The Washington herald., 1908-01-05

D
Jerusalem, his throne, but far from
either on the frontiers of Nubia and
Egypt, close to the tropics. in a little
island dividing the first cataract of the
Nile. where you would hardly expect to
encounter that divinity in exile, that the
old Jehovah. a Jehovah of the fifth cen
tury before our era. rises at last TO tell
us BY the mouths of his adorers, trans
planted with him. things that are per-
haps destined to metamorphose ortho-
dOx exegesis. To-day, writes Clermont
Ganneau. in the Paris Temps. it is from
the south that the light comes, and IN
a fairly surprising way.
The land of the Pharaohs has double
feTtility-that OF the present and that of
the past. This land where iourished the
papyrus is holy ground for archaeolo-
gists- It continues 10 yield Latin, Greek,
Egyptian, Coptic. and Arabic papyri.
Each day brings d new find. Yesterday
it was certain lost comedies of Menan-
der, joy to the humanists. Not long
ago it was the Logia of Jesus taking
US back TO the very springs of Chris
tianity. Tomorrow it may be some
Hebrew Bible less disappointing than the
ShapIrah Bible-of Saitapharnie memory
and as authentically ancient as that
claimed to be.
Old Documents Discovered.
To show the nature and significance Of
the new Jewish documents just brought
to light at Elephantine I must go back
a little. Egypt. while supplying count
less papyri in the other languages of its
successive inhabitants. has been hither-
TO quite niggardly as regards the old
Semitic tongues. Thirty years ago only
a dozen tattered ATamaic fragments had
been recovered. Though translatons
varied, the Orientalists were agreed on
one pOint-thOse papyri were to be class
ed as belonging TO the Greek ptolemaic
epoch. To the same period We're as
signed the ostraca inscriptions on pot
terD and the lapidary inscriptions, sim
liar IN language ard writing, which had
been collected up TO that time
After long study Of these documents I
reached an entirely different conclusion.
Various sorts of evidence led me to be-
lieye them much older, dating instead
from the Persian period during the
reigns of Darius, XerXes, and Artax-
erxes.
Great Age Is Proved.
It was soon verified by a series Of dis
coveries in Egypt of other Aramaic
papyri and inscriptions, this time scrup-
ulously dated. representing the reigns
of Darius. XerXes, and Artaxerxes. The
proof was complete.
Among these last papyri there was
one that referred to events that occurred
during the fourteenth year of the reign
Of King Darius II Cn1 3. c.. I succeed
ed in showing that the document was
a rOund-rObin addressed TO a satrap Of
Egypt by a group OF nOn-Egyptians-
Jews, perhaps-tO protest against the be-
havioT Of the priests connected with the
Temple of Khnoum in the Island of
Elephantine. The name of the place Can
Aramaic transcript of the Egyptian form.
Yeb) served as a clew. This established
the source of the papyrus. and it proved
at the same time the place of residence
Of its authors. and if Elephantine had
been an important ATamaic center. fur
ther documents might reasonably be
sought there. This. / argued, but un-
happily found myself crying in the VIII
derness.
Still, I was soon TO vindicate myself
as no erring prophet. In the spring Of
1S04 natives, digging a sort of ammon-
iacal earth from the ruins OF Elephan-
tine ran upon lot Of papyri, stil rolled
and sealed. They contained long and
perfectly-preseTved texts. in magnificent
ATamaic characters exactly like those of
the fragments already known. All were
the work Of Jews, self-confessed Jews.
who had established themselves at EIeph-
Mt Tim oil in,
the east bank of the Nile Just across
from the island The fact was important.
but not surprising. We know that dur
ing the exile the Jews abandoned their
old Hebrew language to adopt the
Aramaic language and writing univer-
sally prevalent in the satrapies of the
Persian empire.
Pspyri Precisely Dated.
These papyri are formal documents and
very curious: each bears its date. set
down with the incest precision by year.
month. and day, with reference to the
Aramaic and Egyptian calendars They
relate 10 a period Included between 40
and 40, B. c. Drawn up by professional
scribes and provided with autograph sig
natures, together with those Of witnesses.
they treat all sorts of transactiOns-sales
purchases, and donations Of real estate:
questions of joint ownership; cases in
court: marriage contracts: divorce set
Elements: minute descriptions OF brides
trousseaus. with the price of every arti-
Gle; wills; arrangements for dividing up
slaves among heirs. &c.
This incompatible mass Of documents,
emerging intact from some family
archives. give us. q deal OF valuable in
formation first. regarding the existence
u. aNnHnHn ~as4r- e
tion in the fifth century, before Christ,
then regarding their language their
writing, their customss their institutions,
their beliefs, their relations with the
Persian authorities and their Egyptian
neighbOTs, &c. But the supreme ques-
ton answered is the one that determines
The part played by the God of Israel
His name is repeatedly spelled out in
fun without the seTuple that later re-
duced it 10 four unpronounced consonants.
When an oath Is required, men swear by
Jehovah. Moreover despite the tradi-
tional interdict they have not been
afraid to duplicate the now ruined tenn
pie at Jerusalem by founding in this
place of exile and colonization a sane
tuary of Jehovah which would have
made jeremiah howl and perhaps did
AS We shall soon see, II was not a mere
place of prayer, a nondescript synagogue.
but a real temple, a temple fully ap-
pointed, with an altar where flowed the
blood of sacrifices and whence ascended
the smoke Of incense. just as in the fair
est days of lions glory
Find the Ancient Ghetto,
BY this time people began to open their
eyes and give ear to my entreaties. II
was at last decided that Frenchmen
should WELD the pick where such treas
ures lay buried, Last November the
Academic des Inscriptions sent a mis-.
sion to Elephantine, and ! was made its