Elephantine Papyri Where is Elephantine Modern Elephantine

Elephantine Papyri

Where is Elephantine? Modern Elephantine hotel

Jeremiah 44 , 1 א הדבר, אשר היה אל-ירמיהו, אל כל-היהודים The word that came to Jeremiah concerning הישבים בארץ מצרים-- הישבים במגדל all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, . ובתחפנחס ובנף, ובארץ פתרוס לאמר that dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying: - 21 יב ולקחתי את- שארית יהודה, אשר And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set , שמו פניהם לבוא ארץ-מצרים לגור שם their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn ותמו כל בארץ מצרים יפלו בחרב ברעב there, and they shall be consumed; in the land of ; יתמו, מקטן ועד-גדול בחרב וברעב ימתו Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the . והיו לאלה לשמה, ולקללה ולחרפה sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. , 31 יג ופקדתי, על היושבים בארץ מצרים For I will punish them that dwell in the land of , כאשר פקדתי, על- ירושלם--בחרב Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, . ברעב ובדבר by the famine, and by the pestilence; 41 יד ולא יהיה פליט ושריד, לשארית so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone ; יהודה, הבאים לגור- שם, בארץ מצרים into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or ולשוב ארץ יהודה, אשר-המה מנשאים remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, - את- נפשם לשוב לשבת שם--כי לא to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for . ישובו, כי אם-פלטים none shall return save such as shall escape. '

• This Jewish garrison was founded in 650 BCE during reign of Menashe to assist Pharoah. • Elephantine was then called Yeb • These papyri describe the community from 495 -399 BCE • The community ceased to exist in the middle of the 4 th cent. BCE

Excavations at Elephantine

Reconstruction of Jewish Temple at Elephantine

408 BCE. Yedoniah's copy of his letter to Bagoas, Governor of Samaria & Judah, requesting the order to be given to rebuild the Temple of YHW in Elephantine.

Yet another Temple in Egypt Josephus, Antiquities, 12. 388 Now as to Onias, the son of the high priest, who, as we before informed you, was left a child when his father died, when he saw that the king had slain his uncle Menelaus, and given the high priesthood to Alcimus, who was not of the high priest stock, but was induced by Lysias to translate that dignity from his family to another house, he fled to Ptolemy, king of Egypt; and when he found he was in great esteem with him, and with his wife Cleopatra, he desired and obtained a place in the Nomus of Heliopolis, wherein he built a temple like to that at Jerusalem; of which therefore we shall hereafter give an account, in a place more proper for it.

Josephus, Antiquities 12. 72 So Onias took the place, and built a temple, and an altar to God, like indeed to that in Jerusalem, but smaller and poorer. I do not think it proper for me now to describe its dimensions or its vessels, which have been already described in my seventh book of the Wars of the Jews. However, Onias found other Jews like to himself, together with priests and Levites, that there performed Divine service. But we have said enough about this temple.

91 Isaiah 19 In that day shall there be an altar to יט ביום ההוא, יהיה מזבח ליהוה, בתוך, ארץ the LORD in the midst of the land of מצרים; ומצבה אצל-גבולה, ליהוה. Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof . to the LORD תלמוד בבלי מסכת מנחות דף קט עמוד ב הלך לאלכסנדריא של מצרים ובנה שם מזבח והעלה עליו לשם שמים, שנאמר: )והיה( ביום ההוא יהיה מזבח לה' בתוך ארץ מצרים ומצבה אצל גבולה לה',