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Apart from what is mentioned in the Bible, there is generally little in history about the life of the Jews in captivity in Babylon. That all changed in 2014, when archaeologists discovered nearly two hundred cuneiform tablets that reveal aspects of Jewish life in Babylon during the exile.
On November 16, 2022, at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Denver, Colorado, USA, Assyriologist and Mesopotamian archeology expert George Heath-White discussed what the translation of the tablets reveals, what it does not reveal, and what the conclusions are. we can and cannot go beyond those findings.
Tablets
The so-called Al-Yahudu Texts were taken from a vendor, so the location and background were lost. Their date is B.C. It happened in the years 572-477. This means that the oldest appears to have been written about 15 years after the Babylonian attack on Israel.
A translation of the cuneiform on the tablets indicates that they are legal documents written in Babylonian. Some of them are promissory notes – one party is obliged to transfer goods to another party on a certain date. There are also receipts, marriage contracts and other personal documents. Most date to the reign of Darius, Heath-White explained, and reveal the existence of a Jewish community living in a town, a village southeast of Babylon.
“We can learn a lot about what life was like for that society in Babylon,” Heath-White said. “They remind us of Jews working the land. [They show that] Some Jews were very enterprising. Some found employment in Babylon’s administration.’
Heath-White said these groups correspond to God’s message to the captives in Jeremiah 29:4-7: “Build houses and dwell in them.; plant a tree and eat its fruit. Take a wife and give birth to sons and daughters; Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters, and you will multiply and not diminish there. Seek the peace of the city where I have taken you captive, and pray to the Lord for it. Because his peace will be your peace.
Is it unbiblical?
Some scholars use the findings of the tablets to point out that they do not match what is written in the Bible. They say, for example, that while the Bible describes the period of exile as a terrible time, the tablets show that the general condition of the Jews in exile was very good.
But Heath-White doesn’t think it’s case or circumstance. “The evidence of Babylonian sources is being misused. This is a false dichotomy,” he said. “Did the Jews living in Babylon move forward?” Yes. Were the Jews living in Babylon free people? Do not. They had to work in a land that was not theirs and serve a foreign king. They were not completely free.”
At the same time, Heath-White explained, the Bible makes it clear that while most Jews in exile longed to return to their homeland, when actually given the chance, some chose to stay. We also know that Mordecai, Nehemiah and others achieved relatively high positions in the kingdom.
Critics also point out that none of the tablets mention that the Jews knew about the Pentateuch and the Sabbath. But these are not things you would find in a Babylonian legal document, Heath-White explained. “The sources do not allow us to determine whether the Sabbath was observed or not,” he said, “the name Shabataya is found in one group.”
Others noted that none of the tablets mentioned the return of the Jews to their homeland. Again, according to Heath-White, this is not something the Babylonians would necessarily put into a legal document. “We have tablets written about the sale of property and payment of debts, but we cannot say whether there is any connection with the Jews who sold their property before they return,” he said.
Limitations of sources
At the same time, Heath-White admitted that there are many details that these sources cannot tell us. The first is related to the nature of the sources.
“People think of them as letters or passages from the Psalms. But it is not like that,” he said. “These documents were written by Babylonian scribes in Babylonian legal jargon. There are large parts of the life of exiles that are not mentioned in these documents.”
Also, the available sources are insufficient. “We don’t have many of them. Or not enough to paint the whole picture,” said Heath-White.
As for the context of the sources, Heath-White reminded his listeners that the tablets were found and then sold. “We don’t know where and under what circumstances they were found,” he said.
Their names
The tablets reveal the names of many Jews living in exile. According to Heath-White, who has studied the subject extensively, most of the names are not Babylonian, but appear to be related to the biblical text and the God of Israel.
“The content of a person’s name does not indicate what he believes, but it can indicate a connection with the belief in one God. “You can see the sense of identity with God through their names,” he said. And, he added, “the Bible tells us that some Jews flourished in Babylon, and at least to some of them the God of the Bible seemed to be their only and true God.”
In conclusion, as Heath-White emphasizes, when we encounter claims about these texts, we must test them. “We must be careful not to assert what the texts do not say, but we can be modestly optimistic,” he said. “Much of what these sources tell us is consistent with what the Bible says.”
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