VII.  The Jewish Colony at Elephantine.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel also refer to the Jewish colonists at Memphis and at Pathros, which is the biblical designation of upper Egypt.  Many of the colonists who had settled there had doubtless fled before the conquests of Jerusalem.  The presence of a great number of Jews in Egypt at a later period indicates that even at this early date more exiles were probably to be found in Egypt than in Babylon.  Recent discoveries on the island of Elephantine in the upper Nile, opposite the modern Assuan, have thrown new light upon the life of these Jewish colonists.  These records consist (1) of a series of beautifully preserved legal documents written in Aramaic on papyrus and definitely dated between the years 471 and 411 B.C.  They include contracts between the Jews residing on the island of Elephantine regarding the transfer of property and other legal transactions.  They contain many familiar Jewish names, such as Zadok, Isaiah, Hosea, Nathan, Ethan, Zechariah, Shallum, Uriah, and Shemaiah.  They indicate that by the earlier part of the Persian period a large and wealthy colony of Jewish traders and bankers was established on this island.  They appear to have lived in a community by themselves, but in the heart of the city, side by side with Egyptians, Persians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Greeks, whose property In some cases joined their own.  The Jews had their own court which ranked equally with the Persian and Egyptian law courts.  Even native Egyptians, who had cases against the Jews, appeared before it.  The names of Arameans and Arabs also appear in its lists of witnesses.  From these contemporary documents it is clear that the Jews of upper Egypt enjoyed great privileges and entered freely into the life of the land.  Ordinarily they married members of their own race; but the marriage of a Jewess with a foreigner is also reported.  He appears, however, to have been a proselyte to Judaism, Another Jewess married an Egyptian and took oath by the Egyptian goddess Sati, suggesting that she had nominally at least adopted the religion of her husband.  One Hebrew also bears the suggestive name of Hosea, the son of Petikhnum (an Egyptian name meaning Gift of the god Khnum).

VIII.  The Temple of Yahu at Elephantine.  These Aramaic legal documents also contain many references to Yahu (the older form of Yahweh or Jehovah), the god worshipped by the Jews, and to Yahu’s temple situated on King’s Street, one of the main thoroughfares of the city.  These references have been signally confirmed by a most remarkable letter recently discovered by the Germans at this site.  It was written in November of the year 408 B.C., by the members of the Jewish colony at Elephantine to Bagohi (the Bagoas of Josephus), the Persian governor of Judah.  It states, among other things, that “Already in the days of the kings of Egypt our fathers had built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine.  And when Cambyses (529-522 B.C.) entered Egypt he found this temple built, and, though the temple of the gods of Egypt were all at that time overthrown, no one injured anything in this temple.”  It further states that recently (in the year 411 B.C.), in the absence of the Persian governor in Egypt, the foreigners in Elephantine had stirred up a certain minor official to instruct his son, who was commander of a neighboring fortress, to destroy the Jewish temple.