It does not serve my own personal interests to argue for what I’m about to argue for given how it would destroy the 70 Weeks Chronology I have favored for over a decade now.
It is often assumed that every Darius in Ezra but especially in chapters 5 and 6 is King Darius I sometimes called Darius The Great and that every Artaxerxes in both Ezra and Nehemiah is King Artaxerxes I Longimanus. However this assumption has caused a lot of Chronological confusion for Ezra Chapter 4.
A much simpler, more coherent timeline forms when one simply assumes the Darius of Ezra 4:5 is Darius I. The way this reference is worded it could be the same Darius as later being referred to in advance, but that wouldn’t fix the other Chronological problems. The Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 is Xerxes I and thus also the Ahasuerus of Esther, in fact I think this verse is about the drama that Esther describes in more detail and thus upon reaching this Verse is where you should read Esther if you wanted to do a strictly Chronological reading of The Bible or just its Narratives. Then the Artaxerxes of Ezra 4:7-23 is Artaxerxes I. The Darius introduced in Ezra 4:24 through chapter 6 is Darius II Ochus and then the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7-8 and Nehemiah is Artaxerxes II Memnon. And then finally the Darius of the last verse of Nehemiah 12 is Darius III.
Josephus famously records Sanballat and Jaddua being still alive when Alexander comes to Jerusalem in 332 BC which definitely makes more sense if the Nehemiah narrative is late in the time of Artaxerxes II rather than almost a century earlier.
The Seder Olam Rabba, which is in part the basis for the modern Jewish Calendar, removed about a century from the Persian period. Now in-spite of the Seder Olam being a Jewish text the only people I’ve ever seen try to argue its shorter timeline for the Persian Empire is literally true are fringe Fundamentalist Christians trying to make it fit some alternate chronology they want to be true.
Part of what makes the Seder Olam’s timeline seem plausible to some is that our conventional understanding of Biblical History skips right from the first Artaxerxes to when Alexander conquers the Persian Empire. So about a Century of Persian History is viewed as essentially just a long Filler Arc to someone viewing History mainly through a Biblical lens.
I’ve seen people try to argue that the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4 is actually Cambyses II son of Cyrus but he didn’t reign long enough to have a 12th year.
This new theory about the Persian Kings in Ezra-Nehemiah can potentially fix that.
The only problem is that Ezra has Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak being important leaders both during the time of Cyrus in Ezra 3-4:3 and the time of Darius in Ezra 5-6. And that is a lot less plausible if that Darius is Darius II rather than the first.
However there is a text known as 1 Esdras (or 3 Esdras when Ezra-Nehemiah are called 1st and 2nd Esdras) as well as Greek Esdras and Greek Ezra which is essentially another version of what Ezra covers. It is not considered Canon by Jews or most Protestants but is included in Catholic Bibles and is firmly canonical to the Eastern Orthodox Churches. There are those who would argue the very early Church favored this Esdras over the Ezra now considered more universally Canon. That usually goes hand in hand with other Septuagint Primacy arguments I don’t agree with, but it does exist.
In the Greek Esdras narrative Zorobabel and Jesus don’t appear till the time of Darius in Chapter 5 and are not mentioned back during the time of Cyrus in Chapter 2.
While this version lacks a reference to Ahasuerus or the first Darius it does have two separate Kings named Artexerxes, with the one who would be the first in chapter 2 and the second being introduced in chapter 7.
In Josephus Antiquities of The Jews Book 11, a Zorobabel is mentioned during the time of Cyrus near the end of Chapter 1, but his father isn’t identified and no High-Preist named Jeshua/Jesus is mentioned. Zorobabel son of Salathiel and Jeshua son of Josedek as a pair, don't show up till the time of Darius in Chapter 3. Now Josephus is definitely presuming that Darius is Darius I, but it’s notable that the narrative he’s giving only has the fullness of this pair during the time of Darius.
Apologists have often sought to use the Levarite marriage custom to explain how Zerubbabal can be a son of both Pedaiah and Shealtiel, Christians especially since Matthew’s genealogy makes Salathiel the only generation between Zorobabel and Jechonias. But we know Matthew skipped generations in other places. In The Hebrew Bible the references to Zerubbabel as a son of Pedaiah are isolated from Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel. Only 1 Chronicles 3:17 tells us that Jeconiah also had a son named Salathiel and for whatever reason it wound up being transliterated differently in the KJV than the father of Zerubbabel.
The Elaphantine Papyri seemingly place Johanan’s time as High Priest during the reign of Darius II, or already in the past during his 17th year. So that could be a counterargument to all this.
But the standard view that Ezra and Nehemiah served under Artaxerxes I can’t explain the earlier bad Artaxerxes who reigned before Darius.
