Although Constantine considered himself a Christian, he did not abandon the Roman gods and religious rituals. 306-337 CE), the Roman ruler who in 313 CE decreed early Christians could practice their faith without persecution and confiscated land should be returned to the Church. Constantina was the eldest daughter of Emperor Constantine the Great (r. Porphyry burial containers were especially prized in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Once the imperially controlled mines were abandoned in the fifth century CE, new items could not be made of porphyry, so older monuments were sometimes pillaged and re-used, with the royal significance transferred to the plunderers, implying not only the replacement of the old order by the new, but also the superiority of the conquerors. It was often used for columns and other architectural components that thereby accentuated important structures or parts of them. Because it was restricted to royal purposes, its very appearance carried connotations of the imperial significance of any work made from it. In ancient Rome/Byzantium, there were quarries for porphyry, a rich purple marble stone (the basis for the association of the color purple with royalty). Frequently crafted for further refinement, such works show their precious properties to advantage. Objects made for sacred or royal use were often wrought of such lavish and treasured components as vellum, silk, linen, wool, ivory, gold, silver, gems, and rare stones and minerals. Its greatest challenges were the peripheral location of Egypt from the heartland of the Empire and the evident corruption of its officials.\) In addition, this study (4) enhances the current understanding of well-organized Persian Imperial administration with an effective economic system, and power- ful army that was present and active in Egypt during the first Persian period (525-404 BCE). T hus, it is very probable that the religious tradition was passed down to the Judeans of Egypt in oral form. No copy of the texts of the Hebrew Bible has been found from Egypt. T hey maintained good relationships with the High Priest of Jerusalem, although they did not know about the centralization of the cult in Jerusalem. (3) The Judeans of Egypt drew from the same source of religious tradition as the texts of the He- brew Bible however, their knowledge of the traditions known from the Torah was limited. (2) They possessed a religious group identity that was mainly Yahwistic however, clear evidence also exists to prove their partial religious acculturation, especially with the Arameans. Judeans served as loy- al subjects of the Persian Empire in the positions of regular soldiers and professional Aramaic scribes. The research confirms the previously suggested theory that the Judean settlement of Egypt was rather old, most proba- bly dating back to the end of the 7Ĭentury BCE. Through this research the picture of the Judean settlement in Egypt in general and of the Judean military garrison in Elephantine in particular becomes clearer. The findings, in relation to the research questions, show that: (1) the Judeans were settled in Egypt mainly in the areas of Elephantine in the South as well as in the region of Memphis in the North. The vast data complements the picture provided by previous research placing the Judeans of Egypt i n the historical context of t he Pe r- sian Empire. Historical analysis is implemented in three phases: source criticism to verify the reliability and validity of the sources, content analysis to analyze the data and interpretative dialogue to un- derstand the findings in relation to the research questions. The main research ques- tions are: (1) What picture do the Aramaic documents discovered from Persian-period Egypt pro- vide about the Judean settlement of Egypt during the same period in question? (2) How do these documents present the religion of the Judeans of Egypt? (3) Did the Judeans of Egypt have any knowledge of the texts and traditions included in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the Torah? (4) What kind of picture do these Aramaic documents provide about the administration, military and economic organization of the Persian Empire in Egypt? The data consists of the 1,042 Aramaic documents dating from the Persian period, found from Egypt and published up through the year 2013. This study aims at finding out what kind of picture the Aramaic documents found from Egypt present about Judeans of Egypt in the Persian period (539-332 BCE).
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