Matthew Stuckey here from Verde Baptist Church, Manila, just to provide you an answer to a supposed Bible contradiction.
And what I want to talk about in this video is the list of the order of the kings mentioned in the book of Ezra from the Persian Empire.
And basically the three names that we're looking at are going to be Cyrus, Darius, and Ahasuerus.
Or Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes as the Bible says.
And so basically in Ezra chapter 4, it appears at first glance like the order of the kings is Cyrus, then Ahasuerus, then Darius.
But the problem with that is that it would come in contrast with secular history.
Now obviously we know secular history can be an error, it can be wrong, but I actually don't think that secular history is wrong in this instance about this.
Now to understand this topic though, we have to actually look at the groundwork of several different things in the Bible.
So this is going to be a long video and you might want to take notes if you're interested in learning about this.
But the first thing you need to understand is that the Darius mentioned in the book of Daniel and the Darius mentioned in the book of Ezra are not the same person.
And I can prove that to you from the Bible.
First in Daniel chapter 5 verse 31, the Bible reads,
And Darius the Median took the kingdom being about three score and two years old.
So Darius is listed as from Med. Darius the Median.
From the Medes. Not the Persians, but the Medes.
Remember, the kingdom of Persia was the Medes and the Persians.
Persia was basically more powerful, there's also the Medians as well.
And so here it says Darius the Median.
Now secular history will tell you though that Cyrus the Great is the one that conquered the Chaldean empire and took over Babylon and stuff like that.
And so at first place this would appear to be an error with secular history as well.
But if you go to Daniel chapter 6, the last verse, Daniel 6 verse 28, the Bible reads,
So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
And so as it mentions in chapter 6 verse 28, Daniel's prospering both in the reigns of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus of Persia.
But it doesn't even mention Cyrus here in the book of Daniel.
And so you say, what is it referring to?
What the Bible is showing you is basically that Darius and Cyrus were both the kings at this time.
This was a common thing in history called co-regent kings.
And so what is actually taking place is that, remember Darius the Median.
And then Cyrus the Persian.
So basically these two were basically co-empires and Cyrus is the top dog.
He is the most powerful man in the world, but he chooses not to take over or reign in Babylon.
You say, why would he not just go to Babylon?
Well if you know secular history, Persepolis was the big city of Persia and it was known as a very beautiful and wonderful city.
So he probably didn't want to go there.
But basically this person, Darius, is the one who basically takes that king.
And so they're basically co-regent kings where Darius has basically full control to do what he does within this Chaldean empire.
But Cyrus ultimately is the head king.
Now it is possible that Darius was basically the leader of the Medes and basically that's why he took that position.
Or maybe, you know, Cyrus appoints him, but we do know that he is a Mede.
Darius the Mede.
Cyrus the Persian, Darius the Mede.
Now the next thing I want you to understand, go to the book of Ezra chapter 4 verse 5.
Ezra 4 verse 5.
And I'll show you that this Darius is a different one.
Because there's a very famous Darius in history.
The Darius mission in the book of Daniel is not the famous Darius mission in history.
The famous Darius mission in history comes after Cyrus.
Not in the same time as Cyrus.
So Ezra chapter 4 verse 5, the Bible reads,
And hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
So they're not reigning at the same time.
It says Cyrus king of Persia even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Notice Darius king of Persia.
Not Darius the Mede, Darius king of Persia.
This is the famous Darius in history, and he's not the same as the one in the book of Daniel because it's Darius the Persian.
So we know that Darius is coming after Cyrus, okay?
That's one thing to keep in mind.
Now look at Daniel chapter 9 verse 1.
Daniel 9 verse 1.
And we'll see another person's name mentioned as well.
The third name that I want to draw your attention to.
And that is in Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 where the Bible reads,
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes which was made king of the realm of the Chaldeans.
And so it mentions Ahasuerus.
Now this is not the same Ahasuerus as in Ezra or Esther.
Why? Because it says that Darius is the son of Ahasuerus.
It's not the same famous Ahasuerus in history or the one in Ezra or the book of Esther.
This is a different Ahasuerus.
Now in secular history people will question the Darius and Ahasuerus mentioned here because they basically say,
Well we don't see those names in history.
Now you have to understand that people don't have their first and their last name here.
And there's a lot of names that are done many times.
In fact if you look at the king's list in the Persian empire you'll see Darius pop up a lot.
You'll see Ahasuerus or Xerxes pop up a lot.
You see a lot of names pop up over and over again.
You think in the past of King Philip there was a ton of them.
Alexander, there was tons of Alexander's.
There is the Alexander the Great but there's a lot of Alexander's.
There's a lot of these people.
So they're not the only people that take these names.
So it's very possible that these people, Darius and Ahasuerus, maybe history has forgotten who these people are.
I will say this, that Darius takes the throne when he's 62 years old and there's a famous person in history that took the throne at the age of 61.
According to secular history that Cyrus put in charge at this time period.
Only one year different.
He had a different name but it's very possible he had a lawful name.
So just to keep in mind that this Ahasuerus in Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 is a different one.
Now I want you to notice also Esther chapter 1 verse 1.
Esther 1 verse 1 the Bible reads,
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus.
This is Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia over in 107 and 20 provinces.
Notice the part in parentheses in Esther chapter 1 verse 1.
This is indicating to you this is a different Ahasuerus.
That there's multiple Ahasueruses.
Because it says this is Ahasuerus which reigned.
It's telling you specifically which Ahasuerus this is.
Now the Ahasuerus we mentioned in Daniel 9 verse 1 is not really known in history.
But basically after Darius there's multiple people.
There's Ahasuerus, there's Artaxerxes and people debate about which one is the Ahasuerus mentioned in the book of Esther.
I'm not 100% dogmatic but what I'm showing you is that there are multiple Ahasueruses according to Esther chapter 1 verse 1.
Now let's go actually to Ezra 4 verse 5.
Let's start looking at what they consider a contradiction.
Now in Ezra chapter 4 verse 5 the Bible reads,
And hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
So there's a time period where they're frustrating the purpose from Cyrus to Darius.
Now when you read the next verses, verse number 6,
Ezra 4 verse 6,
In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, he wrote the ondo of an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
And in the days of Artaxerxes he wrote Vishlam, Mithridath, Tavil and the rest of their companions unto Artaxerxes king of Persia.
So there Ahasuerus is being renamed as Artaxerxes.
Now if you read verses 6 through 23 of Ezra chapter 4,
It appears that basically you have Cyrus and then during the days of Ahasuerus,
The whole time period the plan is being frustrated and not able to work.
And then during Darius it kicks back up.
At first glance that's the way it appears when you look at Ezra chapter 4 verse 24 where it says,
Then ceased the work of the house of God which set Jerusalem, so it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
So it appears in verses 6 through 23 that all the days of Artaxerxes no work was getting done until Darius comes in in verse 24.
Now I want you to understand something though that chapter 4 is actually not chronological.
This is what the answer to this contradiction is.
And I mentioned all the other things because you could hear this video and then read the book of Daniel and get confused again with these names.
But in Ezra chapter 4 this is not chronological.
It doesn't go in order of events.
It's what we call thematic.
It's done by themes.
And so in Ezra chapter 4 you're seeing that the purpose is being frustrated.
So what is taking place is that during the time of Cyrus until the reign of Darius,
The purpose is being frustrated.
They're bothering the work that's being done.
And then what's going to happen is that after Darius, then is going to come Ahasuerus.
And when Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes come, at the beginning of this reign the purpose is being frustrated again.
And then we're going to see later on that in the seventh year that's when they're able to pick up the worm again.
So what's happening is that it's not this whole set time period where the purpose is being frustrated.
You actually have a time period.
Then it's not going on.
And then once again the purpose is being frustrated.
So what Ezra chapter 4 does is put the whole time period of the work being frustrated together as one.
So it's done thematically instead of chronologically.
Now when you're just reading this quickly through it, it can be confusing.
I understand that.
But this is a common thing throughout the Bible.
Oftentimes things are not chronological.
You can look at the events of certain things in the Gospel and they don't always line up the same in each Gospel.
And sometimes similar events are taking place, but sometimes things just aren't chronological.
And so the Bible does this a lot.
And so in Ezra chapter 4, it's just focusing on when the work is being frustrated and it's not taking place.
But Ahazuerus is coming after Darius.
So the order of the kings is right with secular history that you have Cyrus, you have Darius, and then you have Ahazuerus or Artaxerxes.
It's just that it's done thematically.
So verses 6 through 23 is actually after verse 24 in the chronological time frame.
Now I want you to look at a few things and I'll give you some further proof.
Ezra chapter 6 verse 14.
Ezra 6 verse 14 in the Bible reads,
And the elders of the Jews builded it, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai, the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo.
And they built it and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
Look at the order.
Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes.
So that's giving you an order that they're taking place.
Chapter 7 verse 1.
Ezra 7 verse 1.
Now after these things in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia.
So it's talked about Darius and it says after these things in chapter 7 verse 1, Artaxerxes is coming after Darius.
One last place I want you to look at is Daniel chapter, Ezra chapter 7 verse 8.
Ezra 7 verse 8.
Remember we're talking about Artaxerxes?
Ezra 7 verse 8.
And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month which was in the seventh year of the king.
The seventh year of the king of Artaxerxes.
If you remember in Ezra chapter 4 that it mentioned in Ezra 4 verse 6,
And in the reign of Ahasuerus in the beginning of his reign.
Remember the next verse tells you Ahasuerus is Artaxerxes.
And in the beginning of his reign people were coming to frustrate the purpose.
Now what's going on in Ezra 7, what we saw was it's in the seventh year.
And so this is later on during his time frame.
So basically what the Bible does is just give you the time period where the work is being frustrated in it.
Instead of giving you Cyrus to Darius, the work's going on.
Then at the beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus it stops and basically seven years it's not taking place and then it picks back up.
It puts all the time period of the work being frustrated in the same area.
And so basically the answer to this contradiction is quite simply verses 6 through 23 are taking place after verse 24 in Ezra chapter 4.
And that does line up with the rest of the book.
Now as I said this is a very complicated topic and quite honestly a lot of names are shared amongst kings.
There's a lot of people that have the same names throughout history.
And so you know what, honestly I encourage you to look at these verses yourself and study it out.
You might come to a different conclusion and that's fine.
This is something where maybe people can come to different conclusions.
But from what I've found it all lines up, it all matches.
And the simplest explanation and what lines up with the entire book is just simply that in chapter 4 things are not being done chronologically.
They're being done thematically instead.
Anyways, thank you and God bless.