Editing Zerubbabel (section)

==Zorobabel and the Darius contest in other texts==
[[File:PraiseofTruthPhilipsGalleafterGerardGroenning.jpeg|thumb|Praise of Truth by Phillips Galle after Gerard Groenning 1638.]]
Alcuin Blamires<ref name= Blamires>{{cite book
 | title=The Case for Women in Medieval Culture
 | chapter=2 The Formal Case: Origins, Procedures | pages=50–59
 | author=Alcuin Blamires | publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 | isbn=978-0-19-818630-4
 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a1LiAwAAQBAJ&q=Gower+Apemen&pg=PA56
}}</ref>{{rp|50–58}} has found five authors who tell the tale of a contest to identify what is the strongest thing. According to Blamires<ref name= Blamires/>{{rp|59}} these tales represent "the nearest discoverable counterpart to Theophrastus/Jerome's influence on medieval misogyny." In chronological order they are:
# 1 Esdras (cited as Vulgate or 3 Esdras by Blamires)
# [[Josephus]], {{circa|94}}, ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]''<ref>{{cite book
 | title=Antiquities of the Jews | author=Josephus | chapter=3.5
 | url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-11.html
 }}</ref>
# [[Nicholas Bozon]], {{circa|1320}}, ''Contes moralisés''<ref>{{cite book
 | title=Contes moralisés | year=1889 |author=Nicole Bozon |author-link=Nicholas Bozon |chapter=54. De fortitudine miilieris | pages=[https://archive.org/details/lescontesmoralis00bozouoft/page/75 75]–76
 | url=https://archive.org/details/lescontesmoralis00bozouoft}}</ref>
# Jean Le Fèvre de Ressons (1320–1380), "Livre de Leesce"<ref>{{cite book
 | chapter=Livre de Leësce line 65ff| title=Lamentations | author=Jehan Le Fèvre
 | year=1905 | url=https://archive.org/stream/LesLamentationsDeMatheolus2/Les_Lamentations_de_Matheolus_2_djvu.txt
}}</ref>
# [[John Gower]], 1390, ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'' VII. lines 1802–1975
# [[Lope De Vega]], {{circa|1638}}, "Contra valor no hay desdicha"<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=Obras de Lope de Vega, XIV: comedias mitológicas y comedias históricas de asunto extranjero
 | chapter=Contra Valor No Hay Desdicha
 | author=Lope De Vega | editor=Menéndez Pelayo, Marcelino |pages=288–329
 | url=http://artelope.uv.es/biblioteca/textosAL/AL0565_ContraValorNoHayDesdicha.php
}}</ref> lines 452–495
# [[Mary Collier]], 1730, ''The Three Wise Sentences''<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Woman's Labour: an Epistle to Mr. Stephen Duck: in Answer to His Late
 | author=Mary Collier | year=1739
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EaZfAAAAcAAJ&q=%22Mary+Collier%22+three+wise&pg=PA18
}}</ref>

[[File:Nicolaes_Knüpfer_-_Zorovavel_and_Darius_-_Hermitage.jpg|thumb|''[[Zerubbabel Before Darius]]'' by [[Nikolaus Knüpfer]], [[Hermitage Museum]].]]
Five versions pick truth as strongest after discussing the merits of women. Bozon's omission of the "Esdras sequel on truth" was either deliberate or "not available in the account he is following.<ref name= Blamires/>{{rp|55}} Le Fèvre "makes Zorobabel a fourth speaker, championing truth after the other three nominations have been aired by three preceding speakers".<ref name= Blamires/>{{rp|55}} Lope De Vega also ignores truth. Walker observes that De Vega used several historical sources in addition to 1 Esdras.<ref>{{cite journal
 | title=The Greek, the Roman, and the Persian King: Lope De Vega's Use of Historical Source Material for the Play Contra Valor No Hay Desdicha
 | author=Naomi R. Walker | date=April 1, 2014
 | journal=Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
 | url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-3291329461/the-greek-the-roman-and-the-persian-king-lope-de
 }}</ref> Four versions (Esdras, Josephus, Gower and Collier) mention the courtesan [[Apame (concubine)|Apame]] who took the crown of Darius in Esdras and Josephus (in Gower Apemen is courtesan of [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]]). Collier follows Esdras fairly closely and "ends with a pious expression of the poet's submission to divine will:".<ref>{{ cite journal
 | title=Mysticisms and Mystifications: The Demands of Laboring-Class Religious Poetry
 | author=Bridget Keegan | journal=Criticism |date=1 October 2005 | volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=471–491
}}</ref>

The contest inspired six sixteenth century artists to create prints illustrating the four powers. Veldman has located works by [[Philips Galle]], [[Johannes Wierix]], [[Pieter Perret]], [[Zacharias Dolendo]], [[Nicolaus Knüpfer]] and [[Christoffel van Sichem]]. The last work dates from 1657. The disappearance of 1 Esdras from the Dutch bible "would certainly have contributed to the sudden decline in the riddle's popularity".<ref>{{ cite journal
| title=Who Is the Strongest? The Riddle of Esdras in Netherlandish Art
 | author=Ilja M. Veldman | year=1987 | issue=4 |pages=223–239
 | journal=Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art
 | volume=17 | doi=10.2307/3780619 | jstor=3780619
}}</ref>

Many authors<ref>{{cite book
 | title=Images of Kingship in Chaucer and His Ricardian Contemporaries
 | author=Samantha J. Rayner | year=2008 | pages=12–14
 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer | isbn=9781843841746 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WytELEicawMC&q=Gower+Darius+Zorobabel&pg=PA14}}</ref><ref>Gower gives full play to his ability as a moralizer in declaring somewhat ironically that the king is inferior to a woman, not to speak of truth. {{cite book
 | title=John Gower's View of Word and Rhetoric
 | url=http://repository.aichi-edu.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10424/215/1/kenjin56916.pdf
 | author=Masahiko Kanno | page=23
 }}</ref><ref>Zerubbabel argues that truth is the strongest force in the world and attributes truth to his God.{{cite book
 | title=An Apocryphal God: Beyond Divine Maturity
 | author=Mark McEntire | year=2015 | page=64
 | publisher=Augsburg Fortress Publishers | isbn=9781451470352 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61oiCgAAQBAJ&q=Apocryphal+history+of+Zerubbabel+Darius+contest&pg=PA58
}}</ref> consider "truth" to be the core of this story. Some modern critics<ref name= Blamires/> view "women" as the focus as they were often belittled in biblical and medieval texts. [[John Milton|Milton]] disagrees with Zorobabel and asserts that "truth and justice are all one".<ref>For truth is properly no more than contemplation; and her utmost efficiency is but teaching: but justice in her very essence is all strength and activity; and hath a sword put into her hand,
{{cite book
 | url=http://www.bartleby.com/209/421.html
| title=Eikonoklastes | chapter=Justice above the King
 | author=John Milton |year=1649
}}</ref>