Jewish Temple of Elephantine

La comunità ebraica

The Judeans of Elephantine were soldiers and their families serving in a garrison of the Persian Empire on Egypt's southern border; their documents are written in Aramaic and date mostly from the fifth century BCE. Cowley's edition of the papyri notes that the temple already existed by 525 BCE, so the community was settled on the island before the Persian conquest, under the last native kings of Egypt. Its leaders appear in the papyri as Jedaniah and his colleagues the priests. They were in contact with the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, including the high priest Johanan, and with the sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria. The community's religion, as the papyri show, centred on YHW but also named other deities. The neighbouring Egyptian population worshipped Khnum, whose temple operated alongside the Jewish one. The community's numbers, its full structure and the names of most of its members beyond those in the papyri are unknown.

Architettura e design

The only description of the building comes from the petition of 407 BCE. It speaks of pillars of stone, five gateways built of hewn stone with doors standing in them, bronze hinges on those doors, a roof of cedar wood, and basins of gold and silver among its fittings. Angela Rohrmoser's summary of the research adds that an enclosure wall around the temple precinct, built by the early fifth century BCE at the latest, blocked the island's main street, which had to be rerouted; after the rebuilding an inner wall apparently divided the precinct into two courts and the restored street was about two metres wide. Excavation by Cornelius von Pilgrim for the German Archaeological Institute located the temple in the western part of the ancient town and dated a section of the wall of its inner sanctuary to the sixth century BCE. The surviving remains are too sparse for a reliable reconstruction, and published reconstructions differ widely. The architect, the builder, the dimensions and the layout of the interior are unknown.

La vita nella sinagoga

The temple was the place of sacrifice for the Jews of Elephantine. The petition lists the offerings that stopped after the destruction: meal offering, incense and burnt offering, which were not made from Tammuz of year 14 until year 17 of Darius II. During those three years, the petitioners write, the community mourned and fasted. The temple was served by priests, and Jedaniah wrote together with his colleagues the priests. Other papyri show that YHW was worshipped alongside other divine names, among them Anat-Yahu and Anat-Bethel, and that the temple had altars for incense and animal sacrifice as late as 411 BCE. When permission to rebuild came, a memorandum of Bagohi, governor of Judah, and Delaiah son of Sanballat allowed the altar-house to be rebuilt on its former site with meal offerings and incense; a draft letter by Jedaniah and four others promised that no sheep, ox or goat would be offered there as a burnt offering.

Distruzione

The temple was destroyed in the month of Tammuz in year 14 of Darius II, the summer of 410 BCE. According to the petition the Jewish priests sent to Bagohi in 407 BCE, the priests of the god Khnub, whose temple stood beside the Jewish one, came to an agreement with Vidranga, the Persian commander at Elephantine. Vidranga sent a letter to his son Naphaina, commander of the garrison at Syene, who brought Egyptian troops to the temple. They demolished it to the ground, smashed its stone pillars, destroyed its five stone gateways, burned its doors, bronze hinges and cedar roof, and carried off the gold and silver basins. The petition adds that Vidranga was later punished and lost his property. Excavation confirmed that the temple burned. Modern scholars propose different causes: a dispute over the precinct wall that blocked the main street, objection to the sacrifice of sheep and goats beside the ram god's temple, or bribery of Vidranga. The rebuilt temple was not destroyed again; it was abandoned when the Judeans left.

Il destino della comunità

After the attack the community spent three years in mourning and wrote to Bagohi, governor of Judah, to the high priest Johanan in Jerusalem, to Ostanes brother of Anani and the Jewish nobles, and later to Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat of Samaria. Jerusalem gave no written answer. A memorandum from Bagohi and Delaiah, preserved among the papyri, approved rebuilding the altar-house on its old site, limited to meal offerings and incense. Rohrmoser, summarising von Pilgrim's excavation, writes that the temple was rebuilt and that it was given up when the Judeo-Arameans left the island, at the latest at the beginning of the fourth century BCE. No sign of a second violent destruction was found: the building appears to have been used as a stable and then taken down in an orderly way. Cowley suggested that the troubles of these years may have brought the Jewish colony to an end. What became of its members is unknown.

Il luogo oggi

Elephantine Island lies in the Nile opposite Aswan, and its ancient town is an archaeological site excavated by the German Archaeological Institute together with the Swiss Institute for Egyptian Building Research. The Jewish temple stood in the western part of the ancient town near the temple of Khnum, which was later enlarged and in the Ptolemaic period built over the area of the former Jewish sanctuary. Only sparse foundations and wall sections of the Jewish temple were found, among them part of the wall of its inner sanctuary from the sixth century BCE. Nothing of the building stands above ground. The petition that tells its story, papyrus P. 13495, is in the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection in Berlin.

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