Geography and History in Herodotus and in Ezra-Nehemiah‪.‬

The sequence of the Persian kings (1) is out of order in the Aramaic section of Ezra 4:7-6:18. (2) The Hebrew introduction to the section, Ezra 4:4-5, states that there was conflict over the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple from the time of Cyrus in the late sixth century B.C.E. to the reign of Darius in the late fifth century B.C.E. Ezra 4:24 repeats the message of 4:4-5 by noting the completion of the temple under Darius. Yet Ezra 4:7-23 contains an exchange of letters between Rehum and the Persian king Artaxerxes I to account for the delay in the construction of the temple, even though Artaxerxes I ruled after Darius in the fourth century B.C.E. (3) H. G. M. Williamson identified the repetition of Ezra 4:4-5 and 24 as resumptive, indicating that Ezra 4:7-23 is intended to be a digression. (4) Resumptive repetitions emphasize the spatial organization of literature over chronology and temporal sequence. The setting of a story often emerges as the point of focus in spatially organized literature. (5) Yet past interpretations of Ezra 4:7-23 have ignored a spatial interpretation of the correspondence between Rehum and Artaxerxes, even though the disruption of historical sequence encourages such a reading.