A Military Colony and Its Religion

This chapter pays attention to the Egyptian experience of the Elephantine Jews. It maintains that there are two areas in Egyptian life that merit a renewed inquiry because they are central to the Elephantine experience. One is the role of Jews as soldiers in the service of the Persians; the other concerns their religion. On both scores, the Papyrus Amherst 63 has bearing—modest in one case, significant in the other. This chapter looks first at the military side of the colony, then discusses various aspects of the religious life of what was essentially a temple community, and finally seeks to present the profile of the various gods that the Jews venerated.