person
Artaxerxes
אַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתָּא
Artaxerxes was the Persian king who allowed Ezra and Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1,11-12,21; Neh.2.1; 5:14).
- verses
- 14
- first named
- Ezra 4:7
- last named
- Nehemiah 13:6
- period
- Exile and Return
- tribe
- Persia
Description
Who was Artaxerxes?
Artaxerxes was a Persian king who ruled during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. In the seventh year of his reign, he authorized Ezra the priest and scribe to lead a group of Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem. Artaxerxes gave Ezra a letter granting him authority to teach the law, appoint magistrates and judges, and requisition supplies from the provincial treasuries. In Artaxerxes' twentieth year, his cupbearer Nehemiah learned that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and asked the king for permission to return and rebuild them. Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah to Judah as governor, with letters authorizing him to obtain timber for the walls. He is probably to be identified with Artaxerxes I Longimanus, who ruled the Persian Empire from 465 to 424 BC.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 15 are drawn. All 15 are listed below.
Places
Where this happens
The places the claims about this person reach, drawn where the gazetteer locates them. A point is where a row puts them and never where tradition does; no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.
The pattern
Where Artaxerxes is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
14 verses across 2 of 66 books; 64 write the name nowhere. Named in Ezra (11) and Nehemiah (3).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 14, across 2 books. The name is written 15 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Ezra 4Artaxerxes received the accusation, ordered a search of the records, and commanded that Jerusalem should not be rebuilt.
- Ezra 7Artaxerxes sent Ezra to Jerusalem, funded the house of God, exempted its servants from tribute, and ordered the law to be taught and enforced.
- Ezra 8Artaxerxes contributed to the house of God and was the king whose escort Ezra was ashamed to request.
- Nehemiah 2Artaxerxes notices the servant’s sadness, hears his request, grants it, and sends officers and cavalry with him.
- Nehemiah 5Artaxerxes appointed Nehemiah governor in the land of Judah.
- Nehemiah 13Artaxerxes was the king to whom the narrator returned before obtaining leave to go back to Jerusalem.
Sources