The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended · Isaac Newton
CHAP. VI.
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 Longimanus_; 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 _God 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 God, 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 Tithes, 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 God_; 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 _Eliashib_, _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_ _Bocktanassar_, and others _Raham_ and _Gudars_, went westward, and conquered all _Syria_ and _Judæa_, and took the city of _Jerusalem_ and destroyed it: they seem to call _Nebuchadnezzar_ the General of _Lohorasp_, because he assisted 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-worshippers, 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 Longimanus_, 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 bastard 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 _Assyrians_, 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 assign 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 _Assyrians_: 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.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.