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Nehemia: What is a Jewish temple to the God of Israel doing in Elephantine? I mean, I would understand a Synagogue, which is obviously somewhat of a later concept. But this is actually a temple where they brought sacrifices.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon, and I am back today in Jerusalem with Professor Bezalel Porten, Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is best known for the Elephantine Papyri, which he edited and published with a translation, together with Ada Yardeni. This is one of the most important caches, collections of documents by Jews on Jewish history. They date from the 5th century BCE, and they come from, of all places, Egypt. Shalom, Professor Porten.

Professor Porten: Shalom, Nehemia.

Nehemia: Professor, how did you discover and collect these Elephantine papyri? I mean, they're in different places… Tell us a little bit about how this came about.

Professor Porten: The first place was the Brooklyn Museum, which was right at hand.

Nehemia: So, one of the great collections of Aramaic documents in the world is in Brooklyn. What? You've gotta explain that, how did that happen?

Professor Porten: Well, there was, in the 19th century, a famous scandal, and one of the gentlemen involved had skipped the country and he went to Egypt. His name was Wilbour, and he became a collector. And so, he went up and down the Nile and he bought ancient stuff, among which in 1893, he acquired about a dozen Aramaic papyri. And he thought he could publish them, but he died.

And therefore, they went to the Brooklyn Museum and they rested there for about 50 years until his daughter died, and then they were bequeathed. They were shown to Emil G. Kraeling, who was an Aramaist. And he was available, and he published them.

Nehemia: Tell us a little bit more about going to these different libraries. There was Brooklyn, there was Paris, I believe it was in Germany, there was one of them. Where was the one in Germany, Professor?

Professor Porten: The Berlin Museum.

Nehemia: This is occupied Berlin when it was under Soviet control. And then there's Cairo. Why did you do that? Why didn't you just rely on what you saw in Brooklyn and some photographs people had published?

Professor Porten: Well, when I finished the doctorate and I wrote the book, and I went to the Brooklyn Museum, I decided Tcherikover had done a collection of Jewish papyri in Greek. And he called that by the Latin name, “Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum.” So, I thought there should be a corpus of papyrorum aramacairum.

Nehemia: Aramaic papyri.

Professor Porten: Right, and, instead it became a textbook of Aramaic documents from ancient Egypt and we got four volumes. Well, to do that you could just take the publications. But how much trust would the publication have if you'd never seen the document?

Nehemia: I love this. This is what I love about you, that you went to see the sources for yourself. And these were trustworthy scholars, in peer reviewed journals and peer reviewed monographs, books. And you say, “No, I've got to see the original for myself.” That's one of the things I really love about your work, Professor.

And just to remind the people, guys, go back and listen to the first episode. We explained in that episode how there were these Jews who came to work as mercenaries in a garrison in southern Egypt. And then they were there for hundreds of years, and we have these documents that they wrote. So, we're talking about these Elephantine papyri, many of them were written by Jews in Aramaic. Many of them are contracts. Elephantine is this island in the Nile River on the southern border of Egypt, where you had these Jewish soldiers who were serving there.

And one of the things we're able to do is map a layout of Elephantine, of the Jewish area, of individual houses based on these contracts. And then, somebody decades later went and excavated. Tell us about that, that's a rare, incredible example in archaeology of where, I guess, paleography comes together with excavation to create this incredible synergy. I think it's unprecedented. I mean, maybe in Rome they have something similar. But then, individual houses, like Rome, it's the public buildings. I mean, you know that that was Anani's house. And I mean, things like that, it's incredible. Tell us a little bit about that.

Professor Porten: Well, there were about 20 family documents, and they have houses, and the houses give four borders, above, below, east, west. And among the borders is the temple, the temple of Yahu. And scholars, when these documents were first published in the beginning of the 20th century, did sketches that on the basis of these documents, the Jewish Quarter looks like this. Well, when these Brooklyn papyri came along, one had to do a new sketch because there were new house documents. And so, Kraeling did a sketch. And I looked at it, and I said, “No, it wasn't right, that this had to be here, and this had to be there. And the temple looked like this. It pointed from Elephantine in the direction of Jerusalem.”

And this was the first scholarly paper I gave at the meeting of the American Oriental Society. We drove there with Geider Bach and Chaim Rozan. And I told Chaim, who was visiting from the Hebrew University, and I was in the College of Jewish Studies in Chicago, about this discovery. And I said, “Look, it points at Jerusalem.” And he says, “Aren't you going to say that?” “And I said, “No.” He said, “Well, you should say that, otherwise, some fellow from the audience will say, ‘Now, that's very interesting.’”

And so, that was my first paper and I published it in the Journal of the American Oriental Society. Many years later, I receive a publication in the mail from somebody I'd never heard of. And it's an article in German, and I see he's got my sketch. And what he did was take the sketch of the German excavations on the island of Elephantine and superimpose it upon my sketch, and say that my sketch has the original occupants of those houses. Those houses that he found fit my sketch.

Nehemia: So, you map out, based on these contracts where the houses are. They go and they excavate it, and they realize it matches. So, not only is this house, you know, normally it would be like, square, two, four, eight. You could say, “No, this is the house of so and so, and we know his name. And we know the name of his wife, and we know sometimes the name of his father and his kids.” That’s incredible.

Professor Porten: But not only that, but that in the center of this was the Jewish temple.

Nehemia: So, talk about the temple, we have to talk about the temple. You ask any Jew, “When was the Temple destroyed?” And if you know your history, you'll say 586 BC was the first Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE or AD. And you discovered the temple was destroyed in 410 BC, but not the Temple of Jerusalem, the temple of Yahu, of yud-heh-vav-heh at Elephantine. What is a Jewish temple to the God of Israel doing at Elephantine? I mean, I would understand a Synagogue, which is obviously somewhat of a later concept, but this is actually a temple where they brought sacrifices. Talk to us about that.

Professor Porten: In Isaiah 19 there are five passages, each of which begins, “Bayom hahu yihiyeh,” and it talks about Mitzrayim.

Nehemia: So, “On that day, it will come to pass.”

Professor Porten: Right, and in Isaiah 19:19 it says, “Bayom hahu yihiyeh mizbe'akh l’Adonay betokh eretz Mitzrayim, umatzeva etzel gevula l’Adonay.” “In that day there will be an altar to the LORD, in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar on its border to the LORD.” So, the temple of Hoyo in Egypt, and Josephus talks about that. And he says that they cited this verse as the authorization, that that's the warranty. Well, I assume, I hypothesize that this verse served the Jews who fled Egypt in the reign of Manasseh, that they could build a temple on the border of Egypt, and Elephantine was the border. So, this would have been their warranty, but as I say, this is all my hypothesis.

Nehemia: So, this is really big, ‘cause this is the part of Isaiah that even, I'm gonna call them “secular scholars” accept was what comes from Isaiah. In other words, Isaiah 40-66 is referred to as deuteron-Isaiah. But this is the part is pretty much accepted that Isaiah, the son of Amotz, spoke in Jerusalem around 700 BC, it's the first part of Isaiah. So, this predates the temple in Elephantine.

Professor Porten: Right.

Nehemia: And you're telling me there's a verse in Isaiah that talks about an altar on the border of Egypt. And these Jews who come to serve as soldiers in southern Egypt, they build themselves a temple, maybe because they heard Isaiah's prophecy or knew about it, and said, “Oh, wait a minute, we're not supposed to build temples on every hill and under every leafy tree, like we do anyway. But Isaiah authorized this one.” Now look, Isaiah here, I think, in the context is talking about some future event, although I guess it's still future, right? Meaning, if you're in Elephantine, you know, he spoke that 50 years earlier. You know, I mean, I would understand this as an end times prophecy, but they could have read this and they said, “Oh okay, we'll do it. We'll build an altar…” Wow, that’s incredible, “on the border of Egypt.” And then in verse 20, “And it shall come to pass as a sign and a testimony to yud-heh-vav-heh of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will call out, or they will cry out to yud-heh-vav-heh before their oppressors. And He will send them great salvation, and He shall save them. And yud-heh-vav-heh will be known to Egypt and Egypt will know yud-heh-vav-heh on that day.”

Let's go on, “Avdu zevakh uminkha,” “And they will serve with a slaughtering,” meaning a sacrificial slaughtering, and a meal offering, “venadru neder layud-heh-vav-heh veshilemu,” and they will swear oaths to yud-heh-vav-heh, and they will pay it.” I mean, this is incredible. Wow. So, you're saying that this is connected somehow. Meaning, they heard this and they're like, “Okay, we're allowed to build an altar in southern Egypt…”

Professor Porten: Yes.

Nehemia: “…on the border.” Wow, that's incredible. I want to look at the letter and have you actually read it. So, this is an incredible letter, and we actually have two copies of it, an incredible letter. In fact, I'll have you read it in Aramaic, and I'll read your English translation. And let's back up. I don't think we'll get to it this episode, maybe the next episode, the Passover letter. What is the date of the Passover letter? It's around 417 BC, is that right? Something like that. In 410 BC, the temple was destroyed. And we know about its destruction from a letter written by the Jews of Elephantine to the Jews in Jerusalem, to the Second Temple, saying, “Look, we want to rebuild this temple. We need your help.” And we have two copies of that letter. We have a first draft and a second draft, and then we have a memorandum with the answer. So, can you read…

Professor Porten: Well, you can see the letter goes on both sides of the papyrus, and so it can't be read at our session.

Nehemia: Yeah, we can't read the whole thing. But can you read us just the introduction.

Professor Porten: Well, the introduction, the interesting thing is they address it to a guy whose name they usually call “Bagohi.” It's a an Iranian, a Persian name, and the aryanologists would pronounce it, “Bagavaiah.”

Nehemia: Bagavaiah. Well, so here's what's interesting, he's the Governor of Judea.

Professor Porten: He is the governor of Judea. So, whether he is a Persian or whether he's a Jew that's got a Persian name is uncertain.

Nehemia: Wow.

Professor Porten: So, they write this letter to him. And it's written from Yedanyah...

Nehemia: It starts, “To our Lord, Bagavahiah,” or Bagavaiah, “Governor of Judah, your servants, Yedanyah and his colleagues, the Priests who are in Elephantine the fortress.” So, let's just stop there for a second. The headman at Elephantine, his name is Yedanyah. It ends in “yah,” which is this typical ending you'd find of Yesha-yah, Eli-yah, meaning it's the poetic form at the end. In my name, Nehem-yah, of God's name, of yud-heh-vav-heh's name. And there are some greetings there.

Professor Porten: No, not just some greetings. You see, it's, “Shlam maran elaha shmaya yish'al sagi bekhol idan.”

Nehemia: Beautiful.

Professor Porten: It's not “elahaya,” the gods.

Nehemia: It's the singular there.

Professor Porten: Right.

Nehemia: Okay, and guys, listen to the last episode where we talked about, sometimes they ask in the name of Gods. Here, it's the singular God, wow. “The welfare of our Lord...” the Lord, meaning the Governor. “May the God of heaven seek after abundantly at all time and favor. May He grant you before Darius the King, etc.” Okay, and I love it, “now your servant.” You know, in the Tanakh we always have these letters with the flowery openings, and even prayers. And it’ll say, “V'ata,” “and now,” and that's what they really want to say. The rest is introduction. Before, there’s introduction.

“Now, your servant, Yedanyah and his colleagues thus say...” and I'll just read this quickly, “in the month of Tammuz, year 14 of Darius the King, when Arsames had departed and gone to the King, the Priests of Khnum, the God...” and here's this Khnum... “the God who are in Elephantine, the fortress, in agreement with Vridanga who is the Chief Priest here saying...” So, basically, the Priests of Khnum, who is the rival temple to the temple of Yaho, yud-heh-va-heh in Elephantine, and this Vridanga is some Gentile. They say, “the temple of Yaho, the God, which is in Elephantine the fortress, let them remove from there. Aterwards, that Vridanga, the wicked, in a letter sent to Nefina his son, who is a troop commander in Sa'een the fortress, or Aswan, saying, “the temple, which is in Elephantine the fortress, let them demolish.” So, there's this group of Gentiles who say, “We've got to destroy the temple in Elephantine. We have to demolish it.”

Professor Porten: Not Gentile, Egyptians.

Nehemia: Okay. I mean, they're not Jews, right?

Professor Porten: No, Egyptian Priests.

Nehemia: Okay, so they're rivals of the Jewish Priests, right? In other words, they're destroying the temple, because essentially, it's a competitor on some level and they don't want this Jewish temple there. And essentially, this is maybe one of the first pogroms we know about in history, where there's this race riot against the Jews, and they end up destroying the temple. And he gives this whole introduction about how the temple is destroyed. Guys, this is an incredible story. I'm going to skip ahead because it's a long letter. “And when this had been done to us, we with our wives and our children, sackcloth we're wearing and fasting and praying to Yaho, the Lord of Heaven who let us gloat over that the Vridanga, the cur. They removed the…” So something bad happened to Vridanga a couple years later.

Professor Porten: Vidranga, Vidranga.

Nehemia: Vidranga. So, Vidranga was punished, maybe, for this, and they're very happy about it. “Moreover, before this, at that time, this evil was done to us a letter we sent to our Lord, and to Yehokhanan the High Priest and his colleagues, the Priests who are in Jerusalem.” So, this isn't the first letter. There's an earlier letter that we don't have that they sent, asking for help to rebuild this temple. And they're saying, “Look, you didn't respond to the first letter. We don't mean to nag, but we want to rebuild our temple in Elephantine.” And this is from 407, so it's three years later, it's already the second letter.

And then he says, “And to Ostanis, the brother of Anani and the nobles of the Jews, a letter they did not send us,” so you haven't responded. And then the really surprising thing to me, Professor, is they then mention they also sent a letter, it says, to the Samaritans. “Moreover, all these things in a letter we sent in our name to Deliyah and Shelemyah, sons of Sanballat, Governor of Samaria.” And we know who Sanballat is, he's mentioned in the book of Nekhemia, in the book of Nehemiah.

They send a letter to the Jews and now a second letter saying, “Look, we want to rebuild our temple, can you help us? This temple in Elephantine.” And they also send it to the Samaritans. So, can we stop there and talk about that? Why would they send it to the Samaritans? Meaning, the common narrative, or what we read, at least in Ezra and Nehemiah, is that the Samaritans offered to participate in rebuilding the Second Temple and the Jews said, “Hey, no. We're good. We don't want your participation.” But here, the Jews in Elephantine, they do want to collaborate with the Samaritans, so what's going on there?

Professor Porten: Well, you know as much as I do.

Nehemia: Okay, fair enough.

Professor Porten: This is...

Nehemia: It's surprising.

Professor Porten: This is surprising, and it just shows that the conflict that was raised by Nehemiah didn't go into the next generation, because these are the sons of Sanballat. And by the way, here his name is written as it is in the Acadian with the Aleph, “Sinubalit,” not just Sanballat, which would be really interesting.

Nehemia: Wow, that's interesting, Sin is the moon god, very interesting.

Professor Porten: Right, it’s the moon god, Sinubalit, is his full name. And so, they write to him too, because in Samaria they also worshipped this god, Yahu, and they want their influence. And so, when they get a response, they don't get a written response but they get an oral response. And so, what we have is a memorandum, in other words, a copy of the oral response.

Nehemia: Before we get to that, I just want to read one more line from the original letter that they sent, meaning this is essentially the second letter, but it's the one that we have. So, they're asking the Jews in Jerusalem to help them rebuild the temple. And, again, we're not gonna read the whole thing. Now, “Your servants, Yedanya and his colleagues and the Jews, all of them citizens of Elephantine thus say, ‘If to our Lord it is good, take thought of that temple to rebuild it, since they do not let us rebuild it.’ Regards your etc. May a letter from you be sent...” Meaning, “Look, this is the help we need. We need some political clout here.” “May a letter from you be sent to them about the temple of Yaho, the god to rebuild it, in Elephantine the fortress just as it had been built formerly. And the meal offering, and the incense, and the burnt offering they will offer on the altar of Yaho, the God in your name. And we shall pray for you at all times.”

So, “Look, you'll get something out of this. We'll pray for you if you help us rebuild this. And we'll bring three types of offerings for you on your behalf.” And maybe this is why they didn't get the answer. They'll bring incense, burnt offering and meal offering, which is really interesting that they're bringing animal sacrifices at Elephantine along with meal offerings, and flour offerings, and incense offerings.

And the reason that's interesting is Leviticus 17 and Deuteronomy 12 talk about how offerings may only be brought to one place, which was understood, certainly in the original context, at the tabernacle and later that was understood to be at the Temple. At least, that's how Josiah understood it, and that's why he went around destroying the high places. And here, these people are in Elephantine, saying, “Look, we bring sacrifices, not just incense and flour offerings. We actually sacrifice animals,” contrary to Leviticus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 12. And then, later we have the memorandum, which leaves out the animal sacrifice, and you mentioned that in your book. Can you read us some of the response there or tell us about the response in the memorandum?

Professor Porten: Well, here they get this memorandum and it's...

Nehemia: It's much shorter than the original letter.

Professor Porten: Right, but it follows the original letter. And it says, “zikhran zi Bagowi udelaya amru li.” In other words, the letter was written to Bagavaiah, and a copy was sent to Galayah, the son of Sanballat. And these two joined together to make the following statement.

Nehemia: Before you get to the statement, just to be clear, the Samaritan leader, the son of Sanballat, whose name is Delayah, he's writing a joint memorandum together with the Jewish leader who is the successor of Nekhemiah.

Professor Porten: Right.

Nehemia: I mean, that's really surprising, but there it is. I mean, we have the document. Go on.

Professor Porten: And then they quote in a bureaucratic way, “al beyt madbekha,” they call it the “house of an altar.” “Al beyt madbekha ziya elaha shmaya,” “the house of the altar of the God of heaven,” “zi beyait birta benai hava,” which in Elephantine the fortress was built, “min kodmin,” formally, “kodom kanbuzi,” “before Kanbuzi,” the Persian Governor, Persian King that conquered Egypt, “zi vigrana lachaya deich hu bedranya,” “that cur, that awful guy,” “nadash,” “destroyed,” “bishnat arba esreh 1,031,” in year 14, “darya ushvea ka’av,” “Darius the King,” “ulemivneya,” “to build it,” “bi’atrey,” “on its place.” In other words, not elsewhere, “zi hava lehav lekadmina,” “as it had been before.” In other words, you restore the status quo ante. “Uminkhata,” “And meal offering,” “levonta,” “and incense,” “yekarvun al madbekha,” “they should offer on the altar.”

Nehemia: So, they don’t mention the animal sacrifices.

Professor Porten: “lekavel zi lekadmina vamedaben,” as it has it had been done before, but they omit mention of the “alvata.”

Nehemia: Which is the animal sacrifice.

Professor Porten: Right.

Nehemia: I think it's quite clear, and you mentioned this in your book, that this is presumably due to the prohibition from the Torah to bring sacrifices outside of Jerusalem. Maybe the deal here is, “Look, we'll help you, but you can't be bringing blood sacrifices in southern Egypt. That only happens here in Jerusalem.”

Professor Porten: Well, that's one view.

Nehemia: Well, and then you bring the next letter, which is b22 in your book, offer for payment for reconstruction of the temple. And one of the things they say here, “If our Lord and the temple of...” something's missing. “And the temple of Yaho, the God of ours, be rebuilt in Elephantine, the fortress as formerly it was built. And sheep, and oxen, goat and burnt offerings are not made there, but only incense and meal offerings they offer there. And should our Lord a statement make about this afterwards, we shall give to the House of the Lord silver and barley.” So, they're offering to pay, but they're only offering to pay if you agree not to bring these animal sacrifices.

Professor Porten: Yes.

Nehemia: So, I think it's a pretty convincing argument, to me, at least, that they're like, look, we want to help you guys, but you can't be spilling blood at the altar in Elephantine, that's reserved for Jerusalem. What's interesting to me is how did the Samaritans see this, and what was their view on that. I don't know. As you said, you know as much as I do, we don't have that information.

But guys, this is incredible stuff. Professor, we didn't even get to Passover. Would you come back for one final segment, where we will quickly go through the Passover letter? I think that is, along with the temple, one of the key documents. Oh, and then of course, we have to talk about Shabtai, which is an incredible figure. Guys, I'll give you a quick preview. We have evidence that there were gentiles who kept Shabbat in the fifth century BC. Stay tuned for part three with Professor Bezalel Porten. Shalom from Jerusalem.

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