VI. EPOCH:
JUDEA AFTER THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.
(From 536 B. C. until the Birth of Christ.)
Chapter LXXX.
RETURN OF THE JEWS FROM BABYLON. (536 B. C.)
[1 Esdr. 1.]
The prophet Jeremias had foretold that the captivity[1] of Babylon would not last longer than seventy years[2], and that the Jews would then return to their own country. Daniel had renewed this consoling promise, and had added another prophecy of greater importance; namely, that from the day on which the order should be given to rebuild Jerusalem till the death of the Messias, there would remain only seventy weeks of years; that is, 490 years[3], so that the Jews knew not only the family from which the Saviour would spring, but also the city where He would be born, and the year in which He would die.
The severe sufferings of the captivity in Babylon, together with the exhortations of the prophets, particularly those of Daniel and Ezechiel, had brought the Jewish people to a sense of their duty. Wherefore it happened that in the seventieth[4] year of their sad captivity, Cyrus, king of Persia, by a divine inspiration, issued an edict[5] that all the Jews who were in his kingdom should go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of the Lord.
- ↑ The captivity. Which began in 606 B. C.
- ↑ Seventy years. “When”, said the Lord by the mouth of the prophet Jeremias, “the seventy years shall be accomplished, I will bring you again to the place, for I think towards you thoughts of peace and not of affliction.” It is as if He said: “Though I have given you over to captivity, I have no intention of giving you over for ever to affliction, but I mean to lead you to repentance by suffering, and when you have repented, I will be gracious to you again” (Jerem. 25, 12).
- ↑ 490 years. The walls of Jerusalem were built up in 453 B. C. From that time to the beginning of the public life of our Lord were 69 weeks, or 483 years. Thus we have 453 + 30 = 483. 483 years are 69 weeks, and the three years of public life are half the seventieth week. In the middle (i. e. after 3 years) of the seventieth ‘week of years’ our Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross.
- ↑ In the seventieth year. Counting from the first carrying off of the people into captivity, to the year 536 (from 606 — 70 == 536).
- ↑ An edict. This was not a command, only a permission.
