There are a few ancient documents that give us insight into the divided kingdom and the conflicts between Israel/Judah with Assyria/Babylon. The Elephantine papyri were discovered in an island in the Nile River and include material from Jewish refugees of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions.
Around the middle of the seventh century BC, probably during the reign of king Manasseh of Judah, after the downfall of the northern kingdom, Jewish refugees settled near Aswan in Upper Egypt. For more than two centuries, there was a Jewish community there on Elephantine Island in the Nile. Soldiers were stationed there during the Archaemenid (First Persian) Empire in the fifth century BC and in 419 BC, Jewish soldiers apparently received instructions on celebrating Passover there.
Archaeologists have uncovered numerous papyri and pieces of pottery from that site. Since these documents date back to at least the fifth century BC, they give significant insight into the culture of the day, including the religious practices of the Jewish community there.
There was, for a time, a small Jewish temple at Elephantine and Jews there corresponded with priests in Jerusalem. In the various correspondence found at Elephantine are a number of names that appear in the Old Testament. Jehohanan (Johanan) is described in the correspondence as a high priest in Jerusalem; that name appears in Nehemiah 12: 22-23. A certain Sanballat is described as governor of Samaria; it is likely that Sanballat is the same governor of Samaria who so strongly opposed the work of Nehemiah. (See, for example Nehemiah 2: 10.) Jehohanan was apparently a fairly common Jewish name so scholars debate whether the Levite Jehohanan in Nehemiah is the same individual addressed as high priest in an Elephantine document. But Sanballat is an unusual name and many scholars agree that the Sanballat of the Elephantine correspondence is the Sanballat of Nehemiah.
(Also appearing in the Elephantine correspondence with regarding Jehohana is an individual named Anani, a name that also shows up in 1 Chronicles 3: 24. The name Abednego (given to a companion of Daniel's in Babylon, Daniel 1: 6-7) meant "Servant of (the god) Nego" also appears. This name was probably a relatively common name in that culture. Scholars do not believe this is Daniel's friend. )
One piece of correspondence regarding Jewish worship at Elephantine was a request sent to a Begoas, governor of Judah. The request involved rebuilding a Jewish temple previously constructed at Elephantine by the Jews. Jewish worship at Elephantine apparently did not fit the orthodox worship required by the Mosaic Covenant. The worship rituals were apparently quite different and the very existence of a Jewish temple at Elephantine was contrary to the Mosaic emphasis on a single common worship place for Israel. There are different explanations as to why this difference might have occurred; some have suggested that the books of Moses were not written until after this time. But an alternative explanation for the rituals at Elephantine could be explained by the apostasy of King Manasseh. Even in the temple in Jerusalem, within the intense idolatry of Manasseh's time, YHWH was not worshiped. It would not be surprising that refugees, fleeing the advancing Assyrian armies, would not have worshiped YHWH either. Indeed Jeremiah 44 has a message to refugees in Egypt who have ignored the covenant.
Sources
Here are a number of online links related to the documents at Elephantine.
- An online article, Elephantine Papyrus: Proving the book of Nehemiah
- An online article, Two Temples in Egypt, from the Seforim blog.
- The Jewish Temple at Elephantine, by John Merlin Powis Smith, an article as .pdf
- A Wikipedia page on Jehohanan.
- A Gospel Coalition page on the arrangement of Ezra and Nehemiah in the light of external sources.
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