Reading the Bible in Historical Sequence Part 9Sample

Just before Daniel’s death c.538 BC (in his early 90s), the angel gives him a summary of future kingdoms: first about Persia, Greece, Ptolemies, Seleucids and their struggles; then the rise of the Antichrist, the tribulation period and the Lord fighting for Israel. In 529 BC and again in 522 BC the Samaritans write to Babylon claiming the Jews are in rebellion and will not pay tribute. So Artaxerxes stops the work.

Note 1 (Daniel 11:21f): These verses describe the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria several hundred years later (c.215 BC–164 BC).

Note 2 (Ezra 4:7–23): Ussher considered Artaxerxes, who decreed the work should stop, was not Artaxerxes I who ruled 50 years later but the name given to one of the Magi who ruled the Persian empire for a few months after Cambyses (Cyrus’ son) died in 522 BC.