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However, he did not point out that he counts the 70 years of the captivity from the 4th year of Zedekiah, but rather from the 11th year of the same Zedekiah, I mean from the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, citing also a passage from Clement, in which he writes: The first year of the captivity of the Jewish nation, in which the king of the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, having besieged Jerusalem, burns the temple. And the temple lasted from its first construction 442 years. And Clement agrees with us in the first Stromateus, stating that the captivity of the Jewish people into Babylon happened in the forty-eighth Olympiad, when Vaphres was king of the Egyptians, and Philip was archon in Athens, and that the 70 years of the desolation of the place are completed in the 2nd year of Darius. Of the captivity of the Hebrews and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. To Vaphres, the king of the Egyptians, the remnant of the Jews fled when Jerusalem was captured by the Assyrians. And Jeremiah the prophet also mentions Vaphres. Eusebius, having placed these events in the 11th year of Zedekiah, has made the calculation of the 70 years of the captivity from the 9th year of Astyages until his 38th year, reckoning 30 years for him; after whom, citing the first year of Cyrus, he writes these things verbatim: Cyrus released the captivity of the Jewish race, at which time, having returned 271 from Babylonia, about 50,000 Jews raised the altar and laid the foundations of the temple. But since the neighboring nations hindered them, the work remained incomplete until Darius the son of Hystaspes, with only the altar being established. And the whole time of the captivity of the Jewish nation amounts to 70 years, being numbered according to some from the third year of Jehoiakim to the 20th year of Cyrus the king of the Persians, and according to others from the beginning of the prophecy of Jeremiah, which was in the 13th year of Josiah king of the Jews. And from the 5th year of the prophecy of Jeremiah to the 1st year of Cyrus there are 70 years. And the seventy years of the desolation of the temple are completed in the 2nd year of Darius the king of the Persians. That he therefore miscalculated and missed the truth in reckoning the 70 years from the 11th year of Zedekiah to the 2nd year of Darius the son of Hystaspes is clear. For instead of reckoning the remaining 20 years of Nebuchadnezzar, who also carried out the capture of the nation, and those of his successors, I mean his son Evil-Merodach and Neriglissar his son-in-law, as has been shown before, and then next to Nabonidus who is also Darius Astyages the son of Ahasuerus (who was the last king of the Medes from Arbaces who, with Belesys, overthrew the Assyrian rule and its last king Sardanapalus), he abandoned the sequence appropriate to the chronological subject and took refuge in the Olympiads, as if forgetting himself and those who had captured the nation, and those who after the capture ruled the Jewish nation for some 30 years during the captivity, which was entirely foreign to an exact demonstration.

For the holy Clement, arguing against the Greeks in his sacred Stromata, reasonably uses the Olympiads. But here, since the proposed endeavor is to demonstrate the times from the scripture since the creation of the world, it is not possible to resolve the difficulties of scripture from the Olympiads alone, and especially since the beginning of the Olympiads does not have one and the same position, as has been said by us in the discourse concerning them. But it is true that the 70 years of the captivity are numbered in different ways, since the captivity of the 272 Jewish race itself also happened at different times, and it is entirely necessary that things done at different times do not have the same and one beginning. But the return also happened at different times. And those who investigate accurately must take those things into account and not force either the scriptural declarations or the chronologies of the nations towards the

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Οὐ μέντοι ἐπεσημήνατο ὅτι ἀπὸ τοῦ δʹ ἔτους Σεδεκίου τὰ τῆς αἰχμαλω σίας οʹ ἔτη συναριθμεῖ, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀπὸ τοῦ ιαʹ ἔτους τοῦ αὐτοῦ Σεδε κίου, λέγω δὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ ιθʹ ἔτους Ναβουχοδονόσωρ, παραθεὶς καὶ Κλήμεν τος χρῆσιν, ἐν οἷς γράφει· Πρῶτον ἔτος αἰχμαλωσίας τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους, καθ' ἣν ὁ τῶν Χαλδαίων βασιλεὺς Ναβουχοδονόσωρ πολιορκήσας τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα τὸν νεὼν πυρπολεῖ. διήρκεσέ τε ὁ νεὼς ἀπὸ πρώτης κατασκευῆς ἔτεσι υμβʹ. συνᾴδει δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ ὁ Κλήμης ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ στρωματεῖ φάσκων ἐπὶ τῆς ὀγδόης καὶ τεσσαρακοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος τὴν εἰς Βαβυλῶνα αἰχμαλωσίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων λαοῦ γεγονέναι, βασιλεύσαντος μὲν Αἰγυπτίων Οὐαφρεί, ἄρχοντος δὲ Ἀθήνησι Φιλίππου, συνάγεσθαι δὲ τὰ οʹ ἔτη τῆς ἐρημίας τοῦ τόπου εἰς τὸ βʹ ἔτος ∆αρείου. Ἑβραίων αἰχμαλωσίας καὶ ἀφανισμοῦ τοῦ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ναοῦ. Οὐαφρεὶ τῷ Αἰγυπτίων βασιλεῖ προσέφυγον ἁλούσης ὑπὸ Ἀσσυρίων τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ οἱ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ὑπόλοιποι.μέμνηται δὲ τοῦ Οὐαφρεὶ καὶ Ἱερεμίας ὁ προφήτης. Ταῦτα Εὐσέβιος ὑποτάξας τῷ ιαʹ ἔτει Σεδεκίου, τὴν ἀπαρίθμησιν τῶν οʹ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἐτῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ θʹ ἔτους Ἀστυάγους πεποίηται ἕως τοῦ ληʹ αὐτοῦ ἔτους ἔτη λʹ λογισάμενος αὐτῷ· μεθ' ὃν Κύρου πρῶτον ἔτος παραθεὶς γράφει πρὸς λέξιν ταῦτα· Κῦρος ἀνῆκε τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων γένους, καθ' ὃν ἐπανελθόν 271 τες ἀπὸ τῆς Βαβυλωνίας ἀμφὶ τὰς εʹ μυριάδας Ἰουδαίων τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἤγειραν καὶ θεμελίους κατεβάλοντο τοῦ ἱεροῦ. τῶν δὲ περιοίκων ἐθνῶν ἐπισχόντων διέμεινε τὸ ἔργον ἀτελὲς μέχρι ∆αρείου τοῦ Ὑστάσπου, μόνου τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου συνεστῶτος. συνάγεται δὲ ὁ πᾶς χρόνος τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἔτη οʹ, ἀριθμούμενα κατὰ μὲν τινὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ τρίτου ἔτους Ἰωακεὶμ ἐπὶ κʹ ἔτος Κύρου τοῦ Περσῶν βασιλέως, κατὰ δὲ ἑτέρους ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς προφητείας Ἱερεμίου, ἣ γέγονε κατὰ τὸ ιγʹ ἔτος Ἰωσίου βασιλέως Ἰουδαίων. ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ εʹ ἔτους τῆς προφητείας Ἱερεμίου ἐπὶ τὸ αʹ ἔτος Κύρου ἔτη οʹ γίνονται. τῆς δὲ ἐρημίας τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἡ ἑβδομηκονταετὴς ἀποπεραιοῦται κατὰ τὸ βʹ ἔτος ∆αρείου τοῦ Περσῶν βασιλέως. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἑαυτὸν παρελογίσατο καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ ιαʹ ἔτους Σεδεκίου ἕως τοῦ βʹ ἔτους ∆αρείου τοῦ Ὑστάσπου τὰ οʹ ἔτη ἐπιλο γισάμενος φανερόν. ἀνθ' ὧν γὰρ ἐχρῆν αὐτὸν τὰ λοιπὰ κʹ ἔτη τοῦ Ναβουχο δονόσωρ, τοῦ καὶ τὴν ἅλωσιν τοῦ ἔθνους ποιησαμένου, λογίσασθαι καὶ τῶν ἐφεξῆς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, λέγω δὴ τοῦ τε υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Εὐειλὰδ Μαροδὰχ καὶ Νιριγλησάρου τοῦ γαμβροῦ αὐτοῦ, ὡς προδεδήλωται, εἶθ' ἑξῆς ἐπὶ τὸν Ναβόννηδον τὸν καὶ ∆αρεῖον Ἀστυάγην τὸν Ἀσσουήρου ἐλθεῖν (ὃςγέγονεν ἔσχατος βασιλεὺς Μήδων ἀπὸ Ἀρβάκου τοῦ καθελόντος σὺν τῷ Βελεσὺ τὴν Ἀσσυρίων ἀρχὴν καὶ τὸν ταύτης ὕστατον βασιλέα Σαρδανάπαλον), ἀφεὶς τὴν πρόσφορον τῇ χρονικῇ ὑποθέσει ἀκολουθίαν ἐπὶ τὰς ὀλυμπιάδας κατέφυγεν, ἐπιλαθόμενος ὥσπερ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τῶν ἡλωκότων τὸ ἔθνος, καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἅλωσιν ἔτη που κρατησάντων τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἐπὶ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας λʹ, ὅπερ πάντη τῆς ἀκριβοῦς ἀποδείξεως ἀλλότριον ἦν.

Ὁ γὰρ ἱερὸς Κλήμης πρὸς Ἕλληνας παραταττόμενος ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς αὐτοῦ στρωματεῦσι λόγοις εὐλόγως ταῖς ὀλυμπιάσι κέχρηται. ἐνταῦθα δὲ γραφικῆς ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου προκειμένης σπουδῆς ἀποδεῖξαι τοὺς χρόνους οὐχ οἷόν τε ἐξ ὀλυμπιάδων μόνων τὰ ἀπορούμενα τῆς γραφῆς ἐπιλύσασθαι, καὶ μάλιστα τῆς τῶν ὀλυμπιάδων ἀρχῆς οὐκ ἐχούσης μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν θέσιν, ὡς ἐν τῷ περὶ αὐτῶν εἴρηται ἡμῖν λόγῳ. Τὸ δὲ κατὰ διαφόρους τρόπους τὰ οʹ ἔτη τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἀριθμεῖσθαι ἀληθές, ἐπεὶ καὶ κατὰ διαφόρους καιροὺς γέγονεν ἡ αὐτὴ αἰχμαλωσία τοῦ 272 Ἰουδαίων γένους, καὶ πᾶσα ἀνάγκη τὰ κατ' ἄλλους καὶ ἄλλους καιροὺς πραχθέντα μὴ τὴν αὐτὴν καὶ μίαν ἀρχὴν ἔχειν. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπάνοδος κατὰ διαφόρους γέγονε χρόνους. καὶ χρὴ κἀκεῖνα συλλογίζεσθαι τοὺς ἀκριβῶς ἐπιβάλλοντας καὶ μὴ βιάζεσθαι μήτε τὰς γραφικὰς ἀποφάσεις μήτε τὰς ἐθνικὰς χρονοκρατορίας πρὸς τὸν