Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1
Chislev, then Nisan, in the twentieth year
Nehemiah hears the news in Chislev (9th month) "in the twentieth year" and speaks to the king in Nisan (1st month) "in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes." All the library's texts agree. If the year began in Nisan, the order is puzzling.
Read Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1 in every edition
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
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 this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Memoir c. 430 BC; book compiled c. 400–300 BC (debated)
Original Ezra–Nehemiah
No original survives. No Qumran fragment of Nehemiah has been identified.
Translated c. 2nd century BC or later
Greek 2 Esdras 11–23 (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Récits de Néhémias, fils d'Helcias. Au mois de chaseleu, en la vingtième année
Hachaliah appears as Helcias. Greek 2 Esdras via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate (2 Esdras = Nehemiah)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Verba Nehemiæ filii Helchiæ. Et factum est in mense Casleu, anno vigesimo
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וַיְהִי בְחֹדֶשׁ־כִּסְלֵיו שְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים… (2:1) בְּחֹדֶשׁ נִיסָן שְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁסְתְּא
in the month Chislev, the twentieth year… (2:1) in the month Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year… (2:1) in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king
What changed, and why
Explanations: regnal years counted from the king's accession (Artaxerxes I came to the throne in late 465 BC); an autumn new year for counting reigns; or a slip in 1:1 ("twentieth" for "nineteenth"). Babylonian documents count Persian regnal years from Nisan, which weakens the first view for official use. The text does not settle it.
What the evidence shows
- All the library's texts place Chislev and Nisan in the same "twentieth year."
- Nehemiah used an autumn-to-autumn regnal year.
Sources
- H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)
Related lessons
- News from Jerusalem, Prayer in Susa →In the month Chislev of the twentieth year, at Susa the citadel, Nehemiah son of Hachaliah hears from his brother Hanani that the survivors in Judah are in great trouble and Jerusalem's wall is broken and its gates burned. He weeps, mourns, fasts and prays a covenant prayer, asking for mercy "in the sight of this man." Only at the end does he say what he does: "I was the king's cupbearer."
- Investigation: Ezra, Nehemiah and the Persian Calendar →The Bible places Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes and Nehemiah in the twentieth, which makes Ezra first (458 and 445 BC under Artaxerxes I). But Ezra and Nehemiah rarely appear together, Nehemiah's reforms do not mention Ezra's, and some details fit a later date for Ezra. Scholars propose Ezra under Artaxerxes II (398 BC), or a corrected thirty-seventh year (428 BC). The calendar of Nehemiah 1–2 raises its own puzzle.