he other, and soon she suggested
bringing Miss Wilkins to visit Nick's ranch School was off now, and the
poor dear had not
pen Celia stood on the threshold, her eyes wide with
alarm Lanse, lightly costumed in pink-and-white
ve occasion to _Josephus_ and
the later _Jews_, who took this King for the last _Darius_, to fall into an
opinion that _Sanballat, Jaddua_, and _Manasseh_ the younger brother of
_Jaddua_, lived till the end of the Reign of the last _Darius_ _Joseph_
_Antiq_ l xi c 7, 8 and the said _Manasseh_ might marry _Nicaso_ the
daughter of _Sanballat_, and for that offence be chased from _Nehemiah_,
before the end of the Reign of _Artaxerxes Longimanus_; _Nehem_ xiii 28
_Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xi c 7, 8 and _Sanballat_ might at that time be
_Satrapa_ of _Samaria_, and in the Reign of _Darius Nothus_, or soon after,
build the Temple of the _Samaritans_ in _Mount Gerizim_, for his son-in-law
_Manasseh_, the first High-Priest of that Temple; _Joseph_ _ib_ and
_Simeon Justus_ might be High-Priest when the _Persian_ Empire was invaded
by _Alexander_ the Great, as the _Jews_ represent, _Joma_ fol 69 1
_Liber Juchasis R Gedaliah_, &c and for that reason he might be taken by
some of the _Jews_ for the same High-Priest with _Jaddua_, and be dead some
time before the book of _Ecclesiasticus_ was writ in _Hebrew_ at
_Jerusalem_, by the grandfather of him, who in the 38th year of the
_Egyptian_ AEra of _Dionysius_, that is in the 77th year after the death of
_Alexander_ the Great, met with a copy of it in _Egypt_, and there
translated it into _Greek Ecclesiast_ ch 50 & _in Prolog_ and
_Eleazar_, the younger brother and successor of _Simeon_, might cause the
Law to be translated into _Greek_, in the beginning of the Reign of
_Ptolemaus Philadelphus_ _Joseph_ _Antiq_ l xii c 2 and _Onias_ the
son of _Simeon Justus_, who was a child at his father's death, and by
consequence was born in his father's old age, might be so old in the Reign
of _Ptolemaeus Euergetes_, as to have his follies excused to that King, by
representing that he was then grown childish with old age _Joseph_
_Antiq_ l xii c 4 In this manner the actions of all these High-Priests
suit with the Reigns of the Kings, without any straining from the course of
nature and according to this reckoning the days of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_
fall in with the Reign of the first _Artaxerxes_; for _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_
flourished in the High Priesthood of _Eliashib_, _Ezra_ x 6 _Nehem_ iii
1 & xiii 4, 28 But if _Eliashib_, _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ be placed in the
Reign of the second _Artaxerxes_, since they lived beyond the 32d year of
_Artaxerxes_, _Nehem_ xiii 28, there must be at least 160 years allotted
to the three first High-Priests, and but 42 to the four or five last, a
division too unequal for the High Priesthoods of _Jeshua_, _Joiakim_, and
_Eliashib_, were but of an ordinary length, that of _Jeshua_ fell in with
one Generation of the chief Priests, and that of _Joiakim_ with the next
Generation, as we have shewed already; and that of _Eliashib_ fell in with
the third Generation for at the dedication of the wall, _Zechariah_ the
son of _Jonathan_, the son of _Shemaiah_, was one of the Priests, _Nehem_
xii 35, and _Jonathan_ and his father _Shemaiah_, were contemporaries to
_Joiakim_ and his father _Jeshua_ _Nehem_ xii 6, 18 I observe further
that in the first year of _Cyrus_, _Jeshua_, and _Bani_, or _Binnui_, were
chief fathers of the _Levites_, _Nehem_ vii 7 15 & _Ezra_ ii 2 10 &
iii 9 and that _Jozabad_ the son of _Jeshua_, and _Noadiah_ the son of
_Binnui_, were chief Levites in the seventh year of _Artaxerxes_, when
_Ezra_ came to _Jerusalem_, _Ezra_ viii 33 so that this _Artaxerxes_
began his Reign before the end of the second Generation and that he
Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances
more; for _Meshullam_ the son of _Berechiah_, the son of _Meshezabeel_, and
_Azariah_ the son of _Maaseiah_, the son of _Ananiah_, were fathers of
their houses at the repairing of the wall; _Nehem_ iii 4, 23 and their
grandfathers, _Meshazabeel_ and _Hananiah_, subscribed the covenant in the
Reign of _Cyrus_ _Nehem_ x 21, 23 Yea _Nehemiah_, this same _Nehemiah_
the son of _Hachaliah_, was the _Tirshatha_, and subscribed it, _Nehem_ x
1, & viii 9, & _Ezra_ ii 2, 63 and therefore in the 32d year of
_Artaxerxes Mnemon_, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too
great The same may be said of _Ezra_, if he was that Priest and Scribe who
read the Law, _Nehem_ viii for he is the son of _Serajah_, the son of
_Azariah_, the son of _Hilkiah_, the son of _Shallum_, &c _Ezra_ vii 1
and this _Serajah_ went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and
was there slain, 1 _Chron_ vi 14 2 _King_ xxv 18 and from his death,
to the twentieth year of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, is above 200 years; an age
too great for _Ezra_
I consider further that _Ezra_, chap iv names _Cyrus_, *, _Darius_,
_Ahasuerus_, and _Artaxerxes_, in continual order, as successors to one
another, and these names agree to _Cyrus_, *, _Darius Hystaspis_, _Xerxes_,
and _Artaxerxes Longimanus_, and to no other Kings of _Persia_ some take
this _Artaxerxes_ to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of _Darius
Hystaspis_, not considering that in his Reign the _Jews_ were busy in
building the City and the Wall, _Ezra_ iv 12 and by consequence had
finished the Temple before _Ezra_ describes first how the people of the
land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of _Cyrus_, and
further, untill the Reign of _Darius_; and after the Temple was built, how
they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of _Ahasuerus_ and
_Artaxerxes_, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign
of _Cyrus_ and _Darius_; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of
_Ezra_ with the book of _Esdras_ for if in the book of _Ezra_ you omit the
story of _Ahasuerus_ and _Artaxerxes_, and in that of _Esdras_ you omit the
same story of _Artaxerxes_, and that of the three wise men, the two books
will agree and t
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