The Date of the Arrival of the Judeans at Elephantine and the Foundation of Their Colony

Abstract

139 Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 81, number 1, April 2022. © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published by The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/717786 * In memory of Jonathan Kahn zʾʾl (February 6, 2004–April 17, 2012) and Gilead Kahn zʾʾl (July 21, 2002–March 1, 2018). I thank Oded Tammuz, Gad Barnea, and the anonymous reviewers of JNES for commenting on earlier drafts. All mistakes are however mine. Abbreviations used in this article include: TADAE 1 = Porten and Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1: Letters (1986); TADAE 3 = Porten and Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, Vol. 3: Literature, Accounts, Lists (1993); Wb = Erman and Grapow, Wörterbuch (1992). 1 The population of Elephantine Yahwists was probably about 3,000–5,000 at the time. See Rohrmoser, Götter, Tempel und Kult (2014), 81–82; Becking, Identity in Persian Egypt (2020), 41–42. ple had been built under native Pharaonic rule and had remained untouched by the Persian conqueror Cambyses (526 bc),2 who destroyed the local Egyptian shrines.3 It is thus clear that Judeans were already living at the southern border of Egypt during the second half of the sixth century, before the Persian conquest of Egypt. In this article, I will scrutinize the different proposed dates for the arrival of the Judeans, and their intial settlement at Elephantine. It is my contention that although Judeans arrived and settled in Egypt in several waves during the history of the kingdom of Judah as well as following its destruction, the foundation of the Judean colony in Elephantine should most probably be dated to the reign of Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 bc). Raised here for the first time is the suggestion that the foundation occurred as a result of auxiliary forces sent by Josiah to aid Psammetichus I.