• Exile
• • Conditions in Judah
  • • The population was depleted by war, deportation, famine, and disease - almost all fortified cities had been destroyed
    • Worship of God was probably carried on at the site of the Temple although the Temple itself was no longer standing - this worship was not a pure worship of God
    • Some from the poorer class were elevated to positions of influence as landed citizens and officials - they were ill-prepared for such roles
    • Although there was much destruction, reoccupation of sites would have begun very soon and agriculture would have continued (2 Kings 25:22-26)
  • Conditions in Babylon
  • • Social life
    • • Jewish exiles in Babylon were apparently placed in settlements of their own - they were allowed to build homes, farm, and earn their living in any way they could
      • The community could assemble and continue its community life
      • New opportunities opened for many and since they were the educated leaders they could take advantage of such opportunities - many entered trade and government and some became wealthy
      • Despite these freedoms, Babylon was hardly a "heaven on earth" for the exiles - they were a conquered and displaced people
    • Religious life
    • • Challenges to faith
      • • Babylonian gods seemed more powerful than God
        • • Typical thought was that before a battle was fought on earth, the gods of the competing armies fought - whatever gods won, their army won on earth - since the Babylonian army had won, their gods must be more powerful and deserving of worship
          • Exiles came in contact with the great centers of world culture - Jerusalem seemed small and primitive compared to Babylon - the gods who created and sponsored Babylon must be greater than God
        • Those who believed in God wondered why He had so fearfully punished His people and if he would ever return to them
        • Some felt the exile was due to the neglect of other gods (e.g., the queen of heaven - Jer. 44:15-19) - they had asked the wrong god to save them
      • New directions in theology
      • • Fall of Judah and exile were interpreted as God's righteous judgment on the nation's sin just as the prophets had said - the "Day of the LORD" had come as judgment upon Judah and indicated that such judgment could occur again
        • Exile was viewed as a cleansing to prepare God's people for a new future - people hoped for restoration to the land
        • New community evolved around tradition and law since there was no longer a Temple or cult to mark them as Jews - Sabbath, circumcision, and ritual cleanness in particular became important
        • Began to collect and edit their sacred writings
    • Exiles became the hope for the survival and growth of Judaism
  • Jews in other places
  • • Many Jews escaped to other nations when the Babylonian army entered Judah - many of these Jews chose to remain in their new homes
    • A significant Jewish colony was in Elephantine in Egypt - there the worship of God flourished in a new Temple although the worship was not pure in form
    • Israel had been scattered and would be a political, geographical entity again only during the Maccabean or Hasmonean dynasty and in modern times - something new was occurring - to be a Jew would mean something other than just living in Palestine
• Restoration
• • In 539 B.C.E., Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia - a new empire now formed
  • Cyrus, King of Persia
  • • One of the most enlightened and humane rulers of the ancient world
    • His policy was to allow exiled people to return home, rebuild, and worship as they wished - his successors followed his policy
  • When Babylon fell, the Babylonian empire would have nominally fallen under control of Persia - Persians still had to consolidate the empire
  • • Palestine, on the outskirts of the empire, would have been one of the last areas to be incorporated and was not likely brought under the firm control of Persia until the time of Cambyses (530-522 B.C.E.), the successor to Cyrus
    • Persia would have benefitted by having a loyal vassal under their firm control so near the Egyptian border - those who were appointed to positions of authority in Judah were appointed because they were considered loyal to Persia
  • Return to Judah
  • • Most had made new lives for themselves in Babylon and were not particularly interested in returning to a strange land that offered little attraction
    • Those who returned were not well received
    • • Reasons
      • • Those who had remained in devastated Judah were reluctant to be bossed around by those who returned
        • Those who returned considered themselves to be the true Israel which did not make a positive impression on those who had never left
      • These tensions created additional problems for faith in God and the struggling community
    • Some returns
    • • Sheshbazzar
      • • First to return as a Persian appointee
        • His official status as "governor" is difficult to define - he probably had semi-independent control of affairs in Judah
        • Began work on rebuilding the Temple immediately but never completed the work
        • No one knows his fate - he may have died in Judah of old age or, more probably, been recalled to Persia
      • Zerubbabel and Joshua
      • • Time of their arrival and work is difficult to establish
        • Completed work on the Temple at the instigation of Haggai and Zechariah and despite opposition from their neighbors
        • During their period of leadership, Persia experienced a crisis in leadership and talk of the collapse of the Persian Empire was rampant - this probably fueled opposition to the rebuilding of the Temple
      • Ezra and Nehemiah
      • • Chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah is notoriously difficult to establish
        • In general, they were able to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and thus make the city defensible again and to purify the worship of God according to the Torah
  • Theological points
  • • View of the exile
    • • Warranted punishment but also indicative of the continuing mercy and grace of God - exile was better than annihilation
      • A "paying off" and "enjoying" of the Sabbath (and Jubilee) years when the people and the land were supposed to rest but had not (Lev. 26:41-43, 2 Chron. 36:20-21)
      • Recalling of the people to their responsibility to the world (some believe Jonah and Job reflect this - cf. Peter R. Ackroyd, Exile and Restoration, 1968, pp. 244-246)
    • View of the restoration
    • • Temple - not a guarantee but an outward sign of God's presence and power - God gave the gift of His presence represented in physical form in the Temple
      • New community and new age - Judah a light to the nations, the Davidic line (both what it stood for and hope for a new David), and the new age as deferred yet already experienced at least as a foretaste
      • People's response - piety (worship, synagogue, prayer), evolution of Torah (no part of life outside God's control), and increased importance of wisdom material for rightly ordering life

Top picture is a carving of Nebuchadnezzar's likeness in onyx.

Bottom picture is the chronicle of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

Photographs from the Bible Picture Library of Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97