“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.