Hebrew Voices #93 – The Ancient Jewish Temple in Elephantine

Hebrew Voices #93 - The Ancient Jewish Temple in Elephantine

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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.