Nehemiah 12:22

were recorded chief of the fathers R.V. were recorded heads of fathers" houses. The language is obscure on account of the abruptness with which the statement is introduced. The meaning seems to be that during the four high-priesthoods mentioned, a full register of the heads of fathers" houses among the Levites was kept.

to the reign of Darius the Persian R.V. in (marg. Or, to) the reign. The preposition (literally -upon") concerning which the doubt is expressed in the alternative rendering of the R.V. is rendered in the LXX. ἐν βασιλείᾳ and the Vulg. -in regno." It may be considered very questionable whether the rendering -to" is admissible; -in" is certainly preferable.

Darius the Persian That this Darius is Darius III. Codomannus (336 331) is the most obvious explanation. And if the Jaddua mentioned in this verse be, as there is really no reason to doubt, the high-priest of Alexander's time, the mention of Darius III. Codomannus, the contemporary Persian king, presents no difficulty. On the title -the Persian," see the Introduction.

The alternative preferred by some commentators, viz. that Darius Nothus (424 404 b.c.), the successor of Artaxerxes, is intended, is improbable after the mention of Jaddua's enrolment, unless it be maintained that this Jaddua is not the high-priest of Alexander's time. But it must also be evident that the reference to Jaddua is to his tenure of the high-priesthood. The attempt to reconcile the mention of Jaddua with the allusion to Darius Nothus, by the suggestion that Darius Nothus was king when Jaddua was born, only arises from the presupposition that none but Nehemiah could have written this chapter.