Sabbath 5/4/35/120

Dear Friends,

The Churches of God and particularly the Radio/Worldwide Church of God made many errors over the 20th century and one of those serious errors was the adoption of the Protestant error regarding the prophecy of the 70 weeks of years of Daniel 9:24-27 regarding the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem.

Daniel 9:25 was mistranslated in the KJV text and the Protestants sought to make it refer to Jesus Christ when it does no such thing. The Masoretic text refers to two anointed ones and not one, and the period runs for 490 years and ends in 70 CE at the destruction of the Temple. The Revised Standard Version has correctly rendered it in English as has the Soncino Commentary.

The text in the RSV reads:
[24] "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
[25] Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
[26] And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed.
[27] And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."

It is obvious from the text that there are two anointed ones or messiahs in this text. One anointed one comes after seven weeks of years and the second one comes after 69 weeks of years, 62 weeks of years after the first anointed one. These two beings are of the royal line of David but neither is messiah. The first one is Nehemiah who was anointed by Artaxerxes II and the second one was James the brother of Jesus Christ, Bishop of Jerusalem and head of the Church, who was killed in the year 63/4 CE seven years before the destruction of the Temple.

The Protestants sought to make the year 27 CE, which was the mission of John the Baptist, in the 15th year of Tiberius and the year of the baptism of Jesus Christ.  This detail has been explained in the paper Christ’s Age at Baptism and the Duration of His Ministry (No. 019). Christ began his ministry after the imprisonment of John the Baptist which was after the Passover of 28 CE and is explained in the paper. Christ’s ministry was two years from 28 CE to Passover 30 CE. The only year that coincides with the Bible text is 30 CE and the Crucifixion of Christ was on a Wednesday according to the ancient Temple Calendar. That matter has been explained in detail in the paper The Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159). The Protestants realise that and thus attempt to make the Crucifixion occur in 33 CE and make a host of false claims regarding it. Thus the Trinitarian/Easter advocates are forced to claim a minimum five year ministry of Christ when there is no such scenario in the New Testament texts, nor can it occur in conjunction with the prophecy of the Sign of Jonah as explained in the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013). The fact is that it is does not cover the period and so they had to invent a split week of years from verse 27 and postpone it to the end period at the return of the Messiah which is nonsense if the history of what happened then is understood prior to and post-70 CE (see the paper War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298). This false interpretation is still advanced seriously by ex-WCG ministry and members and they simply do not understand what they are saying.

What is extremely frustrating is that the WCG and the Armstrongite offshoots adopted this Protestant rubbish and attempted to adopt the 27 CE in relation to the seventy weeks of years in using the mistranslation of the KJV, and in order to do that they then had to back date the 70 weeks of years to the wrong period in history to get to the reign of Darius I Hystaspes instead of the correct decree of Darius II the Persian. They then had to create the decree of Ataxerxes as applying to Artaxerxes I even though it was known that this king had made no such decree except to order that construction on the Temple at Jerusalem be stopped in accordance with the records of Ezra and Nehemiah. Even going back to Darius Hystaspes cannot be correct as recorded in the Bible text in Ezra and neither can it accord with the known archaeological records derived from the Temple at Elephantine in Egypt which was contemporaneous with the Reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and accords with the records in Ezra and Nehemiah; nor can it accord with the known history of the Temple at Jerusalem which ended in 70 CE.

It is a matter of fact that the Protestants manufacture arguments based on fiction to satisfy Trinitarian and pagan Antinomian doctrine. However, to see it advanced by the Churches of God in spite of the Bible text is frustrating in the extreme and we refuse to put up with it. We even have people come to CCG from the WCG and offshoots and some cannot follow or refuse to study the matter. Such indolence is not tolerated in CCG and if these false theories are advanced the people will be called to account. The study of Ezra and Nehemiah and other texts reveal the following sequence of events and are explained in the paper Sign of Jonah and the History of the reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013).

“The following table depicts the sequence of events according to the Bible, using currently accepted dates, although Josephus may differ significantly.

There was a Temple constructed in the middle of the fifth century BCE by the Samaritans. The foundations have been found to resemble the foundations at Jerusalem, which were laid on the return but not completed until the reign of Darius II a century later, and after the structure at Gerizim.

Josephus has been proven wrong on his dates about the works on Mt. Gerizim. Dr. Yitzhak Magen has excavated the original Temple and dated it to the mid-fifth century BCE. 13,000 Persian coins were found in the tithe area. There were 68 different coins, the earliest dated to 480 BCE. The pottery was fifth century through the fourth century. The bones of the sacrifices are dated to the fifth century. At the archaeology conference in Copenhagen in 2006, it was announced that Josephus was wrong with his dating (cf. Y. Magen, Mt Gerizim Excavations, Vol. I, Judea and Samaria Publications, JSP II, Israel Antiquities Authority 2004 ISBN 965-406-160-0 ISBN 13: 978-965-406-160-5).  The details indicate a temple and priesthood active at Gerizim from the middle of the fifth century (say up to 343 years) prior to Hircanus's destruction, from 113 BCE. That is why the construction at Jerusalem was opposed so vehemently by these people, as the Bible states.

DATE / EVENT
 
539 BCE
Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus and Darius the Mede, son of Astyages (called Xerxes by Daniel), uncle of Cyrus and first regent, ruling from Babylon and Media, to where he took Daniel (Josephus, Antiq. of the Jews, Bk. X, Ch. XI:4).
 
538/7 BCE
Edict of Cyrus.
Return of the exiles (date uncertain). They returned to the towns of Israel, but not to Jerusalem.
 
?
Sheshbazzar lays the foundation of the Temple (Ezra 5:16). The foundations may have had to be relaid by Zerubbabel when he commenced construction after constructing the altar (Ezra 3:2). It is probable that Sheshbazzar is the Shenazzar at 1Chronicles 3:17-19, son of Shealtiel and brother to Pediah, father of Zerubbabel. It is probable that Zerubbabel succeeded Sheshbazzar as Governor while still a young man. Matthew 1:12 records Zerubbabel as the son of Shealtiel, indicating that Pediah would have died young and Shenazzar or Sheshbazzar succeeded Shealtiel as Prince Regent of Judah and was in turn succeeded by Zerubbabel, either when he came of age or on the death of his uncle.
 
530-522 BCE
Reign of Cambyses. He reigned for one year jointly with Cyrus, his father. Josephus refers to a letter of complaint written to this king, but no record is found in the Bible. Attempts have been made to link him with the letter to Ahasuerus, but this is the Persian rendering of Xerxes and is rendered as such by Moffatt, NIV and others. Herodotus records that this King was mad.
 
525 BCE
Completion of the riddle of the prophecy of Pharaoh's broken arms in its first stage by Cambyses' occupation of Egypt (Ezek. Chs. 29-30 et seq.), i.e. eighty years from 605 BCE.
 
522 BCE
Reign of the Magi (Josephus records). The Magi were slaughtered after one year’s reign and Darius, son of Hystaspes, was elected as king by the seven principle Persian families. Zerubbabel returned from Judea for the vessels of God that were still at Babylon (possibly a contradiction). Smerdis, the Magus, was substituted for Smerdis, son of Cyrus, murdered at the order of Cambyses.

He reigned for seven months until he and his brother, Patizeithes (the author of the substitution), were discovered and beheaded in the night of the slaughter of the Magi (the Magophonia). He was not a king in the true sense of the word and issued only one decree giving a three-year remission of taxes. He was confined to the palace for fear of discovery, which occurred regardless, because Cyrus had earlier cut off the ears of Smerdis the Magus for a serious crime. This pseudo-Smerdis is sometimes used as one of the alleged three kings mentioned in Daniel 11:2-4. The four kings mentioned are more likely to be Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes and Cyrus Artaxerxes. The remaining kings were not as involved although Darius II interfered in Greek affairs by entering into treaty with Sparta (Thucydides The Peloponnesian War, Bk. 8:5,6,36,37,57-59). Herodotus writes of the last three at Histories, Bk. 6, p. 100:

During the three generations comprising the reign of Darius the son of Hystaspes and of his son Xerxes and his grandson Artaxerxes, Greece suffered more misery than in the twenty generations before Darius was born partly from the Persian wars, partly from her own internal struggles for supremacy.

After Cyrus Artaxerxes, Persia was so committed to hostility with Greece that it was inevitable that Greek reaction came as it did in the form of Alexander.
 
521 BCE
Darius I (the Great). There was little construction on the Temple (Ezra 4:4-5).
 
516 BCE
 Prophecy of the seventy years expires (Jer. 25:8-14 and Dan. 9). Jerusalem could not have been inhabited until this date.
 
486 BCE
Xerxes I (Ahasuerus), fourth son of Darius I, first grandson of Cyrus. Letter written to him, but no reply is recorded (Ezra 4:6).
 
465 BCE
Artaxerxes I (real name is Cyrus, also called Macrocheir or Longimanus). Letter written to him by Bishlam, Mithredath and Tabe-el (Ezra 4:7); the leaders of the anti-Jewish restoration group during this king's reign. (These are different to the leaders mentioned by Nehemiah, further reinforcing the point that two different kings are involved.) Artaxerxes issued a decree ordering construction on the Temple to stop (Ezra 4:7-24). The Athenian invasion of Egypt with the League of Delos would have prompted the harsh control measures to be adopted.

The revolt was put down in 454 BCE in Egypt and in other parts of the Empire. A fortified Jerusalem was obviously not desirable. The Greek war lasted from the burning of Sardis in 501 BCE to the seventeenth year of Artaxerxes in 448 BCE.
 
424 BCE
Xerxes II (no biblical record). Assassinated in 424 after 45 days by Sogdianus his illegitimate brother who reigned for 6½ months. He was assassinated by another illegitimate brother, Ochus, who became Darius II in late 424 BCE / early 423 BCE.
 
423 BCE
Darius II. Decree issued to commence construction in 422 BCE (Ezra 6:1 and 4:24) (i.e. his second year). 70 weeks of years commences. From Ezra 5 it appears that Haggai and Zechariah prophesy in 423 BCE and 422 BCE. 70 weeks of years commences from 423/22 BCE (i.e. first year of the new Jubilee period). Construction completed in sixth year of Darius the Persian (Ezra 6:15) in 3 Adar, i.e. March 418 BCE. Darius dies in the period end 405 to spring 404. The Temple at Mt. Gerizim may also have been commenced at this time, but probably not before 465 to 448 BCE (see above).
 
404 BCE
Artaxerxes II (Arsakes) faces Egyptian rebellion on accession in spring or Nisan 404 BCE.
 
402 BCE
Artaxerxes loses Egypt.
 
401 BCE
Civil war in Persia. Greeks defeated at Battle of Cunaxa and they retreat to the Black Sea coast.
 
398 BCE
Provisioning decree issued for the return of Ezra in seventh year, probably rewarding Jewish loyalty (Ezra 7:1-26).
 
387 BCE
Artaxerxes defeats the Spartans and stops their meddling. The king's peace sees Persia re-occupy Ionia.
 
385 BCE
Nehemiah is made Governor of Judea from 385-372 BCE when the city and walls were reconstructed (Neh. 5:14). Eliashib is High Priest (Neh. 3:1). This was the second letter or decree of Artaxerxes. This was for the reconstruction of the gates of the fortresses of the Temple and for the walls of the city (the Temple was already constructed - Neh. 6:10-11). The city would appear to have been damaged in the civil war in which the Babylonian and Israelitic Jews obviously supported the king.
 
375/4 BCE
This completes the prophecy at Daniel 9:25 of the first Anointed One of the 7 weeks of years, i.e. 49 years from 423/2 BCE - 375/4 BCE.
 
374/3 BCE
The Jubilee year commences at 374 BCE in 32nd year of Artaxerxes II. It is unclear whether the restoration of lands by Nehemiah was a Jubilee restoration. It seems likely that this was the case and that this, therefore, was the last known observed Jubilee.
 
373 BCE
Thirty-second year of Artaxerxes. Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem from Babylon and finds the Temple in disarray under Eliashib and Tobiah (Neh. 13:6). Nehemiah restores the Temple and provisions the Levites and singers who return to the Temple (Neh. 13:10-11). He re-establishes the tithe and cleanses the Sabbaths (Neh. 13:12-19).

323 BCE Ezra dies in the same year as Alexander the Great (Seder Olam Rabbah 30).
 
62/63 CE
End of 62 weeks of years and the effective elimination of the tithe and the reduction of the high priesthood to criminality with the execution of James, Bishop of Jerusalem in 62 CE.
 
70 CE
The end of the 70 weeks of years and the destruction of the Temple.
 
73 CE
Fall of Judea and the Masada.

Josephus has Zerubbabel returning immediately after the decree of Cyrus. The letter to Ahasuerus is the letter to Cambyses, and construction is completed in the reign of Darius I – with Ezra and Nehemiah returning in that reign, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah being raised up in the second year of that reign also. According to him, construction would be completed in 516 BCE. 519-516 BCE was the very earliest time that was allowed for in the prophecy of seventy years made by Jeremiah and repeated by Daniel when giving the time for which Jerusalem would be desolate. The time sequence is too convenient and, had things gone according to the earliest contingency allowed by the prophecy, there would have been no need for the missions of Haggai and, to a lesser extent, Zechariah to order them to get on with the job (Hag. 1:2-15). Ezra 4:23 and 5:1-2 show that Haggai and Zechariah were appointed after the decree of Artaxerxes forced cessation of construction (see also 1Esdras 7:5).

Josephus further identifies the provisioning decree for the return of Ezra with Xerxes and the husband of Esther as Artaxerxes I. The problem is that Ahasuerus (or Ahasaerus) is the Persian of Xerxes. Artaxerxes I, who Herodotus states was called Cyrus, was named Artaxerxes by the Greeks (see also Josephus, Antiq. of the Jews, Bk. XI, Ch. VI:l).

Further information, which is illuminating, is that there were six generations of Levites involved from the return of Zerubbabel and the commencement until the completion in the reign of Darius the Persian (Neh. 12:1-22). Zerubbabel's life was prolonged by the Lord to oversee the completion (Zech. 4:9) and, after the message of Haggai and Zechariah, he arose and completed the Temple with Jeshua, son of Jozadak.

From the arrival of Jeshua with Zerubbabel until the reign of Darius the Persian, it is recorded at Nehemiah 12:10-11 that Jeshua had a son, Joiakim, a grandson, Eliashib, a great-grandson, Joiada, a great-great-grandson, Jonathan, and a great-great-great-grandson, Jeddua.

From Nehemiah 12:22 we see that Jonathan did not succeed Joiada as chief priest, but rather Joiada's brother Johanan. Jonathan had married Sanballat, the Horonite's daughter, and was removed by Nehemiah (Neh. 13:28). However, it is conclusive that there were five generations born to Jeshua prior to the reign of Darius the Persian, who is the king that issued the decree for the construction of the Temple, and in whose reign it was completed. In spite of the fact that Jeshua had a number of sons who were present with him when the foundations of the Temple were laid after the second year (Ezra 3:9), it is unlikely that the Darius of the construction could have been Darius I, as he reigned from 521-466 BCE, some 16 years after the return. It must therefore have been Darius II in 423-404 BCE, some 114 years after the return. Allowing 20 years per generation and allowing that Jaddua had himself become a priest prior to this king, Zerubbabel was approximately 120 years old and, therefore, Jeshua would have been approximately 140 years old at the construction; and they died shortly after. The use of term “arose” at Ezra 5:2 suggests that Zerubbabel and Jeshua were of great age and retired from onerous duties, as Zechariah 4:9 also indicates.

Nehemiah 12:26 shows that Joiakim was chief priest after Jeshua, but implies his death well before Nehemiah and Ezra returned. Eliashib was the oldest High Priest alive at Nehemiah's return (Neh. 3:1). Johanan seems to have already exercised the high priesthood by Ezra's return (Ezra 10:6). The priesthood relinquished sacrificial duty at fifty years of age. Nehemiah also verifies Jaddua on the list of High Priests down to Darius the Persian. The Temple, therefore, could not have been constructed earlier than 417 BCE.

It should also be noted that Iddo returned with Zerubbabel. During the high priesthood of Joiakim, the priesthood had also passed two generations, so we see that Zechariah was named among the Levites, from the time of Iddo. He was in fact Iddo's grandson, the son of Berechiah, and he was a prophet in the second year of Darius. When Zechariah speaks of the plumb bob in the hands of Zerubbabel and of the High Priest Jeshua, it is as a marvel and a sign of God that not only should Zerubbabel lay the foundations but also that he should still hold a line at its completion. We know from Nehemiah 12 that Zechariah was priest under Joiakim. Therefore, the premise of activity from great age seems to stand.

The prophecy of Zechariah relates to the significance of the construction of the Temple and the seventy weeks of years from the reign of Darius II in the second year, and its development, completion and restitution.

Non-biblical Evidence

A most telling corroboration of the biblical narrative comes from Aramaic Letters, translated by H.L. Ginsberg and published in The Ancient Near East: An anthology of texts and pictures (ed. James B. Pritchard, Princeton, 1958, pp. 278-282), which were letters to and from the Jews at the Fortress of Elephantine. This fortress had been manned by Jews and other non-Jewish Semites since the days of the Egyptian kingdom preceding the invasion of the Medo-Persians.

An impressive Temple had been built there and was long standing when Cambyses invaded Egypt (525 BCE).

As stated previously, during the reign of Cyrus Macrocheir or Artaxerxes I, the Athenian invasion of Egypt was put down in 454 BCE, and the Satrap left in charge was a Medo-Persian named Arsames, who reigned as Satrap from 455/4 BCE to at least 407 BCE.

During at least some of that time the leader of the Jews of the garrison was a Jew by the name of Yedoniah. In the fifth year of Darius II, i.e. 420/419 BCE, Hananiah, a Jewish scribe to Arsames, wrote to Yedoniah at Elephantine informing him that Darius had sent word to Arsames authorising a festival of Unleavened Bread for the Jewish garrison, also giving details of the days of the calculation of the Feast commencing with 14 Nisan as follows:

So do you count from fou[rteen days of the month of Nisan and] obs[erve the passoverl], and from the 15th to the 21st day of [Nisan observe the festival of unleavened bread]. Be (ritually) clean and take heed. [Do n]o work [on the 15th or the 21st day, no]r drink [beer2, nor eat] anything [in] which the[re is] leaven [from the 14th at] sundown until the 21st of Nis[an for seven days it shall not be seen among you. Do not br]ing it into your dwelling but seal (it) up between these date[s. By order of King Darius. To] my brethren Yedoniah and the Jewish garrison, your brother Hanani[ah].
Note 1. psh in two ostraca from Elephantine.
Note 2. The instruction including beer is a construction based on Jewish tradition.

This celebration by order of Darius in the fifth year of his reign throughout the Jewish people even into Elephantine is that Passover celebration referred to in Ezra 6:13-22. This celebration took place on the dedication of the Temple, which from the letters at Elephantine would have occurred in 419/8 BCE.

The fifth year of Darius the Second was the year before the completion of the Temple, and it is curious that 123 men and women of the Jewish garrison at Elephantine on the 3rd of Phanenoth (a month in the Egyptian calendar) in year 5 took up a collection of two shekels per head, totalling 12 karash and 6 shekels (at 20 light shekels to the karash, this is 246 shekels). This collection was dedicated to the God, Yaho (Yah[o]weh). It is curious that the non-Jews of the garrison appear to have donated also to the extent of 7 karash for Ishumbethel, the male Aramean divinity, and 12 karash for Anathbethel, the female deity who was synonymous with Anath, wife of Baal.

This levy of the fifth year was the equivalent of a special levy, and was probably for the decoration of the Temple at Jerusalem. Whether the other contributions went to other areas in the Levant to pagan temples or they were contributions to the Temple construction on behalf of the Aramean cults, we can only guess. However, it may be an indication of the extent to which the people had mixed themselves with the Gentile populace, as we know happened from Ezra 9:1-4 and continued until Nehemiah.

What we do know is that on the 20th Marheshwan in the 17th year of King Darius, i.e. 408 BCE, a letter was sent to Jerusalem to Bagoas, Governor of Judah, detailing the sequence of events surrounding the return of Arsames, who had returned to Mesopotamia to the king. After Arsames had returned to Darius, the priests of the god, Khnub, in the fortress at Elephantine, conspired with the commander in chief, Vidaranag, to wipe out the Temple of Yaho at Elephantine. His son, Nefayan, who was in command of the fortress at Syene, was summoned and ordered to destroy the Temple at Elephantine "in the Fortress of Yeb".

He and the Egyptians and other troops entered and razed the Temple to the ground and smashed the stone pillars and the five great gateways but leaving the doors standing. They carried off the basins of gold and silver and all the other artefacts.

The letter reveals that this Temple was the only one left standing from Cambyses’ invasion. Vidaranag was later killed and eaten by dogs.

The letter also reveals that when the disaster occurred a letter was sent to the High Priest in Jerusalem, who was named Johanan, so that we now know that the High Priest in the year 410 BCE was Johanan. This establishes beyond doubt that the Darius the Persian referred to at Nehemiah 12:22 was Darius the Second.

The letter also reveals that they wrote to Ostanes, the brother of Anani, and the nobles of the Jews. These gentlemen did not reply ("Never a letter have they sent to us."). The Jews at Elephantine wore sackcloth and fasted from Tammuz of the 14th year of Darius, i.e. 411 BCE, to the date of the letter, i.e. in 408 BCE.

They requested assistance to rebuild their Temple in a most appealing manner, and also informed the Governor that they had written to Delaiah and Shelemiah, the sons of Sanballat, the Governor of Samaria. Presumably they wanted them to intercede for them with the Governor. This Sanballat was the Horonite mentioned at Nehemiah 2:10, and his daughter had married the son of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the High Priest.

This had disqualified him from office as High Priest. Eliashib, the High Priest, was still alive at Nehemiah's return (Neh. 3:1), but Johanan had already exercised the position of the high priesthood at Ezra's return and certainly in 410 BCE. It can only be concluded that Eliashib was the oldest of the High Priests left alive at Nehemiah's return and is thus head of the priesthood, but had long since ceded duties to Joiada and then Johanan (replacing his nephew) and later Jaddua, who appears to have succeeded to the high priesthood, according to Nehemiah 12:22, in the reign of Darius the Persian (II).

Nehemiah 12:22 appears to divide the five periods into two eras.

The first era was of the watches in the days of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, and the current era was referred to as "the days of Nehemiah, the Governor and Ezra the priest, the scribe". This appears to further confirm the division of time around the high priesthood who were dead (i.e. Joiakim was the father of Eliashib), and the current era of the living priesthood, which included Eliashib as the oldest of the living high priesthood.

On Ezra's return Jaddua is not mentioned; only Jehohanan is recorded as having a chamber, implying that he was still the High Priest. Jaddua appears to be included at Nehemiah 12:22 as having held the priesthood, which could have been on a temporary basis as Nehemiah included all the priesthood down to the reign of Darius the Persian, who is without doubt Darius II. Ezra writes as though Johanan (or Jehohanan) and Jaddua were absent and that he occupied Johanan's chamber in his absence.

The impression from both biblical and non-biblical sources is that the high priesthood deteriorated after the days of Joiakim. Eliashib, Johanan and Jaddua do not appear to have devoted due diligence to their duties. The non-reply to the Jews at Elephantine by Johanan and the lack of participation in the activities of Ezra and Nehemiah indicate that they neglected their duties. The intermarriage, pollution, and desecrations are further substantiated by the letters from Elephantine. A memorandum recorded that Bagoas and Delaiah wrote to the garrison instructing that Arsames be informed that the Temple was to be rebuilt at Elephantine with the meat offering and incense to be made on the altar as it used to be.

No mention of sacrifice was made so as not to affect the sensitivities of Arsames, a Mazdean who would have regarded the contact of fire with dead bodies as profane. It is further recorded that the Jews at Elephantine under Yedoniah in the end had to petition Arsames, promising no burnt offerings in the Temple and a payment of a thousand ardabs of barley (texts in Pritchard, ibid.).

It seems as though the Temple was finished in 417 BCE. The elders of the high priesthood died and some form of lack of direction occurred, with Eliashib, Johanan and Jaddua inactive to some degree.

What is important about these texts is that they provide corroborative texts of biblical information, and they demonstrate the literal accuracy of the Bible. They also demonstrate that the tradition of the 516 BCE construction date is an impossibility.

Another important corroboration of the biblical text is found in the Aramaic Letters. Mibtahiah, daughter of Mahseiah, son of Yedoniah, had married Pi, son of Pahi (Phy), the builder of the fortress of Syene where Mahseiah was serving in Varizata's detachment. This demonstrates the extent of intermarriage occurring up to Ezra and Nehemiah.

In the 25th year of Artaxerxes, the couple were divorced and the agreement is preserved among the Aramaic Letters. Mibtahiah was even forced to make oath by an Egyptian goddess (Sati) for the dissolution, and the split of her dowry is recorded.

The destruction of the Temple at Elephantine was the start of a series of anti-Semitic Egyptian uprisings, which commenced in 410 BCE and continued until the reign of Artaxerxes II, who faced an Egyptian rebellion on his ascension in 404 BCE; and in 402 BCE he lost Egypt. In 401 BCE he fought a civil war in Persia and, throughout this, the Jews remained loyal, accounting for their favourable treatment.

The Myth of the Decree of Artaxerxes

The Bible at no stage mentions any decree by Artaxerxes [I] that was related to the construction of the Temple except to cease construction, as related in Ezra 4:23. When the provisioning decree was issued, the Temple had already been constructed, regardless of whether the decree was issued by Xerxes I or Artaxerxes I or II. In no version known to ancient history, either biblical or non-biblical, is Artaxerxes I credited with any decree favourable to the construction of the Temple or provisioning the Levites. This is a more modern invention.

Theologians who make claim for Artaxerxes I, especially in relation to the 2,300 days or to the seventy weeks of years at Daniel 9:25 (which contains a mistranslation in the King James and others, but is rendered correctly in the RSV), are in error.

Where the Bible differs from historical sources it is consistently being proved more correct as knowledge increases.

Seventy Weeks of Years

The significance of the prophecy of the seventy weeks of years at Daniel 9:25-27 is that, when taken from the decree of Darius II, it ends in 70 CE, commencing from the surrounding of Jerusalem by Titus’ army on 1 Nisan, and continues to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE – the same day, tradition has it, that it fell to the Babylonians (see Moffatt's translation). The matter ends with the closure of the Temple at Leontopolis in Egypt (see below).

The first Anointed One is Nehemiah, who re-established the Temple priesthood by 372 BCE (7 weeks of years) and cleansed the Sabbaths and re-instituted the tithe. He completed the walls of the fortress of the Temple and the walls of the city and reorganised Jerusalem.

The second Anointed One is of Messiah's ministry. However, the prophecy refers to Jerusalem and to the function of the Temple, not to the times of Messiah's ministry. Atonement for sin and everlasting righteousness could not be deemed to have been brought in or completed while the ceremonial law was still being enacted. The completion of the prophecy, therefore, was dependent upon removal or elimination of the place of sacrifice.

For, while sacrifice still continued in the Temple, the Messiah was not yet supreme or his sacrifice could not be said to have truly eliminated the daily sacrifice, even though it was effected by his death. This prophecy has still not ended, and not as a split week as some claim, but in the fact that the decreed end has not yet been poured out upon the desolator, i.e. the Roman system. This will be, as Revelation reveals, when the city is destroyed and the seventh/eighth empire of ten kings is finally destroyed.

If the decree was taken from 516 BCE from the reign of Darius 1 to follow on directly from the 70 weeks of years, then the end of the prophecy was in 26 BCE, which seems to relate to nothing. Modern Christianity tries to tie the matter to 27 CE and assert that Christ’s ministry began then, which it did not. Josephus is clearly wrong regarding the commencement, and his extensions of the Chaldean dynasty seem to be aimed at extending their reigns to extend dates of the Persian kings to give the prophecy of 70 weeks of years some meaning from Cyrus. Amongst the Sons of Zadok, the 70 weeks of years had an entirely different meaning related to the ages of men, but that is beyond the scope of this work (see Appendix for an analysis of Josephus).

The alteration of the construction of the Temple from Darius II to Darius I appears to be a post-Christian contrivance (adapted by Josephus) which attempts to undermine the significance of the prophecy of the 70 weeks of years, and is probably the intention of the apocryphal 1 Esdras, which is in error.

The 70 weeks of years did not commence from the reign of Darius I or from a non-existent decree of Artaxerxes I, but rather from Darius II. It is the positive proof of the Messiahship of Christ and does not require non-scriptural juggling of three-and-a-half or uncompleted seven-year periods.” (end quote)

Now this text has been covered in the paper regarding the Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013). Next Sabbath we will go on to the Sign of Jonah in regard to the Temple period and the errors and false ideas introduced to Judaism and supported by the Trinitarians to destroy the true history of the Church and the meaning of the prophecies. That some branches of the Churches of God support these ideas and false prophecies and mistranslations is a disgrace, and such people have no part in the Churches of God.

Anyone supporting the Protestant arguments regarding the construction of the Temple by Darius I Hystapes is to be brought to account immediately the error is uttered and they are to be made to study the matter until they understand it. They certainly are not permitted to teach on the matter anywhere in the Churches of God.  The various papers mentioned in this paper are to form the base of study with The Sign of Jonah etc. (No. 013) as the overall study paper.

Wade Cox