Per the Bible, Nehemiah I had a Jewish cupbearer. At Perspolis Artaxerxes'
cupbearer is shown in the highest ranking court position, always
immediately
behind him. Nehemiah was such a favorite of the king, he even appears
alone
with Artaxerxes in one of the bas reliefs.
Why hasn't Nehemiah been more readily identified before?
Good question. Of note this identification should have been easy. The
cupbearer carries the cuptowel representing his "badge of office." The
theme of Persepolis is to represent the multi-national groups by their
distinctive attire. The cupbearer is neither Mede nor Persian, but is
wearing the garb of one of the delegations, and thus his wear is ethnic.
Of
course, since Nehemiah was the cupbearer to Artaxerxes throughout his
entire
reign we can confirm the attire represents Jews.
Further, Nehemiah was known as a eunuch and thus his beardless chin is
covered. Of great interest though, is the fact thta Nehemiah was already
the Chief Cupbearer during the co-ruler****p between Xerxes and Darius I.
The Cupbearer functions as the prime minister and is second in command
only
to the king. Thus Nehemiah represents the third Jewish court official of
high rank in a foreign court, the other two being Joseph and Daniel.
Nehemiah's presence during the reign of Darius I and the confirmation in
the
Bible that he returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and served first as
the
"Tirshatha" (king's secretary) before becoming prime minister of Persia
helps confirm that the Persian Period was expanded with Xerxes claiming he
was his own son as Artaxerxes. Positively identifying Nehemiah brings
attention to the revisionism and is likely why archaeologists have not
officially assigned the cupbearer of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah.
That being the case, what the bas-reliefs at Persepolis actually show is
simply the death of Darius who was the co-ruler and Xerxes fini****ng the
city showing himself enthroned. Only due to custom, he adopted a
secondary
name when he became co-ruler, which was Artaxerxes. He kept the same
primary staff, however, a Jewish cupbearer and a Mede military chief, who
can be seen with him when he is enthroned as Artaxerxes.
Here are the graphics of Nehemiah, seen in the bas-reliefs four times,
including once alone with Artaxerxes and two other times with Artaxerxes,
and once during the co-ruler****p of Darius and Artaxerxes when Artaxerxes
was known as "Xerxes."
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/nehemiah.html
Lars Wilson
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