Peoples of the Sea (Ages in Chaos) by Immanuel Velikovsky

Author:Immanuel Velikovsky [Velikovsky, Immanuel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781906833756
Publisher: Paradigma Ltd
Published: 2012-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Theocratic States in Judah and in Egypt

Under the Persians, Jerusalem was a dependent city and, with the area under its jurisdiction, a commonwealth dominated by a theocracy. With Nehemiah at the head of the commonwealth and then Ezra, the theocratic form grew ever more pronounced.

It is instructive to compare the theocratic regime in Thebes, Tanis, and in the oases under the so-called Twenty-first Dynasty with the regime of the contemporaneous Jerusalem. Priests, high priests, prophets in the service of the temples and their oracles, temple singers, temple porters, hereditary temple slaves – all have counterparts in Jerusalem and in Thebes, Tanis, and the oases. In many cases we can better understand an Egyptian text or situation by studying biblical post-Exilic texts or referring to the Temple service in Jerusalem in the Persian period. For instance when a “porter” by the name of Ahautinofer, accused of having taken part in stealing a gilded chest from a temple, testifies before the Egyptian court and refers to the removal of the high priest (by unidentified authority), we can, with the help of verse 73 in Chapter 7 of the Book of Nehemiah, understand that “porter” was a temple employee of some rank. The Hebrew text speaks of “the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers. ...” The very removal of the high priest Amenhotep from his position as referred to in that testimony has its counterpart in the attempt to remove the high priest Jonathan of Jerusalem by the satrap Bagoas, an event described by Josephus Flavius.29

The temple areas had living quarters for the priests – in Jerusalem and in Egypt. Udjeharresne asked Cambyses to order the removal of unauthorized persons, among them soldiers of occupation, from the living quarters of the temple of Neith in Sais and an order was given to remove the squatters with all their belongings. “All their superfluities which were in the temple should be thrown down, all their baggage should be carried for them outside the wall of the temple. And his majesty commanded that the temple of Neith should be cleansed. ...” A not dissimilar procedure took place in Jerusalem when Nehemiah “cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber” that the high priest Eliashib had given Tobiah “in the courts” of the temple precincts; Tobiah was an adversary of Nehemiah. “Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers” (Nehemiah 13:7-9).

Taxes in money and victuals were imposed on the population of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns for the benefit of the Temple, its priests and Levites; cattle, fowl, wine, bread, and oil were among the victuals. A taxation of the population for the treasures of the temples was a much more pronounced institution in Egypt under the Twenty-first Dynasty and hieroglyphic and demotic texts dealing with such taxation are abundant. Cattle and fowl and wine and bread and oil were tribute that the state and its population had to deliver to the temples and their priests.

The Temple of Jerusalem

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