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The Political Structure in Judah from Cyrus to Nehemiah

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The Political Structure in Judah from Cyrus to Nehemiah The Political Structure in Judah from Cyrus to Nehemiah SEAN E. McEVENUE Lonergan University College, Concordia University 7141 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6 THE PROFOUND RELATIONSHIP between ethnic self-awareness and politics, on the one hand, and religious community, on the other, raises important questions both for the theologian and for the historian of religion. In the history of Judaism a decisive turning-point was reached when governing authority was separated from religious authority. In the northern kingdom this happened when Sargon II imposed a foreign ruling class after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. In Judah this began to happen in 597 when Nebuchadnez­ zar reduced the reigning monarch Jehoiachin to the status of exiled nobility, while establishing another Davidic line on the throne. Ten years later he completed the separation when he extirpated this line outright. He also razed the royal city and its temple; and placed Judah under the foreign governor of Samaria. During the subsequent exilic and restoration periods, Israel began to establish a normative self-definition which has in some degree formed Jewish thought and institutions ever since. Relation to political authorities during these periods must have been an important factor. The obscurity and the confusion about authority in Jerusalem during these periods hamper attempts to reconstruct the process of self-definition and introduce an unpleasant measure of uncertainty in all conclusions about it. The present study will attempt to reduce this historical uncertainty.1 1 This study restricts itself to questions of secular history. Ramifications in the area of religious history, or the history of ideas, would require research of another sort beginning with 353 354 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 43, 1981 Position of Alt Albrecht Alt, followed by Kurt Galling and others, argued that the Babylonians and subsequently the Persians merely annexed Judah to the province of Samaria and placed it under the authority ofthat foreign gover­ norship. Its status remained unchanged for nearly a century and a half, until 445 B.C. when Artaxerxes commissioned his Jewish cupbearer Nehemiah as governor of Judah.2 The main lines of Alt's argument may be presented as follows. When Nehemiah started to construct a wall around Jerusalem in 445-444 B.C., he was not pursuing a purely cultural or antiquarian purpose; he was setting up a military installation such as one would need in a provincial capital. It was viewed by surrounding peoples as an act of aggression and interpreted as rebellion against the king (Neh 2:19). The opponents were all non-Judeans: Sanballat, governor of Samaria, and his servant Tobiah; Geshem, governor of the province of Arabia; the Ammonites and Ashdodites.3 Clearly there was no Persian-appointed governor in Jerusalem apart from Nehemiah, and clearly neighboring provinces understood that something new was happening here. The most likely explanation is that Sanballat was losing a segment of his province, and that he is allied with neighboring governors who fear changes in the status quo. Whatever authorities preceded Nehemiah in Jerusalem (Neh 5:15), they did not build a city on the old ruins or succeed in restoring the fortifications (Neh 1:3). Back in the time of Cyrus, Sheshbazzar had failed to begin construction even on the temple.4 Twenty years later, in the time of Darius, Zerubbabel did construct a temple which he finished in 515 B.C. However, subsequent attempts by the Jews to rebuild the city walls of Jerusa­ lem were unauthorized and successfully stopped during the reigns of Xerxes (485-465) and Artaxerxes I (465-424).5 There was no city capable of being capital of the province of Judah until 445, precisely because the authorities in Samaria prevented it.6 arguments such as those presented by Otto Ploger in Theokratie und Eschatologie (WM ANT 2, 3d ed , Neukirchen Neukirchener-V , 1968), Paul D Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic (Phila­ delphia Fortress, 1975), Michael E Stone, Scriptures, Sects, and Visions A Profile of Judaism from Ezra to the Jewish Revolts (New York Collins, 1980) 2 "Die Rolle Samarías bei der Entstehung des Judentums," Festschrift Procksch (Leip­ zig Deichert und Hinnchs, 1934) 5-28, reprinted, Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel (2d ed , Munich Beck, 1959), 2 316-37 Cf Kurt Galling, Studien zur Geschichte Israels im persischen Zeitalter (Tubingen Mohr [Siebeck], 1964) 3 See Neh 2 19, 3 33-35, 4 1 (Engl 4 1-3, 7), and the commentary of W Rudolph, Esra und Nehemia samt 3 Esra (HAT 20, Tübingen Mohr [Siebeck], 1949) 4 See Ezra 5.16, Hag 1 4, Zech 4 9 5 See Ezra 4 6,7-23 6 See Ezra 4 9-10 THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN JUDAH 355 Furthermore, there is a very revealing glimpse of life given in the Aramaic source of Ezra 5-6, where we see Tattenai, the governor of Beyond-the-River, along with Sethar his secretary,7 and a group of district-governors of Beyond- the-River, come to Jerusalem to investigate the building of the temple shortly before its completion in 515. Clearly this group feels it has Persian authority over Jerusalem, and it acts in accordance with commands from Darius. Tattenai does not deal with, or later refer to, a governor of Judah or Jerusa­ lem. Rather he deals only with religious leaders: with Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the prophets of God as with one authority (5:2-3), and the elders as a group-authority (5:9). Moreover, no governor in Jerusalem appeals directly to Darius. Rather the elders argue upon the basis of an edict of Cyrus empowering Sheshbazzar to build a temple. Tattenai writes up the case, and he alone refers the matter to Darius. There is no indication given that Shesh­ bazzar had had any political authority, or that, when he was gone, there had been any form of Persian-appointed replacement, as one would certainly expect if Judah were constituted as a province. The authority of Zerubbabel is not even mentioned, evidently because, in the eyes of Tattenai, Zerubbabel had no authority. It follows that Judah was not a province before Nehemiah, and that Jerusalem could in no way be compared with Gilead, Megiddo, Samaria, Dor, or Ashdod.8 Nebuchadnezzar annexed Judah to Samaria in 587, and this arrangement was unchanged until Artaxerxes appointed Nehe­ miah in 445 B.C. Kurt Galling simply accepted this conclusion of Alt, and without hesita­ tion used it to support further conclusions of his own.9 His own studies, however, add independent clarification and confirmation of Alt's thesis. He provides a lengthy analysis of the authorship and context of the Cyrus edict in Ezra 1:1-7, of the list of temple-furnishings at the end ofthat chapter, and of the list of those who returned from exile in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7.10 From this analysis one can conclude, first, that under Cyrus nothing was done to set up a government in Jerusalem. Sheshbazzar returned to Jerusalem with a small group of people, and with the temple-treasure which Nebuchadnezzar had stolen. Secondly, nothing was done under Cambyses. Thirdly, at the end of the sixth century, under Darius I, there was a return of 40,000 exiled Jews 7 Cf. the commentaries of W. Rudolph, Esra und Nehemia; and L. W. Batten, A Criti­ cal and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (ICC; Edinburgh: Clark, 1913). 8 See A. Alt, "Das System der assyrischen Provinzen auf dem Boden des Reiches Israel," ZDPV 52 (1929) 220-42; "Neue assyrische Nachrichten über Palästina," ZDPV 67 (1945) 128- 46; both reprinted, Kleine Schriften, 2. 188-205 and 226-41 respectively. 9 Studien, 92 n. 3. "> Ibid., 61-108. 356 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 43, 1981 under Zerubbabel. This group returned in 520 B.C. and began seriously building a temple in 518, completing it in 515. Now this must have been thoroughly negotiated and organized with the satrap of "Babylon and Beyond-the-River." This man was doubtless a close ally of Darius, since he replaced Bogryas as satrap during the turmoil sur­ rounding Darius' usurpation of power.11 His name was Ushtani, and he doubtless had his seat in Babylon. It is inconceivable that Ushtani had failed to inform and instruct his subaltern who governed in Samaria, Tattenai, and who is given the title of governor of Beyond-the-River in the Aramaic chroni­ cle which we have in Ezra 4:6 to 6:9. Now in Ezra 5 we have Tattenai showing up astonished about the attempt to build a temple; he demands to know who authorized this and just who are involved. In answer to the first question, the elders refer Tattenai to an edict of Cyrus of 20 years earlier. In answer to the second, they draw up the list of returnees preserved in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7. We have to wonder about Tattenai's astonishment. How come he did not know? How come the "gover­ nor of Beyond-the-River," who had to know in detail about this massive immigration of Jews, did not know about their permission to build a temple? More precisely, it must have been Ushtani, rather than Darius, who actually worked out the details of a Jewish migration from Babylon. What did he understand about it? The mode of government employed in the Persian empire, right from the time of Cyrus, involved two separate lines of authority: first, a line authority going from emperor to satrap to local governor; and, second, another group of officials who reported directly to the emperor, and in this way assured the emperor about the loyalty and obedience of satrap and governor.12 This second group of officials included high army-officers, scribes, and treasury-officials.
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