APHARSATHCHITES ə fär’ sĭth kīts, APHARSACHITES ə fär’ sə kīts (אֲפַרְסַתְכָיֵ֞א, (Ezra 4:9) RSV governors, and אֲפַ֨רְסְכָיֵ֔א (5:6; 6:6) RSV governor).

In Ezra 4:9 the longer form occurs while Ezra 5:6 and 6:6 preserve a shorter form. They are some of the Samaritan signers of a complaining letter to the Pers. officials against the rebuilding of the Temple.

C. F. Keil (in loco) would link them with the Pharathiakites of Strabo (XV 3. 12) and Herodotus (i.101) on the borders of Persia and Media while A. L. Oppenheim cites evidence from W. Eilers to show that the words come from two old Pers. loan words: the first from Old Pers. frasaka, “investigator” (= cuneiform iprasakku) and the second from Old Pers. frēstak “messenger.”

Bibliography A. L. Oppenheim. Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, I, 156; W. Eilers, Iranische Beamtennamen in der Keilschriftlichen überlieferung (1940) 5ff., 30, 39, 40, 100.