Posted by Bronwen Manning on January 26, 2009 under Biblical Hebrew | 
Jewish Migration
There are several ideas that seek to understand how the Jews arrived and settled in Egypt in the first place, but all agree that at the end of the 5th century BCE, there was a Jewish Temple operating in the country of Egypt.
The Daily Correspondence Uncovered
What can be reconstructed of this Jewish community comes from a wealth of papyri generated by members of the community and archaeological confirmation. Before the papyri began appearing on the Egyptian market for sale in the early 19th century- no one knew of its existence, a Temple unchronicled in the Biblical narrative.
A Temple like Jerusalem
The findings in the papyri generated enough interest for an archaeological investigation to be made on the Nile island of Elephantine. There they uncovered the communal archive of the Jewish leader by the name of Yedaniah ben Gemariah. From this archive we learned that the sanctuary they built was not like a synagogue but rather a fully established Temple with animal sacrifices and incense and grain offerings as in Jerusalem. Furthermore we learn that when the Temple was destroyed by Egyptian priests of Khnum in 407 BCE (who jostled for power on the same island), the Temple authorities in Jerusalem gave permission and possibly also provisions to rebuild the Egyptian Jewish Temple.
When was this Temple Established?
The antiquity of the Elephantine Temple is mentioned in a letter “Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built. They (the Persians) knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any damage to this temple.” This indicates that the Temple had already been established before the Persian’s took control of Egypt in 525 BCE. It is supposed that Elephantine was a military colony for Jewish soldiers and their families and that they were brought out of Judah to support Pharaoh Psammetichus in his regional and border wars that we know occurred around 650 BCE. This may be the beginning years of this Jewish Temple.
Persecuted Priests Build a New Home?
The report by the Jewish historian Josephus that a Temple to YHWH was established in 164 BCE in Leontopolis Egypt by persecuted Jewish priests in the time of the Hasmoneans’, has led to circumstantial conclusions that the Temple of Elephantine was established in a similar way. Along with the idea of a Jewish military base, it has been hypothesized that persecuted priests from the reign of the Judean King Manasseh, fled for their lives to Egypt and helped set up the religious life of the already existent community of military Jewish soldiers.
Biblical Significance of Two Temples
One of the characteristics of the worship of Yhwh was its prohibition against the worship of other gods, and the injunction to sacrifice to Yhwh at only one place, Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12). The fact that at Elephantine they carried out sacrificial worship and were known by the Jerusalem establishment may lead to some new perspectives on the commandments in the Bible. However it has been duly noted that when Jerusalem responded to the plight of the Egyptian Jews and gave them consent to rebuild their Temple, they stipulated in their letter that the rituals of grain and incense offerings were permitted, but they made no mention of animal sacrifices! This then may confirm the biblical stipulation that sacrificial offerings were for Jerusalem alone, and though communities such as those in Egypt also carried out sacrificial offerings, it was done without the authorization of Jerusalem.
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Posted by Bronwen Manning on November 2, 2008 under Archaeology, History, Jerusalem |
It is of no surprise to hear another personal seal has been uncovered in one of the many on-going excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem (the Western Wall Plaza). What may be the twist in this tale is the possibility that the seal may have been planted – a fake.
Anyone who has seen the beautiful depictions of King Sennacherib’s assault on the Judean city of Lachish (701 BCE) will recall the rows of Assyrian archers sending a hail of arrows into the defending city. The depiction of the Assyrian archer is a well-known stylized form – a man walking right with his left hand on the bow as his right hand (the stronger one) pulls back the string. This image is duplicated so two archers appear together side-by-side as in battle formation.
What then becomes interesting and slightly suspicious, is to see this new discovery showing a single archer wearing two quivers of arrows (as if two men were standing together), and he is standing (when impressed into the seal/wax) back-to-front! His weaker arm (the left hand) pulls the string back and his feet are reversed.
One would expect a seventh-century artisan who makes and manufactures artifacts that reflects the images of his own age, would know that the archer needs to be inscribed in the reverse on the stone- thus only when impressed in the wax – does it appear in the stylized format with the right hand on the strong string and his left hand steadying the bow.
This seal has correctly reversed the inscription “for Hagab” – a Hebrew name (appears in Ezra 2:46) – on the stone. The image is not reversed, though! It is a possibility that this seal is the result of a simple and recent sketch of a walking Assyrian archer as lifted from (the inscription of the destruction of Lachish?) any source depicting Assyrian archers.
Let’s wait for more news. After all, there may have been a military commander in Jerusalem famed for his mighty left-handed feats and dexterity!
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Posted by Bronwen Manning on October 22, 2008 under Biblical Hebrew |
Animals and Humans
Statist
ically, animal forms in Israel predominate those of human shape, and the majority of human forms are those of females. These female figurines have been labeled as the “Mother-goddess” or “Astarte” and since they go against the principal of aniconism (aversion to the use of icons) that the book of Deuteronomy describes, scholars have often placed the use of these figurines into the ‘popular’ religion of the common folk of Israel.
Religious Difference amongst the Israelites?
Many assumptions underline this idea. The first is that human figurines are representative of deities. The other, is that the presence of figurines in ancient houses is evidence of popular Israelite worship. This is contrasted by scholars with the official religion of Israel that claims to hate the production and use of such items as religious icons. Did such a religious divide exist in Israel?
The Bull and the Cherubim
One often cited example of unofficial versus official religion in Israel, is the worship at Dan and Bethel of the Bull that was installed by Jeroboam been Nebat, the first king of Israel. These bulls are interpreted as an image of worship, opposed to the Cherubim inside the Jerusalem temple that served as the throne of the invisible God, for the bible says God is “seated upon the cherubim”. So, from the biblical perspective, worship was different in Jerusalem than in Dan and Bethel.
Religious Ways Begin to Change
When we learn of the religious reform of Hezekiah, King of Judah – how he tore down the standing pillars and removed the Asherim from his land, we also hear how he removed an image of worship from the Jerusalem Temple. It was a bronze serpent and was called the Nehushtan which “the people of Israel burned incense to” (2 kings 18:4).
The bible clearly acknowledges that the worship of images and icons (such as the snake) existed at one time in Israel, and that a King who believed it a breach of proper worship took on the task of removing their presence.
The Call to Worship the Invisible God
The Bible tells us that the prohibition of religious images in Israel dates back to the times of Moses. However, the long use of the Nehushtan (the snake) in the Temple shows that either the Jerusalem priests ignored this religious stance against icons, or that the prohibition had not yet taken root in Judahite worship. What does seem to be sure is the growing awareness and introduction of worship of the invisible God alone, soon after the actions of King Hezekiah. Perhaps words like these drove him in his actions, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Deut 5:8).
In conclusion, we see that the official religion in Judah did, at one time, acknowledge the use of images in their worship, and thus one does not see the necessity of classifying figurines and such like icons into the ‘popular’ religion category. It was only a process of time that brought the use of icons to an end.
Tags: Astarte, Bethel, cherubim, Dan, Deuteronomy, Hezekiah, Israel, Jerusalem, Judah, Mother-goddess, Nehushtan, pillar figurines, religion, Sacrifice
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Posted by Bronwen Manning on October 2, 2008 under Biblical Hebrew |
The Jewish traditional law layouts three criteria for membership into the Jewish fold: birth, marriage to a male Jew, and conversion. However, these three doors into the Jewish community have not been operative simultaneously through history.
Intermarriage
The biblical period shows how marriage to a male Jew was the key for an outsider to enter into the full membership and rights of the Jewish community. Without it, the very offspring of Moses and Boaz would have been called into question.
Intermarriage that is not outlawed in the founding laws in Leviticus came under attack by Ezra and Nehemiah in the Fifth Century B.C.E. Both men had spent the best part of their active lives in the Babylonian courts and became the pioneers that caused and aided a remnant to return to the broken walls of Jerusalem. Living under very different circumstances, where their ancient land was no longer theirs, the tolerance and openness of intermarriage was no longer a luxury this struggling and mixed group of Babylonian Jewry could afford to maintain.
Intermarriage as they knew it, that of a female non-Jew joining and upholding the Israelite laws as the book of Ruth explains, thus ended in very sad circumstances. This abolishment was carried on and enforced in the rabbinic period. In 1983, the Reform movement in the United States reinstated the Jewish status of children in a marriage where any one partner was Jewish and the children were reared in Judaism.
The Ethnic Factor
One side of the argument is that by birth a person may inherit a religious way of life that as an adult they choose not to follow. The country of Israel is a good example of the mix of Jewish people from all walks of life and religious views. However, they are Jews because their forefathers were Jews, and as we read in Genesis 12:7, Abraham was the receiver of a special promise that would be forever passed on to his children. This community known by the name of Abraham’s grandson, Bnei Yisrael, is called by Ezra as the “holy seed” (9:2).
However, when reading the bible closely, we find that birth has not been a guarantee of acceptance into the Israelite community. Look at the varying treatments between the brothers Isaac and Ishmael (who shared the same father) and Jacob and Esau (same father and mother). We see that Ishmael and Esau were dropped from the history and society of the Israelites, and instead they took up position against their brothers.
The silence in the bible about why birth was not sufficient in these cases has caused much debate, and the rabbinic commentaries attempt to fill the silence with a possible faulty idolatrous character of the men. But even this reasoning shows that acting against God, can disinherit you.
The Faith Factor
This idea of removing yourself from the brotherhood, even though you were physically born into it, is a biblical idea and one that stems from the establishment of the covenant of laws as ministered by Moses. When this system was set in place, it established a connection with God that gave to each member the responsibility to respond to God by following His rules. Through disobedience to these laws, each person was putting in danger that membership.
Perhaps the clearest example of this faith factor that runs concurrently with the birth factor in the bible comes from Abraham. When he was living in Ur in Mesopotamia, the term Israelite and Jew had not yet come into conscious thought. He was a solitary man who heard and responded to the voice of God. His faith in and obedience towards God was tested even to the point where his precious son was laid-out to die by his hand. His faith was the door that allowed him into the new community built upon him. One can say he paved the way for those who, not by birth, but through faith can always have a glorious way to enter into the Jewish community.
Tags: Abraham, Boaz, conversion, Ezra, intermarriage, Israel, Jerusalem, Leviticus, Mesopotamia, Moses, Nehemiah, Ruth, Ur
[smartads]
There are several ideas that seek to understand how the Jews arrived and settled in Egypt in the first place, but all agree that at the end of the 5th century BCE, there was a Jewish Temple operating in the country of Egypt.
The findings in the papyri generated enough interest for an archaeological investigation to be made on the Nile island of Elephantine. There they uncovered the communal archive of the Jewish leader by the name of Yedaniah ben Gemariah. From this archive we learned that the sanctuary they built was not like a synagogue but rather a fully established Temple with animal sacrifices and incense and grain offerings as in Jerusalem. Furthermore we learn that when the Temple was destroyed by Egyptian priests of Khnum in 407 BCE (who jostled for power on the same island), the Temple authorities in Jerusalem gave permission and possibly also provisions to rebuild the Egyptian Jewish Temple.
The antiquity of the Elephantine Temple is mentioned in a letter “Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built. They (the Persians) knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any damage to this temple.” This indicates that the Temple had already been established before the Persian’s took control of Egypt in 525 BCE. It is supposed that Elephantine was a military colony for Jewish soldiers and their families and that they were brought out of Judah to support Pharaoh Psammetichus in his regional and border wars that we know occurred around 650 BCE. This may be the beginning years of this Jewish Temple.
The report by the Jewish historian Josephus that a Temple to YHWH was established in 164 BCE in Leontopolis Egypt by persecuted Jewish priests in the time of the Hasmoneans’, has led to circumstantial conclusions that the Temple of Elephantine was established in a similar way. Along with the idea of a Jewish military base, it has been hypothesized that persecuted priests from the reign of the Judean King Manasseh, fled for their lives to Egypt and helped set up the religious life of the already existent community of military Jewish soldiers.
