Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ELEPHANTINE PAPYRI*

Aramaic documents from the fifth century BC discovered at Elephantine, an island in the Nile River. At the time of the documents’ writing, Elephantine was a Persian military outpost, manned in part by a group of Jewish mercenaries with their families. The documents, numbering over 100, belong primarily to three archives—two familial and one communal. The archives contained many complete scrolls that were still tied and sealed at the time of their discovery, along with numerous broken papyri and fragments.

The manuscripts are of considerable archaeological importance. Several centuries older than most of the Dead Sea Scrolls, they portray the social, political, and religious life of a Jewish community outside Palestine. Several points of contact are made with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Since most of the documents are legal texts, they are an important link in the history of law in the ancient Near East. The texts also provide valuable information about the Aramaic spoken in the period and illustrate the daily life of a Persian frontier military colony.

Ancient Elephantine

Elephantine was located on the southern tip of a small island in the Nile River a few kilometers north of the first cataract, opposite its twin city, ancient Syene (modern Aswan). The Bible probably includes the twin cities of Elephantine and Syene in two occurrences of the phrase “from Migdol to Syene” (Ez 29:10; 30:6), that is, from Egypt’s northern border to its southern border. The city’s name was an Aramaic version of an Egyptian name meaning “city of ivories” and was translated into Greek as Elephantine. Because of its strategic importance on Egypt’s southern boundary with Nubia, it was probably fortified as early as the third dynasty (27th century BC) and figured repeatedly in Egypt’s military history.

Elephantine was also a major commercial center. Since the first cataract was just upstream from Elephantine/ Syene, the twin towns were the terminal ports for deep water navigation. Both towns had wharves and were fortified with garrisons to protect the trade in ivory, animal skins, spices, minerals, slaves, and food. Also a religious center, Elephantine was the temple city of Khnum, the Egyptian god of the cataract region, who presided over the flood cycles of the Nile.

Discovery of the Papyri

Elephantine came into archaeological prominence with the discoveries of the papyri. The discoveries were made in three stages. The first group to be published (in 1906) had been gathered by purchases from antiquities dealers and was housed in the Cairo Museum. That first publication stimulated German and French excavations at Elephantine in the hope of discovering more papyri. The Berlin Museum was rewarded for its efforts with a second group of papyri, published in 1911. Ironically, a group of papyri discovered in the late 19th century was the last to be studied and published. American scholar C. E. Wilbour purchased papyri in 1893 from some Arab women at Aswan. In storage until Wilbour’s daughter bequeathed them to the Brooklyn Museum, they were finally published in 1953. Since 1912, other excavations have been mounted by the pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome and the Egyptian government, but no further papyri were found.

Jewish Colony

At the time the papyri were written, the Jews were already well established in Elephantine. The legal documents among the excavated papyri give a clear picture of life in the military colony at Elephantine. In addition to the Jewish mercenaries (“men of the regiment”), Jewish civilians (“men of the town”) were also present. The soldiers were organized into military units, which also appear to have had socioeconomic functions. Though subject to military discipline, the soldiers enjoyed considerable personal freedom. They led normal family lives, engaged in all types of commerce, and bequeathed their properties to their children. Marriage at Elephantine required the consent of the bride as well as the father, and could be dissolved by either party through a public declaration that he or she “hates” the other.

The Elephantine Jews worshiped in their own temple, which was dedicated to the Hebrew God, whom they called Yahu (a variation on Yahweh). Political and religious leaders at Elephantine were in correspondence with officials in Jerusalem and Samaria.

There is no conclusive evidence regarding when the Jewish presence at Elephantine began. Jews could have entered Egypt on any of several occasions from the eighth to the early sixth centuries BC. One document from Elephantine claims that the Jewish temple there was built during a period of native Egyptian rule before the Persian conquest under Cambyses (reigned 529–522 BC). That would give a date for the construction of the Elephantine temple by the mid-sixth century at the latest.

Elephantine Judaism

In spite of the law of a single sanctuary (Dt 12:1-11), and in spite of the recent reforms of kings Hezekiah and Josiah in the seventh and eighth centuries BC that centralized worship in Jerusalem, the Elephantine Jews seem to have felt no wrong in having a temple in Egypt. Neither the German, French, Italian, nor Egyptian excavations located the Jewish temple, but the documents record that the temple was oriented toward Jerusalem.

The Elephantine Jews may have recognized Jerusalem’s primacy in religious affairs. When the temple at Elephantine was destroyed by priests of the Khnum temple in 410 BC, an appeal was sent to Johanan the high priest (cf. Neh 12:22; 13:28) and Bagoas the governor of Judah, seeking their permission and influence for its restoration. The appeal produced no response, perhaps because of the Jerusalem leadership’s disapproval of the temple in Egypt. A second appeal, sent three years later to Bagoas, governor of Judah, and to Delaiah and Shelemiah, sons of Sanballat, governor of Samaria, produced an oral reply, recorded in a memorandum. The reply ordered the temple’s rebuilding and the resumption of meal and incense offerings. Permission to reinstitute the burnt offering, however, was not given, perhaps as a concession to Egyptian or Persian religious convictions. A deed for a piece of property, dated 402 BC, mentions the temple of Yahu, implying that it was in fact rebuilt.

The Elephantine Jews probably brought with them to Egypt the popular religion that was so strongly denounced by the prophets before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. God was central in their faith, but they also worshiped other gods, even if only in a subsidiary fashion. Evidence of departure from orthodox worship of God comes from a list of offerings that mentions two Aramean deities, Eshembethel and Anathbethel. Oaths at Elephantine were sworn almost exclusively in the name of Yahu, but they were also sworn occasionally in the names of an Egyptian goddess, Sati, and another Aramean deity, Herembethel. Salutations in letters invoked the blessings of a variety of deities. Moreover, intermarriage with surrounding peoples, forbidden in the OT because it would lead to religious apostasy (Ex 34:11-16; Dt 7:1-5), had become a common practice at Elephantine. It was a contemporary problem in Israel as well under Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 9:1–10:44; Neh 13:23-28). Children of mixed marriages in Elephantine often had Egyptian names.

Nevertheless, the archives also show that the Elephantine Jews continued to observe the Jewish feasts. An order from King Darius II in 419 BC commanded the Jews at Elephantine to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The text, broken immediately before this reference, presumably also contained instructions to observe the Passover. Four ostraca (potsherds) also refer to the Sabbath but provide few clues regarding Sabbath observance at Elephantine.

Language of the Papyri

Except for slight differences, the Aramaic of the Elephantine papyri is the same as biblical Aramaic. Both are a part of a dialect known as Imperial Aramaic, the international and commercial language of the Persian Empire. The personal names continued to be Hebrew, but there is no direct evidence that Hebrew was used by the community. Aramaic was the daily language, and there is no suggestion of controversy over whether or not Hebrew should be used in Jewish homes, as was the case with Nehemiah in Jerusalem (Neh 13:23-25).