A Request to the Persian Governor Bagohi and the High Priest in Jerusalem, Jehohanan, to Rebuild the Jewish Temple at Elephantine

407 BCE

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It became evident from the Papyri collection that the Jews had their own temple in Elephantine. The Elephantine Temple Papyrus is a letter written in 407 BCE to Bagohi, the Persian governor of Judea, appealing for assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple in Elephantine, which had recently been badly damaged by an anti-Jewish rampage on the part of a segment of the Elephantine community.

It reads: “The temple of the G-d of heaven that was built at Fort Elephantine long ago, before the time of Cambyses which ‘that criminal Vidranga’ razed in the fourteenth year of King Darius…We seek permission from Jehohanan the High Priest in Jerusalem to rebuild the temple as it was formerly built..."Based on the documents, many archaeologists were in search of the actual temple only to finally be discovered in 1967.

Elephantine Temple Papyrus
Berlin State Museums, Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection

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Elephantine Temple Papyrus

“To Bagohi governor of Judah from the priests who are in Elephantine the fortress...on year 14 of King Darius II (410 BCE)... Cambyses (525 BCE) destroyed the Egyptian temples but not the Y-H-V-H temple. We seek permission from Jehohanan the High Priest in Jerusalem to rebuild the temple as it was formerly built..."

The Elephantine Temple Papyrus is a letter written in 407 BCE to Bagohi, the Persian governor of Judea, appealing for assistance in rebuilding the Jewish temple in Elephantine, which had recently been badly damaged by an anti-Jewish rampage on the part of a segment of the Elephantine community.