Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes is the throne name of Persian kings who appear in the Bible's accounts of the returned exiles, most prominently the ruler who received accusations against the rebuilding of Jerusalem, later authorized Ezra's mission, and in the twentieth year of his reign received Nehemiah as cupbearer.

The text says that in the days of Artaxerxes, officials of the province Beyond the River — Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and their companions — wrote to him concerning Jerusalem, and that the letter was written in Syrian, that is, Aramaic, and delivered in that language (Ezra 4:7, 4:9). Their charge was that the returning Jews were rebuilding "the rebellious and bad city" and had finished the walls and repaired the foundations (Ezra 4:12), and they asked that the royal records be searched, since the city had a history of rebellion and had been destroyed for it (Ezra 4:15), while acknowledging that mighty kings had formerly ruled from Jerusalem and received tribute, custom, and toll beyond the River (Ezra 4:20). The outcome recorded is that the work stopped and remained stopped until the second year of Darius king of Persia (Ezra 4:24).

Scripture also places Artaxerxes among the kings whose decrees stood behind the completed temple: the elders of the Jews finished the house "according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia" (Ezra 6:14). In the reign of Artaxerxes, Ezra son of Seraiah went up from Babylon with priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants in the king's seventh year (Ezra 7:1, 7:7). The letter preserved there styles him "Artaxerxes, king of kings," addressing Ezra as priest and scribe of the law of the God of heaven (Ezra 7:12), and the king decrees that whatever Ezra requires of the treasurers beyond the River be done diligently (Ezra 7:21). Nehemiah dates his own appearance before the king to the month Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:1).

As a matter of established history, the Persian kings known by this throne name include Artaxerxes I Longimanus (465–424 BC) and Artaxerxes II (404–359 BC), and most interpreters identify the king of Ezra 7 and Nehemiah 2 with Artaxerxes I, dating Ezra's journey to about 458 BC and Nehemiah's to about 445 BC. Interpreters disagree, however, over the Artaxerxes of the letter in Ezra 4:7, since the narrative there sets his reign before Darius, whereas Artaxerxes I reigned after him; some take the name to refer to a different ruler under the same throne name, others to Xerxes or Cambyses, and others read the section as arranged by topic rather than strict chronology. A minority would place Ezra and Nehemiah under Artaxerxes II instead, which shifts the dates by roughly half a century. These are differences of historical reconstruction rather than of doctrine; the passage itself, read plainly, presents a Persian king who both halted one building project at the urging of the province's officials and later commissioned and funded the reforms of Ezra and the journey of Nehemiah.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.