Вавилонское пленение

Babylonian captivity. – This is the name of that period of Biblical history when the Jewish people, having lost their political independence, were taken into captivity by the Babylonians and remained there for 70 years, from 605 to 536 BC. The Babylonian captivity for the Jewish people was not an accident. Palestine, occupying an intermediate position between Egypt and Mesopotamia, necessarily had to take part in the great struggle that constantly took place between these two centers of political life of the ancient world. Huge armies constantly passed through it or along its outskirts - either the Egyptian pharaohs who sought to subjugate Mesopotamia, or the Assyrian-Babylonian kings who tried to bring into the sphere of their power the entire space between Mesopotamia and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. As long as the forces of the contending powers were more or less equal, the Jewish people could still maintain their political independence; but when the decisive advantage was on the side of Mesopotamia, the Jews had to inevitably become the prey of the strongest warrior. Indeed, the northern Jewish kingdom, the so-called Kingdom of Israel, fell under the blows of the Assyrian kings back in 722. The Kingdom of Judah lasted for about another hundred years, although its existence during this time resembled political agony. A fierce struggle between parties took place among the people, one of which insisted on voluntary submission to the Mesopotamian kings, and the other tried to seek salvation from the threatening death in an alliance with Egypt. In vain did more far-sighted people and true patriots (especially the prophet Jeremiah) warn against an alliance with treacherous Egypt; the Egyptian party triumphed and thereby accelerated the fall of the kingdom (for the further course of events, see Babylonia). The so-called first captivity, that is, the taking into captivity of several thousand Jerusalem citizens, was followed by a new invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, who personally appeared under the walls of Jerusalem. The city was saved from destruction only by the fact that King Jehoiachin hastened to surrender with all his wives and entourage. All of them were taken captive, and this time Nebuchadnezzar ordered 10,000 people from among the best warriors, nobles and artisans to be taken to Babylonia. Zedekiah was placed over the weakened kingdom as a Babylonian tributary. When Zedekiah, in turn, broke away from Babylon, going over to the side of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar decided to completely wipe out Judah from the face of the earth. In the nineteenth year of his reign, he appeared for the last time under the walls of Jerusalem. After a long siege, Jerusalem was subjected to the merciless vengeance of the victor. The city, along with the church and palaces, was destroyed to the ground, and all the treasures remaining in it fell into the hands of the enemy and were taken to Babylon. The high priests were killed, and most of the rest of the population was taken captive. This was on the 10th day of the 5th month of 588 BC, and this terrible day is still remembered by the Jews with strict fasting. The pitiful remnants of the population, left by Nebuchadnezzar to cultivate the land and vineyards, after a new disturbance were taken to Egypt, and thus the land of Judea was completely deserted. The mass migration of conquered peoples from their home country to the country of the winner was common in the ancient world. This system sometimes operated with great success, and, thanks to it, entire peoples lost their ethnographic type and language, and dispersed among the surrounding foreign population, as happened with the Severn people. The kingdom of Israel, which was finally lost in Assyrian captivity, leaving no traces of its existence. The Jewish people, thanks to their more developed national and religious self-awareness, managed to maintain their ethnographic independence, although, of course, the captivity left some traces on them. A special quarter was set aside for the settlement of captives in Babylon, although most of them were sent to other cities, with plots of land provided to them there. The condition of the Jews in Babylonian captivity was somewhat similar to the condition of their ancestors in Egypt. The mass of the captive people was undoubtedly used for earthworks and other hard work. On Babylonian-Assyrian monuments this labor of captives is clearly depicted in numerous bas-reliefs (especially on the bas-reliefs in Kuyundzhik; photographs from them are in the 9th edition of Lenormand’s “History of the Ancient East,” vol. IV, 396 and 397). The Babylonian government, however, treated the Jews with a certain degree of philanthropy and provided them with complete freedom in their internal life, so that they were governed by their own elders (as can be seen from the story of Susanna: Dan. 13), built houses for themselves, and planted vineyards. Many of them, having no land, began to engage in trade, and it was in Babylon that the commercial and industrial spirit first developed among the Jews. Under such circumstances, many of the Jews became so settled in the land of captivity that they even forgot about their native land. But for the majority of the people, the memory of Jerusalem remained sacred. Finishing their daily work somewhere on the canals and sitting on these “Babylonian rivers,” the captives wept at the mere memory of Zion and thought about revenge on the “cursed daughter of Babylon, the desolator” (as depicted in Ps. 136). Under the weight of the trial that befell the Jews, their repentance for past iniquities and sins awakened more than ever before and their devotion to their religion strengthened. The captive people found great religious and moral support in their prophets, among whom Ezekiel became famous, with his enthusiastic visions of the future glory of the now oppressed people. “The Book of the Prophet Daniel” serves as a very important document for the study of the life of the Jews in Babylon, and, in addition, it contains a lot of precious data about the internal state of Babylon itself, especially about the internal life of the court. The position of the Jews in Babylonian captivity remained unchanged under Nebuchadnezzar's successors. His son freed the Jewish king Jeconiah from prison, where he had languished for 37 years, and surrounded him with royal honors. When the new conqueror, Cyrus, marched with all his forces against Babylon, he promised numerous captives freedom or, at least, an alleviation of their situation, thereby securing their sympathy and assistance. The Jews apparently welcomed Cyrus with open arms as their liberator. And Cyrus fully justified their hopes. In the first year of his reign in Babylon, he ordered the release of the Jews from captivity and the construction of a church for them in Jerusalem (1 Ezra 1–4). This was in 536 BC, which ended the seventieth year of Babylonian captivity. All those Jews to whom the memory of Jerusalem was dear and sacred responded to the call of the royal decree. But there were few of them, only 42,360 people with 7,367 servants and maids. These, with a few exceptions, were all poor people, having only 736 horses, 245 mules, 436 camels and 6,720 donkeys. A much larger mass of the captive people - all those who managed to acquire a household and achieve significant security in the country of captivity - chose to remain there, under the magnanimous rule of Cyrus. The majority between them belonged to the upper and rich classes, who easily lost their faith and nationality and were reborn as Babylonians. The caravan of immigrants, taking with them 5,400 vessels of the church, once captured by Nebuchadnezzar and now returned by Cyrus, set off under the command of the noble Jewish prince Zerubbabel and the high priest Jesus, who led them to their old native ashes, where from these immigrants the Jewish people were reborn. The Babylonian captivity was of great importance in the fate of the Jewish people. Like an ordeal, it made him think deeply about his fate. A religious and moral revival began among him, faith began to grow stronger and ardent patriotism reignited. The need to revive the law and old traditions caused the emergence of scribes who began to collect scattered books of sacred and civil literature. The first were collected into a special canon or collection, which received the meaning of the book of God's Law for the people. In turn, Babylonian culture could not help but leave its traces on the Jews. The strongest influence was on the language, which underwent a significant change: the ancient Hebrew language was forgotten, and in its place came the Aramaic language, i.e., Syrochaldean, which became the popular language of the Jews of subsequent times and in which later works of Jewish literature were written (Talmud, etc.). The Babylonian captivity had another meaning. Before him, the Jewish people, with all their unique religious and moral worldview, lived alienated from the rest of the world. Since the time of the captivity, the Jewish people have become, as it were, worldwide: only a small part of the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, and a much larger part of them remained in Mesopotamia, from where little by little they began to spread throughout all the surrounding countries, introducing elements of their spiritual culture everywhere. These Jews, who lived outside Palestine and subsequently dotted all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with their colonies, became known as the Jews of the Diaspora; they had a profound influence on the subsequent fate of the pagan world, gradually undermining the religious worldview and thus preparing the pagan peoples for the adoption of Christianity. You can read more about the Babylonian captivity in large courses on the history of the people of Israel, such as: Ewald, “Geschichte des Volkes Israel” (1st ed. 1868); Graetz “Geschichto der Juden” (1874, etc.). From the monograph we can point out: Deane, “Daniel, his life and times” and Rawlinson, “Ezra and Necemiah, their lives aud times” (from the newest biblical-historical series under the general title “Men of the Bible” 1888 - 1890). On the question of the relationship between biblical history and the latest discoveries and research, cf. Vigouroux, “La Bible et les décounertes modernes” (1885, vol. IV, pp. 335–591), as well as A. Lopukhin, “Biblical history in the light of the latest research and discoveries” (vol. II, pp. 704–804), etc.