An Historical Account ofJesus 25The cavalcade moving towards Ierusalem was composed of
42,360 Jews. In addition, they carried with them 7,337servants and
women, including 200 singing men and singing girls. This caravan
wasmountedon 736 horses, 245 mules,435 carnels, and6,720 asses.
(Ezra 2: 64-69).This was in addition to the animals which carried
the treasure which they had amassed.
On reaching [erusalern, the [ews began to plan the reconstruc
tionof theTemple, andfor this purpose, theycollected61,000drams
of gold and 5,000 pounds of silver, Thiswas in addition to the treas
ure which they had brought with them from Babylon which was
comprised of thirty horses laden with gold, and one thousand car
rying silver. In addition, there were 5,400 gold and silver vessels to
be placed in the Temple once it had been rebuilt. (Ezra 1: 9-11).The
captives who retumed to [erusalern had grown both in number
and in wealth.
Not all of the Jews who had been exiled in Babylon retumed to
[erusalem immediately. Although the rebuilding of theTemple was
completed by about 515 Be, sorne of the 'Babylonian' Jews did not
retum until about 458 Be. They were led by Ezra, who was later
joined by Nehemiah, a Jew appointed by the Persians as their new
govemor of [udah.
Il is said that one of the reasons for Ezra's delay in retuming to
[erusalem was that he was busy writing down the Torah -which
had been destroyed by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar - from
memory, although it is dear from even a brief look at the five books
of the Pentateuch -which is usually alleged to be the same as the
Torah which was revealed to Moses - that they contain historical
accounts of what is alleged to have happened both during and af
ter the life of Moses, peace be on mm, and which therefore cannot
possibly be part of the original revelation of the Torah which was
actually revealed to Moses by God.
As rulers of [erusalem, the Jews did not enjoy peace for very
long, and the next conquest of[erusalem was that of Alexander the
Great who, before he died in 323Be, had reached India, His gener
als divided up his empire between them after ms death. Ptolemy
ruled Egypt, with ms capital in Alexandria. The kingdom of
Seleucus was divided into two parts - Antioch became the capital
of the Northem kingdom and Babylon was the centre of the ce
mainder of Alexander's former empire.
The Ptolemaic and Seleucian rulers were soon locked in a con
stant feud and, in one of their early encounters, Jerusalem fell into