[Avodah] achashveros

[Eli Turkel]

<< Honestly.  He wrote an entire book arguing about how Chazal were totally
wrong about the Persian period.  The fascinating thing is that his primary
reason for holding this position is that Greek sources say they were.  But
then in this article, he suggests numerous times that
Herodotus was wrong about fairly major things. >>

The problem is that Tanach agrees with Herodotus and not with Chazal. In
order for the Talmud to use their chronology they are forced to say that
various different names in Tanach refer to the same king while in fact the
list aligns exactly with various Greek sources.

Furthermore it is highly unlikely that Greek historians made up the
Greco-Persian wars. Cyrus captured some Ionian islands and eventually
Babylonia. Darius of course had major battles against the Greeks including
Marathon in 490 BCE,
The Peloponnesian War*,* is usually given as 431 to 404 BCE. ie it ended
almost 90 years later way more than the entire length of the Persian empire
according to Chazal. It is again highly unlikely that Greek historians
could be that far off on events that most Greeks would know about.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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