Did Babylon Destroy the Temple?

by peacefulpete 2 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  Did the Babylonians destroy the Jerusalem Temple?

  Personally, I never questioned this, of course they did, doesn't 2 Kings 25 say:

  9 And he burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. (this is cut and paste added as one of the many additions to the end of Jeremiah).

  Also at the Chronicler's revision of 2 Kings (2 Chron 36:19):

  19 They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.

  Notice however in the most extensive and detailed version of this story at Jeremiah 39, no mention of the Temple:

  8 The Babylonians[c] set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

  No mention of Temple destruction.

  Most commentaries have assumed a haplography, a scribal error of omission. That might well be the case, but another issue may suggest the text is accurate.

  Recently we discussed Gedaliah as the governor in Jerusalem after the final destruction of Jerusalem. An interesting detail stood out to me in

  41:4 The day after Gedaliah’s assassination, before anyone knew about it, 5 eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, bringing grain offerings and incense with them to the house of the Lord.

  Jeremiah not only omits the Temple from the destruction but continues implying the Temple was still accepting worshipers.

  So, then who destroyed the Temple?

  1 Esdras 4;45 You also vowed to build the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judea was laid waste by the Chaldeans.

  The Edomites? That seems to be consistent with the spirit of Psalm 137:

  7

  Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
  on the day Jerusalem fell.
  “Tear it down,” they cried,
  “tear it down to its foundations!”

  Anyway it's all provocative. Perhaps the Babylonians themselves had not destroyed the Temple but after the last evacuation after Gedaliah's assassination some Edomites entered the city to burn the Temple. It wouldn't be surprising if retelling the stories 50 years later the author lumped together closely timed events and blamed Babylon.

  Drawing from observations by Richard Friedman.
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  Disillusioned JW

  peacefulpete, in regards to 1 Esdras 4:45 an Oxford Study Bible edition of the NRSV refers to 1 Esdras 1:55 which is part of the passage about the Chaldeans (Babylonians) burning down the house of the Lord, with no mention in that verse of the Edomites being involved. However the note also refers to Psalms 137:7 which you quoted.and it refers to Obadiah 1:11-14.

  Regarding Jeremiah 41:4 could that be referring to the burned down temple of YHWH (to its remains)? Note that Ezra (not Esdras) 2:68 - 3:6 (NRSV) mentions (in 2:68) those "who came to the house of the LORD" and note it uses that terminology, even though the temple was burned down and not yet rebuilt. 3:3 (NRSV) mentions some people set up an altar on the foundation (NSRV says "its foundation" but 1984 NWT says "its own site") in order to make burnt offerings on it, even though 3:6 (NRSV) says "But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid." {184 NWThass similar wording.] I think the foundation mentioned in verse 3 is of the remains the burnt down altar site of the burnt down temple. I think that verse 6's mention of the not laid foundation is of the foundatio that would be laid in the rebuilding of the temple. This shows that according to the Bible even the ruins of the burnt down temple of YHWH was still called the house of YHWH and that some made burnt offerings there before the temple was rebuilt. What do you think about that?

  As to who burned down the temple perhaps the Edomites did not themselves burn it down (despite what 1 Esdras says), but rather that the Edomites' demands caused the Babylonians to burn (and/or tear) it down. Thus, maybe the Edomites could be said of burning it down in the sense that was because of their urging that it be burnt down that the Babylonians decided to burn it down, but with the Babylonians being the ones who did the actual burning.

  Similarly, according to the gospels the Jewish people and Jewish religious leaders urged the Romans to execute Jesus on a state/cross (and as a result many people throughout nearly 2000 years have said say the Jews killed Jesus), but those same accounts says the Romans did the actual execution of Jesus on the stake/cross. But the accounts also say the Pilate only gave the execution order because of the urging of the Jewish crowds.
  
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  peacefulpete

  DisiJW....Good observations. Edom and Judah had a long complicated relationship, but clearly there was no love between them in the 6th century. I'm impressed by the Obediah wording condemning Edom

  13

  You should not have entered the gate of my people
  in the day of his calamity;
  you should not have gloated over his disaster
  in the day of his calamity;
  you should not have looted his goods
  in the day of his calamity.

  
  

  This certainly suggests an active role in the devastation.

  For me this strengthens the trace evidence, ....I see 3 lines of evidence. The only first-hand account in Jeremiah omits the Temple in the Babylonian destruction and refers to the Temple as accepting sacrifices, (your comment addressed below) and the faulting the Edomites in 1 Esdras (and similarly Obediah).

  The Kings abbreviated later retelling is almost certainly drawn primarily from Jeremiah, and the Chronicler was revising Kings. It would seem easiest to believe that Jeremiah was correct that the Babylonians had not burned the Temple, but the Edomites finished the job after he and the others left for Egypt. The later retellings having assumed the Babylonians were responsible or were simply abbreviating the overall episode.

  The other proposal, that mention of the Post destruction Temple in Jeremiah, refer to the burned foundations is not impossible of course. The Talmud 6 centuries later interprets this verse in Jeremiah in just this way. However, there is no other evidence and appears to be rather, based upon this verse.

  Ezra 2, as you mentioned referred to the mere site as the House of Yahweh. However chapt 3 makes explicit that this was a resumption of sacrifices when the foundation of the Temple had not yet been laid. IOW, the site was not, prior to this, being used for worship.

  Like I said provocative, hardly conclusive.

  It is in the end a sad story of neighboring nations with so much shared history, perhaps even the worship of the same god, being in the end mortal enemies.