sabbatical cycles of 7 years = 490 years. According to the traditional commentators, the Babylonian exile was exactly 70 years and the second temple stood for 420 years. That would place the destruction of the first temple at 421 BC. The 70 year exile was starting when the second temple was destroyed and not when Nebuchadnezzar started his conquest of Judea (Talmud), so the exile was slightly longer (14 years) than 70 years counting when the Nebuchadnezzar reined. I have heard that a few authorities state that the period was far longer than 500 years and the secular calender is what really happened.
HERE IS THE JEWISH OPINIONS of ancient commentators I looked up. don't take my word for it since every Jewish book you look at has different opinions of who Ahasverosh was and I am no expert so maybee you should ask Chaim this.
I think according to most, the King of the story of Esther , Ahasuerus was the SON OF CYRUS THE PERSION. The son of Esther was Darius the Persian who gave permission to complete the construction of the temple that was halted in the days of Cyrus. He was not the earlier Ahasuerrus who was the father of Darius the Mede but the latter one. So if your chart is correct, I think that would make him Artaxerxes since acc. to the Megilla Ahasverosh rules more than one year so he couldn't be Xerxes-1 or he could be Xerxes-1 if you think the Greek historians made a mistake and mixed him up with Artaxerxes.
The Targum argues and states that Ahasuerus was the son of Darius the Mede which would make him Artaxerxes-2 according to the chart you made. The Ibn Ezra states that he was Artaxerxes menchaned in Ezra 4:7. Rashi identifies Ataxerxes as Cyrus, Ahasuerus's predecessor so according to Rashi, the King would have been Xerxes-1 and he probably disagrees with the Greek historians that say he only ruled one year. So there is disagreement. The Talmud states that Ahasuerus was a wealthy commoner who rose to power on his own. He then married Vashti to legitimize his throne. This is why he demanded Vashti to appear wearing nothing but her royal crown. According to many commentaries, Vashti was the granddaughter of Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler who destroyed the first temple.
Linguistically, the Hebrew word "Achashverosh" sounds like "Artaxerxes" so it's probably one of these kings in my opinion. If Achashverosh was Artaxerxes-2 404-358 B.C.E. then the traditional account that the first temple was destroyed in around 421 BC makes historical sense and Mordechai could have easily been a young man at that time when he survived the exile only a few years earlier. The historical names of the Kings don't mean anything to me. You can see from the fact that Xerxes, Ataxerxes and Darius are used over and over again for so many kings, that these names are really interchangeable and it is probable that many of these kings were known by all of these names as they probably all denote a Persian title of Kingship.
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1. Cyrus reigned 2 years after Astyages or Darius the Mede had taken Babylon in 538 B.C.E. and resigned 9 years.
2. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, reigned 7 years over Persia, 527-520 B.C.E.
3. Darius-1 reigned 35 years, 520-485 B.C.E. He was the first king of Persia to invade Greece, but was defeated at the battle of Marathon 490 B.C.E.
4. Xerxes reigned 21 years, 485-464 B.C.E. He was the Persian king that stirred up all against the realm of Grecia fulfilling Daniel 11:2. He also was defeated by the Greeks in 480-479 B.C.E.
Kings of Persia After Xerxes:
1. Artaxerxes-1 surnamed "The long-armed" reigned 41 years, 464-424 B.C.E.
2. Xerxes-1 reigned only 1 year 423 B.C.E.
3. Darius-2 reigned 19 years, 423-404 B.C.E.
4. Artaxerxes-2 reigned 46 years, 404-358 B.C.E.
5. Artaxerxes-3 reigned 20 years, 358-338 B.C.E.
6. Darius-3 reigned 8 years 338-330 B.C.E.
Darius-3 is the king that was defeated by Alexander the Great whose empire succeeded the Medo-Persian empire.
Christian Zionist:
Thank you very much jdl4ever for your scholarly explanation.
Yes, it is difficult to figure out the chronology of the events by the title of the ancient Kings. Nobody knows in what context the writers of the Tanak wrote the books. Even though they were inspired by Ruah HaKodesh, Ruah HaKodesh used their intellect convey the divine message.
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