1. Rebuilding Temple Counting 70 Activities of Ezra and Nehamiah
Class 4
Rebuilding Temple
Counting 70
Activities of Ezra and Nehamiah

2. How to Count 70
ירמיהו פרק כה:יא-יב וְהָיְתָה כָּל הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת לְחָרְבָּה לְשַׁמָּה וְעָבְדוּ הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה אֶת מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה: וְהָיָה כִמְלֹאות שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה אֶפְקֹד עַל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל וְעַל הַגּוֹי הַהוּא נְאֻם יְקֹוָק אֶת עֲוֹנָם וְעַל אֶרֶץ כַּשְׂדִּים וְשַׂמְתִּי אֹתוֹ לְשִׁמְמוֹת עוֹלָם:
ירמיהו פרק כט:י כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְקֹוָק כִּי לְפִי מְלֹאת לְבָבֶל שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה אֶפְקֹד אֶתְכֶם וַהֲקִמֹתִי עֲלֵיכֶם אֶת דְּבָרִי הַטּוֹב לְהָשִׁיב אֶתְכֶם אֶל הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה:
Ezra and 2 Crhon
Zech 1:12 and 7:5
Daniel doesn’t like either
Reign of Nebuchadnezzar in 605 to conquest of Cyrus in 539
2. Destruction in 586 to Rededication in 515

3. How to Count 490 Read Daniel 9 70 = 70 x 7 =
7 x x 7 (434) + ½ x 7 + ½ x 7 = 490
From Nebuchadnezzar to Hashmonaim
From Destruction I to Destruction II
???
Daniel is disappointed. Perhaps he expects the temple to be rebuilt and is counting from Yehoyachin, or he is depressed that only a few people came back. Haggai also shows. Zech 1:12 also complains that its been 70 years and nothing happened.

4. Seder Olam Chronology סדר עולם רבה פרק כח
רבי יוסי אומר שבעים שבעים (דניאל ט:כה), משחרב בית ראשון ועד שחרב בית אחרון, שבעים לחרבנו וארבע מאות ועשרים לבנינו...
רבי יוסי אומר מלכות פרס בפני הבית ל"ד שנה, מלכות יון מאה ושמונים, מלכות בית חשמונאי מאה ושלש, מלכות הורודוס מאה ושלש, מכאן ואילך צא וחשוב לחרבן הבית

5. Bavli Avodah Zarah 9a R. Yose ben Halafta taught:
Persian rule lasted 34 years after the building of the Temple,
Greece ruled 180 years during the existence of the Temple,
the Hasmonean rule lasted 103 years during temple times,
the House of Herod ruled 103.
Thence onward, one should go on counting the years as from the Destruction of the Temple.

6. Seder Olam Chronology 421BCE Destruction of First Temple
369BCE Darius the Mede received kingdom
368BCE – Koresh reigns, decree of return
BCE – Ahashverosh, Purim
352BCE - 317BCE Daryavesh reigns
351BCE Commencement of rebuilding of Temple
If Daryavesh is the son of Ahashverosh and Esther then he would be six when he begins to rule. so this midrash must not agree, or is obviously just making a homiletic point.
The Rabbis did know the major events and figures, they just missed some of the Persian kings. They were not interested in Persian history and so only remembered what was relevant.
Prike DRebbi Eliezer 48 says Ahashverosh is the last of the four kings mentioned in Daniel and so after Daryavesh.

7. Seder Olam Chronology 351-317 (34 years) Persian Rule
(180 years) 312 Seleucid/Greek Period
137-34BCE (103 years) Hasmonean Period
34BCE-68CE (103 years) Herodian Period
68 Temple II Destroyed

8. Comparing Chronologies
Seder Olam Chronology
421 Destruction of Temple I
369 Darius the Mede received kingdom
368BCE Koresh reigns, decree of return
Purim during Ahashverosh
Daryavesh reigns
351 Begin rebuilding Temple
Historians’ Chronology
586 Destruction of Temple I
539 Cyrus takes Babylonia
538 Cyrus decrees return
Darius I reigns
520 Begin rebuilding Temple
484 Purim during Artexerxes I

9. Purim Who is Ahashverosh? Read Ezra 1-6 , Zechariah 7 and 8:16-19
Xerxes I BCE or Artexerxes II
But, Herodotus (9.109): “Amastris the wife of Xerxes.”
Read Ezra 1-6 , Zechariah 7 and 8:16-19
Menachem Leibtag article
Compare Esther 2:5 and Zech 8:23
And Esther 9:30 and Zech 8:19
Midrashim that show Purim is a rebuke of Jews
The Jews are at a party where the temple vessels are being used (goes against all chronologies)
Ahashverosh is thinking and worried about the 70 years coming up but not the Jews (accords with SOR)
Those arguing in favour of an historical reading of Esther, most commonly identify Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes II (ruled B.C.E.) although in the past it was often assumed that he was Xerxes I (ruled B.C.E.).
The Hebrew Ahasuerus is most likely derived from Persian Khshayarsha, the origin of the Greek Xerxes. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Xerxes sought his harem after being defeated in the Greco-Persian Wars. He makes no reference to individual members of the harem with the exception of a domineering Queen consort Amestris, a daughter of one of his generals, Otanes. (Ctesias however refers to a father-in-law and general of Xerxes named Onaphas). Amestris has often been identified with Vashti in the past. The identification is problematic however - Amestris remained a powerful figure well into the reign of her son, Artaxerxes I while Vashti is portrayed as dismissed in the early part of Xerxes's reign. (Alternative attempts have been made to identify her with Esther, although Esther is an orphan whose father was a Jew named Abihail.) The name Marduka or Marduku (considered equivalent to Mordecai) has been found as the name of officials in the Persian court in thirty texts from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals with the possibility that one of these is the Biblical Mordecai.
The Septuagint version of Esther however translates the name Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes - a Greek name derived from the Persian: Artakhshatra. Josephus too relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks and the Midrashic text, Esther Rabba also makes the identification. Bar-Hebraeus identified Ahasuerus explicitly as Artaxerxes II. (This is not to say that the names are equivalent: Hebrew has a form of the name Artaxerxes distinct from Ahasuerus and a direct Greek rendering of Ahasuerus is used by Josephus as well as in Septuagint occurrences of the name outside the Book of Esther.) Identification as Artaxerxes II has been more popular than with Artaxerxes I (ruled B.C.E.) however the latter had a Babylonian concubine, who was the mother of his son Darius II (ruled B.C.E.). Jewish tradition relates that Esther was the mother of a King Darius and so some try to identify Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes I and Esther with Kosmartydene.

10. Esther and Zechariah אסתר פרק ב:ה
אִישׁ יְהוּדִי הָיָה בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה וּשְׁמוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי בֶּן יָאִיר בֶּן שִׁמְעִי בֶּן קִישׁ אִישׁ יְמִינִי:
זכריה פרק ח:כג
ױכֹּה אָמַר יְקֹוָק צְבָאוֹת בַּיָּמִים הָהֵמָּה אֲשֶׁר יַחֲזִיקוּ עֲשָׂרָה אֲנָשִׁים מִכֹּל לְשֹׁנוֹת הַגּוֹיִם וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ בִּכְנַף אִישׁ יְהוּדִי לֵאמֹר נֵלְכָה עִמָּכֶם כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ אֱלֹהִים עִמָּכֶם:

11. Zechariah and Esther אסתר פרק ט
(ל) וַיִּשְׁלַח סְפָרִים אֶל כָּל הַיְּהוּדִים אֶל שֶׁבַע וְעֶשְׂרִים וּמֵאָה מְדִינָה מַלְכוּת אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ דִּבְרֵי שָׁלוֹם וֶאֱמֶת:
זכריה פרק ח
(יט) כֹּה אָמַר יְקֹוָק צְבָאוֹת צוֹם הָרְבִיעִי וְצוֹם הַחֲמִישִׁי וְצוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וְצוֹם הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה לְבֵית יְהוּדָה לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה וּלְמֹעֲדִים טוֹבִים וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם אֱהָבוּ: פ

12. Activities of Ezra Ez 7-8 Sent by Artexerxes (I? in 458BCE)
Ez 9-10 Mixed Marriages

13. Book of Nehemiah Arrived in 455BCE
Ch 1-7:3 Rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem
7:4-73 Census of returned exiles
8:1-12 Ezra reads the Torah in public
8:13-17 Celebrate Sukkoth
9-10 A new covenant
11-12:26 Repopulation, lists of people
12:27-13:3 Dedication of city walls
13:4-31 Legislation of laws

14. Early Midrash in Nehamiah Ch 10
10:1-28 List of Signatories
29-30 Pledge to keep Hahem’s law in general
31-40 pledge to keep a set of particular laws
10:31 prohibition to intermarry all people in land from Exodus 34:11-16 and Devarim 7:1-3
10:32 buying is prohibited on Shabbat extending Ex 34:21 (farm work), 35:3 (fire), Jer 17:21 (burden), Amos 8:5 (selling), Neh 13:5 (selling and pressing wine)
10:33 extends Ex 30:11-16 to be an annual tax
10:35 enables law of Vayikra 6:1-6, wood to burn continually
10:36 extends Devarim 26:2 to fruit trees