The Decrees of Artaxerxes I and the Seventy-Weeks Prophecy–Part Two (Resources & Notes)
[Note: By comparing two biblical genealogical records we see that the descendants of Elam, and the person of Jesus, both have a common ancestry in Shem (Sem), who was the son of Noah. The children of Shem are: “Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram” (Gen. 10:22). And the lineage of Jesus through his mother Mary is through the line of Arphaxad [brother of Elam], who was the: “son of Sem (Shem), which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech, Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Lk. 3:36-38).] [Note: “The chief authority for the early history of Persia is the famous poet Ferdosi. His Shah-Nameh is founded on the most ancient traditions, embellished by his own rich imagination… But for actual historical fact we are dependent on Herodotus, Ctesias, and the other Grecian writers, and on a few inscriptions… The Shah-Nameh is not historical, but, like the Annals of Livius, it is national. In the most remote times it lead us to one of the cradles of the human race, the mountainous districts around the snow-clad peak of Ararat, where some of the descendants of Shem still dwelt, and peopled Media—the modern province of Azerbaijan. They rapidly became rude and ignorant, until a king arose amongst them, named Kaiomurs [surnamed Paishdad, or the ‘Just Judge’], who is said to have been the son of Yessan Azum, the son of Elam, the son of Shem” (A General Sketch of the History of Persia, by Clements R. Markham, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1874, Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited, 1977, pp. 1-2).] [Note: Deiokes (GK, Deioces), the son of Phraortes, is considered to be the founder of the Median kingdom who selected the town of Hamadan for its principal capital, and this city was called Amadana by the Assyrians, and Hagmatana by the ancient Persians, and it was known as Ecbatana by the Greeks.] [Note: The legendary builder of Persepolis (Takht-i-Jamshid) was Jamshid, he was overthrown by Zohak from Syria who conquered Persia.] [Note: “The Persians, like the Medes, were divided into tribes—the Pasargadae, Marphii, Maspii, Panthialaei, Derusiaei and Germanii, all agriculturists, and the Dai, Mardi, Dropici and Sagartii, who had remained nomads. The Pasargadae were the most important, and Hakhamanish were a clan of this tribe. Susa, the capital of Susiana or Elam, in the plain at the foot of the mountains, was at that time under the rule of a dynasty which had supplanted the native Anshanite kings. This was the clan Hakhamanish, out of which the Greeks created the eponymous king Achaemenes” (Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization, by Clement Huart, Translated by M. R. Dobie, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1927, p. 34).] [Note: Achaemenes (Hakhamanish) was the legendary founder of the Persian monarchy, and he was the prince of the tribe of Pasargadae. From him came a double line of Persian rulers, which explains the inscription of Darius the Great at Behistun, which reads: “In a double line we have been kings.”] [Note: The two lines of the Persian kings are as follows: Anshan Line: Achaemenes—Teispes—Cyrus I—Cambyses I—Cyrus II (the Great)—Cambyses II. Persian Line: Achaemenes—Teispes—Ariaramenes—Arsames—Hytaspes (Vishtaspa)—Darius (the Great).] [Note: “The Defeat of Astyages by Cyrus—We now come to the historical account so far as it is known of the campaign against Astyages. The famous tablet of the Annal of Nabonidus: ‘[His troops] he collected, and against Cyrus, king of Anshan,… he marched. As for Astyages, his troops revolted against him and he was seized (and) delivered up to Cyrus. Cyrus (marched) to Ecbatana, the royal city. The silver, gold, goods, and substance of Ecbatana he spoiled, and to the land of Anshan he took the goods and substance that were gotten’” (A History of Persia, by Brigadier-General Sir Percy Sykes, Vol. I, 3rd ed., MacMillan and Co. Limited, 1951, page 143.)] [Note: Following the rule of Cyrus II, his son Cambyses II came to the throne of the Persian Empire. Afterwards Cambyses killed his brother Smerdis, which added to his reputation for cruelty, and it was he who expanded the empire into Africa—Egypt, Cyrene and Libya.] [Note: Pseudo-Smerdis was an imposter who was seated on the throne politically for eight months, but he was assassinated by conspirators.] [Note: Nidintu-Bel pretended to be the son of Nabonidus and assumed the name of Nebuchadnezzar III.] [Note: The Behistun Inscription carved into the Behistun Rock is a multi-lingual inscription located on Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran in western Iran. Authored by Darius the Great it provides a record of his military campaigns and a synopsis of his ancestry respective to Cyrus II.] [Note: Babylon and Susa became royal residences of the Persian kings, while another residence, Persepolis, later became a royal cemetery, and Susa, the “Shushan” of Scripture, became the main palace of the king, while Ecbatana—the former capital of the Median Empire—became a summer palace for the kings of Persia.] [Note: “In the vision about to be recorded Daniel finds himself in Susa, the winter capital of the Persian Empire and the residence of Persian kings, a city renowned in ancient times as a mighty fortress (cf. Neh. 1:1; Esth. 1:2, 5; 2:3, 5) and a centre of Persian power. He is beside ‘the river Ulai’ (some would read the ‘Ulai Gate’) which is no doubt the Eulaeus of classical antiquity near which the fortified city of Susa was situated, in the province of Elam, the finest and fairest part of the Persian empire” (Daniel, by D. S. Russell, The Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1981, p. 139).] [Note: It is with measured confidence that we are able to rely on the information found in the Babylonian Chronicle and the