Posted by Gary [GLamotta] on March 30, 1999 at 04:55:48 {.Oe37V.qjQMSSTtTA17sboLUiPtahc}:
In Reply to: *ANSTEY'S CHRON ALIVE AND WELL! posted by Round and round... on March 29, 1999 at 13:21:55:
Hi Cygnus,
I'll take credit for some of the redundancy
over the chronology. But I'm only taking
credit for half of it.
Carl keeps posting new posts attaking me. So
it's not just me. Check out all of his posts
which
also appear regularly (and which I delight
to see, of course, but still..).
So it's not all me!
Sorry we are boring you a bit.
HERE'S SOMETHING NEW:
Josephus knew about the conspiracy. He wrote
his works near the end of the
1st Century B.C.E.
The apocrypal books of Esther and "Esdras"
which is from the Persian Period which was
revised, adjust the history of Ezra and Nehemiah
to accommodate the revised chronology. Of note,
they place both Ezra
and Nehemiah as returning
with Zerubbabel and substitute some other name
for later events involving Artaxerxes. Thus
it is not likely that any Jewish scholar could
miss this and not know there was a conspiracy.
Furthermore,
as I mentioned before, I found a
Greek reference to the original dating of the
Peloponnesian War in an old book I found in
a used book store from 1910 I think.
So the conspiracy and more importantly, the
actual DATING, at
least the Greek Period
revisions was not lost. Some people knew about
it, and the Jewish apocryphal books show you
exactly what changes are made. You only have
to start comparing Josephus, the Bible, and
the apocryphal
writings to see what's going
on for this period.
For instance, Josephus, knew that Xerxes and
Artaxerxes were the same king. He also knew
that "Esther" was a cover folkloric history
based upon Nehemiah, who because of his
fame
and Biblical association with Zerubbabel had
to be suppressed. Esther does what many
historical revisionists do, and that is
separate a single individual into two
characters. Thus Nehemiah, a eunuch, became
both
Esther, the king's beautiful wife and
Mordecai, his actual name, in Jewish folklore.
It's not hard to see how a story about Nehemiah
who put wine before the king, playing on his
sympathy and later getting the Jews to take
up
arms to defend themselves while building
the walls resulted in the Book of Esther which
basically tells of a person doing the same
thing. And Nehemiah was quite famous, in
fact, in the famous bas-relief of Darius
and
Xerxes, the chief cupbearer following Xerxes,
who of note is neither Persian nor Mede, is
none other than Nehemiah. In fact, Nehemiah
is EVERYWHERE at Persepolis, not only following
Xerxes but also "Artaxerxes." The
cub-bearer
was like the "Prime Minister" as far as influence
in the court goes. The fame of Nehemiah in
the Persian Court in the context of the
Persian conspiracy forced his direct history
into folklore.
But note this
comment from Esther about
Mordecai: "All the acts of his power and valor, as well as a detailed account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia. The Jew
Mordecai was next in rank to King Ahasuerus, in high standing among the Jews, and was regard with favor by his many brethen, as the promoter of his people's welfare and the hearld of peace for his whole race."
Of course, the chief
cupbearer is next in rank
in the court of the king and Nehemiah was in that
position. Furthermore, the reliefs at Persepolis
show the same Jewish cupbearer behind "Xerxes"
as well as behind "Artaxerxes" and so there is
a
positive I.D. that this Jewish cupbearer is
actually Nehemiah.
But since the story of Esther was already
written, and Josephus in doing his history
needed to fill in for the extra reign of
Xerxes, what he did was decided
to take
a short-cut, since Artaxerxes was so famous
and well-known and liked among the Jews,
he decided to use the book of Esther as a
basis for the history of Artaxerxes I, but
contradict the canonical Ezra/Nehemiah
by
saying that both Ezra and Nehemiah served
under "XERXES, the father of Artaxerxes."
That's right. Josephus has Esther married
to "Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes"! But
that was okay, because Esther is really the
story
of Nehemiah. So it was just duplicating
the history in order to cover the extra time
during the Persian Period.
So he not only understood Xerxes and Artaxerxes
was the same king, he also understood that
the Jews had found a
way to preserve their
history in folklore and he understood that
the book of Esther was really a takeoff on
the history of Nehemiah, who could not be
referred to directly in the records since
he would have been too old to
have served
down to the reign of Darius I and still have
returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel.
So you see, Cy, that scenario alone proves
the conspiracy. It's more than just clay
tablets. This is direct evidence of
historical
manipulation. Of note, however, is that
Josephus is keeping this secret, paying
lipservice to the revised Greek chronology.
In fact, he wrote his works with the Greeks
in mind. But he was not fooled by
the
chronology, nor is it likely learned scholars
and a few small circles of rabbis would have
not understood these historical revisions
or the true basis for the apocryphal works
and lost this secret over time.
So if
you're tired of the clay tablets and
the astronomy, why not check out Josephus
and see how he attempts to make his personal
adjustment to this history by having Esther
married to Artaxerxes, which is totally
against the
current chronology which has her
now married to "Xerxes" who is called
"Ahasuerus", a total farce if ever there
was one.
So go ahead, Cy. Check it out.
All you have to do is read Josephus' accounts
during the reigns of
Xerxes and Artaxerxes
and it will all come clear to you.
The next question is, though, why are modern
Jews who know the truth about the chronology
not coming forward so that it can be confirmed
once and for all that Jesus did
fulfill the
"70 weeks" prophecy at the right time in 29CE?
Persons holding onto the 587BCE chronology are not just biased, Cy, they are ill-informed.
Cheers,
Gary