A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

(tt) He that was the Son of Histaspes.] This is the opinion of Josephus, of Clemens Alexandrinus, of St. Jerome and Theodoret. Scaliger thinks, that it was Darius Nothus, because there is mention made here of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes his Predeces∣sors, whom he takes to be Xerxes and Longima∣nus; but it is an easie matter to answer him, by saying, that these names are given in Scripture, without any discrimination, to all the Kings of Persia; and that by them we may understand Cyrus and Cambyses the Predecessors of Darius the Son of Histaspes, or Cambyses and Smerdis, or, if we please, Cambyses himself, to whom the Scri∣pture gives two Names. Scaliger's other Argu∣ment is stronger; he says that Zechariah and Hag∣gai Prophesied at the same time. And Zechariah in the first Chapter, vers. 12. and in the 7th, vers. 5. testifies, That when he wrote, the People of Is∣rael had been Threescore and Ten years in Affli∣ction, and that God was Angry with them. Now the Second year of Darius, the Son of Histaspes, is not the 70th year of the Captivity. To this it is answered, That the Prophet Zechariah does not say, that it was 70 years since the Children of Is∣rael were in Captivity; neither that they were then in Captivity, but he only says in general Terms; that they had been in Affliction, and that God had poured down his Indignation upon them for the space of Threescore and Ten years, which ought to be understood of the 70 years of the Captivity, although it was already past. The Hebrew and Greek Phrase in this passage no more denotes the present time, than the past. One un∣deniable Argument to prove, that Haggai wrote in the time of Darius, the Son of Histaspes, is this, that speaking of the second Temple, in ch. 2. ver. 3. he says, Who is left amongst you that saw this House in her first Glory? Quis in vobis est derelictus, qui vi∣dit Domum istam in Gloriâ suâ Primâ? Now if this had been Written under Darius Nothus, these Per∣sons ought to have been 176 years old, or there∣about; and it wou'd follow, that Ezrah was 100 years old, Zorobabel and Joshua 140, for so great a space of time there is from the first year of Cyrus down to the time of Darius Nothus.