(Author: Bernard Katz, Vol. 78, # 1, Summer 2023)
Introduction & Background
This article examines the history of the Jewish people from just before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE until around 400 BCE in Babylonia, Judah and Egypt. Reviewing the Biblical account as contained in Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, historical archives and texts and archaeological findings, it covers the period from the Exile in Babylonia and Egypt, the return to Judah and the building of the Second Temple.
In 605 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar won a conclusive victory over the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish, which BCE saw Babylonia becoming the undisputed world power. As a result, Judah’s vassalage transferred from Egypt to Babylonia.
Judean deportations to Babylon were the consequence of three uprising against Babylonia. These were in 597 BCE, when Jerusalem was conquered resulting in King Jehoiachin being exiled together with the elite of the land leaving only the poorest behind (II Kings 24:14), King Zedekiah’s uprising against Babylonia which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE and the assassination of Gedaliah in 582 BCE.
Jeremiah catalogues the actual numbers of each deportation. These were relatively modest, namely 3 023, 832 and 745, in total only 4600 (Jer 52:28-30). Even if this is the number of the adult men only the total still would not be more than three to four times this number. According to Kings the number of exiles in the first exile numbered 10 000 (II Kings 24:14). Nevertheless, it was the political and religious leadership and intelligentsia that were exiled, and this would have had a particularly severe impact on an already impoverished people.
To provide context to this article some important events and dates are provided below:
Ezekiel
The Prophet Ezekiel was born and educated in Judah. However, it was in Babylonia that he spent most of his adult life and where he prophesied. He was probably amongst the aristocratic exiles who accompanied King Jehoiachin into exile in 597 BCE. The Book of Ezekiel covers a period of 22 years from 592 BCE (six years before the destruction of the Temple) and continues until 570 BCE (16 years after the destruction). Surprisingly, Ezekiel contains very little about the life of the Judean exiles.
Ezekiel records that his visions began in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin (592 BCE): “It happened …as I was among the exile by the River Chebar” (Ezek 1:1). This opening verse frames the start date and the location of his prophecies: The course of the Chebar is no longer known with certainty but it is generally agreed that it flowed from around Babylon toward Susa. It was important as a commercial route as it connected small settlements and major towns with the capital cities of Babylon and Susa.[1]
Laurie Pearce writes that Ezekiel’s use of Akkadian loanwords (the number of which she describes as staggering), his allusions to masterpieces of cuneiform literature (including the Gilgamesh Epic), and his understanding of Babylonian cosmology attest to his integration into the cultural milieu of Babylon.[2]
Ezekiel was a priest as well as a prophet (Ezek 1:3) and a number of meetings with the elders of the community are reported (Ezek 8:1; 14:1; 20:1). Andre Lemaire argues that one factor in Israel’s survival was that the community retained its religious structure in exile. That the call came to Ezekiel in exile was crucial in that Y–h was no longer confined to the Temple in Jerusalem. Y—h had become a universal God. [3]
Tova Ganzel in her book Ezekiel observes similarly: “The Jewish nation, he declared, could and must exist in two loci – Judah and Babylonia – concurrently, with each group preserving a discrete Jewish identity…. The ideological infrastructure in Ezekiel’s prophecy, it appears, laid the spiritual groundwork upon which Diaspora Jewry has based itself for two thousand years of exile….”[4]
Isaiah’s prophecies were of comfort and restoration whereas Jeremiah’s are perceived as all doom and destruction although he courageously spoke truth to authority. Ezekiel began by prophesying destruction as a fait accompli but after the destruction his prophecies turned to restoration and salvation as exemplified in the evocative vision of the dry bones (Ezek 37:1-14).
Benjamin of Tudela visited Kaphri (today Al Kifl in Iraq located about 40km south of Babylon) around 1170 and provided a detailed description of the tomb of Ezekiel and the synagogue complex where it was located. Benjamin of Tudela writes that this place is located by the Chebar River on the one side and the Euphrates River on the other.[5]
Babylonian Exile
The Babylonian exile was one of the formative events which shaped Jewish identity. The impression of the exile that has been imprinted into the Jewish psyche is framed by the grief expressed by the psalmist: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (Psa 137:1).
Whilst the deportations were clearly traumatic and the exiles must have yearned for the life they had or perceived that they had had in Judah, life in Babylonia does not seem to have been “unduly severe” and it would appear that the Judeans were resettled in communities not far from Babylon.[6]
A number of archives written in Akkadian with cuneiform script on clay tablets have been discovered, translated and studied, and these provide a glimpse into the social and economic lives led by the Jewish exiles. The Weidner texts show King Jehoiachin at the kings’ palace, whereas the Al-Yahudu archive (the most recent to have been published and to date only partially) presents Judeans in a rural community in which they are the principal parties to the transactions. The Sippar archive portrays Judeans in a market town whereas in the Susa texts they are in a royal setting. The Murashu archive (the oldest and extensively studied) contains numerous Judeans at the fringes of transactions mainly as witnesses where they are in proximity to other minority groups.
The fact that the exiles could establish a city called Al-Yahudu (City of Judah), which refers to Jerusalem contrasts glaringly the policies adopted by Assyrians and Babylonians in respect of exiled populations. Whereas the Assyrians appear to have scattered deported peoples, the Babylonians concentrated them in their own communities. This difference also partly explains why the Israelite tribes were lost whereas Judah survived.
The archives attest that Jews became well established in Babylonia – both before and after the Persian conquest. Some became prosperous whilst others rose to high office.
The conduct of the exiles corresponds to the instruction of Jeremiah to establish a long-term presence in Babylonia: “Build houses and settle; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men and let them give birth to sons and daughters” (Jer 29:5-6).
were settled. (The Bible Lands Museum Catalogue)
Ration list of King Jehoiachin
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his son Evil-merodach (Amel-Marduk) became king of Babylon. He released Jehoiachin from prison, invited him to regularly dine at the king’s table and provided him with an allowance (II Kings 25:27-30).
An administrative document dated to the 13th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (592 BCE) lists deliveries of oil for the subsistence of Jehoiachin and his five sons. [7]
Some commentators argue that the deportees were not imprisoned or treated harshly but their freedom of movement was severely curtailed by virtue of their reliance on the ration system. [8]
Al-Yahudu archive
The Al Yahudu clay tablets comprise about 200 tablets and are named after the central settlement named in the documents. Al-Yahudu or Judah-town is a reference to Jerusalem (II Chr 25:28) and many of the exiled communities named their new towns after the towns from where they had been exiled – not dissimilar to the naming of New York or New Amsterdam in modern times. The cuneiform tablets cover a period of about 100 years, namely 572-477 BCE (The earliest text dates to just 25 years after the first exile or 14 years after the destruction of the Temple). The exact location of Al-Yahudu is not known but it was a rural village and evidence from the texts shows that it, and nearby towns in which other West Semitic deportees lived, lay in a triangle that expanded eastward from Nippur.[9]
It is not known where this archive originated as the tablets were not found in a formal archaeological dig but had found their way into collections of antiquities collectors. These texts became known to scholars in the late 1990s when French researchers published three documents (of 11) from the Moussaieff collection. The first substantial publication of documents from this archive was relatively recent, in 2014, by Laurie Pearce and Cornelia Wunsch. [10] This volume, referred to as CUSAS 28, details 103 of these cuneiform tablets from the collection of David Sofer. A companion publication by the same authors of a further 95 texts from the Schoyen collection has yet to be published.
The archive attests to the deportees’ settling on newly-claimed agricultural land (farming, mainly grain and dates) under control of royal administration through the “land for service” scheme – i.e., the Judeans received land and in return were required to provide services as soldiers and/or corvee workers as well as taxes. [11]
The archive of one family, of whom Ahiqam is the central figure, contains records of contracts which evidence his, his father, Rapa-Yama, and his son’s involvement in rentals of land and date plantations, deliveries of grain and dates, collection of taxes and acquisition of cattle, as well as well as references to marriage and death. [12]
Wunsch writes that whilst the documents indicate a certain degree of adaptation to local circumstances, the name-giving patterns among this group show a strong sense of identity and cultic focus. [13] Nevertheless the archive contains nothing regarding the Jewish content of the lives of the exiles. [14]
Pearce and Wunsch reflect on the documents contained in CUSAS 28: “Far from portraying a deported, old but impoverished, Judean elite, these documents provide glimpses into the lives of ordinary people in a rural setting: they till the land and build houses, pay taxes, and render services to the king.” [15]
Documents from Sippar and Susa
Yigal Bloch presented an onomastic study of texts from Sippar and Susa relating to intergenerational naming’s of Judean exiles covering the period from the 540s to 490s BCE. [16]
In Sippar, texts dated 546-503 BCE relate to a Judean family of merchants. A family tree has been constructed which includes the patriarch Arih (born in the 610s-600s BCE at the latest), four sons (probably born in the 590s-570s BCE) and four grandchildren (probably born in the 560s-550s BCE). One son bears a Yahwistic name, another a distinctly Judean name, another based on a Babylonian deity whereas the fourth is unclear. Four of the grandchildren bear theophoric names based on Babylonian deities whereas the derivation of the fifth is unknown. Bloch notes the increasing tendency to give offspring Babylonian names and that even I the generation of the children there was a surprisingly quick adaptation to local Babylonian society. [17]
In Susa, one of the capital cities of the Achaemenids, two documents dated 494-493 BCE attest to Judeans serving as royal courtiers. In the first text, a Judean with the name of Yahu-sarra-usur (Oh Y***h, protect the king!) – a linguistically Babylonian name but with a Yahwistic theophoric element. The name of his father is also recorded in the text – a name which is linguistically Babylonian and includes a Babylonian theophoric element. The second text has a Judean royal courtier with a Babylonian theophoric element but who gave two of his children distinctly Judean names. [18]
Bloch suggests that in service to the king, there was less social incentive to assimilate than there was for merchants, whose fortunes could be more dependent on their social capital. [19]
Murashu archive
The Murashu archive was the first evidence recovered in modern times of Judeans living in Babylonia. The texts, written in cuneiform, were discovered in the ruins of Nippur by an expedition of the University of Pennsylvania in the late 19th Century. They comprise an archive of 730 business documents of the Murashu family who were involved in banking and commerce with a predisposition to agricultural transactions. These business texts deal such diverse matters as tax payments, land management and the granting of loans to be repaid at a high rate of interest. [20] The archive dates to the period 455 to 403 BCE and contain abundant evidence of Judean-Babylonian interactions including marriage, litigation, subleasing, co-ownership, and witnessing. [21]
The Murashu family were not Jewish but 50 of the 730 tablets are thought to contain names that are Jewish. [22] Whilst Jews are not parties to the transactions, they are mentioned at the margins often as witnesses.
Samuel Daiches undertook an onomastic study of the texts and reported his findings in an article dated 1910 – at the time 250 of the texts had been published. Daiches determined that the texts included 38 genuinely Jewish names (the large majority of which were formed by the Jews during the exile), representing 70 persons and 26 foreign Jewish names representing 25 or 26 persons. Thus, from the “firm Murashu Sons a hundred Jews are speaking to us, Jews who were contemporaries of Ezra and Nehemiah.” [23]
Daiches asserts that the documents show that the social position of the Jews in 5th Century Babylonia was “a good one” and that many of them were employed by Babylonians and Persians on whose behalf they conducted business and whose confidence they seemed to enjoy. Furthermore, no barriers seem to have existed between the Babylonians and non-Babylonians; Persians and Jews lived peacefully together as “free citizens in a free land.” [24]
The Murashu documents contain no references to Jewish religious life. Nevertheless, according to Daiches it is still possible to form an opinion about their religious (and even national) life. These people “speak to us through their names, and their names give us more than hints as to what their belief was, as to what their ideas, aspirations, and longings were.”[25] For example names containing the prefix or suffix “iah” (yud, hey in Hebrew) – evidence belief in the One God.[26] Whereas names “speaking of the grace and mercy of God, and the names speaking of His goodness, greatness, and power, no doubt refer to the redemption…through the return and restoration of Judaism to its former home.” [27]
Bloch quoting Elias Bickerman writes that Yahwistic and distinctly Judean names form a higher percentage amongst the names of Judeans in the generation of the sons (born in Babylonia in the 470s-450s) as compared to their fathers (born probably in the 500s-480s), as well as the nearly total disappearance of Babylonian theophoric names in the generation of their sons. This led Bickerman to conclude that a revival of an exclusive devotion to Y****h took place amongst Judeans in Babylonia in the 470s-450s and that the activities of Ezra and Nehemiah whose missions commenced in 458 and 445 BCE respectively, reflected the Yahwistic zeal of the Judean community in Babylonia. [28]
Daniel and the Fall of Babylonia
Daniel is the first Judean recorded as living in Babylonia and his relocation preceded the first exile. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE Nebuchadnezzar instructed that young aristocrats were to be brought from Judah to serve in his court: “youths …who were good looking, skillful in all wisdom, discerning in knowledge and perceptive in learning, and who have the stamina to stand [and serve] in the king’s palace, and to teach them the script and language of the Chaldeans (Dan 1:4). Among these youths was Daniel (Dan 1:6).
Nabonidus (556-539 BCE) was the last king of Babylonia and the events of his reign are recorded in the Neo-Babylonian Chronicles referenced by Cogan as Text No.45 – The Reign of Nabonidus – The Fall of Babylon.[29] A lengthy (10 year) and unexplained absence of Nabonidus in Tema [30] is reported during which his son Belshazzar, the crown prince, deputized for him.[31] The absence of the king resulted in the cancellation of the Akitu festival (New Year). [32] Nabonidus’ absence has given rise to much academic speculation. The Chronicle also records aspects of the rise of Cyrus and his unresisted conquest of Babylon: “the troops of Cyrus without a battle entered Babylon.” [33]
The Book of Daniel (written in both Hebrew and Aramaic) records that Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, was the king of Babylonia at the time (Dan 5:1-2) and that the Persian conqueror was Darius the Mede who was succeeded by Cyrus (Dan 6:1, 6:29). The Book of Daniel describes the feast given by Belshazzar on the night of the fall of Babylonia where the guests drank from the gold and silver vessels that had been removed from the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. The evening’s frivolities were cut short by the mysterious appearance of handwriting on the wall which only Daniel was able to interpret – he declared that Belshazzar’s kingship would be terminated and would be replaced by Media and Persia (Dan 5).
Cyrus and his Cylinder
Cyrus founded the Achaemenid Empire (also known as the First Persian Empire) in 550 BCE after defeating Astyages of Media. After conquering Babylon in 539 BCE the Achaemenid Empire became the undisputed world power.
The “Cyrus Cylinder” is a document written in cuneiform discovered in Babylon in 1879 and composed after Cyrus’s conquest of Babylonia. It records that: “When I entered Babylon in peaceful manner, I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness.” [34]
The inscription does not mention the Jews or the Temple in Jerusalem but contains a “policy statement” which refers to religious tolerance which in part reads as follows: “I returned the gods to the places they (once) resided, and I had them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned (to them) their dwellings.” [35]
The proclamation of Cyrus to allow the exiled Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple is contained in the Book of Ezra: “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia…. the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia, and he issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom…. ‘Anyone of you of all His people…let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judah and build the Temple’” (Ezra 1:1-2).
It is also recorded that Cyrus returned the vessels of the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the Temple and handed them over to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah (Ezra 1:7-8).
Cyrus is the only gentile referred to in the bible as the “messiah” or “anointed one” (Isa 45:1). [36]
The mausoleum of Cyrus is believed to be at Pasagardae (in today’s Iran). Pasagardae was founded by Cyrus and was the first capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Darius later moved the capital to Persepolis.
Return to Zion and Restoration of the Temple
The impact of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the leadership and intelligentsia to Babylonia had a severe impact of the remaining inhabitants of Judah. Archaeological evidence attests to a brutal shrinking in the number of villages in the Judean highlands in the 6th Century BCE.[37] John Bright reflects that to write the history of Israel during this period is “difficult in the extreme,” for the “Biblical sources are at best inadequate,” and of the exile itself the Bible “tells us virtually nothing,” and that we know virtually nothing of what happened in Judah during the next fifty years.” [38]
Sheshbazzar is mentioned four times in the Bible, as “the prince of Judah” (Ezra 1:8), bringing back the vessels of the Temple to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:11), constructing the walls of the Temple (Ezra 5:16) and as governor of Judah (Ezra 5:14). Zerubbabel is credited with leading the 42 360 returning exiles (Ezra 2:2,64), laying the foundations of the Temple (Ezra 3:10) and being governor of Judah (Hagg 1:1). Various Jewish commentators speculate that Sheshbazzar is a pseudonym for Daniel or Zerubbabel.[39] Jason Silverman argues that although lack of specific evidence makes certainty impossible, in his view Sheshbazzar was the last Neo-Babylonian governor of Judah (and was re-appointed by Cyrus). He asserts that this interpretation is preferable to speculative attempts to identify Sheshbazzar with other figures, including Zerubbabel.[40]
Zerubbabel is recorded as being the grandson of King Jehoiachin and the son of Pedaiah (I Chr 3:17-19). Ezra reflects his father as Shealtiel (Ezra 3:2), who is listed as a son of Jehoiachin (I Chr 3:17).
The enemies of Judah and Benjamin succeeded in disrupting and halting the rebuilding of the Temple during the reign of Cyrus until the reign of Darius (Ezra 4:4-6,24). When Darius became king of Persia he issued a decree (nearly 20 years after the decree of Cyrus) that the Temple construction should continue after finding a scroll in the archives with the following recordal: “In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree [concerning] the Temple of God in Jerusalem: The Temple shall be built….A decree is hereby issued by me that …to rebuild this Temple of God….” (Ezra 6:3-8). The Temple was completed and inaugurated to great rejoicing during the sixth year of King Darius (Ezra 6:16) which translates into 515 BCE. By all accounts this was a modest Temple compared to that of Solomon (Ezra 3:12). This Temple was magnificently renovated by Herod five centuries later.
Ezra and Nehemiah
Little is known of the conditions of the Jews in Judah during the period between the restoration of the Temple by Zerubbabel until the missions of Ezra and Nehemiah 60 to 70 years later. It would, however, be reasonable to assume morale was poor and circumstances unfavourable following the dashed hopes of a return to nationhood in the time of Zerubbabel.
The historical order followed by the books of Ezra and Nehemiah do not conform to the known sequence of events and there have been many attempts to reorder the sequence. Scholars are increasingly of the view that Ezra preceded Nehemiah and it is likely that their missions overlapped. [41]
Ezra, described as a brilliant scholar of the Torah (Ezra 7:6), led his mission to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes’ reign (Ezra 7:7), corresponding to 458 BCE. He was the first religious leader after the age of prophecy and his stated objective was purely religious, being to expound the Torah and to fulfil and teach its statute and law (Ezra 7:10). King Artaxerxes of Persia issued an enabling decree for the mission, made contributions to the Temple, offered financial support for the Temple and authorised Ezra to appoint judges versed in religious law with powers to impose a wide-ranging series of penalties, including loss of property, imprisonment and death (Ezra 7:25-26). Ezra condemned the prolific practice of intermarriage and sought to stamp it out (Ezra 10). Ezra appears briefly in the Book of Nehemiah where it is recorded that he read the scroll of the Torah to the people, and they were instructed in its meaning (Neh 8:1-8).
Nehemiah was a cupbearer of King Artaxerxes based in Susa (Neh 2:1). He is credited as having restored political status to the Jews in Judah, to improving their security, assisting in the reintroduction of strict Torah law and to having been an able administrator.
The book of Nehemiah begins in the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, which corresponds to 445 BCE. Nehemiah is informed by Hanani and a delegation from Judea that the Jews in Judah “are in great misery and humiliation; the wall of Jerusalem is breached, and its gates have been set afire” (Neh 1:1-3). Nehemiah is so distressed at this news that he requests and receives permission from Artaxerxes to lead a mission to Judah. After arriving there, he witnessed the poor state of the wall surrounding Jerusalem, and despite opposition from the local enemies of Judah who try to undermine the work, completes the task of rebuilding it in 52 days (Neh 6:15). The complex organisational effort of the rebuild is detailed with different parties assigned different parts of the wall (Neh 3) and that the workers “would do their work with one hand, while one [hand] held a weapon” (Neh 4:11), after which the walls of Jerusalem were dedicated with rejoicing (Neh 12:27).
Eilat Mazar undertook excavations at the City of David from 2005-2007 and identified the Northern Tower and the wall (referred to as W27) which scholars had previously attributed to the Hasmonean period to be part of the Persian period fortifications and attributable to Nehemiah. He remarks that the speed of the project hindered the quality of the construction and refers to comments of the archaeologists who first discovered these structures, Macalister and Duncan, who in 1926 observed that “the interstices are very roughly filled up …. It is unquestionably a hurried repair….” Already in 1962, Kathleen Kenyon had identified the wall against which the tower leaned (referred to as W20 by Mazar) as Nehemiah’s wall. [42]
Most scholars conclude that the wall that Nehemiah built enclosed a small, impoverished community confined to the Temple Mount and the City of David. Israeli archaeologist David Ussishkin takes a contrary “maximalist” view of the size of Jerusalem at the time and contends that the city walls included, in addition, the area to the west of the southern part of City of David (including Mount Zion) where the city expanded in the eighth century during the time of King Hezekiah. In Ussishkin’s view it was this larger wall that was restored.[43]
In his book Nehemiah, former US Under Secretary of Defense Dov Zakheim offers the following insight into the respective achievements of Ezra and Nehemiah: “Just as Ezra restored the Torah to the Jewish people, so did Nehemiah restore their sense of identity and nationhood. For the Jewish people, Torah and nationality are intertwined and inseparable. Nehemiah even more than Ezra, recognised this reality.” [44]
Israeli archaeologist Ephraim Stern reports that accidental discoveries of two pits containing cult figurines led him to discern an extraordinary development in Israelite religious observance. In the parts of the country occupied by Jews in the Persian period not a single cult figurine has been found. This contrasts sharply with previous periods when cult places existed, despite the religious reforms of King Hezekiah and King Josiah. [45]
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi
Haggai and Zechariah were contemporaries, and their prophecies can be dated precisely – Haggai to the second year of King Darius i.e., 520 BCE (Hagg 1:1) and Zechariah to the second and fourth years of King Darius i.e., 520-518 BCE (Zech 1:1, 7:1). They prophesied at a time when the morale of the people was low, exhorted Zerubbabel to complete the building of the Temple and referred to him in messianic terms. Zechariah’s urged Zerubbabel as follows: “This is the word of Hashem to Zerubbabel ‘not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts’” (Zech 4:6). Zerubbabel took encouragement from these prophecies and in 515 BCE the Second Temple was completed and dedicated. The tone of Haggai and Zechariah is of a redemption and nationhood that is imminent, but these prophecies were not fulfilled, and Judah remained a vassal province of Persia.
Malachi was probably the last prophet, and his prophecies are not dated. However, since he refers to a Temple already standing and a number of the issues he addresses are similar to those of Ezra and Nehemiah, it would appear that his prophecies relate to perhaps the period around 450 BCE. Malachi’s mood is not as optimistic as Haggai and Zechariah’s, possibly reflecting the new reality – redemption and nationhood are no longer felt to be imminent. The daily Amidah concludes hopefully with the verse from Malachi: “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Hashem as in the days of old and in previous years (Mal 3:4).
Prophecy ended with Malachi and a new era began. Hayyim Angel, the author of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi writes: “However, this cessation of prophecy also paved the way for a new era, where Torah became the new religious center for the Jewish people.” [46]
Egypt and the Elephantine Papyri
A common theme of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are their fulminations and prophecies against Egypt. (Isa 19, Jer 43, Ezek 29). Jeremiah refers to Jews living in Egypt at Migdol and Tahpanhes (in the Nile Delta), in Noph (ancient name of Memphis just south of the Delta), and in the land of Pathros (in the south whose capital was at Aswan) (Jer 44:1). Ezekiel prophesied that Egypt would be destroyed “from Migdol to Syene to the border with Ethiopia” (Ezek 29:10).
Elephantine Island is situated in the Nile and formed part of the city of Syene (the ancient name for Aswan). Its importance was as a military fortress defending Egypt’s southern border against Nubia, as the city of the god Knub and as a commercial hub. After the Persians conquered Egypt in 525 BCE Elephantine housed the Persian military command. This included a Jewish military unit known as “the Jewish force” with the civil capital being at Syene.
Documents found at Elephantine (known as the Elephantine Papyri) span three thousand years and include seven languages. Elephantine’s prominence in Jewish history are the Aramaic documents, numbering 52, which provide a window into the life of its Jewish community. These were studied, translated and published by Bezalel Porten, considered to be the world authority on the Elephantine Papyri.[47] The documents cover a period of about one hundred years (from at earliest the late sixth century to c. 400 BCE).
It is not known when the Jews arrived in Elephantine but Porten is of the view that the Jewish community was probably founded as a military installation in about 650 BCE during the reign of King Manasseh of Judah. This view is based on historical documents, including the Bible, in that Manasseh sent troops to assist Pharaoh Psammetichus I (664-610 BCE) in his campaign against Nubia and struggle against Assyria. [48] Porten is also of the view that Manasseh’s profanation of the Jerusalem Temple and his repressive policies may have contributed to disaffected Jerusalem priests fleeing to Egypt. [49]
The Jews of Elephantine built and maintained a temple. It is not known when this was built but it would seem likely that it was before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. [[50] What is certain is that it existed when the Persians conquered Egypt in 525 BCE. In 410 BCE the temple was destroyed by the priests of the god Knub with the support of the Persian satrap. The head of the Jewish community Jedaniah and his priestly colleagues sent a letter to Bagohi (governor of the Persian province of Judah), dated 407 BCE, protesting this “wicked” action and requesting permission for the temple be rebuilt and that “meal-offering and the incense and the burnt-offering” could resume as previously. [51] Two drafts of this letter were found at Elephantine along with a memorandum presumably summarising the response of the governor to the request and authorising the rebuild subject to “the meal offering and the incense” (i.e., no burnt offering).[52] From other documents amongst the Elephantine Papyri it would seem that the temple was indeed rebuilt. [53]
The “burnt offering” (animal sacrifices) as well as the offerings of grain and incense that took place in the temple at Elephantine were in violation of biblical prohibitions. Simon Schama reflects on the existence of this temple and concludes that either the Jews of Elephantine were pre-biblical, aware of some of the legal codes of the Torah but had not taken on Deuteronomy which contained a more rigorous codification or were aware of Deuteronomy and perhaps even the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah making the Jerusalem Temple the sole place of sacrificial ritual and pilgrimage but had no intention of surrendering to its monopoly. [54]
Porten speculates that a compromise solution of approval to the rebuilding of the temple but no longer permitting animal sacrifices was as a result of the authorities in Jerusalem wishing to support the Elephantine community against its enemies but not wanting to compromise the cultic centrality of Jerusalem. [55]
According to Porten, the Elephantine temple, orientated towards Jerusalem, was apparently built in imitation of the Jerusalem Temple – with the same dimensions and a cedar roof. [56]
The description of the temple attests that the Jewish community must have been more than only a military garrison and must have attained a reasonable amount of affluence.
Much of the Elephantine archives were written during flourishing period of Elephantine mid fifth century at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah’s reforms in Jerusalem in particular relating to foreign wives and foreign cults. A few excerpts follow below.
The celebration of Passover in Egypt must have been an interesting experience. A pottery shard attests to Passover having no fixed date as one writer asks another: “Let me know when you will be celebrating Passover.”[57] A letter authored by Hananiah, (an emissary from Judah) to Jedaniah dated to 419 BCE lays down the strict requirements to be observed for Passover including: that it must begin on 15th of Nissan, that it must last for eight days, that only unleavened bread was to be eaten, that ‘fermented drink’ was not permitted (unlike the modern requirement for four cups of wine), that chametz was to be stored in pots and vessels, and sealed for the duration of the feast (also at odds with current practice). [58] Schama remarks that that whether the mission of Hananiah to increase conformity of religious practice on the Jews of Elephantine had its desired effect is unknown. [59]
A letter from Osea to his son Shelomam, a mercenary stationed at Elephantine, dated 475 BCE, was sent from Migdol (where son had previously been stationed). A father (and mother) show concern about their son’s welfare “from the day that you went on that way, my heart is not good. Likewise, your mother.” [60]
Ananiah bar Azariah married an Egyptian slave girl Tamet in 449 BCE, with whom he had already had a son named Pilti with her prior to the marriage. Meshullam, the owner of the bride, attempted to enforce his rights to ownership of Pilti in the event of divorce and in the event of death of either party wanted half of the estate. The couple sought legal redress and Meshullam’s rights to any share of the estate were excluded, and moreover he was obliged to pay a penalty for the unwarranted claim regarding Pilti. [61]
Mibtahiah was a member of a well off family and probably the aunt of the leader of the Jewish community Jedaniah.[62] The Mibtahiah Archive includes contracts relating to wifehood (her second husband was an Egyptian), property transfers, apportionment of slaves and litigation (where she was successful and swore an oath by the Egyptian goddess Seti.[63] Why a Jewess would have agreed to such a procedure is unclear.[64] The legal rights enjoyed by women at Elephantine were way superior to their contemporaries in Jerusalem.
Schama reflects on the Jews of Elephantine commenting that they “could be Jews after their own style – open to the practices of Egyptians without surrendering their own beliefs, much less their names or identity” [65] and “Like so many other Jewish societies, planted among the Gentiles, the Jewishness of Elephantine was worldly, cosmopolitan, vernacular (Aramaic) not Hebrew, obsessed with law and property, money-minded, fashion-conscious, and much concerned with the making and breaking of marriages, providing for children, the niceties of the social pecking order and both the delights and the burdens of the Jewish ritual calendar.”[66]
Worsening relations between the Egyptians and the Jewish community necessitated reliance on Persia for its protection but Persian power in Egypt was waning and another Egyptian revolt in 400 BCE undermined its control. Persian power eventually collapsed towards the middle of the fourth century BCE just before the arrival of the Greeks under Alexander the Great.
Thus have archives of documents and texts shed light on the social, economic and religious lives of the Judean exiles in Babylonia and Egypt in the period following the destruction of the Temple.
Bernard Katz, a frequent contributor to Jewish Affairs is a Chartered Accountant who does freelance corporate finance advisory, investigations and sits on several boards.
NOTES & REFERENCES
[1] Pearce, Laurie, Ezekiel: A Jewish Priest and a Babylonian Intellectual, The Torah.com
[2] Ibid
[3] Lemaire, Andre, The Universal God, Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), November/December 2005, Volume 31, Issue 6
[4] Ganzel, Tova, Ezekiel: From Destruction to Restoration, Translated by Kaeren Fish, Magggid Books, 2020, pp xiii, xxii
[5] Tudela, Benjamin, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Travels in the Middle Ages, Pangloss Press, Third Printing 1993, pp103-104
[6] Bright, John, A History of Israel, Second Edition, SCM Press, 1972, p346
[7] Pritchard, James, Editor, The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Princeton University Press, 2011, p274
[8] Alstola, Tero, Judeans in Babylonia: A Study of Deportees in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE, Brill, 2020, p77
[9] Pearce, op cit
[10] Pearce, Laurie, Wunsch, Cornelia, Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the Collection of David Sofer, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (CUSAS) 28, CDL Press, 2014, Volume 28 of Cusas Series
[11] Wunsch, Cornelia, Glimpses on the Lives of Deportees in Rural Babylonia, Arameans, Chaldeans and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium BC, Editors, Berlejung, Angelika and Streck, Michael, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013, pp252-253
[12] Pearce, Laurie, How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?, BAR, September/October 2016, Volume 42, Issue 5
[13] Wunsch, op cit, p250
[14] Abraham, Kathleen, The Reconstruction of Jewish Communities in the Persian Empire: The Al-Yahudu Clay Tablets, Light and Shadows – The Catalog – The Story of Iran and the Jews, Editors, Segev, Hagai and Schor, Asaf, Beit Hatfutsot, 2011, p263
[15] Cusas, op cit, p3
[16] Bloch, Yigal, Judeans in Sippar and Susa during the First Century of the Babylonian Exile: Assimilation and Perseverance under Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Rule, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, De Gruyter, 2014
[17] Ibid, pp127-130
[18] Ibid, pp137-140
[19] Ibid, p141
[20] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Keter Publishing House Ltd, 2nd Edition, 2007, 2:529, hereafter cited as “EJ
[21] Waerzeggers, Caroline, Locating Contact in the Babylonian Exile: Some Reflections on Tracing Judean-Babylonian Encounters in Cuneiform Texts, Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon, Editors, Gabbay, Uri and Secunda, Shai, Mohr Siebeck, 2014, p132
[22] EJ, op cit, 12:529
[23] Daiches, Samuel, The Jews in Babylonia in the Time of Ezra and Nehemiah according to Babylonian Inscriptions, Jews College, London, 1910, pp27-29
[24] Ibid, pp29-30
[25] Ibid, pp30-31
[26] Ibid, pp31-32
[27] Ibid, p32
[28] Bloch Yigal, op cit, pp124-125
[29] Cogan, Mordechai, The Raging Torrent, Historical Inscriptions From Assyria and Babylonia Relating To Ancient Israel, A Carta Handbook, 2008, pp210-219
[30] Ibid, pp211-213
[31] Ibid, p211
[32] Ibid, op cit, p212
[33] Ibid, p213
[34] Ibid, p227
[35] Ibid, p227
[36] Chapters 40-65 of Isaiah are referred to as having been written by a Second Isaiah. The reference to Cyrus means it must have been written after 539 BCE whereas the prophecies of Isaiah in his earlier chapters relate to a period two centuries earlier
[37] Schama, The Story of the Jews, Finding the Words, The Bodley Head, 2013, p35
[38] Bright, op cit, pp343-344
[39] Tanach, The Stone Edition, Edited by Rabbi Nosson Scherman, The Artscroll Series , Mesorah Publications, 1996, pp1814-5
[40] Silverman, Jason, Sheshbazzar, a Judean or a Babylonian? A Note on his Identity, Exile and Return, The Babylonian Context, Editors, Stokl, Jonathan and Waerzeggers, Caroline, De Gruyter, 2015, p321
[41] Zakheim, Dov, Nehemiah, Statesman and Sage, Maggid Books, First Edition, 2016, p12
[42] Mazar, Eilat, The Palace of King David, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, 2009, pp72-73
[43] Ussishkin, David, Big City Few People, BAR, July/August 2005, Volume 31, Issue 4
[44] Zakheim, op cit, p237
[45] Stern, Ephraim, What Happened to the Cult Figurines? Israelite Religion Purified After the Exile, BAR, July/August 1989, Volume 15, Issue 4
[46] Angel, Hayyim, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, Prophecy in an Age of Uncertainty, Maggid Books, First Edition, 2016, p146
[47] Porten, Bezalel, The Elephantine Papyri in English, Three Millennia of Cross-Cultural Continuity and Change, Second Revised Edition, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, 2011, hereafter cited as “Elephantine Papyri”
[48] Porten, Bezalel, Did the Ark Stop at Elephantine?, BAR, May/June 1995, Volume 21, Issue 3
[49] Porten, op cit
[50] EJ: 6:605
[51] Elephantine Papyri, op cit, B20, p147-149
[52] Ibid, B21, p150
[53] Porten, op cit
[54] Schama, op cit, p14
[55] Porten, op cit
[56] Ibid
[57] Elephantine Papyri, op cit, B13, p126, Schama, op cit, p17
[58] Ibid B13, 126-127, Schama, op cit ,p17
[59] Schama, op cit, p18
[60] Elephantine Papyri, op cit, B8, pp108-109
[61] Ibid, B36, pp209-211
[62] Ibid, p80
[63] Ibid, B30, pp189-191, B33, pp200-203
[64] Ibid, p190
[65] Schama, op cit, p22-23
[66] Ibid, p2
