----- Original Message ----- From: "David Friedman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Baha'i Studies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 6:48 PM Subject: Rebuilding of Jerusalem
> I'm not seeing how 'Abdu'l-Baha is fully accurate here. Do we really have > four edicts concerning the rebuilding and restoration of Jerusalem? I fail > to see any mention of this in the first three, but rather they refer to the > house of God only. 'Abdu'l-Baha specifically says that Darius issued an > edict concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ezra 6, but on reading the > chapter I see no such thing. Nehemiah 2:1-5 says that the city had yet to > be rebuilt. In this chapter an edict concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem > is mentioned. It seems to me that the restoration of Jerusalem was a process, including the temple, the precious things that went in the temple, the return of the exiles, the walls and the financing of all of this. The last edict was issued when Nehemiah said in effect, 'What about the walls?'. From this point of view, none of these elements make sense without the others, their a set, all part of the restoration of Jerusalem. > I'm a little puzzled as to why Daniel would have been referring to the third > edict especially, given that this edict isn't the best match to what > 'Abdu'l-Baha mentions, not being about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Or is > this interpretation held just so that we can have a prophecy of Jesus here? Daniel 9:23-27 gives the prophesy of the terrible fulfilment of the 70 week period, which so clearly refers to the martyrdom of Christ. People such as William Miller must have been able to count back to correct date for the edict and then count the 2300 years to 1844. The numbers work, thats why tens of thousands of Christians were expecting the second advent 1843/1844. At the moment I haven't enough time to look at the following points, but they look interesting. Regards, Geoff Smith > Did the rebuilding of Jerusalem take 49 years? According to Nehemiah it was > finished in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes' reign, which is more than > two decades before 408 BC. It took only twelve years. Was Nehemiah wrong? > 'Abdu'l-Baha wrote: > > After a general massacre, and the sacking and razing of their houses and > even the uprooting of their trees, he took captive whatever remnants his > sword had spared and carried them off to Babylon. Seventy years later the > descendants of these captives were released and went back to Jerusalem. > Then Hezekiah and Ezra reestablished in their midst the fundamental > principles of the Holy Book, and day by day the Israelites advanced, and the > morning-brightness of their earlier ages dawned again. > (`Abdu'l-Baha: Secret of Divine Civilization, Page: 78) > > This is interesting, because the Bible does not connect Hezekiah and Ezra. > The two who reestablished the fundamental principles were Nehemiah and Ezra, > according to the Bible. Is the Bible wrong, or is there something about > 'Abdu'l-Baha's infallibility I don't know? Can He err in non-essential > matters or something, unlike the Manifestation? The names Hezekiah and > Nehemiah both end with "iah" so it would appear that He confused the names > (note also that Hezekiah accomplished something similar to Nehemiah). > Hezekiah came before the fall of Jerusalem. > > _________________________________________________________________ > Find your perfect match @ http://personals.xtramsn.co.nz with XtraMSN > Personals! > > > ---------- > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Baha'i Studies is available through the following: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st > news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st > http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public) > ---------- You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://list.jccc.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=bahai-st news://list.jccc.net/bahai-st http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist (public) http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (public)
