We finished covering the Lachish letters, went over some more archaeological evidence of when the Bible could have been written/compiled, learned about Nebuchadnezzar, the death of of Josiah, the exile of the Jews, the destruction of the Temple, and discussed how people dealt with/reconciled the broken promise to David/destruction/all that. A lot of stuff.
Quick Note: I'm starting to realize how much emotion was involved with my learning of Jewish history when I learned this stuff in Israel. For instance, the teachers clearly wanted to illicit a feeling of sadness when discussing 586 BCE. Here, we approached it much more unemotionally, which I think is more appropriate given the context. That being said, I naturally feel some amount of sadness when I learn about the destruction of the Temple. The Babylonian exile is one of the most important events in Jewish history (probably around 4th, just running through it in my head).
So now to the material...The evidence of the Babylonian exile is crazy!! The fact that there are less archaeological sites, less luxury items, arrow heads, burn layers, its totally crazy and makes me love history. Based on what we went over in class, the Babylonian exile seems pretty undeniable. In 597 BCE, the Babylonians exiled the King from JErusalem and put in the puppet king, Zedekiah. But he soon rebelled and in 586, Nebuchadnezzar came back and was pissed off and totally sacked the entire city. He exiled everyone to Babylon and left only a few very poor laborers to basically tend the land. He destroyed the Temple, everything. The archaeological evidence that I was so excited about shows that before the destruction of the Temple, there were lots of luxury items and cities. But there are very few archaeological sites dated to after 586, and very few luxury items found after the destruction.
The question of what do the Jews do after the destruction of the Temple is a very good question. But I also think it is interesting if we are going to follow the Jews into Babylon because Jerusalem is now gone, or if somehow we are going to stay focused on the absence of Jerusalem. Luckily for the class there is only a few generation between the destruction and the decree of Cyrus that lets all conquered people return to their homeland. I won't spill the beans anymore.
But the reconciliation or cognitive dissonance is very interesting. Broken promises? No more land? And after learning more and seeing more of the psalms, I am totally convinced that they were written at different times by different authors. How else could they praise and exalt Jerusalem in one poem and then talk about weeping at the rivers of Babylon?
I kind of don't like learning about when the Bible could have been written because I do like to think that it was assembled at once and I feel that if we prove that it was assembled over time, then it loses some of its authority. But the pursuit of truth is what it is all about, even if I don't like it.
I think Professor Cargill emphasized that the destruction of the Temple is a major turning point in the history of Jerusalem and in the history of the Jewish people. Like I said before, when I learned this 2 years ago, it was much more emotional but Professor Cargill is smart to have the midterm at this point because 586, to me, is a major turning point. (And from my emotional side, the destruction of the Temple really really sucks. The broken promises to David and about the land are annoying, but the sacking of a city and the exile is what really sucks.)
I'm done for this post. It was kind of scattered. I really enjoy the class and like that we're getting more into history with hard evidence.
Hope you enjoyed it,
Joey
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