Ezra

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NASB	Ezra 4:23 ¶ Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.
AMPLIFIED 2015	Ezra 4:23 ¶ Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they went up hurriedly to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them stop [work] by force of arms.

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Bible Question: I think you misunderstand my question. It is not Darius who I'm questioning it is Artaxerxes. He wrote the letter to stop work on the temple, Artaxerxes wasn't king until 465 BC that's 50 years after the temple was completed. How could Artaxerxes stop the building. At this period in time he would probably still be a child, considering he reigned until 424 BC. Which would mean if he was 1 year old in 519 BC he would have been 95 years old at the end of his reign

Bible Answer: This is a very difficult and confusing passage. And I know of two views. One that conflicts with other information and for that reason I discount it. In the explanation I discount they move the completion of the Temple up to 450 BC but too many other places establish the temple was complete in 519-515 BC.

However the view I think is right is this the writer of Ezra was recording the historical events of the rebuilding of the temple and Jerusalem. As he got to Ezra 4:4 He is talking about people that try to discourage or stop. In verse 5 and 6 he relates the history of attempts during Darius time and again in Ahasuerus time. It is almost like he is doing a breaking news report because in verse 7 he says and in days of Artazerxes they tried again. He then explains what takes place in the mosty current attempt. Ending in verse 23 where he states the Artaxeres issue a edict to cease work. Then in verse 24 and on into chapter 5 we see revert back to history telling how Darius stopped the building and how it later resumed.

As I said this passage is very difficult but if you read verses 4-7 you get a hint of what is going on. However if you approach this as something is wrong it is very hard to see. The fact remains in chapter 6:15 it clearly states the temple work was restored and completed in 6 th year of Darius which as I stated is around 519-515 BC.

If this was a mistake or a lie I would imagine every scribe would have caught this since it is so close together. However in every commentary I read that offers an explanation they matter of factly agree the writer is digressing back and forth in time.
EdB