Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the river, Shethar-bozenai, and your companions the governors, who are beyond the river, keep yourselves far from there:
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Bede
AD 735
So you, Tattenai, governor of the region beyond the river, Shethar-Bozenai and your counsellors the Apharsachites, who are beyond the river, go far away from them, and let that temple of God be built by the governor of the Jews and their elders: let them build that house of God on its site. The sequence of events in the text is as if Darius himself had read Cyrus's letter and, having perused it, immediately endorsed it with his authority, in such a way that suppressing all their adversaries, he ordered the temple of God to be rebuilt on its site just as the letter said, and himself, with a most devout mind in all things, assisted God's worshippers to serve his will. Let Artaxerxes, therefore, who above forbade that the house or city of God be built, designate those lords of worldly affairs who by inciting persecutions opposed the construction of the Holy Church, while in the upheaval of these persecutions that Church flourished chiefly by the triumph of martyrs. Let Darius designate the dutiful devotion of those kings who, recognizing the will “of God”, endeavoured not only not to resist the Christian faith but also to assist it with their decrees; and many of them, forbidding the persecutions of their predecessors, wished that they themselves along with the peoples under their sway might be consecrated in the sacraments of the same faith. It is very consistent with the character of these kings that to the words of King Darius it is subsequently added:
