6 Now therefore, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shethar-boznai, and your companions the Apharsachites, which are beyond the river, be ye far from thence:
Now therefore, Thathannai, governor of the region, etc. Thus the sequence of the text is such, as if Darius himself had read the letters of Cyrus, and immediately confirmed them with his own authority upon reading them, thereby restraining all their adversaries, and ordering the temple of God to be built in its place, as it was read to them, and assisting its worshippers in all things with the most devoted mind to serve according to his will. Therefore, Artaxerxes, who forbade the building of the house or city of God above, signifies those lords who opposed the construction of the holy Church with persecutions leading to death; amidst these disturbances, the same Church flourished most especially by the victory of the martyrs. Darius signifies the pious devotion of those kings who, recognizing the will of the Christian faith, not only did not resist it but also took care to assist it with their own means. Many of these, after the prohibitions of the previous persecutions had been lifted, desired to consecrate themselves and their subjects with the sacraments of the same faith; the persons of whom fittingly correspond to what is subsequently added in the words of King Darius:
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 6:6