Editing Elephantine papyri and ostraca (section)

==={{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>