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BABYLONIAN EXILE OF JEWS.   Term Paper ID:28470 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines issues, Biblical accounts v those of historians. Results of exile: Diaspora 1st writings of Jewish history (first 9 books of Bible & Torah.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 9 sources, 13 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines issues, Biblical accounts v those of historians. Results of exile: Diaspora 1st writings of Jewish history (first 9 books of Bible & Torah. Paper Introduction: BABYLONIAN EXILE OF THE JEWS According to the various accounts of the invasion of Judah and the exiling of Jews, especially their leaders, to Babylon was seen in the Bible as God’s punishment. Even those who wrote years after the actual event, still pass judgment on the reasons for the exile to Babylon. One “writer justified God’s judgment by pointing to what he understood as a history of sin. He measured Israel’s behavior- and in particular that of the kings of Israel and Judah- by the understanding of the law presented in the book of Deuteronomy, and found it wanting.” (Miller 15) There are a number of books of the Old Testament, including Daniel and Jeremiah, which relate the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar or Nebuchadrezzar) in 597 BC. The Babylonian army, on its way to do battle with Egypt, captured a portion of Judah. On the army’s return from Egypt, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. In other words, the Egyptians preferredthe Jews in their land, rather than a greater power, such as Babylon orAssyria. The standard Babylonian practice was to strip conquered territories of their political and religious elites....Thus King Jehoiachin, who had been on the throne in Judah in 597 was taken with hios family to Babylon and treated well. Other writer/prophets/sages were more circumspect about the Babylonianexile. It is this "Diasporan"symbol which begat the idea of Zionism, early in the Twentieth Century- theidea that there is, and always had been, a Jewish homeland. What the Bible does not recount, of course, is the story of theseelite. As the story now has it: "Faithful to the dietary rules of theTorah, they live on vegetables and water, but nevertheless are endowed byGod with wisdom which exceeds that of Babylonian sages and magicians"(Blackburn 17 ). Joshua, for one talks about "the adversity of the Babylonian exile(verses 19-2 ) but does not linger on this adversity, but rather,concluding that there is an opportunity for Israel and the Hebrews to renewtheir covenant with God. Yet, some modern discoveries have shown that itmight well have occurred during the time of the Jewish exile. When Hezekiah,it seems, had defeated them, and placed anti-Assyrian rulers in power inthe lands he retook from Assyria and the Philistines, it was the removal ofthis Jewish elite to Babylon that brought Egypt into the fray. In fact, even some of thebooks of the Bible (although it seems they were written long after thefact, were not angry or upset with the Babylonians. The Babylonians,either through neglect or on purpose, never forced the Jews to becomeassimilated. Again, one must refer to theremarks that it was a Babylonian custom and tradition, when occupying aforeign land. He was still alive when Nebudchadnezzar died, and members of his family took a leading role not only in the exile community in Babylon, but in Judah after the exile ended (Akenson 2 ). We then seem to come full circle: While prophets rail about thesuffering of the Jewish people, due to their sins, and that this is onemore trial their God put them through to realize their previous errors, andthen, after suffering, promised their return to rebuild thee Temple tohonor Him; the exile to Babylon turns out to be more a military andpolitical chess game. "ThePharaohs, who had never recovered their former might, were neverthelessalways sensitive to the fact that permanent occupation of the Palestinianland-bridge by any other Great Power was a potential preliminary steptoward the conquest of the country of the Nile, famous for its fabulousresources and riches" (Herzog 176). Unlike the Bible books, historians now recognize that a minority --"at most 1 to 2 percent of the population actually was sent into exile.'The poorest sort of the people of the land' were left behind (II Kings 24-14) to be farmers and tend the vineyards." (Akenson 2 ) The poor, however,seemed to have been generously treated by the Babylonian overseers, whogave them land and vineyards free to till and reap as they wished. On the army's return from Egypt, numbers of Jews wereforced into exile in Babylon. The book of Jeremiah seems the most accurate, written (or dictated) atthe time to Jeremiah's secretary, a man named Baruch. While the Bible sees the exile as God's judgment and punishment, therewere obviously political reasons for the invasion, the destruction ofJewish temples and cities. The key to understanding the Babylonian captivity is to see it from the vantage point of Babylonian Realpolitik. One might realistically ask: If he was so benevolent, why remove themfrom their homeland in the first place? It seems that to be historically, rather than Biblically accurate, onemust look at Nebudchanezzar as a rather benevolent ruler who did not harmthe great majority of the Judean elite whom he brought into exile intoBabylonia. Accurate or not, the various interpretation of the bible stories andthe facts unearthed from tables I(including the Dead Sea scrolls and othercuneiforms) seem to prove that the Babylonian exile was not as harsh orbitter as some would believe. While not directly alluding to Jeremiah, some latter-day historiansexamining the Holocaust seem to feel that the prophecy of Jeremiah to notbe destroyed, but to give in, may have been one of the reasons so many Jewsseemed to go meekly to the concentration camps of the Nazis, and, withouttoo much fighting, walked into the gas chambers. And critics have long pointed out that therewas no mention in Egyptian or Persian sources of any Babylonian invasion ofEgypt" (Richards 18 ). It was not a time of prosperity, obviously,but the opportunity was proffered for the Jews to begin the writing oftheir Old Testament and Torah which, unlike Babylon, survive. No wonder that they set up (and were permittedto do so) temples and synagogues, and schools that taught religion to theirchildren. There is no hint of who this"saint" (according to Akenson) or prophet was, but someone surely beganthis writing down of history process. It was necessary forthese prophets -- some prophets of doom, others of patience -- to make thereturning Jews assimilate once again with those who remained, and thus forma unified nation, not to mention a religion that now had a written doctrineof its history and observances. It was not God's will, but the benevolence of Babylonians, whichpermitted, indeed, encouraged Jews to return to their homeland. As it turns out, reading the so-called "post-exilic prophets" (Haggai,Zechariah, Joel, Obadiah, and Malachi) "the writings of the five prophetsreflected the economic and political insecurity of the Hebrews after theirreturn to Jerusalem. What also seems to be overlooked in the Biblical chapters on the exilewas the hatred between the Israelites and the Philistines. Historianstoday also are concerned with what Jews knew bout Babylon, and how thataffected their narration of the exile. Tucker: The Cambridge Bible Commentary: The Book of Joshua (1974) London UK: Cambridge University Press.Myers, Franklin G.: The Old Testament (1968) New York: Barnes & Noble.Richards, Larry: Baffling Bible Questions Answered (1993) New York: Testament Books.Saggs, H.W.F.: Babylonians (2 ) Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Works CitedAkenson, Donald Harman: Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds (1998) New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.Asimov, Isaac: Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old Testament (1968) New York: Avon Books.Blackburn, Ruth H.: The Old Testament as Living Literature (1976) New York: Monarch Press.Fox, Robin Lane: The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible (1991) New York: Alfred A. One "writerjustified God's judgment by pointing to what he understood as a history ofsin. No wonder, then, that Babylon captured part of Judah, marchedtoward Egypt, and rendered the government of Judah powerless by removingits able and competent leaders. While the Jewish religion began long before the exile into Babylon, itseems that this very exile and its consequences caused the first "official"writing down of religious tradition, of the means of celebrating holidays,and how, and when. In other words, the exile was not an effort on thepart of the Babylonians to destroy the Jewish religion. WhileAkenson and others are not revisionists, nevertheless they make it clearthat this exile was not the terrible God's judgment wreaked on an entirepeople. "There is no record ofsuch an invasion in the Bible. Babylon is attempting to check-mate its opponents inthat part of the world, and is putting the Jews out of the way, so theycannot interfere with Babylonian dreams of conquest of Egypt, and totalsuperiority in that part of the world. He measured Israel's behavior- and in particular that of the kings ofIsrael and Judah- by the understanding of the law presented in the book ofDeuteronomy, and found it wanting." (Miller 15) There are a number of books of the Old Testament, including Daniel andJeremiah, which relate the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar or Nebuchadrezzar) in597 BC. Proof of the Babylonian king's attitude came in a sort ofcouncil of captured monarchs, where the Judean king was given a thronehigher than the others. It is a direct result of this Babylonian exile that the first ninebooks of the Old Testament were set down. Just as there is a historical perception of one man, or a small groupof men, beginning the task of writing down Jewish history and tradition, sothere are various explanations of how some of the books of the oldtestament were written, and actually who wrote them, and when. Modern historians have also investigated the stories about specialselected Hebrews, including Daniel and his three closest friends, "betterknown by their Babylonian names as Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednigo"(Blackburn 17 ) who were supposedly taken by Nebuchadnezzar and trained forhis army. Of course,"then religious elite that returned from Babylon in 538 was not the same asthe one that had left in 587...The new set of leaders not only preservedthe historical memories of the pre-exile past, but a shared experience ofBabylonian living" (Akenson 64). Perhaps, as in the book ofJeremiah, there was (and is) a strong belief among observant Jews that Godis about to make a new covenant with the people of Israel. In fact, as wasexplained above, they permitted the Jews to worship, build schools andsynagogues, and not forced them to assimilate. (Richards 18 ). "It was in exile that one valiant author tookthem and turned them into a long narrative, propelled by the law book'sunderstanding of events" (Fox 72). The Babylonian army, on its way to do battle with Egypt, captured aportion of Judah. "Often Israelites were familiar withBabylonian history and institutions without this affecting the Israelitereligion" (Saggs 173). These people in exile knew they were the elite, and thus the keepersof their nation's heritage. Maxwell and Gene M. There were actually a series of invasions,necessitated by the rebellion of the kings that Nebuchadrezzar hadinstalled on the thrones. BABYLONIAN EXILE OF THE JEWS According to the various accounts of the invasion of Judah and theexiling of Jews, especially their leaders, to Babylon was seen in the Bibleas God's punishment. So, in essence, the Babylonian exileproduced one of the great works in history- the first nine books of the OldTestament Bible. Jeremiah is a sort ofJewish Cassandra, in that he warns the Jews not to fight the Babylonians,to give in rather than be destroyed. During one of these invasions, the city ofJerusalem and the great temple there were totally destroyed. Historians believe that many ofthe works of the Old Testament were actually written during this time ofexile. "Isaiah had an acuteperception of the dangers of meddling in Babylonian politics" (Saggs 173). Even those who wrote years after the actual event,still pass judgment on the reasons for the exile to Babylon. Therewere Jewish schools and Jewish scholars. It was a means by one or moresurvivors of this period, to gather the stories and myths and relics andnarratives together into one unified whole. Theologians and historians now regard the Babylonian exile to be thebeginning of the "Diaspora" -- a series of historical events, perhapsculminating in the Spanish Inquisition -- where Jews were forced to abandontheir homelands, and to flee into unknown areas. And, with this position and the temple, and the return of manyJews from Babylon, there began a new revitalization of Jewish tradition,based on written history. The Jews were permitted to build synagogues and worship. Knopf.Herzog, Chaim and Mordechai Gichon: Battles of the Bible (1978) New York: Random House.Miller, J. It has fallen to more modern historians and theologiansto validate this idea, which takes the "God's wrath" subject out of thereasons for the conquest and exile of the Jews. They urged repentance and obedience in times of greatstress." (Myers 91) Again, it was a time when the history and traditions ofthe Jews were literally written down for the first time, and not all thewritings and history was a pleasant and uplifting one. What is interesting to note, however, that a new upsurge of religiousrites began during Jewish exile, including the celebration of the Sabbath,which, before the exile, was never seen as a day of rest. So, when,some seventy years (according top Jeremiah 29:1 ) after the initial exilebegan, and when Darius became king of Babylonia, a number of Jews werepermitted to return to Israel, a greater number remained in Babylon. Although the Jews suffered greatly and faced powerful culturalpressures in a foreign land, they maintained their religious identity.Elders supervised the Jewish communities, and Ezekiel was one of severalprophets who kept alive the promise of someday returning "home". "...acuneiform which has now been found and translated ...describes an invasionthat took place during Nebuchadnezzar's thirty-seventh year, 569 or 568B.C. One change that the exile produced is that there was no longer a kingof Judah, As the temple was rebuilt, the position of "high priest" wasdeveloped. To some critics, the Bible is somewhat inaccurate in its depiction ofJeremiah predicting a Babylonian invasion of Egypt. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.