A monstrous threat

Biblical scholars disagree a bit bout the exact dates, but it is generally accepted that one of the major turning points of the Old Testament is the Babylonian exile.It is generally agreed that the exile lasted for around 70 years, which is the length mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. The exact date of its beginning, however is subject of discussion. At issue in terms of the dates is that the complete conquering of Israel took a long time. The conquering of Israel may have begun as early as 720 B.C.E., but the city of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple continued to exist as a lone center of Jewish culture and life. That temple was finally destroyed in 586, by Nebuchadnezzar following the site of Jerusalem. That date marks the complete domination of Israel and many historians mark it as the beginning of the exile. Using 586 as the date of the beginning of the exile and 516, the year of the dedication of the built Temple in Jerusalem, the span is 70 years and those are the used most generally used in the teaching of the history of Jerusalem.

The dates are of some interest in the light of contemporary culture because it was during that time that Cyrus the Great completed the conquest of the Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires creating what is known as the first dynasty of the Persian Empire. The shipping dynamics of the exiles who were carried off from Jerusalem were, in part, caused by the dynamics of the conquering of the conquerers.This history is not generally known by westerners, even those of us who have studied Old Testament history. It is clear that the exile coincides with the expansion of the Persian Empire to include most of the Middle East and stretching around the Mediterranean Sea at least as far as Greece. Without modern communications, the empire was so vast that it had to be administered by a series of smaller units where enormous powers were afforded to local authorities. During this time of expansion, there were multiple language groups spoken and used for administrative purposes. In the region around Jerusalem Greek continued to be the language of scholarship though certainly Hebrew, Arabic and many dialects of those languages were used by locals for conversation.

The languages of the region are especially important to Biblical scholars because our scriptures come from documents that were in two languages. What we call the “old” testament was originally written in Hebrew, while the new testament was originally in Greek.

There are several important sites that are key to the study of the history of the region. Many ancient sites are important not only as local cultural sites, but as ways to learn more about the history of the region and therefore critical to serious students of the Bible. Archaeology has been critical to expanding our understanding of the ancient texts that we hold so dear. Among the ancient sites are things such as the Tomb of Cyrus and many other sites of specific cultural and historical significance.

The center of the Persian empire was located in what is now known as Iran, which makes that country especially important to archaeologists and scholars. The study of the Exile and its impact on Jewish culture, the rise of Old Testament prophecies of the messiah and the eventual formation of the Christian church is deeply influenced by access to cultural and historic sites within Iran.

Serious biblical scholars are alarmed at the treats of President Trump to destroy 52 Iranian sites some, “at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture.” There are many casualties of war and the anger of world leaders, but the threat to destroy the very sites that are important to learning our own history and culture seems extreme. Among the sites threatened are places recognized by the United Nations as world heritage sites.

It is often true that anger damages the one who expresses anger. For us to cut ourselves off from our own history because of our anger at contemporary leaders of other countries would be a tragedy.

It takes years, even decades, of study to fully understand the ancient stories of our people. One of my professors said that a lifetime is too short to fully understand even one of the books of the Bible. What we know is certainly the result of generations of study passed down from teachers to students who become teachers in their own time.

World leaders and especially our current President are known to say things rhetorically that are not backed up by actions. There is a difference between threatening to destroy cultural sites and actually causing the destruction. But the threat is taken seriously. What has been threatened would certainly be a violation of the 1954 convention protecting cultural property in the event of an armed conflict and the 1972 convention to protect the world’s natural and cultural heritage. World leaders have, in the past, set limits on the use of military power to destroy sites of important cultural and historic import. The world roundly condemned Taliban destruction of Buddhist sites in Afghanistan. Again we watched in horror when the Islamic State targeted mosques, shrines, churches and famous sites such as Palmyra in Syria. Cultural attacks threaten our capacity to know our own history and destroy forever the possibility of gaining additional knowledge and understanding.

Of course the differences between national leaders often come from differences in the interpretation of history and the understandings of the past. Threats made in anger and the actions that often follow those threats are not new to our generation. Nebuchadnezzar really did destroy Solomon’s temple. Roman legions under Titus destroyed much of Jerusalem including the Second Temple in 66 CE. Critical cultural and historical information has been forever destroyed, and people still mourn at the site of the rubble.

The philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” It is sometimes quoted as “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It makes me wonder what is said of those who intentionally destroy sites of historical and cultural significance.

What, even, of those who threaten to do so?

Copyright (c) 2020 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!

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