Ezra 6:1-12 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-12

Ezra 6:1-2 Kings : . The King’ s Reply according his Permission tor the Building to be Continued.

Ezra 6:1 . a decree: the actual decree does not begin until Ezra 6:8.

Ezra 6:2 . Achmetha: cf. Tob_3:7 ; i.e. Ecbatana, in Media, the summer residence of the Persian kings.— a roll: in this case more probably a cylindrical clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform characters; but the fact that a “ roll” is mentioned shows that the Jews of Ezra’ s time were unfamiliar with that form of writing.

Ezra 6:3-Deuteronomy : . This purports to be a copy of Cyrus’ decree ( cf. Ezra 1:1-1 Kings :); it is, however, not a transcript of this, but contains the gist of the original coloured by the Chronicler; the text is not in good order.

Ezra 6:6 f. The formal injunction to the governor to permit the building to proceed. The abrupt commencement “ Now therefore” suggests that some intervening matter in Darius’ reply has been left out, presumably because the Chronicler did not consider it important.— be ye far from thence: i.e. keep away from there, namely, where the building was going on; there was to be no interference with the Jews; the more friendly feeling which had sprung up would not be known of in Persia.

Ezra 6:8-2 Kings : . The decree of Darius. Here again it is abundantly clear that this is no transcript, but merely the general drift of the decree embellished according to the Chronicler’ s ideas.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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