This book presents a ground-breaking study which re-dates the temple to the reign of Artaxerxes I and considers the most cogent history of the building of the second temple. It reviews the historical inconsistencies in Ezra 1-6 and examines the likely boundaries of Yehud under Artaxerxes I.

Introduction 1. When Generations Really Count: Dating Zerubbabel and Nehemiah using Genealogical Information in the Book of Nehemiah 2. What's in a Date? The Unreliable Nature of the Dates in Haggai and Zechariah 3. It's all in the Sources: The Historicity of the Account of Temple-Rebuilding in Ezra 1-6 4. Setting the Bounds: The Territory Comprising Yehud under Artaxerxes I in the Mid-Fifth Century BCE 5. Excavating the Past: Settlement Patterns and Military Installations in Persian-Era Yehud 6. Piety or Pragmatism? The Policy of Artaxerxes I for the Development of Yehud