Археология Библейская

I. Biblical archeology is the science of biblical antiquities and, as such, forms an important part of ancient Eastern archeology in general. Its subject, as a science, is the study of all the various manifestations of the life of the biblical (i.e., Hebrew) people, as they were reflected in their sacred books (the Bible), civil literature and material monuments of their antiquity. But although the source and subject of biblical archeology are determined by its very name, a definite view has not yet been established regarding its scope, and different researchers either expand or narrow it. In the first case, the study of the antiquities of not only the Hebrew people themselves, but also those peoples with whom the Jews came into historical contact, such as the Egyptians, Assyro-Babylonians, Persians and others, is introduced into the circle of biblical archeology. (as, for example, in the “Proceedings of the English Society for Biblical Archaeology”, Gesenius, De-Wette, etc.). But it is more correct to limit the subject to B.A. only the antiquities of the Jewish people, as a separate historical unit that occupied a certain position in history, lived its own special cultural life and was in certain relationships with the surrounding peoples, so that the study of the antiquities of other peoples mentioned in the Bible can be included in it only to the extent that it can serve to explain the antiquities of the biblical people themselves. The opinions of researchers also differ regarding the scope of the antiquities of the Jewish people themselves, and some (mostly the ancients, like Josephus) include history, while others (the newest, like Jan) include geography, and not only political, but also physical. But such a view again introduces into the circle of biblical archeology elements that are foreign to it, although, of course, history and geography have an important auxiliary significance for it. Thus, the circle of biblical archeology, in a close and precise sense, includes the study of the characteristics of the religious, family, social, state and generally cultural life of the ancient Jewish people, and its task is not only to describe in detail the manifestations of these aspects of their life, but also to determine the general worldview on which their entire centuries-old life was based. In terms of their position in the history of the ancient world, the Hebrew people represented an exceptional and very unique phenomenon. His historical mission is strictly religious in nature and in this respect he exerted an influence on the historical destiny of mankind that makes the cultural influence of all other peoples of antiquity pale in comparison. That is why the main nerve of his life is precisely his religious worldview, without acquaintance with which it is impossible to understand the very antiquities of this peculiar people. The essence of the religion of the ancient Hebrew people was strict monotheism, which was maintained with unwavering persistence and enthusiasm throughout its entire historical life. The one God recognized in it, of course, varied in the attributes attached to him and was understood, depending on one or another historical influence, either as Elohim - in the sense of creative power, or as Jehovah - in the sense of a more personal being, or as Adonai - in the sense of dominion in the world, etc., but under these different names we always mean the same God, revealed to the ancestors or so-called patriarchs of the people. This God had a corresponding cult, which consisted of offering sacrifices to him in special sacred places, and the sublimity of the very concept of God was expressed in the fact that the Hebrew cult excluded human sacrifices, so common among ancient peoples, as something cruel and ungodly. The places of worship in ancient times were mainly altars or altars made of stones, on which the sacrifice, in the absence of a special priestly class, was offered independently by each father of the family or patriarch. Subsequently, precisely after leaving Egypt, in order to streamline the cult, a special tabernacle was built, a kind of portable church, in which the greatest shrines of the people were enclosed, and in it sacrifices and rituals were performed by a special class of priests headed by high priests. This movable tabernacle was later, precisely under King Solomon, replaced by a majestic temple in Jerusalem, which represented the highest expression of the architectural art of the people, who, however, took great advantage of the modern architecture of the Phoenicians. From that time on, the Temple of Jerusalem became the center of not only the religious, but also the socio-political life of the people. Annual holidays were celebrated in it, such as Easter, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles; to celebrate their people flocked from all over the country, even during their political separation after Solomon. The strict sublimity of monotheism often turned out to be too superior to the ordinary degree of religious consciousness of the people, and in it there was constantly noticed an inclination towards the more tangible cult of idolatry with its sensually seductive forms in which it manifested itself among neighboring peoples, or at least an inclination towards soulless ritualism, which developed at the expense of the true spirit of religion. But monotheism found unyielding and implacable zealots in the person of the prophets, who constituted a special class of spiritually enlightened people who held high the banner of true and strict monotheism and mercilessly punished any deviation from it into gross idolatry or soulless ritualism. These same prophets were the best exponents of the religious and moral self-awareness and historical purpose of the “chosen” people and constantly preached the idea that the time would come when all the contradictions and adversities experienced by humanity in internal and external life, as the results of original sin, would be resolved, and universal deliverance would come, as the fulfillment of all the best aspirations of humanity. The religious worldview, as the basic principle of the biblical people, had a significant influence on all forms of their life. In family terms, it affected the strict implementation of the moral principles of married life. Strict monogamy was maintained, which had its basis in the very history of the origin of married life from the combination of one husband with one wife, as well as in the high position of a woman that she occupied in the ancient Jewish people in relation to a man: for him she was by no means an unrequited slave, but an equal, independent being who had the meaning of an equal assistant to her husband. Of course, this lofty view was not actually carried out particularly strictly, and even among the patriarchs we find a case of bigamy, and subsequently many cases of polygamy (especially among the kings David and Solomon); but these were already deviations from the norm, which is what the popular consciousness has always recognized them to be. Polygamy among Jews developed mainly from a peculiar phenomenon - concubine, which consisted in the fact that a husband, next to one legal wife, had one or several side “concubines” who occupied the dependent position of servants in the house. The reason for this phenomenon lay in the desire, in the case of infertility of a legitimate wife, to have offspring at least through collateral relations, and this desire was considered so legal and holy that the wives themselves contributed to the concubine, as we see from the history of Abraham and Jacob, suppressing even the natural and legitimate feeling of marital jealousy. – There were certain restrictions on marriage, due to which marriages were prohibited in close degrees of kinship, and in this regard, the moral consciousness of the ancient Jewish people was extremely sensitive and full of that horror naturalis that is associated with such relationships, and differed favorably from the consciousness of other pagan peoples surrounding them. The latter, as is known, including the Egyptians, did not know any morally motivated norms in this regard (among them even marriage with one’s own sister was common, which was an “abomination” for the moral consciousness of the Jews). Marriages with Canaanites were also prohibited, as idolaters. The marriage was very simple, without any special ceremonies. All that was required was the consent of the parents and the bride herself, who were given various valuable gifts, and the wedding itself, so to speak, consisted only of a prayerful blessing and good wishes for the newlyweds on the part of the parents - to prosper and multiply (Gen. 24:60). Subsequently, special formal marriage contracts were introduced, which stipulated the rights and obligations of the spouses. Once the union was concluded, it was considered sacred and adultery was punishable by death. However, divorce was relatively easy and common. To do this, the husband had to give his wife a letter of divorce and send her away from his home. To prevent arbitrariness and licentiousness, however, there were various restrictions and formalities, which were intended to impress upon the spouses the importance of the step they were taking (Deut. 24:1–4). Under certain conditions, divorced people could enter into new marriages. If a husband died without leaving sons, his brother or brother-in-law had to marry his widow in order to “restore the seed of his dead brother” (Deut. 25:5-10). This law of virginity extended its effect to immediate relatives, as can be seen from the story of Ruth. A marriage was considered truly unhappy when it turned out to be childless, and childlessness fell with particular burden on the woman, for whom it was a source of unbearable shame and reproach, and many Jewish women with heartbreaking anguish prayed for such reproach to be removed from them (Rebekah, Anna, Elizabeth and others). Children were considered a great gift from God and this determined their position in the family and society. The children of the Jews were by no means the rightless property of their parents, as was especially the case among the Romans, where the father of the family had control over their life and death; they were recognized with certain personal rights and parents did not have the right to arbitrarily dispose of the distribution of their property to their children and had to obey the known provisions of everyday and written law (Deut. 21:15–17). All rights of the household after the death of the father usually passed to the “eldest firstborn” son, and hence the right of the firstborn was highly valued, so that because of its receipt, sometimes domestic feuds occurred between brothers (the story of Jacob and Esau). When dividing the inheritance, daughters were also taken into account, who, in the absence of sons, became independent and full heirs of the parental property (Num. 27:8) and, in order to continue the family line and the father’s name, married men of their father’s tribe. This view of daughters was determined by the general view of a woman as a being equal to a man, and Jewish women fully justified such a view. History has preserved the names of many women to whom the people owed a lot in their political life (for example, Mariam, Deborah, the valiant deliverer of the people from the foreign yoke, Judith, Esther, etc., whose names, like stars of the first magnitude, shine against the background of its centuries-old historical life). Servants or household members were also included in the house or family, acquired either through purchase, captivity, or through natural reproduction and constituting the property of the head of the family. The servants were not powerless slaves in the proper sense of the word, they enjoyed the protection of the law, which even gave them freedom in case of cruel treatment by the master (Ex. 21:20,26,27), and were often in a very trusted relationship with the master, from whom, in the event of his childlessness, they could hope to receive a full inheritance. Families formed into larger societies or clan units - tribes and so-called tribes. The latter are usually considered twelve - according to the number of the ancestors of the people, the twelve sons of Jacob (although two tribes came from Joseph through his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh). These tribes, when the people settled in Palestine, served as the basis for their political organization, according to which the people essentially consisted of twelve independent republics that had complete internal self-government and were connected with each other only by the unity of religion and law, natural ties of kinship, the interest of mutual assistance and the community of historical memories they experienced. Defined by its fundamental essence, the political organization of the Jews was a so-called theocracy, i.e., government by God. Josephus Flavius, who first introduced this term into use (S. Ar. 2, 17), understood theocracy in the sense of a special form of government, in contrast to monarchy, oligarchy and democracy. But in reality, it can only be understood in the sense of a general principle, which provided only a general norm for social and state life - a norm, in accordance with which, the people had complete freedom of development and could develop in themselves, depending on their needs, historical circumstances and conditions, all and any particular forms of social and state life, under the only indispensable condition that under any form of government, Jehovah, the divine law, was considered the supreme head and king of the people which was supposed to have an unconditionally determining significance for all relationships of life. Therefore, we see how in the history of the Jewish people several forms of government gradually changed. During the wanderings in the desert and during the conquest of Palestine, the people were led by military dictators (Moses and Joshua); then, for several hundred years, random leaders and judges acted (during the period of the judges) and, finally, as historical circumstances demanded, a monarchy was established. All these forms of government were equally compatible with “theocracy,” as long as the rulers acted according to the instructions of the law and the private manifestations of the will of the supreme king of the people, Jehovah. Among the particular forms of state-social life, one can note the fact of the widespread development of political representation, according to which the most important matters in the state were decided through properly organized meetings. There were two such assemblies, one of which was something like a permanent senate and consisted of representatives of tribes and tribes (12 + 58 = 70), and the other was a national one, consisting of representatives of all smaller social units and convened only on special, emergency occasions. With the establishment of the monarchy, this representation naturally had to suffer some limitation, but it never lost its significance completely, throughout the entire historical life of the people. Representatives of general and local government (elders) were also bearers of judicial power. The ancient Jews were distinguished by a highly developed sense of judicial justice, and it was to this area that the people's consciousness attributed the highest manifestation of the wisdom of their wisest king Solomon. Legal proceedings took place openly and orally, and the means of evidence were testimony and oath. Many crimes, such as blasphemy, idolatry, murder, adultery and others, were punishable by death, with the usual execution being stoning, beheading and hanging (later introduced through the Romans and crucifixion). Other punishments for lesser crimes were corporal scourging and a fine (for theft, for example), and the thief had to compensate the stolen goods four or more times its value, and in case of failure, he became the slave of the victim. In general, the basis of the court was the principle of equal retribution (“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”) (Ex. 21:24). In international relations, the ancient Jews, by their very position, should have been distinguished by a certain exclusivity and alienation, since any contact with foreigners could have a detrimental effect on the purity of monotheism, jealously guarded by law. As a result, the Jews waged frequent and merciless wars with the surrounding idolatrous peoples and, during the conquest of Palestine, by virtue of the usual military law of antiquity, mercilessly “put to the edge of the sword” not only men capable of bearing arms, but also women and children. Nevertheless, this exclusivity did not at all eliminate the possibility of international relations on the basis of a peaceful culture, and the Jews freely used the best works of culture of the surrounding peoples, and even their highest national sanctuary - the church - was the fruit of the architectural art of their neighbors the Phoenicians. As for material culture, in this respect the ancient Jewish people did not develop any independent type and were influenced by those more cultural peoples with whom they had to come into contact at various stages of their historical life. The ancestor of the people Abraham, as a migrant from Mesopotamia, arrived in Palestine with a ready-made Mesopotamian culture, which had existed since time immemorial, especially in Chaldea. In Palestine itself, he also had to meet the already established culture of the Canaanite tribes, especially the Hittites or Hittites - this strong and influential tribe, the historical existence of which was discovered only in very recent times and is now the subject of numerous and diligent research. Then, during their stay in Egypt, the Jews inevitably succumbed to the powerful and rich culture of the country of the pharaohs, which had a very noticeable impact on many aspects of the life of the people. Upon leaving Egypt, he again found in Palestine a ready-made, already highly developed culture, which he also took advantage of to a significant extent; finally, in its subsequent historical fate, the Assyro-Babylonians, Greeks and Romans had a significant influence on it, so that in this respect, ancient Hebrew culture represents only a series of historical layers on the general basis of the Semitic cultural type. That is why we can limit ourselves to only the most general features in the presentation of his material culture, since it appears in the literary and material monuments of biblical antiquity. In the era of the patriarchs, the Jews acted as a nomadic tribe, possessing significant herds and moving from place to place; but it is already known from the history of Isaac that he was engaged in agriculture (Gen. 26:12). In Egypt, the main occupation of the Jews, apparently, was also cattle breeding, but with the settlement in Palestine, agriculture became the main source of subsistence for the people and the entire way of their socio-economic life was based on it. After the conquest of Palestine, all lands were divided among the people into plots, and a strict and harmonious system of land ownership was developed, which had as its goal to provide each family or house with a constant source of wealth. To prevent the deprivation of land of individuals and the concentration of land ownership in a few hands, the law based the national economy on the theocratic principle, according to which Jehovah was actually considered the owner of the land (Lev. 25:23), and the existing owners were only secondary owners by gift or lease, as a result of which they could not sell the land provided to them forever, but only for certain periods, so that during certain periods (anniversary years occurring every 50 years) all sold lands were returned free of charge to their previous owners (Lev.25:8–11). From subsequent history it is known that this law was often not observed, and therefore, as in other countries, large landed property was formed to the detriment of the small landowners, but the very fact of the existence of such a law shows in it a tendency to create a bulwark against the development of the greatest economic evil, which contributed so much to the downfall of the ancient world. Along with agriculture, there were various crafts and, so to speak, craft arts, the knowledge of which was revealed already during the construction of the tabernacle and its accessories in the desert, although these craft arts bore a very noticeable influence from Egypt, and subsequently from the Phoenicians. The peculiarity of the Jews in this regard was that at that time, for example. Among the Greeks and especially the Romans, craft was considered a despicable occupation, the work of slaves; Jews treated it as a very respectable occupation and considered it their duty to teach it to their children. Trade was poorly developed and in this respect the Jews were decisively inferior to their neighbors the Phoenicians. The main monetary unit was the shekel, which corresponded to a certain weight of pieces of gold and silver and therefore equaled, if it was silver, approximately 80 kopecks, and 12 rubles. 50 k. if it was gold. Noble metals were used in abundance for various decorations, and especially for the accessories of the tabernacle and church, where many objects were made of pure gold and silver. The artistic arts did not flourish among the Jews, especially the plastic arts, which did not find application due to the law prohibiting all images (for fear of idolatry). Comparatively more developed were architecture, the highest expression of which was the Temple of Jerusalem (although built with the help of the Phoenicians), and then music and poetry. Vocal and instrumental music was widely used in worship, and history has preserved several famous names of “choir leaders” (Asaph, Heman and Jedithum), whose great encourager was the royal singer and musician David. In his person, Jewish poetry reached its highest prosperity and his famous psalms delight millions of hearts to this day. Hebrew language. belongs to the extensive family of Semitic languages ​​and was closely related to Phoenician, Moabite, Assyrian, Arabic and other languages. In the 6th centuries BC, under the influence of the Babylonians, it underwent a significant change and turned into the so-called Aramaic or Syro-Chaldean, which was the popular dialect at the time of Christ. Writing among the Jews dates back to a very distant time and its origin is not clear enough, although the alphabet is closely related to the Phoenician. We have the oldest examples of this writing on the Moabite stone (from the 9th century) and in the so-called “Siloam Inscription” discovered recently in Jerusalem, dating back to the time of Solomon (according to others - to the time of Hezekiah, late 8th century). The language of both inscriptions is the same in which the most ancient books of the Bible were written, and from them, therefore, one can judge the very letter used by the sacred writers. The peculiarity of the Hebrew letter was that it had no vowels and only consonants were written, and only when the language became dead did Jewish scholars call it that. The Masoretes invented special symbols for expressing vowels, which are still used today. The literature of Biblical Archaeology is very extensive, so that only the most outstanding works can be cited here. In addition to the Bible, as the main source, the works of Josephus, this, so to speak, father of biblical archeology, are of great importance; in his “Jewish Antiquities”, “The Jewish War” and “Against Apion”, he collected a lot of archaeological and historical material from the life of the Jewish people; then the works of Philo, although already suffering from a very noticeable one-sidedness, and the Talmud, to the extent that it depicts traces of ancient Jewish life, especially from its ritual, everyday and legal aspects. Certain features can be found in various classical writers, such as Herodotus, Strabo, Ilineas, Tacitus, although they generally treated the Jewish people with extreme disdain, as well as in numerous “Travels” or “walks to the Holy Land” from the 4th century to our time. Then, in fact, the scientific processing of biblical archeology began in the 16th century. (Sigonii, De Republica Hebraeorum, Franc., 1585), received significant development in the XVII (for example, Spensery De leg. Hebr., 1685) and stood on solid ground from the 2nd half of the 18th century, when complete courses began to appear in rapid succession, covering the entire range of biblical and archaeological material in its scientific systematic processing. From this type of writings one can cite: Jahn, “Biblische Archaologie”, 5 volumes, 1796–1805; Rosenmuller, “Handbuch der Biblischen Alterthumskunde” (4 vols. 1823–1831); De-Wette, “Lehrbuch der hebr.-jud. Archaologie", 1814; Keil, Handbnch d. hebr. Archaologie (1858, translated into Russian) and many others. Individual subjects are discussed in detail in the well-known biblical dictionaries of Wiener, Smith, Rome, Viguru (beginning in 1891), the Duke's Real Encyclopedia and many others. Friend. Precious material can also be found in such publications as: Records of the Past (since 1873), Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaology (since 1872), etc. In Russian literature you can find individual articles in various spiritual journals, as well as several special studies of certain areas of biblical archeology, among which can be mentioned the works of: A. Olesnitsky, “Holy Land” (Kyiv, 1875–79，2 vol.), his extensive research on the “Old Testament. Temple of Jerusalem" (published by the Palestine Society, 1889); A. Lopukhina, “The Legislation of Moses” 1882) and others. The experience of a systematic presentation of biblical antiquities was made in “Biblical Archeology” by arch. Jerome (St. Petersburg, 1883 and 1884), but this broadly conceived work, due to the death of the author, remained unfinished. Finally, the “Messages of the Imper.” provide abundant material. Palestine Society,” which spares no expense on publications that are very valuable in biblical, archaeological, historical and literary terms.