What is the context?
Darius orders a search of the archives associated with Babylon’s treasury. A memorandum is found at the fortress of Ecbatana in Media.
The document confirms Cyrus’s order that the temple be rebuilt for sacrifice. It records dimensions and construction details, directs that costs be paid from the royal treasury, and requires the return of the gold and silver temple articles.
The elders’ claim now has a written royal record behind it. The narrative moves from their report of Cyrus’s permission to the discovery of the permission itself.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley and Gill understand the search as extending beyond Babylon to the place where the memorandum is found. Both discuss the temple’s dimensions, offering different ways of relating them to Solomon’s building. The clearest point of the document for the story is its confirmation of permission, funding and the returned articles.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.