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Journey of a Passage

Ezra 6:14–15; 1 Esdras 7:4–5

Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes; the third or the twenty-third of Adar

Ezra 6:14 credits the decrees of Cyrus, Darius "and Artaxerxes," though the temple was finished under Darius. 6:15 dates completion to the third of Adar in Darius' sixth year; 1 Esdras 7:5 (KJV) has the twenty-third.

Read Ezra 6:14–15; 1 Esdras 7:4–5 in every edition

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
  2. 1 Esdras 7:4–5 in the King James Apocrypha1611Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

Every witness, in order

  1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

    Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    grâce aux édits de Cyrus, de Darius et d'Arthasastha… le troisième jour du mois d'adar

    One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    jubente Cyro, et Dario, et Artaxerxe… usque ad diem tertium mensis Adar

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    כּוֹרֶשׁ וְדָרְיָוֶשׁ וְאַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא מֶלֶךְ פָּרָס… עַד יוֹם תְּלָתָה לִירַח אֲדָר

    Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia… until the third day of the month Adar

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia… on the third day of the month Adar

  6. 1611

    1 Esdras 7:4–5 in the King James Apocrypha

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    with the consent of Cyrus, Darius, and Artexerxes, kings of Persia. And thus was the holy house finished in the three and twentieth day of the month Adar

What changed, and why

All witnesses include Artaxerxes, so it is not a late scribal intrusion in one line of copies; it is part of the book's summary of Persian support (Artaxerxes' gifts "to beautify the house," 7:27). The third of Adar, year 6, is about March 515 BC; the twenty-third in 1 Esdras is a single-witness difference, perhaps a copying change.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedAll library witnesses name Artaxerxes in 6:14.
  • Plausible, not confirmedThe temple was completed on the third of Adar.

Sources

  • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)

Related lessons

  • The Memorandum, the Finished Temple and the Passover →Darius has the archives searched, and a scroll is found at Ecbatana: Cyrus' memorandum ordering the house rebuilt, sixty cubits high and wide, paid for by the crown, with the vessels returned. Darius orders his officials not to interfere, to fund the work and the sacrifices from the region's tribute, and to pray for the king. The temple is finished in his sixth year (515 BC). It is dedicated with joy, and the returned exiles, with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations, keep the Passover.
  • Investigation: The Persian Empire, Yehud and the Second Temple →Ezra's story is set inside the largest empire the world had yet seen. This investigation gathers the outside evidence: the Cyrus Cylinder, the chronology of the Persian kings, the province of Yehud and its stamped jars and coins, the Jewish community at Elephantine with its own temple, the Aramaic of the imperial chancery, and the question of Persian religious influence. Each item is shown with what it establishes and what it does not.