Lecture 6—The Jewish Diaspora and the Golden Rule
In this lecture, we examine evidence of the ancient Jewish Diaspora
communities in Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Egypt through literary
works, such as the books of Tobit and Esther. We conclude with a
discussion of the Golden Rule, a version of which occurs in Tobit, whose
meaning was the subject of debate among Jews in the time of Jesus.
The Book of Tobit
1. The Book of Tobit is an apocryphal book, which means that it is
included in the Catholic Bible but not in the Jewish or Protestant
canons of sacred scripture. The theme of Tobit is that God is with
us, even in the midst of trouble and suffering; the book tells a
story of hope and deliverance.
2. In the story, Tobit is an lsraelite exile in Assyria who has been
punished by blinding for his righteous deeds (burying the dead).
Far away, Sarah, who is a distant relative of Tobit, has been
married seven times, and each time, her husband was killed on
their wedding night by a demon who was in love with her. Both
Tobit and Sarah pray for death as a release from their troubles.
3. God responds by sending the angel Raphael, whose name
literally means “God has healed.” Raphael uses Tobiah, Tobit’s
son, as an agent to drive off the demon from Sarah and heal
Tobit’s blindness. Tobiah then marries Sarah. The moral of the
story is that God rewards the pious, even if they must suffer first.
4. This tale sounds like the story of Job, but with several important
distinctions. Whereas in Job, the individual suffers; in Tobit, the
suffering is collective. That is, exile and dispersion are God’s
punishment for lsrael’s sins. But the punishment is not final. The
return from dispersion will have as its focus proper pan-lsraelite
worship in a rebuilt Jerusalem.
5. The author of Tobit reaffirms the universal sovereignty of the
God of Israel and God’s presence among the dispersed. The
message is that despite being outside the land of Israel, God’s
people are to maintain their identity and continue to worship the
God of Israel.
The Book of Esther
1. Tobit was probably written in the Diaspora, after 516 B.C., when
the Second Temple was consecrated. A likely date is somewhere
between 250 and 200 B.C. for the composition of this work. A
number of Jewish works from the Second Temple period recount
stories of Diaspora Jews and Diaspora Jewish life and provide
evidence of Jews’ occupying high positions in the ser\/ice of
foreign kings and rulers.
2. One of these works is the Book of Esther, which is included in
the Hebrew Bible. This work is set in the days of a king called
Ahasuerus. Today, scholars identify King Ahasuerus as the
Persian King Xerxes I, who ruled from 486 to 465 B.C. Xerxes I
is probably best known as the Persian king who invaded Greece
in 480 B.C.
3. The story of Esther begins when Queen Vashti, the wife of King
Ahasuerus, falls out of favor with the king. This sets in motion a
search for a new wife for the king, eventually leading to Esther,
a Jew, who becomes queen. The dramatic events that lie at the
heart of this story focus on Esther and her cousin Mordecai foiling
an attempt by the king’s evil advisor Haman to exterminate the
Jews. The series of events that culminates with the salvation of
the Jews from Haman is commemorated by the Jewish holiday
of Purim.
4. Although the story of Esther does not appear to be historically
based, it does portray a Jewish woman rising to the highest
possible position within a conquering empire. Consider Nehemiah,
whom we discussed in the last lecture. Nehemiah was cupbearer
to the king. Stories such as these provide evidence that Jews
living in the Diaspora prospered and were able to attain high office
in the administrations of foreign kingdoms.
Diaspora in Egypt
1. In addition to areas in the east, there was also a significant
Jewish Diaspora in Egypt. ln fact, the author of Jeremiah
mentions the migration of Judeans to Egypt, including Jeremiah
himself in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. We
know from various sources that there was a significant Jewish
military colony at a site called Elephantine, which was an island
opposite Aswan.
2. The Jews at Elephantine were part of a military force in charge of
guarding Egypt’s border with Nubia. The site is a crucial source
of information about the Jewish Diaspora because an archive of
documents was discovered there, consisting of more than 100
Aramaic papyri that date between 495 and 399 B.C.
3. From the papyri, we learn that the Jews at Elephantine had a
temple where they worshipped a god called YHW-obviously
the same deity as Yahweh, the God of Israel. This is an example
of a temple dedicated to the God of Israel that is not located
on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And unlike the case of the
Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, which was also dedicated
to the God of Israel, the temple at Elephantine was never
condemned as schismatic by Jews.
4. In 411 or 410 B.C., the temple at Elephantine was destroyed by
local Egyptian priests, who had taken advantage of the fact that
the local Persian satrap was away on business. Following the
temple’s destruction, the local Jewish population of Elephantine
tried to muster support for rebuilding the temple. They wrote a
number of letters to various people, among them the high priest
in Jerusalem and the governor of Samaria.
The Golden Rule in the Old Testament
1. The Book of Tobit is an excellent illustration of the debates
among Jews in the time of Jesus regarding the formulation of the
Golden Rule. Tobit 4:15 contains a negative formulation of the
Golden Rule. Specifically, it says, “And what you hate, do not do
to anyone.”
2. The original formulation of the Golden Rule goes back to
Leviticus 19:16-18, which says, “You shall not go around as a
slanderer or tale bearer among your people, and you shall not
profit by the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall
not hate in your heart any one of your kin. You shall reprove
your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take
vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you
shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
3. The Golden Rule was understood differently by various Jewish
groups and sects. We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that one
sect understood “your people” and “your kin” as referring only
to other members of the sect. Therefore, they were obligated to
hate all others, including all other Jews.
4. The Jewish sages who lived in the centuries following the
destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 A.D. interpreted
“your people” and “your kin” as meaning all of Israel, even
sinners, and identified the adversaries as Gentiles.
The Golden Rule in the New Testament
1. According to the Gospel of Mark (12:29-31), Jesus regarded the
injunction to love your neighbor as yourself as the second most
important commandment. When a scribe asked Jesus which
commandment was most important, he replied, “The first is hear,
oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your might and with all your strength. The second is this. You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other
commandment greater than these.”
2. Matthew 5:43-48 reports that Jesus included even
one’s enemies among those who should be loved. This
is from the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it
was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may be children
of your Father in Heaven.”
3. Here, Jesus is asking his followers to go beyond what
is required and to love not only their neighbors but also
their enemies. Thus, this passage in Matthew shows
that Leviticus 19 generally was understood by Jews
in this period as meaning that one should love one’s
neighbors and hate one’s enemies, however they are
deined.
4. Jesus’s statement, therefore, should be understood in
the context of a wider debate among Jews regarding the
interpretation of the Golden Rule in the time of Jesus.
Interestingly, in Jesus’s view, you shouldn’t love only
your neighbors but everyone, even your enemies. In
other words, Jesus’s response to the debate is that you
are not supposed to hate anybody. You are supposed to
love everyone, including Gentiles.
5. Jesus’s position in this debate reflects his views on
holiness. Holiness was required to enter the Kingdom of
God, according to the Gospel accounts. And therefore,
one must love all others-everyone else, not just Jews,
not just your neighbors, everyone-in order to imitate
God’s perfection.
Suggested Reading
Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, chapter 3, “Judaism in the Persian
Period,” pp. 65-70, 73-79.
VanderKam, An Introduction to Early Judaism, “The Elephantine Papyri,”
pp. 147-150.
Questions to Consider
1. What is the point of the story told in the Book of Tobit?
2. What is the significance of the temple to YHW at Elephantine?
