Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi-Nephi," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Volume 16 Number 2 Article 5 7-31-2007 A Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi- Nephi Jared W. Ludlow Brigham Young University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Ludlow, Jared W. (2007) "A Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi-Nephi," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol. 16 : No. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol16/iss2/5 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title A Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi-Nephi Author(s) Jared W. Ludlow Reference Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16/2 (2007): 28–41, 95. ISSN 1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online) Abstract Prior to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 bc, Lehi took his family into the wilderness. Around the same time, another group of Jews fled to Elephantine in Egypt. Ludlow evaluates the Nephite group, the Elephantine colony, and the Jews in postexilic Jerusalem to show how the Nephites com- pared religiously with other Jewish groups. Social relationships, the Sabbath and festivals, priesthood officials, and temples played important roles in all three communities, with the importance and func- tion of each varying among the three. On the other hand, scriptural texts strongly aided the reformation of Jerusalem and played an important role among the Nephites, beginning with the retrieval of brass plates from Laban, but the Elephantine community lacked texts related to the Hebrew Bible. After comparing the three, Ludlow shows that the Nephites created their own religious community, separate and independent from the religious community they left behind. Jerusalem about 600 BC . Illustration by Joseph Brickey. 28 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 2, 2007 A Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, & Lehi-Nephi by jared w. ludlow efore the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians in B 586 b c , inhabitants of Judah, or the Jews, as they came to be known, centered their religious life around the priestly activities of the Jerusalem temple.JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 29 Their temple-centered religion changed, however, Jews in postexilic Jerusalem and the early Nephites, with the invasion and takeover by the Babylonian Jews at Elephantine did not seem to seek a firm con- Empire. In advance of the looming crisis, many nection with or continuation of previous covenant prophets exhorted the citizens of Judah to repent communities and instead chose a different way of and be preserved from possible destruction. Jere- developing social relations with their neighbors. miah (see Jeremiah 7:1–15; 11:1–17) and Lehi (see Background 1 Nephi 1:4, 13) were among them. Both Lehi and Jeremiah risked their lives to deliver their prophe- A major factor in the founding of the three cies but with little success (see 1 Nephi 1:18–20; Jer- communities—postexilic Jerusalem, Elephantine, emiah 20:1–2; 26:8–9). Finally the Lord commanded and the colony of (Lehi-)Nephi—was the rise and the threatened Lehi to take his family into the wil- domination of Near Eastern empires in the region. derness prior to Jerusalem’s destruction eventually Beginning in the eighth century bc, Israel came to inhabit a new promised land (see 1 Nephi 1:20; under siege from growing empires in the East. 2:2; 18:23); still other Jews fled to Egypt, taking Jer- The first of these empires, Assyria, conquered the emiah with them, and settled there (see Jeremiah northern kingdom of Israel and dispersed many 43:4–7). Those who remained in Jerusalem faced the of its inhabitants. A little over a century later, the Babylonian onslaught, which included the deporta- Babylonians conquered the Assyrians and attacked tion of captives to Babylon as well as the destruc- the southern kingdom of Judah, eventually deport- tion of the city and its temple. Many of the former ing many inhabitants and destroying the Jerusalem inhabitants of Judah now found themselves in spiri- temple. Sometime during the period of Assyrian tual crisis: how were they to live their religion away and Babylonian expansion, and probably as a result from the covenant land and the site of the temple? of these invasions, a Jewish group of mercenaries As Lehi’s family entered a new promised land as made their way to Egypt and settled near the Nile’s described in the Book of Mormon, they also faced the task of reconstituting their religious community far away from Jerusalem and the region of their earlier covenant history. In order to better understand how the Nephites compare religiously with various other Jewish groups during this pivotal period of religious and social recovery (during the fifth and sixth centu- ries bc) as these groups adapted to changes that occurred to the previous Jerusalem temple worship, I would like to compare three “Jewish” communities that tried to reconstitute their societies in new circumstances: the Jewish community at Elephan- tine Island in Upper Egypt, postexilic Jerusalem, and the Nephite colony in the Americas.1 These are the crucial questions: What were key components in these respective religious communities? How did these communities interact with their political overlords and neighbors? What types of festivals were significant for the respective communities? What were the roles of the temple and sacred texts in community life? By examining the categories of temple, social relations, festivals, texts, and priesthood, we can see that the core factors determining a similar religious identity for all these communities were temple ritual practice and festival worship. In 586 BC , the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Francesco But in the case of texts and priesthood, unlike the Hayez. Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, NY. 30 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 2, 2007 debated, the community began practicing sacrificial worship shortly after returning, and Ezra and Nehemiah reasserted obedi- ence to the law and covenant a few decades later.3 Shortly before the Babylonian invasion, around 600 bc, Lehi and his family were warned to flee Jerusalem prior to its destruction. They spent some time wan- dering in the wilderness near the Red Sea but eventually sailed to a promised land in the Americas. Thus, by the middle of the sixth century bc, these three groups faced new challenges and issues in their religious lives, all within differing environments. Temple One of the strongest institu- tions for all three communities was a temple, but the Elephantine community’s temple exhibits some puzzling aspects when com- pared with the others. Although Lehi’s family fled Jerusalem before it was destroyed, and they were guided by the Lord to a new home. Family of Lehi Camped in Promised Land, by Gary Kapp. © IRI. we don’t know the exact date of the construction of the temple in Elephantine, it seems to have first cataract on an island known as Elephantine.2 been built before the conquest of Egypt by Camby- Although the precise date of the founding of this ses in 525 bc, a number of years before the Jerusa- community is unknown, it seems to have had lem temple was rebuilt. Elephantine was noteworthy strong ties to the former northern Israelite kingdom because it was a Jewish community outside of Israel because of its unique worship practices and reliance that constructed its own temple, a development on Aramaic as its mother tongue. As a result of that runs counter to the belief “that foreign soil was either the Assyrian invasion or later clashes between ritually unclean precluding erection thereon of a the Egyptians and the Assyrians, or the Babylonian temple.”4 attack, these Jews settled in a fort on the island and Why was the Elephantine community so will- eventually built their own temple. By the time the ing to build a temple when the Jews exiled from Persians conquered Egypt in 525 bc, this Jewish Judah to Babylon were not? Many have attempted community was well-established, maintaining many to trace the origin of the Elephantine community aspects of Jewish worship. to northern Israel, possibly with strong connec- The postexilic community of Jerusalem was tions to the Arameans of that region (a Semitic, founded when the Persians allowed exiled Jews to nomadic group related to the Hebrews). This group return to their homeland after 538 bc. Many Jews had apparently experienced minimal contact with came with such leaders as Ezra, Zerubbabel, and the Jerusalem establishment before arriving in Nehemiah and reestablished their community, Elephantine. Thus, as one scholar put it, the “Jewish rebuilt the city, and restored the temple. Although character of the Elephantine colony is secondary.”5 the exact chronology of some of the key figures is The problem with this view, however, is explaining JOURNAL OF BOOK OF MORMON STUDIES 31 community—but both could have held out the same hopes for the future restoration of Jerusalem and her temple. In the Aramaic Elephantine documents, this “altar house”7—the temple—was a place where meal offerings, incense, and, at least initially, burnt offerings were offered. Somewhat like the Jerusalem temple, the Elephantine temple suffered its own episode of annihilation when the Egyptian Khnum priests requested its destruction from the Persian general in Elephantine-Syene. This destruction prompted correspondence from Elephantine to Jerusalem seeking approval and assistance to rebuild the temple.

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