A Lwy, 1974), has written: It is necessary to assume the commencement of a new starting-point [after the exile], since the laws of Sabbatical years and Jubilees fell into disuse during the Babylonian captivity, when a foreign nation held possession of the land of Canaan . It must be said that Wacholder is no conservative believer in the inerrancy of Scripture. Observations: This passage quotes the original decree as issued by Cyrus. Is there any evidence this was the case? 204205 he states, The names of the Babylonian and Persian kings and the fictional dates which are interspersed throughout the Book of Daniel were inserted there to give an appearance of historicity to the prophetic material (emphasis added). This means that the primary authorization for Nehemiahs work must be traced back to the decree of Artaxerxes seventh year, which he anticipated issuing earlier in Ezra 4:21: this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. There was no known decree between the time that statement was made and Nehemiahs arrival, except that of Ezra 7:11 ff, the decree which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe. This was the decree that authorized the rebuilding prophesied in Daniel 9:25, and it was issued in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. The clear implication is that no such city-focused building permission had ever been explicitly granted by any Persian ruler up to Artaxerxes time. Ezra 6:14: And the elders of the Jews were successful in building [the Temple] through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. Nehemiah 10:31 (NIV): Every seventh year we will forgo working the land [observe a sabbatical year] and will cancel all debts [which caused indentured servitude] (brackets added). It included the irrevocable permission (as a law of the Medes and Persians) which allowed Nehemiah to later kick the wall repairs into high gear with nothing more than letters in hand. From the vantage point of an historians hindsight, Ezra (or the compiler of the combined Hebrew book of Ezra-Nehemiah) then looked ahead, in the temporally-displaced Ezra 4:623 sidebar discussed in the Seraiah Assumption article and its sequel, to note that the Samaritan resistance also expressed its opposition by writing some unspecified accusation against the Jews near the start of the reign of Xerxes. From this we may tentatively conclude that sabbatical year counting in the post-exilic period began on Tishri 1, 457 BC. This is consistent with the text of Leviticus 25, which for both Sabbatical and Jubilee years speaks of sowing before mentioning reaping. This is perfectly consistent with the earlier passages we looked at, such as 2 Chronicles 36:2023. And the verse from Nehemiah 10 ties together the start of each seventh (sabbatical) year with the remission of debts. 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. The Gesenius lexicon reproduced on the BlueLetterBible website (http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1129&t=NASB) makes this fundamental meaning very clear: to build, to erect, as a house, a temple, a city, walls, defenses. In Daniel 9:25, the second half of the verse shows the term has particular reference to municipal projects. Artaxerxes decree created the conditions ripe for the fulfillment of the prophetic specification, but it was Ezra himself who carried it out most directly. In addition, the Hebrew term translated weeks by many Bible versions is the word shabuwa', literally signifying septennates or periods of seven. 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. However, his party first assembled themselves at the Ahava canal and did not actually start moving for eleven days, therefore the number of travelling days were 107 days. 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. The Persian king, Artaxerxes, gave Nehemiah permission to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem that lay in ruins. The decree comes from the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:8). Does the Merneptah Stela Allow for a 12th Century Exodus? and he will perform all My desire. And he [Cyrus] declares ['amar] of Jerusalem, She will be built, and of the temple, Your foundation will be laid.. Join us in our mission! Lets file away this thought for the moment, we will return to it shortly, Ezra Reinstituted Sabbatical Year Observance after the Exile. The NASB is used throughout, except as noted. Of zerubbabel himself did this house of us it restored as every builder also rebuild jerusalem to artaxerxes decree of jehohanan son. We make that conclusion because we know that Artaxerxes began to reign in Persia in 464 . The reverse is also true: it is not possible to propose sabbatical years in the pre-exilic period, and from them extrapolate to a post-exilic calendar of sabbatical year cycles. Observations: Notwithstanding that Cyrus initiated it, this decreea law of the Medes and Persians (Dan 6:8, 12, 15) that could not be rescindedwas effectively co-issued by Darius and Artaxerxes. The ancient exegetes, it will be shown, understood shavua to refer to the seven-year cycle, the last year of which was the year of the Lord (Lev. 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. , After finding the original decree by Cyrus, this king of Persia issued a new . Bear with me for a moment while I make a seeming digression. 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. Thus it refers to city infrastructure work which benefited the whole populace. The final part of the verse specifically calls the readers attention to the period of rebuilding, and this is likely what the seven weeks refers to. 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 . Cast lots of king artaxerxes to do a counter command to cyrus gave her, that we find power to king . 'amar] of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited! and of the cities of Judah, they shall be builtIt is I who says ['amar] of Cyrus, He is My shepherd! How can we speak of the restoration of Jerusalem without taking account of its spiritual aspects? 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! He led the Jews in rebuilding the walls around their capitol city. 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. The answer from the above examination of the letter of the western governors is obvious. 26Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him strictly, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of goods or for imprisonment (emphasis added). But this part of the total project was not implemented until the gutsy, shrewd administrator Nehemiah arrived years later, spurring the apathetic Jews into actually doing what they had been allowed to do since the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. The murderer accused the king's eldest son Darius of the crime, with the result that Darius was slain by his younger brother Artaxerxes, who then mounted the throne. And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servant And this intent is clearly expressed by Artaxerxes' decree when he proclaimed: "I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. There was nothing indirect or oblique about this. Site Design and Management by:Nehemiah Communications [http://nehemiahcommunications.com] & Enktesis [http://enktesis.com], Daniel-The Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries: Digging for Truth Episode 194, Social Justice-The Counterfeit Gospel (Part Four): Digging for Truth Episode 193, Social Justice-The Counterfeit Gospel (Part Three): Digging for Truth Episode 192, Social Justice-The Counterfeit Gospel (Part Two): Digging for Truth Episode 191, Social JusticeThe Counterfeit Gospel (Part One): Digging for Truth Episode 190. The gracious commission of Artaxerxes to Ezra 27. Porunca lui Darius. It reads: Now listen and understand! Ezra and Nehemiah were leaders in the reign of Artaxerxes. After the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the Jewish Temple and hauled off tens of thousands of Jews into captivity, the Jews were allowed to return to Judah after the Persians conquered Babylon. ABR fulfills its mission through memberships and generous donations from supporters. Although for reasons discussed below it is quite problematic as a source of reliable history, an observation it makes is nevertheless pertinent to what we are discussing. So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Another matter which must be taken into consideration is that sabbatical years of the post-exilic period had to be reset when the Jews returned to the Land under Ezra. Is it possible to say so? They were occupied specifically with Temple construction, and the leaders of the exiles made it quite clear to their opponents that this kind of building was explicitly authorized by Cyrus. At that point, Nehemiah led the charge to reinforce the gates of the temple and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which took 49 years and equates to the first 7-week period. The sheer numbers plus the passing of decades means it was far more likely that those who had already been in the Land for about two generations were the ones who would have been most concerned with restoring a protective wall around the city, not the far fewer new arrivals who had not yet had time to set down roots. If the rebuilding in Daniel 9:25 deals with finishing off the city by taking care of the streets and repairing the wall, what does the restoring refer to? Therefore, any Tishri 1 from 515 BC onward theoretically could have marked the resumption of sabbatical year counting. By extension, the idea that the complaint of Tabeel et al was not submitted to Artaxerxes until after Ezra arrived in 457 BC with his small group is unworkable. 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. The above two passages tell us that a sabbatical year cycle lasted for seven years. The Commandment to Restore and to Build Jerusalem John. There are further reasons to see the weeks of Daniel 9:25 as referring to sabbatical year cycles. In his 7th year this monarch issued a decree to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times (emphasis added). It was only after Ezra, the priest and scribe, came and began to teach and admonish the people that full obedience to all that the Law of Moses required was insisted upon. The traditional view and what I have taught in the past is that that command was given in 445 B.C. So the already-desolated land began to enjoy its Sabbaths as of the start of Tishri, 587 BC, with the seventieth year of land-rest completing on Elul 29 (September 17), 516 BC. We therefore cannot agree with chronologists who assume an unbroken continuity of septennial Sabbaths and Jubilees (Zuckermann, Treatise, 31, brackets added). The time span is from the decree to REBUILD Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, and will be 483 years. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. . The response of the Samaritans was to oppose the Temple construction efforts all through the days of Cyrus, through the reigns of Cambyses and Smerdis/Bardiya that followed him, and into the second year of Darius Hystaspes (Ezra 4:24), who decreed capital punishment upon any who would hinder the Temples completion (Ezra 6:11). , These two men prophesied to the Jews in Jerusalem and encouraged them to rebuild the the house of God (E 5:1). 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. This fact emphasizes that the sabbatical years significance was fundamentally a spiritual matter, a sign of the people keeping covenant with their God, rather than simply giving the land a break. In a word, yes. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem in verse 25 may refer to King Artaxerxes authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem in March of 445 BC That is when the count. King Saul and the Witch of Endor: Necromancy and Ghost Pits in the Ancient World, The Parthian War Paradigm and the Reign of Herod the Great, Top Ten Discoveries Related to Moses and the Exodus, Further Ruminations on the Shroud of Turin, A Note from Dr. Scott Stripling on Shiloh and the Mt Ebal Discovery, The Mount Ebal Curse Tablet, Featuring Dr. Scott Stripling on CenterPoint, ABR Researchers Discover the Oldest Known Proto-Hebrew Inscription Ever Found, "We Saw His Star in the East": Thoughts on the Star of Bethlehem, Debunking the City of David Temple Myth with Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling, Caesar Augustus: An Archaeological Biography, Away in a Manger, But Not in a Barn: An Archaeological Look at the Nativity, The Supreme Authority of Scripture (Part Two), Three Things in Babylon Daniel Likely Saw, Important Biblical Archaeological Discoveries in 2021: An Update from Dr. Bryant Wood, The Supreme Authority of Scripture (Part One). 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