The thesis of this study is that the Persian kings named Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are one and the same. This is not a new understanding, but an examination of recent commentaries on these books shows that this possibility is not even entertained, so certain are these expositors that Ahasuerus is the king the Greeks called Xerxes and that Artaxerxes is Artaxerxes Longimanus.
James Jordan demonstrates, however, that the common identifications of these kings is problematic and that understanding their common identity sheds considerable light on the nature of the texts under consideration.
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