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The Egyptian Udjahorresnet and The Jewish Esra and Nehemiah in the Persian Period

So Hyeong-Geun 1

1서울신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

There are many similarities between the Egyptian Udjahorresnet and the Jewish Ezra and Nehemiah in the Persian period. For example, their positions, status, and activities, and also the missions that they carried out. The times when they were dispatched to their homelands show little difference. Udjahorresnet was sent to Egypt by Darius I (518 B.C.), Ezra to Judah and Jerusalem by Artaxerxes I (458 B.C.), and Nehemiah also by Artaxerxes I (445 B.C.). Persian kings dispatched the imperial officials to their homelands in order to govern the extensive empire effectively and to suppress the disturbances in the border areas, except Babylon, and thus they practiced orders (= civil laws) of the Persian kings in their homelands. In addition, they carried out the cultic reform and established the collapsed ritual ceremonies according to their religious beliefs, and their community and temple were cleansed. Udjahorresnet and Nehemiah prayed to the gods of Sais and to Yahweh Elohim respectively, for the remembrance of the good they had done in the autobiographical document. However, although the Udjahorresnet inscription was older than the documents of Ezra and Nehemiah, one cannot accept the argument that the latter borrowed from the former. It is nothing more than a conjecture, because there is no evidence and connection for it. After considering all the factors, this paper reached the following conclusion: This formal type of the autobiographical document was exceedingly universal in the Persian period.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.