[29] So K. Budde, Rel. of Israel to Exile, pp. 165-167. For an attempt to recover the character of the cults, see W. Erbt, Hebräer (Leipzig, 1906), pp. 150 sqq.
[30] See G. Maspero, Gesch. d. morgenländ. Völker (1877), p. 446; E. Naville, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archaeol. (1907), pp. 232 sqq., and T. K. Cheyne, Decline and Fall of Judah (1908), p. 13, with references. [The genuineness of such discoveries is naturally a matter for historical criticism to decide. Thus the discovery of Numa’s laws in Rome (Livy xl. 29), upon which undue weight has sometimes been laid (see Klostermann, Der Pentateuch (1906), pp. 155 sqq., was not accepted as genuine by the senate (who had the laws destroyed), and probably not by Pliny himself. Only the later antiquaries clung to the belief in their trustworthiness.—(Communicated.)]
[31] Both kings came to the throne after a conspiracy aimed at existing abuses, and other parallels can be found (see [Kings]).
[32] But see N. Schmidt, Ency. Bib., “Scythians,” § 1.
[33] So also one can now compare the estimate taken of the Jews in Egypt in Jer. xliv. with the actual religious conditions which are known to have prevailed later at Elephantine, where a small Jewish colony worshipped Yahu (Yahweh) at their own temple (see E. Sachau, “Drei aram. Papyrusurkunde,” in the Abhandlungen of the Prussian Academy, Berlin, 1907).
[34] Sargon had removed Babylonians into the land of Hatti (Syria and Palestine), and in 715 B.C. among the colonists were tribes apparently of desert origin (Tamud, Hayapa, &c.); other settlements are ascribed to Esar-haddon and perhaps Assur-bani-pal (Ezra iv. 2, 10). See for the evidence, A. E. Cowley, Ency. Bib., col. 4257; J. A. Montgomery, The Samaritans, pp. 46-57 (Philadelphia, 1907).
[35] The growing recognition that the land was not depopulated after 586 is of fundamental significance for the criticism of “exilic” and “post-exilic” history. G. A. Smith thus sums up a discussion of the extent of the deportations: “... A large majority of the Jewish people remained on the land. This conclusion may startle us with our generally received notions of the whole nation as exiled. But there are facts which support it” (Jerusalem, ii. 268).
[36] On the place of Palestine in Persian history see [Persia]: History, ancient, especially § 5 ii.; also [Artaxerxes]; [Cambyses]; [Cyrus]; [Darius], &c.
[37] The evidence for Artaxerxes III., accepted by Ewald and others (see W. R. Smith, Old Testament in Jewish Church, p. 438 seq.; W. Judeich, Kleinasiat. Stud., p. 170; T. K. Cheyne, Ency. Bib., col. 2202; F. C. Kent, Hist. [1899], pp. 230 sqq.) has however been questioned by Willrich, Judaica, 35-39 (see Cheyne, Ency. Bib., col. 3941). The account of Josephus (above) raises several difficulties, especially the identity of Bagoses. It has been supposed that he has placed the record too late, and that this Bagoses is the Judaean governor who flourished about 408 B.C. (See p. 286, n. 3.)
[38] Thus a decree of Darius I. takes the part of his subjects against the excessive zeal of the official Gadatas, and grants freedom of taxation and exemption from forced labour to those connected with a temple of Apollo in Asia Minor (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, xiii. 529; E. Meyer, Entstehung des Judenthums, p. 19 seq.; cf. id. Forschungen, ii. 497).