Archaeology and the Bible
Jeremiah
How many authors?
The historical parts of Isaiah have already been covered in our comments on the books of Kings and Chronicles, so we go straight to Jeremiah, the prophet from Anathoth. Both books are claimed to be by a multiplicity of authors (exactly how many depends on your prejudices). It is true that the first part of Isaiah is written in prose while the second half is in poetry and that the two differ markedly in style. That, however, is hardly relevant. If you look at any poet and compare his letters or his diary entries with his poetry, you are likely to find differences based on the need to maintain rhythm and rhyme in the poetry, contrasted with no such constraints in the prose. Even the vocabularly is likely to be different between the two genres.
The so-called experts in literary criticism agree on little other than that nearly every book in the Bible wasn't written by its named author but by a conglomeration of authors and editors, and that it is impossible for the one writer to use both "Yahweh" and "Elohim". Exactly why this should be so I have never been able to comprehend, but it appears to be an article of faith with these people.
The nonsense of literary criticism was exposed many years ago by the Jewish scholar Rabbi Umberto Cassuto. In his book, The Documentary Hypothesis and the Composition of the Pentateuch he compares literary criticism of Genesis with literary criticism of Homer, showing that as fashions changed, so the theories changed. At first the literary critics claimed that there were two Homers and a few years later, Biblical critics claimed that there were two authors of Genesis. Then there were many authors for Homer and a year or so later they discovered that there were many authors for Genesis.
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| A page from the "Rainbow Bible" translation of the book of Judges. |
Then a new generation of "scholars" arose, eager to gain fame and academic degrees, and they discovered that as well as the multiple Homers there were also editors and redactors who made the most incredible hash of combining their sources. A couple of years later the new generation of Biblical critics made the same discovery about Genesis. Then came a long period of oral transmission of Homer before the editors got to work and surprise surprise, the same proved to be true of Genesis!
In other words, all these theories are based, not on the evidence, but on the fashions of the time. What is worse is that apart from the Divine Name thing, few of these experts agree on exactly which bits of the Bible belong to which supposed author, even though they claim to be skilled enough to divide up sentences between these authors. The height of this folly came with the "Rainbow Bible", which aimed to print the whole Bible with each putative author in a different colour. Even the critics seemed shamed by such excess and only a couple of volumes were ever printed.
The Documentary Hypothesis, as it is known, is still in vogue among many Biblical scholars. It need hardly be pointed out that there is nothing in archaeology to support it. All the evidence that archaeology has produced - which, I admit, is hardly definitive by its very nature - supports single authors for each book. (See the discussion later of the Dead Sea Scrolls.)
Names
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| The tablet identified by Dr Michael Jursa, which contains the name "Nabu-Sarsechim", an individual mentioned in the Bible. |
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| The seal of Gedaliah son of Pashur, discovered by Dr Eilat Mazar outside the Large Stone Structure on the Ophel Ridge. |
Excavations at Lachish in 1935 turned up a seal impression that bore the words, "Belonging to Gedaliah, who is over the house". As "over the house" appears to be a title, akin to "steward", it is obvious that at the time of the destruction of Lachish there was a royal official named Gedaliah. As it is probable that Nebuchadnezzar would have appointed someone with experience to the position of governor, it is likely that this seal belongs to the Gedaliah who was murdered in Mizpeh.
Another Gedaliah, identified in Jeremiah 38:1 as "the son of Pashur", opposed Jeremiah's work and was responsible for putting him in a cistern that was waist-deep in mud. Dr Eilat Mazar found a seal impression bearing the name "Gedaliah son of Pashur". The bulla was found with a cache of broken pottery beneath the ruins of a tower that was built by Nehemiah.
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| The seal impression of Jehucal son of Shelemiah, discovered by Dr Eilat Mazar inside the royal palace of Jerusalem. |
Three years earlier, Dr Mazar discovered another bulla nearby inside the Large Stone Structure which she believes is the royal palace. This one was inscribed with the name "Jehucal son of Shelemiah", another of the officials responsible for placing Jeremiah in the cistern. There is nothing surprising about finding the bullae so close together. If these officials were responsible for the running of the royal household, it is obvious that they would apply their seals to objects in the palace, and when the palace was looted and destroyed, those seals would be broken and tossed out together.
Related to this is the actual seal made of black and white onyx and found in tomb 19 at Tel en-Nasbeh in 1932 by the American archaeologist William Badè. This bears the name "Jaazaniah, servant of the king" and is decorated by a picture of a cock - probably a fighting cock. The tomb also contained a rich collection of Iron Age pottery. Badè identified the owner of the seal with the "Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite" mentioned in Jeremiah 40:8 as one of the captains of the army of Judah who were still in the field when the Babylonians departed.
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| Seal impression of Baruch, son of Neriah, the scribe. The authenticity of this object has been called in question. |
Finally there is the seal of "Berechyahu son of Neriyahu the scribe" - "Baruch" was an abbreviation of "Berechyahu", so there can be little doubt that this belonged to the Baruch son of Neriah who acted as amanuensis for Jeremiah. Unfortunately the bulla was not found by archaeologists but turned up in 1975 in the hands of a Palestinian antiquities dealer, along with 250 other bullae. Professor Nahman Avigad, the premiere authority on Hebrew seals, published it and was satisfied of its authenticity. (It is claimed to have come from the "burnt house" excavated by Yigal Shiloh and it is probably best not to enquire too closely into how an antiquities dealer came to have it!
Remarkably in 1996 a second bulla was found (in similarly dubious circumstances) with the identical inscription. Like the Ahaz bulla, there is a fingerprint on this one too and it is likely that it is the fingerprint of Baruch himself!
There is an important point to be made here, and that is that the presence of these seals - and others, such as the seal of "Eliakim, steward of Jehoiachin" found at Tel Beit Mirsim (Debir) - among late Iron II pottery means that we cannot put the kings of Judah in Middle or Late Bronze, as some versions of the Revised Chronology attempt to do. The bullae are facts which confirm the conventional chronology at this point in Israel's history.
Seventy Years
Jeremiah predicts that the Jews will remain in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. There are two possible starting points for this period: either the first attack on Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC, when a number of Jews were carried away as hostages, or the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Equally there are two possible end dates: Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC but did not immediately assume the throne of Babylon. Instead he placed the unknown Darius on the throne, who ruled for at least one year - counting the accession year, this would bring us to 538/7. Assuming that Darius died in that year the remainder of the year would be Cyrus' accession year, so the first year of Cyrus would be 537/6 BC and it was in this "first year" that Cyrus issued a proclamation allowing the Jews to return home. 605 to 536 is 70 years counting inclusively.
If we prefer the later date of 586 BC - which I do myself - then we have an interesting record in the book of the prophet Zechariah which throws light on the end date for the 70 years. For a detailed consideration of these points click here.
The Field
In chapter 32 Jeremiah recounts how God told him to buy a field at a time when Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. To purchase land that was occupied by the Babylonians must have seemed like the rankest folly, but God interpreted it as a mark of confidence that Israel would be restored and that properties would once again be bought and sold by Jews.
Curiously there is a parallel to this in Livy's account of the invasion of Italy by Hannibal. At one point, after a string of spectacular victories, Hannibal advanced to the walls of Rome, ready to lay siege to the city itself. Two things happened to so discourage him that he raised the siege and retreated into southern Italy.
The first was that even as his men formed up to attack the southern gate, a Roman army departed by the north gate to deal with hostilities in north italy. Hannibal was astonished the Romans were so confident that they could send off soldiers who might have been employed in the defense of the city; but it was the second thing that finally decided him on retreat. It was reported to him that even as his men were setting up their camp on a piece of ground outside the city, that same field was up for sale by public auction inside the city. To Hannibal's chagrin and annoyance, the land sold for exactly the price that was expected - there was no discount because it was occupied by an enemy army! Obviously the Romans did not anticipate that he would be there long.
"Nebo-Sarsechim" In the King James Version the Hebrew is split differently to give the names "Samgarnebo, Sarsechim". Faced with all these strange names, the translators had nothing to go on in dividing the unspaced Hebrew. More modern translations take advantage of our knowledge of Babylonian names to put "Nebo" (or Nabu) as a prefix to a name, hence "Nebo-Sarsechim".
The tablet records a gift of gold given to the great sun temple of Sippar. Although there may have been many people called "Nebo-Sarsechim", only a court official would have been wealthy enough to make such a large donation. This makes the identification of this individual with the court official mentioned in Jeremiah almost certain. Return
bulla "Bulla" is the technical term for a lump of clay into which a seal was impressed. An object such as a jar or a scroll was commonly tied shut with string and then clay was pressed over and around the knot and the seal was pressed into the clay. In the course of time the string degraded and disappeared but the clay remains. Such "bullae" are commonly fragile because, of course, they were not baked, and that can make them difficult to read. Return
a second bulla Professor Christopher Rollston, a paleographer, takes issue with this and claims that both bullae are forgeries. It all depends on two letters which are the same height but which should be - he claims - of different heights. It is such an arcane point that I am totally unable to express any opinion in the matter other than to suggest that ancient scribes might not have been as consistent in their handwriting as a modern laser printer! On the other hand, the fact that both bullae were found without provenance is suspicious. We shall have to wait and see! Return
steward of Jehoiachin Professor William Albright examined the deal impression and concluded that it had been made during the reign of Zedekiah. I have no information on how he felt he could be so precise, but the interesting thing is that if he is correct, it would indicate that Jews of the time saw Jehoiachin as king, even though he was in captivity, and regarded Zedekiah as his regent. This is confirmed to a certain extent by Ezekiel, who appears to date his visions in terms of Jehoiachin rather than Zedekiah. Return
