Monday, July 4, 2022

Lawrence Boadt on the Jewish Colony at Elephantine

 

The Jewish Colony at Elephantine

 

In 1893, a large number of ancient papyri were found in the desert around Aswan, the southern border of Egypt along the Nile River. These turned out to be written in Aramaic and recorded the activities of a Jewish military settlement that was stationed on the island of Elephantine, in the middle of the river. This colony had lived at the site since the time of Pharaoh Hophra about 585 BC, if not earlier. However, the documents that were recovered all come from the last quarter of the fifth century during Persian rule. They list marriage contracts, sales of slaves, divorce settlements, and, most interestingly of all, letters to the high priests and governors back in Judah.

 

Many of their practices do not agree with the regulations of the pentateuchal laws, especially Deuteronomy. Women, for instance, had the right to divorce, which is not found in the Bible. The colony also had a temple to Yahweh, a thing expressly forbidden by Deuteronomy’s law that only Jerusalem was to have a temple. Some of the letters between the colony, which called itself Yeb in Aramaic, and the Palestinian officials dealt with the question of a temple to Yahweh that was destroyed by a mob of Egyptians in 411 to 410 BC. Apparently the Persian forces were off somewhere, and the local people rose up against the Jewish battalion that served on the island. The Jewish colonists wrote to Sanballat the governor of Samaria, to Bagohi the governor of Judah, as well as to Johanan the high priest in Jerusalem for permission to rebuild their temple. Sanballat at least answered and the temple was rebuilt. Since the colony could write to both governors in 410 for permission to do something against the Pentateuch’s law, some experts have concluded that Ezra’s reforms could not yet have been made by that date. They see it as proof that Ezra must have come after Nehemiah during the reign of the second King Artaxerxes. It is not a very strong piece of evidence, however, since we know so little about Jerusalem from these letters.

 

TWO LETTERS FROM ELEPHANTINE

The Jewish military colony at Elephantine in southern Egypt was founded sometime in the sixth century. In 410 BC, while the Persian governor was out of the country, local Egyptian pagans burned the Jewish temple to Yaho (Yahweh) on the island, and the Jews wrote to Bagoas, governor of Judea, asking him to persuade their own governor of Egypt, Arsames, to have the temple rebuilt. Following are two documents that deal with the rebuilding:

1.   Memorandum of what Bagoas and Delaiah said to me: Let it be a memorandum to you in Egypt to say to Arsames concerning the altarhouse of the God of heaven, which was built in the fortress of Elephantine long ago, before Cambyses, which that scoundrel Widgang destroyed in the 14th year of king Darius, that it be rebuilt in its place as it was before, and that meal-offering and incense be offered upon that altar as was formerly done. (A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B. C., no. 32; another translation can be found in ANET 492)

2.   Your servants Yedoniah, the son of G(emariah) by name, one, Ma’uzi, the son of Nathan, by name, one, Shemaiah, the son of Haggai, by name, one, Hosea the son of Yathom, by name, one, Hosea, the son of Nathun, by name, one: five persons in all, Syenians who (ow)n (proper)ty in the fortress of Elephantine, say as follows: “If your lordship is (favour)able and the temple of Yahu ou(r) God (is rebuilt) in the fortress of Elephantine as it was form(erly built), but sheep and oxen and goats are (no)t offered there, but incense and meal-offering … and your lordship iss(ues) an edict (to this effect), we will pay to your lordship’s house the sum of … in si(lver …) a thou(sand) ardabs of barley.” (Cowley, no. 33; also ANET 492)

 

Strangely enough, alongside the name of Yahweh (usually spelled yeho or yahu), the letters mention other divine names: Eshem-Bethel, Herem-Bethel, Anath-Yahu, and Anath-Bethel. Are these other gods worshiped beside Yahweh in this foreign temple? Or are they merely names for aspects of Yahweh’s presence: “Name of the House of God” (Eshem-Bethel), “Sign of God’s Presence” (Anath-Bethel), and so on? It is not easy, to be sure, but it is always possible that some Jews over the years had accepted pagan practices into their faith. Or perhaps Israelite religion was far more diverse than the biblical sources indicate. The only hint of it is that one list mentions separate tax support for Yahweh, Eshem-Bethel, and Anath-Bethel. Another point of interest in these letters deals with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It seems clear that the Persian governor had a say in regulating its ceremonies. A letter dated 417 gives the decisions about the feast from the Persian official Arsham.

 

While our information is only partial, the Elephantine papyri do give us a small glance into the daily life of Jewish settlers outside of the homeland of Palestine. It reveals that they were more liberal in their marriage laws and treatment of women, and that there was a certain diversity in religious practice at the end of the fifth century BC, indicating that Ezra’s reforms had not yet spread out from Judah. It shows what a close grip the Persian government kept on all aspects of the religious decisions of subject peoples. But it also shows that Jews did look to Jerusalem for leadership even from so far away as southern Egypt. (Lawrence Boadt, Rethinking the Old Testament: An Introduction, 2d ed. [New York: Paulist Press, 2012], 403-5)