Introduction

The analysis of the genealogical information in the book of Nehemiah in the foregoing chapter has shown that Zerubbabel and Nehemiah were not separated by some seventy years but rather, were either a generation apart or possibly even members of the same generation. They either succeeded each other in office or they had contemporaneous commissions within Yehud. This information has various implications for recreating the historical circumstances under which the temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem.

In this chapter, I will examine why the books of Haggai and Zechariah were assigned their current, erroneous dates that set the temple rebuilding during the reign of Darius I (521–485 BCE) rather than during the reign of Artaxerxes I (445–432 BCE). In Chapter 3, I will examine how and why the account of the temple rebuilding in Ezra 1-8 assumed its present form, which begins the rebuilding process under Cyrus but dates its completion also to the reign of Darius instead of the reign of Artaxerxes. Since, as I will argue, the author of Ezra 1–6 has used the dates in Haggai and Zechariah as a primary source for his recreation, it is necessary to gain a clear understanding of how these dates, which assign the temple-rebuilding to the early years of the reign of Darius, first arose before proceeding to an analysis of the Ezra narrative.