Modified 09/14/15 Who Was the Fourth King in Dan 11:2? Frank W. Hardy And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. (Dan 11:2) Ezra 4 1. Cyrus II (559-530) vs. 5 2. Darius I (522-486) vs. 5 3. Xerxes I (486-465) vs. 6 4. Artaxerxes I (465-424) vs. 23 5. Darius I (522-486) vs. 24 Dan 11 (proposed) 1. Cambyses II (530-522) 2. Bardiya (522) 3. Darius I (522-486) 4. Xerxes (486-465) The fourth king listed In Ezra 4 is Artaxerxes I (465-424). In Dan 11:2 we are told that three others would arise in Persia and that the next king the angel wanted to talk about was the fourth. Can we reason from Ezra to Daniel in this regard and argue that because Artaxerxes is fourth in Ezra he should also be fourth in Daniel? That possibility is attractive, but doesn’t work. The lists in Ezra 4 and Dan 11 are quite different from each other. Daniel requires us to start counting after Cyrus II The Great (559-53) and to include his next three successors. Since the text does not tell us who these are, we must go to history to learn their names. History tells us that the next three men to occupy the throne of Persia after Cyrus were Cambyses II (530- 522), Bardiya (522), and Darius I (522-486). The king who ruled next after Darius was Xerxes. Thus in Daniel Xerxes is the fourth king. But in arriving at this result, have we counted correctly? What the text of Daniel says is that “three more kings shall arise in Persia.” It doesn’t say they would arise for the right reasons, or that they would rule for the right period of time; only that they would arise. This in context is the meaning of the word cōmdîm “arising.” Bardiya was a usurper who had no business ruling, but he did rule – for seven months. During this time he even achieved a certain measure of popularity, because he promised a three-year program of tax relief. But the important thing about Bardiya for our purposes is not that he was a usurper, or that he ruled seven months. Daniel says nothing about such matters. What he does say is, “three more kings shall arise in Persia.” Bardiya was a king, he arose in Persia, and during the time he was in power he was the only one in power. There were no other claimants to the throne during his rule. Thus he qualifies as one of the three based on what the angel tells us in Dan 11:2. The text requires that we include him. Page 1 Hardy Fourth King The information Ezra gives us is quite different. He gives names of kings but does not tell us how to count them, or that we should count them. And the names he gives are not in a continuous bloc. Between Cyrus and Darius there is a period of eight years that Ezra does not account for (the reign of Cyrus ends in 530 and that of Darius begins in 522). Nor is there anything wrong with the way Ezra does this. His purpose is not to tell us who ruled Persia, but to bring together an account of how the temple was restored after the Jews’ return from exile. Certain kings contributed to this process and these are the ones he talks about. So if we wish to count in Ezra as we must count in Daniel, we would have to exclude Cyrus. If we exclude Cyrus, there is no fourth king (Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, . .), because the Darius who follows Artaxerxes in Ezra’s list (4:23) is the same as the Darius that we find in 4:5. In both cases the reference is to Darius I The Great (522-486). 1 On the other hand, if we wish to count in Daniel as we must count in Ezra (including Cyrus, but following the rest of what Daniel tells us), the fourth king is Darius I (Cyrus II, Cambyses II, Bardiya, Darius I). If the above arguments are wrong and Artaxerxes is the fourth king in Dan 11:2 after all, we have a historical problem, because Artaxerxes (465-424) ruled immediately after Xerxes (486-465). The reason why this fact is problematic is that Xerxes was by far the wealthiest king to rule Persia during the fifth century and the text says the fourth king would be richer than “all of them.” If Xerxes was the fourth, all difficulty vanishes. If Artaxerxes was the fourth king, he would have to be richer than Xerxes. And not merely richer, but “far richer.” This would be hard to do and hard to imagine doing, because Xerxes’ wealth was incalculable. No one, including Artaxerxes, ever matched it. Another problem corresponding to the first is that Artaxerxes did not lead a military campaign against Greece. Xerxes had already done that in the previous reign. In summary, Daniel asks us to count the kings, but does not tell us who they are; Ezra tells us who the kings are, but does not ask us to count them. Daniel requires us to leave Cyrus out and put Cambyses I and Bardiya in; Ezra requires us to put Cyrus in and leave Cambyses I and Bardiya out. These are different lists, they serve different purposes, and the kings referenced in them must be counted using different methodologies. It would be unsafe to reason from the one list to the other in order to determine who the fourth is in Dan 11:2. 1 Shea taught that the king list in Ezra is proleptic. It goes forward out of sequence, mentioning both Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I. The chronological baseline for the chapter is the reign of Darius I. Page 2 .