Information about Babylonian Captivity

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The Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar during the 6th Century BCE.

Biblical account of exiles

The Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 52:28-30) notes three deportations: The first was in the time of Jehoiachin in 597 BCE, when the Temple of Jerusalem was partially despoiled and a number of the leading citizens were removed.

After eleven years, in 586 BCE, in the reign of Zedekiah, a fresh rising of the Judaeans occurred. The city of Jerusalem was razed a further deportation ensued.

Finally, five years thereafter, in 581 BCE, Jeremiah records a third captivity.

Return

During the period of captivity, Jews continued to practice and develop their religious traditions, many of which became distinct from their origins, due to the influences of the local culture.

After the overthrow of Babylonia by the Persian Empire, in 537 BCE the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great gave the Jews permission to return to their native land, and more than 40,000 are said to have availed themselves of the privilege, as noted in the Biblical accounts of Jehoiakim, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The Persians had a different political philosophy of managing conquered territories than the Babylonians or Assyrians: under the Persians, local personages were put into power to govern the local populace.

Prior to the return, the northern Isrealite tribes had been taken captive by Assyria and never returned, leaving the survivors of the Babylonian exile as the majority of the remaining Children of Israel. When the Israelites returned home, they found a mixture of peoples, the Samaritans, practicing a religion very similar, but not identical, to their own. Over time, hostility grew between the returning Jews and the Samaritans. According to the Bible, the Samaritans were foreign people settled into the area by the kings of Assyria and who had partially adopted the Israelite religion.

Although there are many other conflicting theories about the Samaritans' origins, many of them may have simply been Israelites who remained behind and thus had no part in the sweeping changes of the Israelite religion brought about among the captives. Alternatively, perhaps the fierce purity of the Jewish religion and cultural identity of the Babylonian Jews returning from exile, seventy years after their deportation, completely eclipsed the partial fate of the mixed group of Israelite survivors, who had practised paganism for hundreds of years in Israel (including the worship of a golden bull), and who had inter-married with the peoples sent into the territory by the Assyrians (a practice strictly forbidden by Mosaic Laws, and punished by Nehemiah).

Significance in Judaism

The Babylonian Captivity and the subsequent return to Israel were seen as one of the pivotal events in the drama between God and His people, Israel. Just as they had been predestined for, and saved from, slavery in Egypt, the Israelites were predestined to be punished by God through the Babylonians, and then saved once more. The Babylonian Captivity had a number of serious effects on Judaism and the Jewish culture. For example, the current Hebrew script was adopted during this period, replacing the traditional Israelite script.

This period saw the last high-point of Biblical prophecy in the person of Ezekiel, followed by the emergence of the central role of the Torah in Jewish life; according to many historical-critical scholars, it was edited and redacted during this time, and saw the beginning of the canonization of the Bible, which provided a central text for Jews.

This process coincided with the emergence of scribes and sages as Jewish leaders (see Ezra and the Pharisees). Prior to exile, the people of Israel had been organized according to tribe; afterwards, they were organized by clans, only the tribe of Levi continuing in its 'special role'. After this time, there were always sizable numbers of Jews living outside Eretz Israel; thus, it also marks the beginning of the "Jewish diaspora", unless this is considered to have begun with the Assyrian Captivity of Israel.

In Rabbinic literature, Babylon is a metaphor for the current Jewish diaspora.

Other resources

• Yohanan Aharoni & Michael Avi-Yonah, "The MacMillan Bible Atlas", Revised Edition, pp. 96-106 (1968 & 1977 by Carta Ltd).

The above section incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, and may be adapted from the original.

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