Editing Elephantine papyri and ostraca (section)

==Jewish documents==
=== Historical significance ===
[[File:Almostincredible.png|thumb|As shocking sometimes as what was in the papyri, says Cowley, was what wasn't.]]
The Elephantine papyri pre-date all extant [[Biblical manuscript|manuscripts]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]], and thus give scholars a very important glimpse at how Judaism was practiced in Egypt during the fifth century BCE,<ref name="gmirkin">{{cite book |last=Gmirkin |first=Russell |title=Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch |publisher=T & T Clark International |location=New York |year=2006 |isbn=0-567-02592-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=noKI6AsqnhMC |pages=29ff }}</ref> as they seem to show evidence of the existence in c. 400 BCE of a [[polytheistic]] sect of Jews. It is widely agreed that this Elephantine community originated in the mid-seventh or mid-sixth centuries BCE, likely as a result of Judean and Samaritan refugees fleeing into Egypt during the times of Assyrian and Babylonian invasions.{{Sfn|Toorn|2019|pp=61–88}} They seem to have had no knowledge of a written [[Torah]] or the narratives described therein.<ref name="cowley">{{cite book |last=Cowley |first=Arthur |title=Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. |year=2005 |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |location=Eugene, OR |isbn=1-59752-3631 |pages=xx–xxiii|postscript=, "So far as we learn from these texts Moses might never have existed, there might have been no bondage in Egypt, no exodus, no monarchy, no prophets. There is no mention of other tribes and no claim to any heritage in the land of Judah. Among the numerous names of colonists, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, so common in later times, never occur (nor in Nehemiah), nor any other name derived from their past history as recorded in the Pentateuch and early literature. It is almost incredible, but it is true."|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3FLAwAAQBAJ }}</ref>

Also important is the fact that the papyri document the existence of a small Jewish temple at Elephantine, which possessed altars for incense offerings and animal sacrifices, as late as 411 BCE. Such a temple would be in clear violation of [[Book of Deuteronomy|Deuteronomic]] law, which stipulates that no Jewish temple may be constructed outside of Jerusalem.<ref name="gmirkin"/>{{rp|31}} Furthermore, the papyri show that the Jews at Elephantine sent letters to the high priest in Jerusalem asking for his support in re-building their temple, which seems to suggest that the priests of the Jerusalem Temple were not enforcing Deuteronomic law at that time. Cowley notes that their petition expressed their pride at having a temple to [[Yahweh|Ya'u]]<ref>Cowley says Ya'u was how Yahweh was pronounced here, with the apostophe for a glottal stop</ref> (no other god is mentioned in the petition) and gave no suggestion that their temple could be heretical.<ref name= cowley/>

Upon first examination, this appears to contradict commonly accepted models of the development of Jewish religion and the dating of the Hebrew scriptures, which posit that [[monotheism]] and the [[Torah]] should have already been well-established by the time these papyri were written. Most scholars explain this apparent discrepancy by theorizing that the Elephantine Jews represented an isolated remnant of Jewish religious practices from earlier centuries,<ref name= gmirkin/>{{rp|32}} or that the Torah had only recently been promulgated at that time.<ref name= greifenhagen>{{Cite book |last=Greifenhagen |first=Franz V. |title=Egypt on the Pentateuch's Ideological Map |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1evAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA207 |isbn=978-0-567-39136-0 |pages=236–245 }}</ref>

[[Niels Peter Lemche]], Philippe Wajdenbaum, Russell Gmirkin, and [[Thomas L. Thompson]] have argued that the Elephantine papyri demonstrate that monotheism and the Torah could not have been established in Jewish culture before 400 BCE, and that the Torah was therefore likely written in the [[Hellenistic period]], in the third or fourth centuries BCE.<ref name= wajdenbaum>{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Hjelm |editor1-first=Ingrid |editor2-last=Thompson |editor2-first=Thomas L. |encyclopedia=Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity |series=Changing Perspectives |volume=7 |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |title=From Plato to Moses: Genesis-Kings as a Platonic Epic |author-last=Wajdenbaum |author-first=Philippe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDt-CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 |pages=76–90 |isbn=978-1-315-69077-3 }}</ref><ref name= gmirkin/>{{rp|32ff}}

==={{Anchor|Jewish temple at Elephantine}} Jewish temple at Elephantine ===
[[Image:Elephantine Temple reconstruction request.gif|thumb|260px|A letter from the Elephantine Papyri, requesting the rebuilding of a Jewish temple at Elephantine.]]
The Jews had their own temple to [[Yahweh]]<ref>The written form of the [[Tetragrammaton]] in Elephantine is YHW.</ref> which functioned alongside that of the Egyptian god [[Khnum]]. Along with Yahweh, other deities – ʿ[[Anat]] Betel and Asham [[Bethel (god)|Bethel]] – seem to have been worshiped by these Jews, evincing [[polytheistic]] beliefs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=h2U8CwAAQBAJ&q=polytheists Paolo Sacchi, ''The History of the Second Temple Period''. T&T Clark International, 2000, London/New York, p. 151]</ref> Other scholars argue that these theonyms are merely [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|hypostases]] of Yahweh, and dispute the idea that the Elephantine Jews were polytheists.<ref>{{cite book |title=Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |publisher=Penn State Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-64602-208-3 |pages=61–62 |editor-last=Folmer |editor-first=Margaretha |chapter=Elephantine and Ezra–Nehemiah |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61}}</ref>

Excavation work done in 1967 revealed the remains of the Jewish colony centered on a small temple.<ref name=JPost>{{cite news |author=Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg |title=Was there a Jewish temple in ancient Egypt? |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=1 July 2013 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Was-there-a-Jewish-temple-in-ancient-Egypt-318363 |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref>
The "Petition to Bagoas" (Sayce-Cowley collection) is a letter written in 407 BCE to Bagoas, the Persian governor of Judea, appealing for assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple in Elephantine, which had recently been damaged by an anti-Semitic segment of the Elephantine community.<ref>[http://www.kent.net/DisplacedDynasties/Petition_to_Bagoas.htm Comment on 'Petition to Bagoas' (Elephantine Papyri), by Jim Reilly in his book ''Nebuchadnezzar & the Egyptian Exile''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723173238/http://www.kent.net/DisplacedDynasties/Petition_to_Bagoas.htm |date=2011-07-23 }} From website www.kent.net. Retrieved 18 July 2010.</ref>

In the course of this appeal, the Jewish inhabitants of Elephantine speak of the antiquity of the damaged temple:

{{blockquote|Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when [[Cambyses II|Cambyses]] came to Egypt he found it built. They (the Persians) knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any damage to this temple.}}

The community also appealed for aid to [[Sanballat I]], a [[Samaritan]] potentate, and his sons [[Delaia]]h and [[Shelemiah]], as well as [[Johanan (High Priest)|Johanan ben Eliashib]]. Both Sanballat and Johanan are mentioned in the [[Book of Nehemiah]], {{bibleverse-nb||Nehemiah|2:19|HE}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Nehemiah|12:23|HE}}.<ref>Merrill Unger, ''Unger's Bible Handbook'', p. 260</ref>

There was a response of both governors (Bagoas and Delaiah) which gave the permission by decree to rebuild the temple written in the form of a memorandum:
"<sub>1</sub>Memorandum of what Bagohi and Delaiah said <sub>2</sub>to me, saying: Memorandum: You may say in Egypt ... <sub>8</sub>to (re)build it on its site as it was formerly...".<ref>Bezalel Porten; Ada Yardeni, ''Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt'' 1. Jerusalem 1986, Letters, 76 (=TADAE A4.9)</ref>

By the middle of the 4th century BCE, the temple at Elephantine had ceased to function. There is evidence from excavations that the rebuilding and enlargement of the Khnum temple under [[Nectanebo II]] (360–343) took the place of the former temple of YHWH.

In 2004, the [[Brooklyn Museum]] created a display entitled "Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive From the Nile Valley," which featured the interfaith couple of Ananiah, an official at the temple of Yahou (a.k.a. Yahweh), and his wife, Tamut, who was previously an Egyptian slave owned by an Aramean master, Meshullam.<ref>[https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/jehoishma-daughter-of-ananiah-the-life-of-a-totally-normal-ancient-person/ Jehoishma Daughter of Ananiah: The Life of a Totally Normal Ancient Person]</ref><ref>[http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/new_tales_from_a_postexodus_egypt_20040409/ New Tales From a Post-Exodus Egypt] by Naomi Pfefferman, 2004-04-08, ''Jewish Journal''</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-may-11-et-biederman11-story.html So long ago, so very much like us: A multicultural couple marries, buys a house, raises kids. That's the age-old story of 'Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt' at the Skirball] 2004-05-11, ''Los Angeles Times''</ref> Some related exhibition didactics of 2002 included comments about significant structural similarities between [[Judaism]] and the [[ancient Egyptian religion]] and how they easily coexisted and blended at Elephantine.<ref>[https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/752 Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt] See esp. section "Jewish and Egyptian Ritual in Elephantine" and other sections. 2002</ref>

===Anat-Yahu===
The papyri suggest that, "Even in exile and beyond, the veneration of a female deity endured."<ref>{{cite book|last=Gnuse|first=Robert Karl|title=No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel|year=1997|publisher=T&T Clark|isbn=978-1850756576|page=185|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBSJNDndGjwC&pg=PA185 }}</ref> The texts were written by a group of Jews living at [[Elephantine]] near the [[Nubia]]n border, whose religion has been described as "nearly identical to Iron Age II Judahite religion".<ref name="Noll 248">{{cite book|last=Noll|first=K.L.|title=Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|page=248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2rnyjxLHy-QC&pg=PA248 |isbn=9781841273181|date=2001}}</ref> The papyri describe the Jews as worshiping [[Anat#In Israel|Anat-Yahu]] (mentioned in the document AP 44, line 3, in Cowley's numbering). Anat-Yahu is described as either the wife<ref>{{cite book|last=Day|first=John|title=Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan|year=2002|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|location=143|isbn=978-0826468307|author-link=John Day (Old Testament scholar)}}</ref> (or paredra, sacred consort)<ref>{{cite book|last=Edelman|first=Diana Vikander|title=The triumph of Elohim: from Yahwisms to Judaisms|year=1996|publisher=William B. Eerdmans|isbn=978-0802841612|page=[https://archive.org/details/triumphofelohimf00edel/page/58 58]|url=https://archive.org/details/triumphofelohimf00edel |url-access=registration}}</ref> of Yahweh or as a [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|hypostatized]] aspect of [[Yahweh]].<ref name="Noll 248"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader|year=2004|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1575060835|page=394|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA394 |author=Susan Ackerman|editor=Suzanne Richard|chapter=Goddesses|author-link=Susan Ackerman (biblical scholar)}}</ref>

===The family archive of Ananiah and Tamut===
The eight papyri contained at the [[Brooklyn Museum]] concern one particular Jewish family, providing specific information about the daily lives of a man called Ananiah, a Jewish temple official; his wife, Tamut, an Egyptian slave; and their children, over the course of forty-seven years. Egyptian farmers discovered the archive of Ananiah and Tamut on Elephantine Island in 1893, while digging for fertilizer in the remains of ancient mud-brick houses. They found at least eight papyrus rolls which were purchased by [[Charles Edwin Wilbour]]. He was the first person to find [[Aramaic]] papyri. The papyri have been grouped here by topic, such as marriage contract, real estate transaction, or loan agreement.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY}}</ref>

====Marriage document====
[[File:Aramaic. Marriage Document, July 3, 449 B.C.E..jpg|right|thumbnail|Marriage Document of Ananiah and Tamut, July 3, 449 BCE, [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
Ancient marriage documents generally formalized already existing relationships. In this case, Ananiah and Tamut already had a young son when the document was drawn up. Because Tamut was a slave when she married Ananiah, the contract has special conditions: usually, it was the groom and his father-in-law who made Jewish marriage agreements, but Ananiah made this contract with Tamut's master, Meshullam, who legally was her father. In addition, special provision was made to free the couple's son, also a slave to Meshullam; perhaps Ananiah consented to the small dowry of either 7 or 15 [[shekels]] (the text is ambiguous) in order to obtain his son's freedom. Future children, however, would still be born slaves. In contrast to Jewish documents like this one, contemporaneous Egyptian marriage documents were negotiated between a husband and wife.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=26}}</ref>

====Deed of Emancipation====
Nearly twenty-two years after her marriage to Ananiah, Tamut's master released her and her daughter, Yehoishema, from slavery. It was rare for a slave to be freed. And though a slave could marry a free person, their children usually belonged to the master. As an institution, slavery in Egypt at that time differed in notable ways from the practice in some other cultures: Egyptian slaves retained control over personal property, had professions, and were entitled to compensation. During the [[Late Period of ancient Egypt|Persian Period]] in Egypt, it was not uncommon to sell children, or even oneself, into slavery to pay debts.

====Real estate documents====

=====Bagazust and Ubil sell a house to Ananiah=====
[[File:Property Sale Document, 437 B.C.E,47.218.95a-b.jpg|thumbnail|Property Sale Document: Bagazust and Ubil Sell a House to Ananiah, September 14, 437 BCE [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
This document to the right describes a property purchased by Ananiah, twelve years after his marriage, from a Persian soldier named Bagazust and his wife, Ubil. The property, in a town on [[Elephantine]] Island, named for the god [[Khnum]], was located across the street from the Temple of Yauh and adjacent to the Persian family of Ubil's father. As such proximity might suggest, the Egyptians, Jews, and Persians in Elephantine all lived among one another. The renovation of the house and its gradual transfers to family members are the central concerns of the next several documents in Ananiah's family archive.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=30}}</ref>

=====Ananiah gives Tamut part of the house=====
Three years after purchasing the house from Bagazust and Ubil, Ananiah transferred ownership of an apartment within the now renovated house to his wife, Tamut. Although Tamut thereafter owned the apartment, Ananiah required that at her death it pass to their children, Palti and Yehoishema. As with all property transfers within a family, this gift was described as made "in love".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=32}}</ref>

=====Ananiah gives Yehoishema part of the house=====
Drawn up thirty years after the preceding papyrus, this document is one of several that gradually transferred ownership of Ananiah and Tamut's house to their daughter, Yehoishema, as payment on her dowry. The legal descriptions of the house preserve the names of Ananiah's neighbors. They included an Egyptian who held the post of gardener of the Egyptian god [[Khnum]] and, on the other side, two Persian boatmen. Image of document in gallery.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=34}}</ref>

=====Ananiah gives Yehoishema another part of the house=====
For his daughter Yehoishema's dowry, Ananiah had transferred to her partial ownership of the house he shared with Tamut. After making more repairs to the building, Ananiah transferred a further section of the house, described in this document, to the dowry. Image of document in gallery.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=36}}</ref>

=====Ananiah and Tamut sell the house to their son-in-law=====
This papyrus records the sale of the remaining portion of Ananiah and Tamut's house to Yehoishema's husband. Possibly because the clients were dissatisfied with something the scribe had written, at one point the text of the document breaks off and then starts over again, repeating what has gone on before with some additions. The boundary description included here refers to the Temple of Yauh in Elephantine, now rebuilt eight years after its destruction in 410 BCE during a civil war conflict that arose out of a land dispute. Image of document in gallery below.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|author-link=Edward Bleiberg|first1=Edward|title=Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt: A Family Archive from the Nile Valley|date=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|location=Brooklyn, NY|page=39}}</ref>

====Loan agreement====
Sometime in December 402 BCE, Ananiah son of Haggai borrowed two monthly rations of grain from Pakhnum son of Besa, an [[Arameans|Aramean]] with an Egyptian name. This receipt would have been held by Pakhnum and returned to Ananiah son of Haggai when he repaid the loan. No interest is charged but there is a penalty for failing to repay the loan by the agreed date. The receipt demonstrates that friendly business relations continued between Egyptians and Jews in Elephantine after the expulsion of the Persians by [[Amyrtaeus]], the only [[pharaoh]] of the [[Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt]]. Image of document is in gallery below.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bleiberg|first1=Edward|author-link1=Edward Bleiberg|author2=Brooklyn Museum of Art|title=Jewish life in ancient Egypt: a family archive from the Nile Valley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prMwAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Brooklyn Museum of Art|page=23|isbn=9780872731479}}</ref>