The Ḫabiri.
Dr. Hugo Winckler, the explorer of Boghaz-Köi, who has published many interesting details of the result of his researches, states that parallel passages prove the identity of the Sa-gas (see pp. [291], [292]) of the Tel-al-Amarna tablets with the Ḫabiri, and that not only the Sa-gas people, but also the Sa-gas gods are referred to. For these latter, he says, compare the image of the “valley of the 'oberim” (translated “them that pass”) in Ezekiel (xxxix. 11), in which further justification of the comparison of ḫabiri and 'eber (Eber, regarded as the ancestor of the 'Ibrim or Hebrews) results. One would like to have further details of the learned explorer's opinions upon this point. To all appearance the connection of 'oberim with 'eber would involve a change in the vocalization. For the author, the difficulty of connecting ḫabiri with 'Ibrim (Hebrews) still continues to exist. The connection of ḫabiri with 'Ibri (Hebrew) requires that the ain should have been pronounced as ghain, and the Septuagint generally gives gh when it was so pronounced.[316] In 'Ibrim, however, this is not the case, and Prof. Swete has only the soft breathing in his edition.
A Letter Apparently From Prince Belshazzar (see pp. [446-451]).
This is evidently one of the documents obtained by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar (Abu-habbah), as the reference to Bunene, one of the deities of the city, shows. Unfortunately, it is very defective, there being only eight lines (five of them incomplete) on the obverse, and the remains of the last three lines of the communication on the reverse. What makes it probable that the Belshazzar who sent the letter is the son of Nabonidus, and the hero of the fall of Babylon, is, that no honorific expressions are used with reference to the person to whom it is addressed—he does not call Mušêzib-Marduk his lord, or father, or brother, as was the custom in private correspondence. As far as it is preserved, the following is a rendering of this document, which is of interest mainly on account of the personality of its assumed writer—
“Letter of Bêl-šarra-uṣur to Mušêzib-Marduk. May the gods grant thee prosperity. Behold, I have sent Bêl-šunu and ... the (two) mašmašē, to.... Send the requirements for the robes (?) of the deity Bunene....
(Several lines are wanting here.)
... I have caused ... to be ... the threshold ... may all....”
The documents referring to Belshazzar's residence at Sippar, are mentioned on pp. [414], [449], [450].
The Aramaic Papyri From Elephantine.
These noteworthy documents, which have attracted considerable attention, were found in the ruins of the city which lie at the southern point of the island. Almost all the brick-built private houses of Elephantine are in a ruinous state, partly due to the ravages of time, but principally to the Fellahin, who have for many years dug there for garden-mould. To the south of the place where Mr. Mond's Aramaic papyri[317] are said to have been found, Greek papyri were discovered, but proceeding north of that point, the German explorers soon came upon the Aramaic fragments. Those first found are said to have been in earthen vessels, but the most important of them (the texts translated below) were buried, without any protective covering, close to the eastern and southern walls of the room in which they lay. To all appearance these last had escaped the notice of the earlier excavators, who had thrown them away with the rubbish cast aside as containing nothing more worth carrying off.
The text of the most perfect of them reads as follows—
“To our lord Bagohi, governor of Judea, thy servants Yedoniah and his companions, the priests in the fortress of Yeb, salutation! May our Lord, the God of heaven, grant (thee) prosperity at all times, and set thee in favour before Darius the king, and the sons of the (royal) house a thousandfold more than now, and may He give thee long life. Be at all times joyful and firm. Now speak thy servants Yedoniah and his companions as follows—
“In the month Tammuz in the 14th year of Darius the king, when Arsâm (Asames) had marched forth and gone to the king, the priests of the god Khnub, who are in Yeb, the fortress, [made] with Waidrang, who is the governor here, a secret union of the following nature—
“ ‘The temple of Yahû, the god who is in Yeb, the fortress, shall be removed[318] from that place.’
“Thereupon that Waidrang, the laḫya,[319] sent letters to Nephayan, his son, who was commander-in-chief in Syene, the fortress, saying—
“ ‘The temple which is in Yeb, the fortress, they shall destroy.’
“Thereupon Nephayan brought in Egyptians, together with other warriors; they came to the fortress of Yeb together with their tali,[320] penetrated into that temple, destroyed it down to the ground. And they shattered the stone columns which were there. It also happened, (that) they shattered the seven stone doors,[321] built out of a hewn block of stone, which were in that temple, and their heads, they ...[322] and their hinges which were in the marble, those were of brass,[323] and the roofing, consisting wholly of cedar beams, together with the plaster pavement (?) of the forecourt (?) and other (things) which were there—all this have they burned with fire. And the sacrificial dishes of gold and silver, and the things which were in that temple, all have they taken and have used as their own. And since the days of the kings of Egypt have our fathers built that temple in Yeb, the fortress. And when Cambyses came up to Egypt, he found that temple (already) built, but they pulled all the temples of the gods of Egypt down. In that temple, on the contrary, no one had destroyed anything.
“And after they had done this, we, with our wives and children, wore mourning-garments, fasted, and prayed to Yahû, the lord of heaven, who had given us warning concerning that Waidrang, the kalbya.[324] They have taken the chains[325] away from his feet, and all the treasures, which he had acquired, have gone to ruin. And all the men who wished evil to that temple, have all been killed, and we have been witnesses thereof.
“Also before this, at the time when this evil was committed upon us, did we send a letter to our lord, and to Yehoḥanan, the high-priest, and his companions, the priests who were in Jerusalem, and to Ostan (Ostanes), his brother, that is, 'Anani,[326] and the free ones (princes) of the Jews. They have not sent us one letter (in reply).
“Also since the days of Tammuz of the 14th year of Darius the king, and until this day, we wear mourning-garments and fast, our wives have been made as a widow, we have not anointed (ourselves with) oil nor drunk wine. Also since then and until (this) day of the 17th year of Darius the king they have not made food-offerings, incense-offerings, and burnt-offerings in that temple.
“Moreover, thy servants, Yedoniah and his companions, and the Jews, all citizens of Yeb, speak as follows—
“ ‘If it be good to our lord, mayest thou consider upon that temple, for its rebuilding, as they do not allow us to rebuild it. Look to the receivers of thy benefits and favours, who are here in Egypt. Let a letter be sent from thee to them with regard to the temple of the god Yahû, to rebuild it in Yeb, the fortress, even as it was heretofore built. And they shall offer food-offerings and incense-offerings and burnt-offerings upon the altar of the god Yahû in thy name. And we will pray for thee at every time—we and our wives and our children and all the Jews who are here, if they[327] have then worked until that temple is rebuilt.
“ ‘And a share shall be thine before Yahû the god of heaven from the man who offers to him a burnt-offering and a sacrifice, a value equal to the worth of a silver (shekel) for (every) 1000 talents.[328] And with regard to the gold, concerning that we have sent and given instruction. We have also sent everything in a letter in our name to Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanaballat, governor of Samaria. Also Arsames had no knowledge of all that which has been done unto us.’
“On the 20th of Marcheswan in the year 17 of Darius the king.”
A fragment of a duplicate gives some instructive variants of this exceedingly interesting document, from which it would appear that gold and treasure was given to Waidrang to induce him to act against the temple of Yahû at Yeb.
To this plea on the part of Yedoniah and the Jewish congregation at Yeb a favourable answer was given, as the following document shows—
“Memorandum of what Bagohi and Delaiah said to me—Memorandum as follows—
“ ‘Thou shalt speak in Egypt before Arsames concerning the temple of the sacrificial altar of the God of Heaven which is in Yeb, the fortress, before our time, before Cambyses, which Waidrang, that lahia,[329] destroyed in the 14th year of Darius the king, to rebuild it in its place, as it was formerly. And they shall offer food-offerings and incense upon that altar, even as was wont to be done formerly.’ ”
Nothing could be more satisfactory than this little episode of the Jewish colony at Yeb—it needs but the discovery of the record of the rebuilding and the inauguration of the temple to round it off.
Bagohi governor of Judea is the Bagoas or Bagoses of Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xi. 7. The high-priest Johannes or John (the Yoḫanan mentioned on p. [539]) had slain his brother Jesus in the temple, because the latter, supported by Bagoas, sought to dispute with him the High-priesthood. Notwithstanding the protests of the Jews, Bagoas penetrated into the temple, and imposed upon it a fine of 50 drachmas for every lamb sacrificed therein. It will thus be seen, that in offering to him a percentage of the sacrifices in return for his support in rebuilding the temple at Yeb, Yedoniah and his companions were acting in accordance with what was known to be his character. The reference to Yohanan's refraining from helping them, it is reasonable to suppose, also occurred to them as likely to further their desires.
Yedoniah, the chief of the Jewish colony at Yeb and the writer of the longer document, is probably likewise named in the Oxford papyri—he was either Yedoniah ben Hosea or Yedoniah ben Meshullam, but could not have been identified with a third of the name, Yedoniah ben Nathan, as this last is stated to have been an Aramean of Syene. We have to await further light upon his identity.
Arsames, who is mentioned in the second paragraph (p. [537]), is probably, as Sachau points out, the Arsanes of Ktesias, who was governor of Egypt when Darius II. mounted the throne. He left Egypt and went to the court of Darius, and the priests of Chnum[330] in Elephantine profited by his absence to destroy the Jewish temple there. In this they were supported by Waidrang, who, in the absence of Arsames, seems to have exercised the office of governor. To all appearance he had been commander-in-chief of the army in Egypt, a post held, at the time this document was written, by Nephyan his son. There is some doubt as to the reading and vocalization of the name Waidrang, and consequently, also, as to its true form, but it is regarded as certainly Persian. It is thought that its Persian prototype may have been Vayu-darengha,[331] “companion of the wind-god,” whilst his son's name, in Persian, is possibly Napâo-yâna, “favour of the god Napâo.” Should these identifications be found correct, they will have, as Sachau remarks, considerable value in ascertaining the principle upon which names in Persian were given.
To all appearance Arsames returned to Egypt, and a reaction followed which ended in the disgrace of Waidrang and his followers, who were deprived of the spoils which they had stolen from the temple at Yeb, and the Jews also became, in [pg 543] the end, witnesses of the death of all their persecutors. It seems probable that the central government was greatly displeased at the action of Waidrang and the priests of Chnub, for the Persians seem always to have been well-disposed towards the Jews—moreover, cupidity, and not the good of the state, was at the bottom of Waidrang's action. The destruction wrought, however, was not immediately made good, hence this document, which throws such a vivid light upon the state of Egypt and the Jews in those days. It is but just to the Persians of that period to say, that notwithstanding their seemingly Persian names, Waidrang and his son were apparently not Persians, but possibly Semites, as the (probably gentilic) adjectives applied to the former seem to show.
The date of this document is regarded as not admitting of any doubt, as may be gathered by the references to the regnal years of Darius in conjunction with the names of historical personages—Bagohi (Bagoas or Bagoses of Josephus), governor of Judea, Yehoḥanan or John, the high-priest at Jerusalem, and the two sons of Sanaballaṭ,[332] the governor of Samaria in the time of Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus). The ruler of the Persian empire when these documents were written, must therefore have been Darius II. (Nothus), who reigned for 19 years, namely, 424-405 b.c. The 14th year of Darius II.—the date of the destruction of the temple at Yeb—was 410 b.c., and his 17th year—the date when the appeal was sent to Bagohi—corresponds with 407 b.c. This fixes, among others, the date of Yehoḥanan, and Sachau points out as noteworthy that one of his brothers, named Manasseh, was son-in-law of the governor of Samaria, Sanaballaṭ, as related in Nehemiah xiii. 28. Another brother of the high-priest was the one whom he killed in the temple (Jesus). In this record, however, a third brother, Ostan or Ostanes, appears. To all appearance this last bore also another name, to wit, 'Ahani, which would be his true Hebrew appellation. If, however, the Babylonian construction has been followed here, this Ostan or Ostanes would be brother of 'Ahani, a personage of importance in Jerusalem, but not otherwise known. Adopting the rendering given in the translation, however, it is noteworthy that two brothers named Yehoḥanan and 'Ahani are mentioned in 1 Chronicles iii. 24. These, however, were descendants of David, whereas the brothers mentioned in the papyrus must have been descendants of Aaron.
A high Persian official named Uštanu or Uštannu (Ostanu [pg 544] or Ostan) occurs on two Babylonian tablets in the British Museum, and also on one in the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney. He bears the title “governor of Babylon and across the river,” possibly meaning all the tract west of the Euphrates. This man, however, can hardly at the same time have been governor of Egypt, and the texts in which he is mentioned seem, moreover, to belong to the time of Darius Hystaspis, in which case he lived at a much too early date.
The Egyptians called the island of Elephantine Yeb, and its capital bore the same name as the island. It is transcribed Ab by those who follow the old system of reading Egyptian, so that the present documents seem to support the philological views of the Berlin school. A common ideograph for the name of the island is an elephant with an upturned trunk, showing that Yeb really means “elephant-island,” and that Elephantine is simply the Greek translation of the native name. The temple of Khnum (Khnumba, Khnub), whose priests are referred to in the papyri, was destroyed by Moḥammed Ali in 1822.
The Hebrew divine name is written Yahu, which is apparently the longer form of the biblical Jah, seen in such names as Hezekiah (Assyrian Ḫazaqi-yau), Gemariah or Gemariahu (Jer. xxix. 3; xxxvi. 10, etc.). As is shown on p. [471], this termination was pronounced iāwa by the Babylonian Jews, which raises the question whether the Yahu of these papyri may not have been pronounced Yāwa also.
Dr. L. Belleli, of the Philological Section of the Instituto di Studi Superiori in Florence, doubts the genuineness of the papyri found at Elephantine on account of chronological difficulties. In the case of the documents here translated, however, no such difficulties can be said to exist, and the forger of such things would have to be not only a splendid Aramaic scholar acquainted with the Berlin scheme of transcribing Egyptian, but also a historian and the possessor of an exceedingly lively imagination.
The above description is based upon Eduard Sachau's noteworthy monograph, Drei aramäische Papyrusurkunden aus Elephantine, Berlin, Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1907. The documents in question were discovered by Dr. Otto Rubensohn, and the collection included some papyri still in roll-form, and various fragments. The principal document translated above belonged to the former category, and was successfully unrolled by Herr Ibscher, the keeper of the Royal Museum. The reproduction shows it as a large sheet of papyrus, folded in two, and certain damaged portions, on the left, imply that it was rolled upon itself about six times.