136

to the ancestral customs. And he built the city by tribes. And it was built with a broad square and a surrounding wall according to the prophecy of Daniel the prophet, the work having begun in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus and finished in his 32nd year, as the writing of Ezra relates, under the high priest Joda son of Jasib; and after Joda, John his son was high priest for *** years, and after John, Jasdus who was later during the time of Alexander the Macedonian. Up until Ezra and Nehemiah, then, the canonical Hebrew scriptures were handed down to be used in the church by the blessed apostles and disciples of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ and by our holy fathers and teachers, but the things that happened or were done after these things until the divine incarnation for the Jews, Josephus relates in his Maccabean histories and Africanus after him in an epitome. The 70 weeks in Daniel until Christ the leader, however, must be numbered from here as 477 years according to Africanus. But Eusebius of Caesarea says that if someone were to number from here the 70 weeks in Daniel, which become 477 years, he would find them ending in the time of Nero, emperor of the Romans, during whose reign the city began to be besieged and after Nero, in the 2nd year of Vespasian, it endured its final capture. 300 In the second letter of Maccabees to the Jews in Egypt, it is written concerning Nehemiah that having rebuilt the temple and the altar, when he was about to offer the sacrifice he sent the descendants of the priests to the well in which their fathers had hidden, at the time of the captivity, what they had taken from the fire of the altar, as Jeremiah also says, to bring fire from it. But those who went did not find fire, but a thick water. And Nehemiah ordered them to draw from this water and bring it and sprinkle it on the wood and the sacrifices lying underneath. And when the cloudy sun shone, a great pyre was kindled upon the sacrifices and consumed them, so that all marveled and glorified God with prayer. The writing of Ezra, being the last of the canonical books of the old divinely inspired scripture, began its history from the 18th year of the reign of Josiah king of Judah and of the wonderful Passover celebrated by him at that time. It relates also concerning the kings of Judah after these things and concerning the captivity of Judah that came about under Nebuchadnezzar and the burning of Jerusalem, and further concerning the release of the nation that happened under Cyrus in the 70th year from the 4th year of Jehoiakim, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and of the number of those who returned from the captivity to Jerusalem, and of the sacred vessels, and how, being envied by those in Samaria, they were prevented from rebuilding the temple and the city, when they wrote against them to Cyrus, and additionally concerning the second release of the people that happened 42 years later under Darius Hystaspes and of it through Zerubbabel and Jesus son of Jozadak the high priest and of the renewing of the house of God, and again of the third that happened under Artaxerxes through Nehemiah and Ezra, the renewal of the city and the walls of Jerusalem.

KINGS OF THE PERSIANS The 5th of the Persians, Xerxes son of Darius, reigned 20 years. And the

year of the world was 5228. 301 Xerxes took Egypt; Xerxes, coming to Athens, burned them when Calliades was archon of the Athenians. But some say that Ezra, being a friend to this Xerxes, son of Darius, went up to Jerusalem in his reign to teach the divine law, as the most experienced scribe and priest of all in those times; but to us this does not seem to agree with the writing of Ezra. Rather one might worthily suppose that the events concerning Judith and Holofernes were done in his time, since also Joachim the high priest, as is written in Judith, was high priest in her time, and the same was also in the time of this Xerxes.

136

τοῖς πατρῴοις ἔθεσιν. ἐπέκτισε δὲ τὴν πόλιν κατὰ φυλάς. Ἡ δὲ ᾠκοδομήθη πλατεῖα καὶ περίτειχος κατὰ τὴν πρόρρησιν ∆ανιὴλ τοῦ προφήτου, εἰκοστῷ ἔτει Ἀρταξέρξου τοῦ Μακρόχειρος ἀρξαμένου τοῦ ἔργου καὶ τελειωθέντος κατὰ τὸ λβʹ ἔτος αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἱστορεῖ ἡ τοῦ Ἔσδρα γραφή, ἐπὶ ἀρχιερέως Ἰωδαὲ υἱοῦ Ἰασίβ· μετὰ δὲ τὸν Ἰωδαὲ Ἰωάννης ουἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἀρχιεράτευσεν ἔτη ***, μετὰ δὲ τὸν Ἰωάννην ὁ κατὰ Ἀλέξανδρον γενόμενος ὕστερον τὸν Μακεδόνα Ἰασδούς. Ἕως μὲν οὖν Ἔσδρα καὶ Νεεμίου αἱ ἐνδιάθετοι Ἑβραϊκαὶ γραφαὶ ἐκκλησιάζεσθαι παρεδόθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν μακαρίων ἀποστόλων καὶ μαθητῶν τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων καὶ διδασκάλων ἡμῶν, τὰ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα συμβάντα ἢ πραχθέντα ἕως τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις Ἰώσηππος ἐν τοῖς Μακκαβαϊκοῖς ἱστορεῖ καὶ Ἀφρικανὸς μετ' αὐτὸν ἐν ἐπιτόμῳ. Τὰς μέντοι οʹ ἑβδομάδας παρὰ τῷ ∆ανιὴλ ἕως Χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου ἐντεῦθεν ἀριθμεῖσθαι δεῖ κατὰ τὸν Ἀφρικανὸν ἔτη υζʹ. Εὐσέβιος δὲ ὁ Καισαρεύς φησιν ὅτι εἴ τις ἐντεῦθεν ἀριθμήσειε τὰ παρὰ τῷ ∆ανιὴλ οʹ ἑβδομάδας, αἳ γίνονται ἔτη υζʹ, εὕροι ἂν αὐτὰς ἐπὶ Νέρωνα Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτορα περαιουμένας, καθ' ὃν πολιορκεῖσθαι ἀρξαμένη ἡ πόλις μετὰ Νέρωνα ἔτους βʹ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ τὴν ἐσχάτην ἅλωσιν ὑπέμεινεν. 300 Ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῶν Μακκαβαϊκῶν ἐπιστολῇ τοῖς κατ' Αἴγυπτον Ἰουδαίοις γέγραπται περὶ Νεεμίου ὅτι ἀνοικοδομήσας τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον, μέλλων ἀναφέρειν τὴν θυσίαν ἔπεμψε τοὺς ἐγγόνους τῶν ἱερέων ἐπὶ τὸ φρέαρ, ἐν ᾧ κατέκρυψαν οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας, λαβόντες ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, ὡς καὶ Ἱερεμίας φησί, τοῦ ἀγαγεῖν πῦρ ἐξ αὐτοῦ. οἱ δὲ ἀπελθόντες οὐχ εὗρον πῦρ, ἀλλ' ὕδωρ παχύ. ἐκέλευσε δὲ Νεεμίας ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου ἀποβάψαντας φέρειν καὶ ἐπιρρᾶναι τοῖς ξύλοις καὶ ὑποκειμένοις θύμασι. τοῦ δὲ ἡλίου ἐπινεφοῦς λάμψαντος ἀνήφθη πυρὰ μεγάλη κατὰ τῶν θυσιῶν καὶ ἐδαπάνησεν αὐτάς, ὥστε θαυμάσαι πάντας καὶ δοξάσαι τὸν θεὸν μετ' εὐχῆς. Ἡ τοῦ Ἔσδρα γραφὴ τελευταία οὖσα τῶν ἐνδιαθέτων βιβλίων τῆς παλαιᾶς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς ἤρξατο τῆς ἱστορίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ιηʹ ἔτους τῆς βασιλείας Ἰωσίου βασιλέως Ἰούδα καὶ τοῦ κατ' αὐτὸν γεγονότος θαυμαστοῦ πάσχα ὑπ' αὐτοῦ. ἱστορεῖ δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα βασιλέων Ἰούδα καὶ περὶ τῆς ὑπὸ Ναβουχοδονόσωρ γεναμένης αἰχμαλωσίας τοῦ Ἰούδα καὶ ἐμπρησμοῦ τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ ἔτι περὶ τῆς ἐπὶ Κύρου γενομένης ἀφέσεως τοῦ ἔθνους τῷ οʹ ἔτει ἀπὸ τοῦ δʹ ἔτους Ἰωακεὶμ κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν Ἱερεμίου, καὶ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν ἐπανελθόντων ἐκ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ, τῶν τε ἱερῶν σκευῶν, καὶ ὅπως ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Σαμαρείᾳ φθονηθέντες ἐκωλύθησαν ἀναστῆσαι τὸν ναὸν καὶ τὴν πόλιν, γραψάντων πρὸς Κῦρον κατ' αὐτῶν, καὶ προσέτι περὶ τῆς μβʹ ἔτη ἐπὶ ∆αρείου τοῦ Ὑστάσπου γεγονυίας δευτέρας ἀφέσεως τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ αὐτῆς διὰ Ζοροβάβελ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Ἰωσεδὲκ ἀρχιερέως καὶ ἀνακαινίσεως τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ αὖθις τῆς ἐπὶ Ἀρταξέρξου τρίτης γεγονυίας διὰ Νεεμίου καὶ Ἔσδρα ἀνανεώσεως τῆς πόλεως καὶ τῶν τειχέων Ἱερουσαλήμ.

ΠΕΡΣΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΣ Περσῶν εʹ ἐβασίλευσε Ξέρξης υἱὸς ∆αρείου ἔτη κʹ. τοῦ δὲ

κόσμου ἦν ἔτος εκηʹ. 301 Ξέρξης Αἴγυπτον παρέλαβε· Ξέρξης εἰς Ἀθήνας ἐλθὼν ἐνέπρησεν αὐτὰς ἐπὶ Καλλιάδου Ἀθηναίων ἄρχοντος. Τινὲς δέ φασιν ὅτι Ἔσδρας τούτῳ τῷ Ξέρξῃ υἱῷ ∆αρείου φίλος ὢν ἐπὶ αὐτοῦ ἀνῆλθεν εἰς Ἱερουσαλὴμ διδάξαι τὸν θεῖον νόμον, ὡς πάντων τῶν κατὰ τούσδε τοὺς χρόνους ἐμπειρότερος γραμματεὺς καὶ ἱερεύς· ἡμῖν δὲ τοῦτο οὐ δοκεῖ σύμφωνον τῇ τοῦ Ἔσδρα γραφῇ. Μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ κατὰ τὴν Ἰουδὴθ ἄν τις ἀξίως ὑπολάβοι πεπρᾶχθαι ἐπὶ τούτου καὶ τὸν Ὁλοφέρνην, ἐπεὶ καὶ Ἰωακεὶμ ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ μέγας, ὡς ἐν τῇ Ἰουδὴθ γέγραπται, ἦν ἀρχιερατεύων κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους αὐτῆς, ὁ δ' αὐτὸς καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦδε τοῦ Ξέρξου.