Babylonian captivity: Encyclopedia - Babylonian captivity

Babylonian captivity

Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.

Babylonian captivity - Historical account

Three separate occasions are mentioned (Jeremiah 52:28-30). The first was in the time of Jehoiachin in 597 BCE, when the temple of Jerusalem was partially despoiled, and a number of the leading citizens were removed. After eleven years (in the reign of Zedekiah) a fresh rising of the Judaeans occurred; the city was razed to the ground, and a further deportation ensued. Finally, five years later, Jeremiah records a third captivity. After the overthrow of Babylonia by the Persians, Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their native land (537 BCE), and more than forty thousand are said to have availed themselves of the privilege. (See Jehoiakim; Ezra; Nehemiah and Jews.) Previously, the northern tribes had been taken captive by Assyria and never returned; survivors of the Babylonian exile were all that remained of the Children of Israel. The Persians had a different political philosophy of managing conquered territories than the Babylonians or Assyrians. Under the Persians, local personages were put into power to govern the local populace.

When the Israelites returned home however, they found a mixture of peoples practicing a religion very similar to their own, but not identical to it. Hostility grew up between the returning Jews and the Samaritans, the mixed-blood people of the region, which has continued to the present day. According to the Bible, the Samaritans were foreign peoples, settled into the area by the kings of Assyria, who had partially adopted the Israelite religion; in reality, most of them were probably simply Israelites who had remained behind, and thus had had no part in the sweeping changes of the Israelite religion brought about among the captives. Or perhaps, alternatively; the fierce purity of the Jewish religion and cultural identity of the Babylonian Jews returning from exile, seventy years after their deportation, completely eclipsed the partial faith of the mixed group of Israelite survivors, who had practised paganism for hundreds of years in Israel (including the worship of a golden bull), and who had inter-married with the peoples sent into the territory by the Assyrians (and which was strictly forbidden by Mosaic Torah 'law', and punished by Nehemiah). The hatred and disgust of the Hebrew Judeans for the Samaritans prompted Jesus of Nazareth to later propound the parable of the "good Samaritan".

Babylonian captivity - Impact upon the Jewish philosophy of the time

The Babylonian Captivity and the subsequent return from captivity (back to Israel), was seen as one of the great pivotal acts in the drama between God and His people, Israel. Just as they had been predestined for, and saved from, slavery in Egypt; now the Israelites were predestined to be punished by God through the Babylonians, and then saved once more. This experience has had a number of serious effects upon Judaism and the Jewish culture. The current Hebrew script was adopted at this time, replacing the very different Israelite script. The current Jewish calendar, especially its month names, also dates from this era. It also provided an historical basis for political 'quietism', in which Jews saw oppression by other nations as a form of divine punishment, to be endured patiently. Accordingly, the short-lived independent Hasmonean kingdom of the Maccabe's, in a probable attempt to break this mentality, later consciously re-introduced some pre-exilic customs, such as the old script, which then fell out of use again, after that kingdom's fall to the Romans.

Babylonian captivity - Impact upon Jewish history

This period saw the last high-point of Biblical prophecy in the person of Ezekiel, followed by the emergence of the central role of the Torah in Jewish life; according to many historical-critical scholars, it was edited and redacted during this time; and saw the beginning of the canonization of the Bible, which provided a central text for Jews. This process coincided with the emergence of scribes and sages as Jewish leaders (see Ezra and the Pharisees). Prior to exile, the people of Israel had been organized according to tribe; afterwards they were organized by clans, only the tribe of Levi continuing in its 'special role'. After this time, there were always sizable numbers of Jews living outside Eretz Israel; thus, it also marks the beginning of the "Jewish diaspora" (unless you consider the Assyrian Captivity of Israel to have been the beginning).

The above section incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, and may be adapted from the original.

In Rabbinic literature, Babylon is a metaphor for the current Jewish diaspora.

Babylonian captivity - Other usages of the term

Babylonian Captivity is also used to refer to other historical events, including:

• The Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy, or of the Church, which refers to the Papacy's sojourn in Avignon, France between 1309 and 1378, when the Popes were seen by some as "captives" of the French Kings. See Avignon Papacy.
• Babylonian Slavery Egyptian Slavery was also used by the workforce working in the Stalin era and in Nazi concentration camps, deported from central Europe following the German-Soviet pact of 1939. Some groups were freed, like the Poles in 1942, thanks to Wladyslaw Sikorski's agreement with Stalin, and led by Wladyslaw Anders to Persia. Anders was later referred to as the Polish Moses. Most of the people had to wait until the 1945 repatriation agreement, or the 1956 Khrushchev amnesty.

Babylonian captivity - Other Resources

• Yohanan Aharoni & Michael Avi-Yonah, "The MacMillan Bible Atlas", Revised Edition, pp. 96-106 (1968 & 1977 by Carta Ltd.).

Categories: Ancient Israel and Judah | Tanakh events

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