Medes and Persians

The aim of the present investigation is to set forth the Jewish conception of Medo-Persian relations as it is embodied in the scriptures of the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha. This is not a superfluous task. There are certain fundamental ideas of this important period of Jewish history, firmly held without variation in all the 0. T. writings concerned, which no commentator or historian appears to have seen clearly.1 It is customary in dealing with these documents to operate with the ascertained chronology of the Persian period, undertaking to force it upon the Jewish writers. The result is seen in the confused and conflicting theories, none justified by the existing HebrewAramaic material, which appear in the textbooks of the present day. There is a faithfully preserved and consistent (but romancing) scheme of Persian history and chronology, presented by the Chronicler's stories of Ezra and Nehemiah, by the narratives in the book of Daniel, by the tale of the Three GFuardsmen in First Esdras, by the book of Esther and its Second Targum, by the book of Tobit, by certain passages in the Prophets, and by the rabbinical literature, all these being in substantial agreement. What has appeared to be confusion in the chronology of Ezra-Nehemiah is in reality a simple and straightforward progression throughout, when a single scribal error has been corrected. This narrative cannot be understood, however, without recognition of the theory of Medo-Persian aRairs which was current in Jerusalem from (at least) the third century B. a. onward, and which differed very widely from the true course of events. The attempt to read actual Persian history into the fanciful Jewish scheme results in the chaos which is to be seen in every modern commentary and critical essay. The Jewish scheme itself is in perfect order where critics have been unanimous

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