Chapter 4 - SETTING THE BOUNDS: THE TERRITORY COMPRISING YEHUD UNDER ARTAXERXES I IN THE MID-FIFTH CENTURY BCE

Summary

Introduction

Our analysis of the relevant literary evidence concerning the rebuilding of the Persian-era temple is now complete. Genealogical information contained in the book of Nehemiah has indicated that Zerubbabel and Nehemiah were either contemporaries or a generation apart in age, not some sixty-five years apart. Thus, either Zerubabbel and the temple-rebuilding needs to be moved to the reign of Artaxerxes I, or Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the city walls of Jerusalem needs to be moved to the reign of Darius I. A fresh analysis of Haggai–Zechariah 8 and Ezra 1–6 has led to the conclusion that the dating of the rebuilding process in years 2, 4, and 6 of Darius I is not historically accurate. As a consequence, the logical deduction to be drawn is that the reconstruction of the temple is to be placed alongside the rebuilding of the city walls in the reign of Artaxerxes I. This date under Artaxerxes I is corroborated by the extra-biblical reference to the adult sons of Sinuballit, governor of Samerina, the ‘adversary’ of Nehemiah, in Elephantine papyrus AP 30, dated 408 BCE. The father must have been active as governor in the 450-420s or 410s, during the reign of Artaxerxes I and his successor, Darius II.

Before this hypothesis can be explored further, however, we need to turn our attention to what we can learn from texts and artifacts about the physical layout of the province of Yehud at the time of Artaxerxes I (465–433 BCE).