Moore Perspective: Why is the Timing of Events in Ezra-Nehemiah So Confusing? (Part 2 of 4): Reckoning of Time

Ancient Time Reckoning

The manner in which time was reckoned by the ancients in general and biblical authors in particular varied considerably, even more so when compared to the customary practices of today. The counting systems of antiquity were much more flexible, starting at various times of the year, calculating part of a year as a whole year, and using different calendars and historical pointers. Some ancient cultures followed a solar calendar, some a lunar calendar, and others a lunisolar calendar, periodically revised for administrative, religious, atmospheric, and/or corrective reasons (intercalary months, leap years, etc.).¹ Time was variously calculated according to a civil year, a regnal year, or a sacred or religious year, comparable to a modern-day fiscal or academic year.

Biblical time references are usually comparative with respect to the lifetimes and activities of prominent figures (e.g., Neh. 12:46, 47), major historical events (e.g., 1 Kings 6:1; Ezek. 40:1), or the reigns of well-known rulers (e.g., Ezra 1:1; 4:6-7; Isa. 1:1). Instead of a simple historical style and unbroken chronological composition, biblical writers often intersperse their own inspired reflections and commentary within the narrative.

The year a king began his reign was his accession year, overlapping the final year of his predecessor and counted as a full year for each king through the official starting point of the regnal year. Different counting systems involved predating, postdating, or accession dating, i.e., counting a year from one anniversary of accession to the next.² Otherwise, the new regnal year was inaugurated on a particular day of a given month, although the season of the year varied from culture to culture.

In contrast to the modern Gregorian solar year, the Jewish calendar marked the beginning of the religious year in spring, the first month of Nisan (March-April)³ through the twelfth month of Adar (Feb.-March). This was similar to the Persian spring-to-spring first month of Fravashi through the twelfth month of Spenta Armaiti. At the same time, the Jewish civil calendar began in autumn, the seventh (religious) month of Tishri (Sept.-Oct.) through the sixth (religious) month of Elul (Aug.-Sept.),⁴ ending the agricultural year with the Feast of Ingathering (Ex. 23:16; 34:22).

Time Reckoning in Ezra-Nehemiah

As in the books of 1 Kings (6:1, 38), Esther (3:7), and Zechariah (1:7; 7:1), the Jewish religious or vernal calendar appears to be followed in Ezra-Nehemiah, particularly when alluding to religious holidays.⁵ However, notwithstanding Babylonian-Jewish names of specific months,⁶ the major dating of events coincides with the reigns of Persian kings, most notably Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes,⁷ with passing reference to Ahasuerus.⁸ The question is whether regnal years are counted from spring to spring or from autumn to autumn, or if accession dating is employed.

When Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem is documented as “the fifth month” of “the seventh year” of King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7-8), assuming Artaxerxes I Longimanus is in view, did the counting begin at the king’s accession year (August 465 BC)⁹ or his first regnal year (presumably March 464 BC)? The difference would mark Ezra’s arrival at either 458 or 457 BC. In Nehemiah’s record, “the month of Chislev” (Nov.-Dec) followed by “the month of Nisan” (March-April) both fall within “the twentieth year” of King Artaxerxes (Neh. 1:1; 2:1), although whose twentieth year is not actually specified in the opening verse. Depending on whether the regnal year is predated to the accession year, or the regnal year is counted autumnally (as in the Jewish civil calendar), or the Persians were using accession dating, this would place Nehemiah’s journey to Jerusalem in either 445 or 444 BC.

When all is said and done, there is no direct evidence to confirm which regnal dating system the Persians employed in their homeland.¹⁰ And if Ezra, a religious priest-scribe, and Nehemiah, an official of the Persian court, used different calendrical systems,¹¹ precision dating is even more elusive. Nevertheless, among the many reconstructed chronologies of the Persian period involving specific dates, a difference of only one year is relatively insignificant considering such a vast expanse of time.

--Kevin L. Moore

*Originally prepared for the 2023 FHU Lectures.

Endnotes:

¹ Solar calendar–Egyptians, Persians, Romans; lunar calendar–Jews, with each year eleven or twelve days shorter than a solar year and months varying year to year; lunisolar calendar–Babylonians, Macedonians, Chinese. The Persians did not disturb the dating systems of the Egyptians and Babylonians but were instead influenced by them (Leo Depuydt, “Regnal Years and Civil Calendar in Achaemenid Egypt,” JEA 81 [1995]: 151-73).

² The Babylonians practiced postdating and the Egyptians predating until replaced by accession dating in the second century BC.

³ Established in Egypt as a divine directive in connection with the Passover and exodus, originally called Aviv or Abib (“barley ripening”) in the Hebrew language (Ex. 12:1; 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deut. 16:1).

⁴ This marked the end of the dry and barren summer and the beginning of the early rain season bringing forth new life. The mid-year or “return” [teshubah] was in the spring (2 Sam. 11:1; 1 Kings 20:22, 26; 1 Chron. 20:1; 2 Chron. 36:10).

⁵ Ezra 6:19; Neh. 8:14, 18; cf. Ezra 7:8-9; 8:31; 10:9, 16-17; Neh. 7:73; 8:2, 13. Note that Ezra 8:31 approximates the timing of the Egyptian exodus; cf. also Neh. 10:34-35.

⁶ Ezra 6:15; Neh. 1:1; 2:1; 6:15; compare Esth. 3:7.

⁷ Ezra 1:1; 4:24; 5:13; 6:3, 15; 7:7-8; Neh. 1:1–2:1; 5:14; 13:6; cf. Ezra 4:5-23; 7:1; 8:1; Neh. 12:22.

⁸ The Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 is probably the same Ahasuerus of Esther 1:1–8:12, contemporary of Mordechai, whose great-grandfather had been exiled by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC (Esth. 2:5-6). This Ahasuerus is accordingly to be identified as Xerxes I (485-465 BC), son and successor of Darius I. The Greek version Ξέρξης (Xerxes) is the Persian name Xšayāršā rendered in Babylonian Aḥšiyaršu and borrowed into Hebrew as Ăḥašwêrôš (spelled phonetically according to the unfamiliar sounds of a foreign name), transliterated in Latin Ahasuerus and English Ahasuerus (see W. S. McCullough, “Ahasuerus,” in Encyclopædia Iranica 1.6 [New York: Online Edition, 1996]: 634-35). The Ahasuerus of Daniel 9:1 (father of Darius the Mede), and the Ahasuerus of the apocryphal Tobit 14-15 (in league with Nebuchadnezzar), appear to be different persons.

⁹ Assuming he took the throne immediately, although the latest point of transition would have been January 464 BC (Leo Depuydt, “Evidence for Accession Dating under the Achaemenids,” JAOS 115.2 [April-June 1995]: 193-204).

¹⁰ Muhammad A. Dandamaev and Vladimir G. Lukonin, The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989): 291; Depuydt, “Evidence” 193-204 (though making a case for potential accession dating).

¹¹ Aaron Demsky, “Who Came First, Ezra or Nehemiah? The Synchronistic Approach,” Hebrew Union College Annual 64 (1994): 1-17; cf. Hannah K. Harrington, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022): 36.