31. Ewald Utterly Refuted in the Argument Regarding the Title “King of Persia”

Ewald Utterly Refuted in the Argument Regarding the Title “King of Persia”

Second, the critics affirm that Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles were put together in their present form by the same redactor and that this redactor must have lived in the Greek period, because he calls the kings of Persia by the title “king of Persia.” The great German critic, Ewald, said it was “unnecessary and contrary to contemporary usage” to call the kings of Persia by the title “king of Persia” during the time that the kings of Persia actually ruled; and that consequently the presence of this title in a document shows that the document must have been written after the Persian empire had ceased to exist. The present writer has shown by a complete induction of all the titles of the kings of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, and all the other nations of that part of the world including the Hebrews themselves, from 4000 B.C. down to Augustus, that it was the custom in all times, languages, and kingdoms to use titles similar to this. Further, he has shown that the title “king of Persia” was given by Nabunaid, king of Babylon, to Cyrus in 546 B.C., seven years before the first use of it in the Bible, and that it is used by Xenophon in 365 B.C., probably forty years after it is used for the last time in the Bible. Further, he has shown that, between 546 and 365 B.C., it was used thirty-eight different times by eighteen different authors, in nineteen different documents, in six different languages, and in five or six different countries; and that it is used in letters and dates in Scripture just as it is used in the extra-Biblical documents. Lastly, he has shown that it was not usual for the Greek authors after the Persian period to employ the title.