Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

> 
> On 9/17/06, K Randolph wrote:
> 
> [quoting Liz]
> > > The document from Elephantine doesn't mention Nehemiah at all.
> > > The document is dated  precisely to Nov. 25, 407 BCE. This is the
reign of
> > > Darius II. It states that the sons of Sanballat are now governors of
> > > Samaria, and Bagohi is the governor of Judah. Since Nehemiah was
governor at
> > > the time of Sanballat, not the time of his sons, the Artaxerxes that
he
> > > served under must have been Artaxerxes I.
> 
> > The only thing I know about this Elephantine document is from this
> > discussion.
> 
> I believe Liz is referring to the following document:
> http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/westsem/templeauth.html
Yup.
> 
> Liz, the text does not say Sanballat's sons are governors of Samariah.  It
> may be referring to a situation where Sanballat is now very old and his
> sons are now running the province in practice, but the document very
> clearly titles Sanballat as "governor of Samariah".

Yitzhak, you can certainly interpret it that way. Since Delaiah responds
with Bagohi, it may also be possible to translate it a letter was sent to
Delaiah ben Sanballat (and Shlemaiah ben Sanballat), governor of Samaria.
Ben Sanballat is their last name.
But you may also be correct.
Karl, the letter is dated to the  20th of Marchevan, in the 17th year of
Darius (II), which corresponds to November 25, 407 BCE.  People disagree
about dates when they have to guess, and estimate, but not when we have
dated letters.
Best,
Liz Fried
> 
> Yitzhak Sapir
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