[5] World history leading up to Jesus

Where did the biblical Prophets and kings fit in with world history?

How does the Bible timeline compare to world history?

Home > Jesus Christ – real and historical > [5] Timeline leading up to Jesus Christ

We explore world history leading up to Jesus, starting with the events from when Babylon was the superpower and Pharaoh Necho II ruled Egypt; we merge secular history with biblical events, creating a timeline.

What were the events that led up to Jesus’ birth, covering 600 years?
Where did all the Old Testament prophets fit into world history?

What happened during the 400-year gap between the last writings in the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus?

Many of the following dates are ‘circa’ (approximate dates), which take in the latest research and are the generally accepted dates. ¹
These dates have then been cross-checked with the dates on other authority websites.

600 B.C. timeline: Babylon, Pharaoh, the prophets Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel.

• 600–400 B.C. British Early Iron Age: Bloomery smelting did not melt the iron, but instead it made a spongy lump known as a ‘bloom’. The end result was only slightly harder than bronze weapons.
  Forging came later in furnaces that got the iron to be red-hot ² and then quench-hardened to make it very tough.
• 582 B.C., the Isthmian Games held every other year included athletic events where the winners were given a crown of wild celery.
• Late 5th century B.C. The Philistines disappeared as a distinct ethnic group. They lost their independence to Assyria, and their following revolts were all crushed. They were subsequently absorbed into the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Achaemenid Empire.

King Cambyses I in world history

The Persian King Cambyses I reigned: c. 600-559 B.C. and was ruler of Anshan. He was the son of Cyrus I and succeeded his father as a vassal of King Astyages of Media. According to the historian Herodotus, Cambyses married a daughter of Astyages and fathered Cyrus II the Great. ³

Egypt failed to defeat Assyria.

Pharaoh Necho II reigned: 610–595 B.C. He is mentioned in the Bible: “Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo…” (2 Kings 23:29 ESV)
Here’s another example:

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.
His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his predecessors had done.
Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim.
But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died…”

2 Kings 23:31-34 NIV

Pharaoh Necho II had unsuccessful skirmishes with King Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. ⁴

King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Babylonian Empire.

King Nebuchadnezzar II reigned: c. 605-c. 562 B.C. was the longest-reigning and most powerful monarch of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (also known as the Second Babylonian Empire and Chaldean Empire).

• 597 B.C. Jerusalem was besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar II and broken into; King Jehoiachin (19th king of Judah) and others were taken captive. Zedekiah was appointed as king of Judah.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.
His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.
He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done.
At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it.
Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him.
In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.
As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace, and cut up the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the LORD.
He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand…”

2 Kings 24:8-14 NIV

Jeremiah, the prophet of Judah in world history.

• Jeremiah (c. 650 – c. 570 BC) was called the “weeping prophet”. Born into a priestly lineage, Jeremiah reluctantly accepted his call to be a prophet, embarking on a tumultuous ministry of over 50 years. His life was marked by opposition, imprisonment, personal struggles, and the nation of Judah not listening to him. ⁶
• 587 B.C. Babylonian soldiers attacked Jerusalem again, breaching the northern wall and mopping up all resistance after an 18-month siege.
  Judah’s King Zedekiah and others were taken captive and relocated to Babylon, but the prophet Jeremiah was granted freedom.
  Jerusalem was destroyed and burned down.

But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing;
and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.
Now Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard:
‘Take him and look after him; don’t harm him but do for him whatever he asks.’”

Jeremiah 39:10-12 NIV

The prophet Daniel in world history in Babylon.

When King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated Jerusalem, he chose young Jewish nobles to be trained in the ways of the Babylonians to serve the king, and Daniel was one of them. (Daniel 1:1-6).

• c. 580 B.C. The synagogue as a simple place of worship was started because of the Jews being taken to Babylon. ⁷
• 580 B.C. The prophet Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Daniel interpreted the king’s dreams as related to the future.
But King Nebuchadnezzar was puffed up in arrogance, so God humbled him with madness; the king eventually repented and was restored to a sound mind.

This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar:
Your royal authority has been taken from you.
You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox.
Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.”

Daniel 4:31-32 NIV

Wikipedia disagrees with the truth of Daniel’s account:

His period of madness is also fictional, historians attributing it to rumours about Nabonidus’s stay in Teima (or Tayma), which were subsequently applied to Nebuchadnezzar through conflation.”

Nebuchadnezzar II Wikipedia ⁸

And yet in the same article, Wikipedia states:

According to a Babylonian poem, Nebuchadnezzar began behaving irrationally in his final years, ‘pay[ing] no heed to son or daughter,’ and was deeply suspicious of his sons.”

Nebuchadnezzar II Wikipedia

Surely this time of ‘behaving irrationally’ may well have been the time when King Nebuchadnezzar had his breakdown.
It certainly would not have been broadcast throughout his kingdom; rather, it would have been kept a secret.

Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to serve King Nebuchadnezzar’s gods or worship the golden image that he had set up (Daniel 3).
They were thrown into a furnace, and the king said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” ⁹
Consequently, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were given more authority in the kingdom.

The prophet Ezekiel in world history in Babylon.

Ezekiel was active as a prophet while in the Land of Israel, and continued as he was exiled with King Jehoiachin and others to Babylon. He and his wife lived on the banks of the Chebar River, in Tel Abib, with other captives from Judah.

• 580 B.C. the prophet Ezekiel sees a vision:

The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones…
Son of man, can these bones live?”

Ezekiel 37:1-3 NIV

• c. 563 B.C. (or c. 480 B.C.) Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) was born.
• c. 562 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar died, and his son Amel-Marduk was later killed in a coup.

King Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire became a superpower.

Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II) reigned 559-530 B.C. He transformed a small group of semi-nomadic tribes in Iran into the mighty Persian Empire (the Achaemenid Empire), the ancient world’s first superpower, in less than 15 years.
He started as a vassal king of the Median Empire, but by uniting with other Persian tribes, he led a rebellion against the Median king Astyages and defeated Astyages’ forces at the Battle of Pasargadae and seized the capital of Ecbatana in 550 B.C. ¹⁰

In the Book of Daniel (10:1), King Cyrus is mentioned: “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia…” [c. 556 B.C. ]

550 B.C. World history timeline: Persia and the biblical prophets.

Continuing the timeline leading up to Jesus:

• 550 B.C. The temple at Ephesus to Artemis, or Diana, is built by Croesus.
• c. 550 B.C. Aramaic, a Semitic language from Syria, becomes the commercial language of the Middle East. ¹¹

• 539 B.C. King Belshazzar of Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II), king of the Persian Empire:

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet…
As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall…”

Daniel 5:1 & 4-5 NIV

King Belshazzar’s father was King Nebuchadrezzar (Daniel 5:11 & 18), which does not contradict the Babylonian texts that refer to Belshazzar as the son of Nabonidus, since the latter was a descendant in the line of Nebuchadrezzar and may well have been related to him through his wife.
King Nabonidus made him co-regent and commander of the Babylonian army about 550 B.C. while he himself was absent in Teima’ in central Arabia (BM 91125).
Belshazzar ruled in Babylon for at least ten years until his father’s return there in 542 B.C.
The nameless king who, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, died when the city fell to Ugbaru, governor of Gutium and leader of the Persian army, may well have been Belshazzar. ^{13 14}

King Darius the Mede took over from King Belshazzar in ruling Babylon as a puppet king under King Cyrus the Great.

Who was King Darius in the Bible?

There is a lot of confusion over the different kings named ‘Darius’ in the Bible:

From the list below, it appears that there were three different kingly titles for Darius relating to two different men.

• 539 B.C. Daniel 5:31 “That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom…” [539 B.C.]
• Daniel 11:1 “And as for me in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him…” [539 B.C. Daniel’s chapters are not in the correct date order.]
• Daniel 9:1 “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans…” [c. 539 B.C.]
  [See the heading: ‘Who was King Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel?‘]
  [Also see the heading: ‘Who was King Darius the son of Ahasuerus in the Bible?‘]
  ————————————————

• c. 520 B.C. Ezra 4:24 “Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”
• c. 516 B.C. Ezra 6:14-15 “They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”
• c. 520 B.C. Haggai 1:1 “In the second year of Darius the king…”
• c. 520 B.C. Zechariah 1:1 “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius…”
• Nehemiah 12:22 “…so too were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian.”
  [See the heading: ‘Who was King Darius of Persia in the Bible?’]
  ————————————————

We need to explore these two kingly titles in the context of world history and the biblical record. (The third kingly title is explored further down the page).

Who was King Darius the son of Ahasuerus in the Bible?

c. 539 B.C. King Darius the son of Ahasuerus is mentioned only once in the Bible, in Daniel 9:1. The word ‘Ahasuerus’ in the original is ”אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ (a.chash.ve.rosh), meaning ‘mighty eye’ or ‘mighty man’. ¹⁵

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes…”

Daniel 9:1-3 NIV

Some Bible translations incorrectly put ‘Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent)’ as in the NIV with a footnote.

Many of these leaders had various names, which complicates the historical records.

Ahasuerus is given as the name of the father of Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel.
Josephus names Astyages as the father of Darius the Mede, and the description of the latter as uncle and father-in-law of Cyrus by mediaeval Jewish commentators matches that of Cyaxares II, who is said to be the son of Astyages by Xenophon.
Thus this Ahasuerus is commonly identified with Astyages.
He is alternatively identified, together with the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit, as Cyaxares I, said to be the father of Astyages.
Views differ on how to reconcile the sources in this case.
One view is that the description of Ahasuerus as the “father” of Darius the Mede should be understood in the broader sense of “forebear” or “ancestor.”
Another view notes that on the Behistun Inscription, “Cyaxares” is a family name, and thus considers the description as literal, viewing Astyages as an intermediate ruler wrongly placed in the family line in the Greek sources.”

‘Ahasuerus’ Wikipedia ¹⁶

So this ‘Ahasuerus’ is the father of Darius the Mede.
He is not the same as King Ahasuerus used throughout Esther and once in Ezra.

Who was King Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel?

c. 539 B.C. King Darius the Mede is found in Daniel eleven:

And as for me in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.”

Daniel 11:1 ESV

And in Daniel chapter five:

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.”

Daniel 5:30-31 ESV

Wikipedia is very scathing of the book of Daniel and in particular about Darius the Mede;

Darius the Mede is mentioned in the Book of Daniel as king of Babylon between Belshazzar and Cyrus the Great, but he is not known to history, and no additional king can be placed between the known figures of Belshazzar and Cyrus.
Most scholars view him as a literary fiction, but some have tried to harmonise the Book of Daniel with history by identifying him with various known figures, notably Cyrus, Cyaxares, or Gobryas, the general who was first to enter Babylon when it fell to the Persians…”

‘Darius the Mede’ Wikipedia ¹⁷

Wikipedia’s viewpoint does not take into consideration that he probably was a subordinate ruler: [At times Wikipedia can be very biased, especially in the areas of religion and politics, see: ‘Who can we trust? Wikipedia, education, TV, newspapers?’]

Darius the Mede a governor (‘king’) of the Medo-Persian empire of Babylonia under Cyrus the Great immediately following the death of ‘Belshazzar the Chaldean king‘ in Oct. 539 B.C.
Darius the Mede is said to have ‘received the kingdom’ (Daniel 5:31), probably having been made ‘king over the realm of the Chaldeans’ (Daniel 9:1) by Cyrus the Great (Daniel 1:21 and Daniel 6:28)…
A major assumption of negative higher criticism has been that the Book of Daniel was authored by an unknown writer of the Maccabean age (c. 164 B.C.) who mistakenly thought that an independent Median kingdom ruled by Darius the Mede followed the fall of Babylon and preceded the rise of Persia under Cyrus.
Darius the Mede, however, is not depicted in the book as a universal monarch.
His subordinate position (under Cyrus) is clearly implied in the statement that he ‘was made king (Heb. passive, homlak) over the realm of the Chaldeans’ (9:1 KJV).
Also, the fact that Belshazzar’s kingdom was ‘given to the Medes and Persians’ (5:28) and that Darius found himself incapable of altering the ‘law of the Medes and Persians’ (6:15) renders the critical view untenable…
The early 20th cent. publication of additional cuneiform texts from this period has enabled one to understand much better the circumstances surrounding the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.
It seems quite probable that Darius the Mede was another name for Gubaru, the governor under Cyrus who appointed sub-governors in Babylonia immediately after its conquest (“Nabonidus Chronicle,” ANET, 306; cf. Dan 6:1)”

‘Darius the Mede’ Bible Gateway. ¹⁸

Another suggestion was that Darius the Mede was:

the same as Cyaxares, son of Astyages and maternal uncle of Cyrus, to whom he gave the throne of Babylon after himself had had the honour of taking the city.
Daniel speaks nothing of the war that raged between the Babylonians and the Medes; but Isaiah speaks particularly of it, chap. 13, 14, 45, 46, 47.; and so does Jeremiah, chap. 50, 51…
The Medes and Persians were confederates in the war; the former under Darius, the latter under Cyrus. Both princes are supposed to have been present at the taking of this city.
Mandane, daughter of Astyages was mother of Cyrus and sister to Cyaxares.”

‘The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes’ by Adam Clarke. ¹⁹

• c. 538 B.C. the prophet Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den by King Darius the Mede.

The first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.

• c. 537 B.C. King Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire) allows tens of thousands of exiles to return to their homeland (Judah) and rebuild the temple:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
Any of his people among you may go up, and may the LORD their God be with them.” ‘ “

2 Chronicles 36:22-23 NIV

c. 537 B.C. Zerubbabel, a political leader, led the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity and was greatly encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.
Zerubbabel was the governor of province of Yehud.
It was after this appointment that Zerubbabel began to rebuild the Temple. ²⁰

King Cambyses II of the Persian Empire.

530 B.C. King Cambyses II son of Cyrus the Great reigned 530-522 B.C. Cambyses killed his younger brother Smerdis to secure his reign.
In 525 B.C. Cambyses captured Egypt soon after Pharaoh Amasis II (aka Ahmose II, c. 570-526 B.C.) had died and his son Psamtik III (r. 526-525 B.C.) took over.
Cambyses died while on his way back to Persia. ²¹

Who was King Darius of Persia in the Bible?

• Darius the Great was crowned. He reigned 522-486 B.C. He was the third Persian king of the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire):

522 B.C. ‘Darius the King’, was also known as Darius I or Darius the Great or Darius (Hystaspes) was the eldest of five sons of Hystaspes.
He served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire.
Revolts quickly started across the empire, including Persis, Media, Parthia, Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, and Darius managed to crush these conflicts.
He led military campaigns in Scythia, Greece, and parts of India, expanding his empire.
Darius’ god was Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrianism), but other religions were tolerated as long as they remained submissive and peaceful. ²²

This King Darius is not to be confused with Darius the Mede (also known as Darius son of Ahasuerus) [See: ‘Who was King Darius the son of Ahasuerus in Daniel the Bible?’]

The biblical prophet, Haggai in world history.

520 B.C. The prophet Haggai led his people in the completion of the second temple following their return from Persia to Jerusalem.
Haggai recorded four messages to the Jewish people of Jerusalem in 520 BC, eighteen years after their return from exile in Babylon.
He seems to have seen Jerusalem before the destruction of the temple and the exile in 586 BC, meaning he was more than seventy years old by the time he delivered his prophecies. ²⁴

The prophet Zechariah and the political leader, Zerubbabel, in world history.

Zechariah prophesied to the people of Judah after they returned from their seventy years of exile in Babylon.

• 519 B.C. Zechariah in Judah reassures the people about the coming Messiah and that God wants the (2nd) temple to be rebuilt:

I am going to bring my servant, the Branch…
This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
‘What are you, mighty mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground…’ “

Zechariah 3:8 & 4:6-7 NIV

Zechariah encouraged Zerubbabel after the temple foundation had been laid, but then the work stopped:

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Who are you O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it.’ “

Zechariah 4:6-9 ESV

• 519 B.C. work began on the second new temple in Jerusalem.
• 513 B.C. First iron from a furnace produced by the Chinese. ²⁵

The Roman Republic was created.

509 B.C. The Roman Republic, which theoretically was run by the people, was started and ran until 27 B.C., when it was replaced with the establishment of the Roman Empire.
There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective small group of people, not a democracy, mainly monopolised by some powerful families. ²⁶

500 B.C. timeline: King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) and King Artaxerxes I.

Continuing the timeline leading up to Jesus:

Who was King Ahasuerus in the Bible?

King Ahasuerus is found in Ezra 4:6 and 27 times in the Book of Esther and in Daniel 9:1.
Wikipedia suggests that King Ahasuerus:

…is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official (or Median king) in the Book of Tobit.
It is a transliteration of either Xerxes I or Artaxerxes; both are names of multiple Achaemenid dynasty Persian kings.
The Hebrew form is believed to have derived from the Old Persian name of Xerxes I… that became Babylonian Aḫšiyâršu and then Akšîwâršu and was borrowed as Hebrew: אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ, romanized: Ăḥašwēroš and thence into Latin as Ahasuerus, the form traditionally used in English Bibles.
The Persian name was independently rendered in Ancient Greek as Xérxēs.
Many newer English translations and paraphrases of the Bible have used the name Xerxes…
Ahasuerus is also given as the name of a King of Persia in the Book of Ezra.
Modern commentators associate him with Xerxes I who reigned from 486 to 465 B.C.
Other identifications have been made for Cambyses II or with Bardiya (Greek Smerdis) who reigned (perhaps as an imposter) for seven months between Cambyses II and Darius I.”

‘Ahasuerus’ Wikipedia.

The verses from Ezra below could be read that King Ahasuerus was the same man called King Artaxerxes, but it can also be read as two separate kings. At both times, the enemies of the Jews wrote letters to the ruling king accusing them of rebelling against the king’s authority:

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them,
‘You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.’
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia*, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia**.
And in the reign of Ahasuerus***, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days of Artaxerxes****, Bishlam and Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia.
The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows…”

Ezra 4:3-8 ESV

Here is an explanation of the above named kings:

• Cyrus II of Persia* (Cyrus the Great) reigned from 559 to 530 B.C.
• Darius, king of Persia** (Darius I and Darius the Great), ruled from 522 to 486 B.C.
• If King Ahasuerus*** was the same as King Xerxes I, he ruled from 485 to 465 B.C.
• King Artaxerxes**** ruled in Susa, Elam (now in Iran) from 465 to 425 B.C. He was an Achaemenid king of Persia and a younger son of Xerxes I. ²⁷ who relates that ‘Artaxerxes’ was the name by which he was known to the Greeks. ²⁸

  But that would not fit in with biblical timeframes.
  The best suggestion for ‘Who was King Ahasuerus in the Bible?’ appears to be King Xerxes I, who reigned from 485 to 465 B.C.

  King Xerxes I of the Persian Empire in world history.

  King Xerxes I reigned 485-465 B.C. and is best known for leading the massive invasion of Greece, marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea.
  He successfully put down revolts in Babylonia and Egypt, but the battles with Greece weakened his influence.
  Xerxes was assassinated by one of his own ministers, Artabanus, who wanted the Persian throne, but he was subsequently killed by one of Xerxes’ sons, Artaxerxes, who became the next Achaemenid king. ²⁹

  Confucius, the Spartans and a marathon runner.

  • Around 500 B.C. Confucius’ moral teachings gain many followers.
  • c. 495 B.C. Pythagoras, an Ionian Greek philosopher, dies.
  • c. 490 B.C. The first Marathon runner: The Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon, and a messenger bearing the news supposedly died doing so.
  • 480 B.C. 300 Spartans resisted King Xerxes I with an estimated army of 100,000 to 150,000 for 3 days in the battle of Thermopylae, but a resident betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small path used by shepherds.
  • 465 B.C. King Xerxes of Persia is assassinated along with his eldest son Darius by the commander of the royal bodyguard.
  • 460 B.C. Herodotus, the ‘Father of History,’ writes his account of the Greco-Persian Wars. ³⁰

  Who was King Artaxerxes in the Bible?

  King Artaxerxes I reigned 465 to 424 B.C. was King Xerxes’ third son, and he was the fifth Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire) king.
  King Artaxerxes I commissioned Ezra, a kohen (priest) and scribe, through a decree letter to take charge of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jewish nation – see below. ³¹

  Ezra the Scribe left Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem.

  

  458 B.C. Ezra (c. 480–440 B.C.) was also called Ezra the Priest.
  He was living in Babylon when, in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes I of Persia, he was sent to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God to any who did not know them.
  He then led a large body of exiles back to Jerusalem.

  There is a modern theory that tries to reverse the historical order of Ezra and Nehemiah, but this introduces serious difficulties.
  The Chronicler’s order of Ezra can be shown to be consistent both with itself and with external history; it is only reasonable to take the view that Ezra came to Jerusalem in 458 B.C. and Nehemiah in 445 B.C.
  See a very detailed article, ‘The Date of Ezra’s Coming to Jerusalem,’ by the Rev. John Stafford Wright [1905-1985], M.A. ³³

  The prophets Zechariah, Nehemiah and Malachi in world history, 450 B.C. timeline:

  King Artaxerxes I continued to reign, and he provided protection for the Jews:

  So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo.
  They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.”

  Ezra 6:14 NIV

  • 450 B.C. The followers of Pythagoras proposed that the Earth revolves around its own axis and moves in an orbit.
    450 B.C. Empedocles believed that all matter is made up of earth, fire, air and water. ³⁴

  Nehemiah was the prophet and served King Artaxerxes I.

  445 or 444 B.C. Nehemiah was cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes I.

  In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king.
  I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me,
  ‘Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.’
  I was very much afraid, but I said to the king,
  ‘May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?’
  The king said to me, ‘What is it you want?’
  Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king,
  ‘If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favour in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.‘
  Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, ‘How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?’
  It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time…
  Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem.
  Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.
  I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.
  I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.
  I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.
  So I rebuked the officials and asked them, ‘Why is the house of God neglected?’ “

  Nehemiah 2:1-6 & 13:6-11 NIV

  The prophet Malachi and world history

  The name ‘Malachi‘ simply means ‘My Messenger’ and may not be the author’s name at all.

  • c. 432 B.C. The prophet Malachi predicted the coming of John the Baptist and the Messiah:

  I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.
  Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple;
  the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty.”

  Malachi 3:1 NIV

  There were no more prophets after Malachi until Jesus was born; therefore there was over 400 years of silence.

  • 431 B.C. The Second Peloponnesian War starts, which prompts Thucydides to write his great History of the Peloponnesian War. ³⁵

  c. 420 B.C. Greek historian Herodotus dies. He’s now known as the ‘father of history’.

  400 B.C. Rome started to rise up.

  Middle Iron Age in Britain.

  • 400–100 B.C. British Middle Iron Age. They dug terraces on hills to increase crop productivity. They lived in round wattle and daub huts with thatched roofs, whereas further north they lived in long rectangular huts built of stone with animal skin roofs. The priests of Britain were the Druids.

  

  • 399 B.C. The Greek philosopher Socrates committed suicide, leaving Plato and his other disciples behind.
  • 387 B.C. Celtic invasion sacked Rome (and West Central Italy). But the Roman Republic later conquered the whole Italian peninsula in a century.
  • 371 B.C. Sparta, the main ruling power of the Greek world, was defeated by Thebes.

  350 B.C. Alexander’s Empire

  Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Empire.

  

  • 343 B.C. Aristotle was employed in Macedon as a tutor to the 13-year-old heir to the throne, Alexander.
  • 340 B.C. Alexander the Great, at the age of sixteen, conducted his first successful military campaign – against the Thracians. ³⁸
  • 335 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Thebes and massacred over 6000 men, women and children. He devised long-range catapults to shoot heavy arrows.
  • 332 B.C. The City of Tyre fell.
  • 331 B.C. Alexander the Great made Pharaoh of Egypt.
  • 327 B.C. Alexander the Great penetrated deep into India. He became more jealous and irrational, executing close advisers and friends.
  • 323 B.C. Alexander the Great died at age 33.
  • 322 B.C. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and scientist, died. (He was a disciple of Plato).

  300 B.C. timeline: The Carthage Empire.

  Carthage was located in present-day Tunisia.
  Founded around 814 B.C. as a colony of Tyre, it was one of the richest and most powerful cities in antiquity, and the centre of a major commercial and maritime empire that dominated the western Mediterranean until the mid-third century B.C.

  

  • 280 B.C. The Septuagint was written – The Jews of Alexandria commissioned the Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint.
    275 B.C. Carthage subdued northern Africa and Spain, mainly due to its huge sailing fleet.
  • 270 B.C. On the small Greek island of Samos, an astronomer, Aristarchus, came to the startling conclusion that the Earth is in orbit around the sun.
  • 264 B.C. Rome and Carthage clash, leading to the First Punic War. ⁴⁰
  • 260 B.C. Rome copied Carthage’s shipbuilding techniques and.
  • 256 B.C., Rome destroyed the Carthaginian fleet at the Battle of Ecnomus.

  250 B.C. timeline: Rome and Carthage.

  • c. 249 B.C. Rome was defeated at sea in several battles by Carthage.
  • 241 B.C. Carthage surrendered to Rome and so ended the Punic War.
  • 225 B.C. Rome advanced on Gaul, a Celtic heartland.
  • 226 B.C. The great statue, the ‘Colossus of Rhodes’, crashed down in an earthquake. It had straddled the harbour and stood approximately the same height as the modern Statue of Liberty from feet to crown.

  Qin Dynasty and the Great Wall of China.

  • c. 221 B.C. China became united under Qin Shi Huang (Emperor Qin Zheng) who declared himself: ‘The first Autocratic Emperor’. Work started on the Great Wall of China.

  The Rise of Hannibal.

  

  • 218 to 213 B.C. Hannibal from Carthage had 4 major victories over Rome. Hannibal, with the Gauls, marched over the Pyrenees and then the Alps.
  • c. 212 B.C. Archimedes, a Greek Mathematician and inventor, was killed by the Romans.
  • 202 B.C. Hannibal and Carthage were finally defeated by Rome.

  The Han Dynasty in China.

  • c. 202 B.C. the oppressive Qin Dynasty ended, and the Han Dynasty begins, the second imperial dynasty of China.

  200 B.C. timeline: Greece and Macedonia.

  • c. 200 B.C. Antiochus III (Antiochus the Great), king of Macedonia, invaded Syria, Parthia, Bactria, Palestine, and Lebanon and fought against Pharaoh Ptolemy V of Egypt.
  • c. 173 B.C. Many Jews adopted Greek names and clothing and built an arena for Greek games.

  King Antiochus IV desecrated the temple in Jerusalem

  • c. 167 B.C. King Antiochus IV (nicknamed Epiphanes) desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig; the Greek soldiers had sex in the courtyard; a statue of Zeus was set up in the temple; the Scriptures were burnt; and the practice of circumcision and the Sabbath was banned.

  There is a prophecy in Daniel that appears to point to this horrible situation:

  Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him, and he will lose heart.
  Then he will turn back and vent his fury against the holy covenant.
  He will return and show favour to those who forsake the holy covenant.
  His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice.
  Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.
  With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him…”

  Daniel 11:30-32 NIV

  See an article: ‘The abomination of desolation and interpreting prophecy.’

  The Judas Maccabeus uprising.

  • 167 B.C. Judas Maccabeus carried out 2 years of guerrilla warfare and retook Jerusalem. He restored the temple.
  • 161 B.C. Judas Maccabeus was killed in battle.

  150 B.C. timeline: The formation of the Pharisees and world history.

  • 149 B.C. Rome quarrelled with Carthage, which started the Third Punic War, and Rome won in 146 B.C.
  • 141 B.C. Simon Maccabeus negotiated peace with King Demetrius II of Syria.
  • 140 B.C. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus is credited with the invention of the astrolabe, measuring the angle of the sun or star above the horizon.
  • 140 B.C. The priestly Sadducees were confronted in the Sanhedrin by a new opposition party – the Pharisees.
  • 130 B.C. Mapmaking: Hipparchus proposed a grid of 360° of latitude and longitude.
  • 129 B.C. A scientific star catalogue mapped 850 stars by Hipparchus. ⁴²
  • 105 B.C. Simon’s son John Hyrcanus died after expanding Judea eastward, to the north. He captured Shechem, the capital of the Samaritans and their temple and in the south he invaded Edom.

  100 B.C. timeline: Pharisees and Roman advances.

  • 100–50 B.C. British Late Iron Age
  • c. 100 B.C. Pharisees gained influence – they interpreted the Mosaic Law. But a disagreement broke out with the Sadducees, and more than 6000 people died in the riot.
  • 88 B.C. The Pharisees organised an uprising against King Alexander Jannaeus (son of John Hyrcanus, who was a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, a priestly family that established an independent Judean state). ⁴³ Hundreds of Pharisees ended up being crucified.

  Spartacus’ uprising.

  • 71 B.C. The rebellion was led by the slave Spartacus, with 90,000 fellow slaves, but Crassus destroyed them in three battles and crucified thousands of them.
  • 69 B.C. Salome Alexander became queen, wife of Alexander Jannaeus (the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty in the kingdom of Judaea) after he was killed in battle. She reinstated the Pharisees.

  The Roman general Pompey.

  • 63 B.C., the Roman general Pompey seized Jerusalem after a 3 month siege, and he looked around the forbidden Holy of Holies, but he didn’t loot the temple, and he allowed them to continue their religious duties.

  Julius Caesar.

  In 59 B.C. Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome, helped Caesar get elected as senior Roman consul, and then together Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed an informal alliance, ‘the First Triumvirate’.
  The union terrified the Roman Senate, who knew that such a partnership would prove unstoppable, and they soon controlled Rome.
  Caesar conducted a series of brilliant campaigns in Gaul, but his relationship with Crassus and Pompey broke down, and Caesar returned to Rome, where his armies pursued Pompey to Spain, Greece, and finally, Egypt.
  The pharaoh in Egypt had Pompey killed because he was scared of Caesar’s armies. ⁴⁴

  • 56 B.C. Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

  50 B.C. timeline: Rome’s domination.

  • 46 B.C. Julius Caesar became the sole leader of Rome. He fathered a child by Queen Cleopatra.
  • 45 B.C. A new Julian Calendar based on 365 days per year was introduced (the previous ones were chaotic – one being 10 months giving 304 days and then a variable winter gap to make up the remaining days!)
  • 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and others.

  King Herod was made king of the Jews.

  • 39 or 40 B.C. Herod was made king of Judea by Octavian. A bad choice for the Jews, as he was of Edomite descent.
  • 27 B.C. Augustus (originally named Octavian) became the first emperor of the new Roman Empire.
  • 19 B.C. King Herod built a new temple in Jerusalem along with a palace for himself, theatres, stadiums and a temple to Augustus in Sebaste, which was in Samaria. He also named the new harbour town ‘Caesarea’.

  

  The year Jesus was born.

  Theologians assume that Jesus was born anytime from 6 B.C. to 1 B.C.

  See an article, ‘When was Jesus born?‘ which takes into consideration the dates of the crucifixion, Jesus’ baptism, the temple’s age, King Herod’s death, the date of the census and the details in Luke three.

  2 B.C. is the highest contender for Jesus’ birth year because it appears in all six criteria.

  More detailed articles covering: Jesus Christ’s birth, life, crucifixion and rising from the dead:
  Jesus’ childhood and birth. God’s new work before miracles…
  Evidence of Jesus Christ – Non-Christian
  Jews and Jesus – Judaism’s perspective
  Turin Shroud and Sudarium of Oviedo
  The Star of Bethlehem: when was it? Planets or stars?

  References and credits – open in new tabs:

  ---

  1. ‘The Bible Chronicle – The Events of the Bible Retold and Linked to World History’ by Derek Williams. Editorial Consultants: Dr Carl Armerding, Professor of History of the Old Testament, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada. Dr John Bimson, Librarian and Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew, Trinity Theological College, Bristol, UK. Gordon McConville, Professor, Old Testament, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, UK. David Wenham, Professor, New Testament, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0 86347 183 3 ↩

  2. ‘Pre-industrial Ironworks’ Historic England. 2011 ↩

  3. ‘Cambyses I’ The British Museum. ↩

  4. ‘Necho II’ Wikipedia last edited on 18 January 2024 ↩

  5. ‘Ishtar Gate’ Wikipedia Rictor Norton, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons ↩

  6. ‘Jeremiah’ Wikipedia last edited on 18 January 2024. ↩

  7. ‘Timeline: 6th Century BCE’ Oxford Reference. 2012. ↩

  8. ‘Nebuchadnezzar II’ Wikipedia ↩

  9. Daniel 3:25 ESV ↩

  10. ‘How Cyrus the Great Turned Ancient Persia Into a Superpower’ by Christopher Klein. History.com, 14 July 2022 ↩

  11. ‘Timeline: 6th Century BCE’ Oxford Reference. 2012. ↩

  12. ‘Belshazzar’s Feast (Rembrandt)’ Wikipedia Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons ↩

  13. R. P. Dougherty, Nabonidus and Belshazzar (1929); C. J. Gadd, “The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus,” Anatolian Studies, VIII (1958), 35-92. ↩

  14. ‘Belshazzar’ Bible Gateway. ↩

  15. ‘Achashverosh’ Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Bible Hub. ↩

  16. ‘Ahasuerus’ Wikipedia last edited on 14 December 2023. ↩

  17. ‘Darius the Mede’ Wikipedia last edited on 8 December 2023 ↩

  18. ‘Darius the Mede’ Bible Gateway. ↩

  19. Adam Clarke, ‘The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes’, New Edition., vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014), 588–589. ↩

  20. ‘Zerubbabel’ Wikipedia last edited on 5 January 2024 ↩

  21. ‘Cambyses II’ by Daan Nijssen The World History Encyclopedia. 18 May 2018 ↩

  22. ‘Darius I’ by Radu Cristian. World History Encyclopedia. 10 April 2017. ↩

  23. Image credit: Ekvcpa, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. 13 January 2019  ↩

  24. ‘Haggai’ by Chuck Swindoll. Insight for Living Ministries. 2009. ↩

  25. ‘Timeline: 6th Century BCE’ Oxford Reference. 2012. ↩

  26. ‘Roman Republic’ Wikipedia last edited on 28 January 2024 ↩

  27. ‘Artaxerxes I, king of Persia, ‘ Encyclopaedia Britannica

In the ‘Ahasuerus’ page on Wikipedia, it also says that some historical authorities have believed that King Ahasuerus is the same as King Artaxerxes, including Josephus, ((Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, chapter 6, section 1 ↩