This page proposes that Nehemiah comes before Ezra in the Persian period, and that Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Zerubbabel belong to one era. They are the descendants of those Nebuchadnezzar carried into bondage.
The order
- 446/445 BCE: Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem in the 20th year of Artaxerxes I (Nehemiah 2:1).
- 433 BCE: His 12 years as governor end (Nehemiah 5:14; 13:6).
- 422 BCE: The temple work resumes in the second year of Darius II (Ezra 4:24; Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1).
- 418 BCE: The temple is completed on the third day of Adar, in his sixth year (Ezra 6:15).
- 398 BCE: Ezra goes up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes II (Ezra 7:7).
Under the usual dating, the temple (516 BCE) and Ezra’s arrival (458 BCE) are 58 years apart. Here they are 20 years apart, which keeps these leaders within one era.
The order of the kings
Read straight through, the kings in Ezra follow the Persian king list: Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) and Artaxerxes I in chapter 4, Darius II in chapters 4 and 6, and in chapter 7, after the temple is completed (“after these things,” 7:1), Artaxerxes II. This is why Ezra goes up in the seventh year of Artaxerxes II, in 398 BCE.
Born in bondage
These men are descendants of the original captives, born in bondage. Israel in Egypt is the pattern: the 400 years describes the nation’s time in bondage and does not mean the people who left were 400 years old. On this reading, Haggai’s question, “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” (2:3), is rhetorical. No one remained who had seen the first house.
A remembered captivity
The seventy years serve as a marker of the captivity, tied to the sabbath years the land was denied (Leviticus 26:34-35; 2 Chronicles 36:21). Zechariah 7 speaks of the fasts of the fifth and seventh months and recalls the words of the former prophets (7:7). Those fasts were commemorations, and the fifth-month fast is generally identified with the Ninth of Av.
People still keep such commemorations long after the events. Today Jews fast and pray at the Western Wall to mourn the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and many of them were born nearly two thousand years later. Zechariah’s audience can be understood the same way, as the continuing keepers of the memory of an event they were born into the aftermath of, much like those born after 9/11 who still mourn it.
Open questions
Nehemiah 8:9 and 12:26 name Ezra and Nehemiah together. This order places Nehemiah’s first term (446/445 to 433 BCE) before Ezra’s arrival in 398 BCE, so it relies on Nehemiah’s later return to Jerusalem “after certain days” (Nehemiah 13:6-7). Zechariah 1:12 and 7:5 attach “seventy years” to the indignation and the fasting. Ezra 5:16 credits Sheshbazzar with the foundation. These points are offered for discussion and further study.
