{"id":71959,"date":"2020-03-17T18:18:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71959"},"modified":"2020-03-17T18:18:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:18:49","slug":"the-babylonian-dramatis-personae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-babylonian-dramatis-personae\/","title":{"rendered":"The Babylonian Dramatis Personae"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If we were directing a re-enactment of this chapter, how many characters would we cast? We could assign “extras” to play the multitudes of Judeans and Babylonians. Lead roles would go to Nebuchadrezzar (2) and his “chief of the guards,” Nebuzaradan (9\u201313), as well as to King Zedekiah (4\u20137) and to Jeremiah, who appears as the chapter ends (14\u201318). Verse 13 names two other officers, Nebushazban, the Rab-saris, and Nergal-sarezer, the rab-mag, who, along with Nebuzaradan release Jeremiah from prison. Nergal-sarezer, the rab mag, makes an earlier appearance in verse 3. He and Nebuzaradan are also both known from a Babylonian record of officials in Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Both are listed with exactly the same titles that they bear in our text.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Babylonian text, re-discovered in the British Museum by Michael Jursa in 2007, clarifies the casting requirements of the remainder of verse 3. According to the NJPS translation, three other officers, together with Nergal-sarezer, the rab mag, “entered, and took up quarters in the middle gate.” They are: (1) (another) Nergal-sarezer; (2) Samgar-nebo; and (3) Sarsechim the Rab-saris.\u00a0 The re-discovered cuneiform tablet allows us to eliminate Samgar-nebo as a “ghost” character (saving us one actor in the drama).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tablet records receipt of a donation from Nabu-sharussu-ukin, the rab-saris (\u201cchief eunuch\u201d). The title, of course, corresponds directly to the last title in our verse. The elements of the Babylonian name resemble the words “nebo” at the end of the second character’s name according to NJPS and “Sarsechim,” the third character’s name. In other words, the “rab saris,” is not Sarsechim, as NJPS would have it, but Nebo-sarsechim.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the attachment of “nebo” to the next name, the word “Samgar” requires explanation. Here, too, Babylonian sources provide insight. Hebrew “Samgar” corresponds to a known Babylonian title, <\/span>simmagir, <\/span><\/i>which belongs to the first Nergal-sarezer in our verse.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, instead of three characters, verse 3 only has two: Nergal-sarezer, who bears the title \u201cSamgar,\u201d and Nebo-sarsechim, who has the title \u201crab-saris.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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