Page "Ezra" Paragraph 21

Scholars are divided over the chronological sequence of the activities of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Ezra came to Jerusalem " in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the King ".

The text does not specify whether the king in the passage refers to Artaxerxes I ( 465-424 BCE ) or to Artaxerxes II ( 404-359 BCE ).

Most scholars hold that Ezra lived during the rule of Artaxerxes I, though some have difficulties with this assumption: Nehemiah and Ezra " seem to have no knowledge of each other ; their missions do not overlap ; and no reflection of Ezra's activity appears in Jerusalem of Nehemiah.

" These difficulties have led many scholars to assume that Ezra arrived in the seventh year of the rule of Artaxerxes II, i. e. some 50 years after Nehemiah.

This assumption would imply that the biblical account is not chronological.

The last group of scholars regard " the seventh year " as a scribal error and hold that the two men were contemporaries.