Three Israelite Psalms in an Ancient Egyptian Papyrus

By Karel van der Toorn

It is one of the most spectacular discoveries in ancient Near Eastern studies of recent years – an Egyptian papyrus from the mid-fourth century BCE containing three psalms that originated in the Kingdom of Israel before the fall of Samaria (722 BCE). They provide a unique insight into the beliefs and practices of the early Israelites.

Early image of Papyrus Amherst 63, Column 11. Image courtesy K. van der Toorn.

Recent image of Papyrus Amherst 63, Column 11. Image courtesy K. van der Toorn.

The scribes of the scroll used Egyptian Demotic script to write texts in the Aramaic language. The Israelite psalms are also in Aramaic, though several irregularities show they were originally in Hebrew. One of them bears a close resemblance to Psalm 20. The two others are completely new to us. They stand side by side in the papyrus, connected by a common theme.

These songs were to be sung at the autumn harvest festival and the God they invoke is called Yaho or Adonay. There are references to sacrifices of lambs and sheep, bowls filled with wine, and music of lyres and flutes. On the day of the New Moon there is a solemn banquet for the God and his worshippers during which Yaho determines destinies for the year to come. “The Merciful One exalts the great, Yaho humiliates the lowly one.” The psalms celebrate his kingship over all the other gods. In combination, these various elements point to a setting in the New Year festival—the historical antecedent of Rosh Hashanah. Several stories from the Bible have their setting in the harvest festival at the beginning of the New Year. Thanks to an Egyptian papyrus, scholars now have access to some of the songs that belonged to that occasion.

Understanding these texts has taken over a century. The three Israelite psalms are part of a collection of traditional Aramaic texts. The papyrus scroll has 23 columns and contains about 35 separate compositions. Some of them cover almost 100 lines, others consist of no more than five lines. Because the Aramaic texts were written in the Demotic script, experts classified the scroll initially as an Egyptian papyrus. After Lord Amherst of Hackney acquired the text in the 1890s, Egyptologists tried in vain to break its code. Papyrus Amherst 63 was a particular mystery. It took the collaboration of an Aramaic scholar and a Demotic specialist to solve the riddle.

William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney DL, JP (25 April 1835 – 16 January 1909) (Wikimedia Commons)

The Amherst papyri: being an account of the Egyptian papyri in the collection of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst of Hackney, F.S.A. at Didlington Hall, Norfolk. London : B. Quaritch, 1899. (Archive.org)

A few lines in translation were published in the 1940s. Almost forty years later, Aramaic and Demotic scholars discovered the Aramaic version of Psalm 20 and published other portions of the papyrus. But until very recently there was no scholarly edition of the complete text. That situation has now changed. Today anyone who is interested can look at the photographs of the papyrus, its transliteration and translation, plus a commentary. The text provides an entry into a vanished world. It contains the literary heritage of three communities that had once lived together but now seem worlds apart.

K. van der Toorn, Papyrus Amherst 63. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2018.

Papyrus Amherst 63 is divided in sections. The first section is devoted to texts from an Aramean community from Babylonia, worshippers of Nanay and Nabu. The second section contains texts from Syrian Arameans that came from Hamath; their religion is focused on the god Bethel. The third section is Samarian and contains the three Israelite psalms. They refer to Yaho as “our Bull,” which is entirely in line with the North-Israelite practice of venerating Yaho in the form of a young bull (the “Golden Calf”). To judge by the shape of the Demotic characters of the text, the papyrus dates from the mid-fourth century BCE.

From Aramaic texts from a century earlier, we know about the existence of several Aramaic speaking communities in southern Egypt. At Aswan and Elephantine—known at the time under the names Syene and Yeb—there were two Aramean communities, and a Jewish one. The Arameans had separate temples for Nabu and Banit, on the one hand, and Bethel and the Queen of Heaven, on the other. At Elephantine there were Jews, living around the Temple of Yaho. Assyrian and Babylonian texts show that Banit is another name of Nanay. The consort of Bethel (the Queen of Heaven) was presumably Anat, known as Anat-Bethel or Anat-Yaho among the Jews of Egypt. Arameans and Jews served in Egypt as soldiers. In a land-for-service system, they were ultimately responsible for the defense of Persian interests on the southern frontier of Egypt.

Map showing location of Elephantine (DailyMail.com)

Reconstruction of the Judaean temple, after a drawing by Stephen Rosenberg, “The Jewish Temple at Elephantine,” Near Eastern Archaeology 67 (2004): 4.

Papyrus Amherst 63 is the literary heritage of these Aramean and Jewish communities. But they did not meet in Egypt for the first time. During much of the 7th century BCE, they had lived together in the caravan city that later became known by the name of Palmyra. The fourth section of the Amherst papyrus contains traditions that go back to the time spent in Palmyra. This Syrian city on the edge of the desert, blessed with an eternal water source, had offered the three communities shelter against the aggression of the Neo-Assyrian empire. At Palmyra, the Samarians and the Arameans developed a civil religion that accommodated several religious traditions. No group had been asked to abandon its gods. The textual compilation of the Amherst papyrus is testimony to the mood of inclusivity that had characterized the coexistence of the three communities at Palmyra. This is the heritage they brought to Egypt.

Under the impact of the Babylonian expansionism of the sixth century BCE, the communities decided to transfer to Egypt. It proved to be a migration with momentous consequences. The Samarian community had thought of itself as primarily Aramean, but they came to be defined as Jewish as a consequence of the Persian policy to recognize Jews as a separate nation. The Elephantine Jews were ordered to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (and probably Passover as well) in conformity with the official Jewish practice throughout the Persian Empire. The eventual split between Jews and Arameans was inevitable.

Papyrus Amherst 63 is a unique document. Not only does it preserve three ancient Israelite psalms, it also bears witness to the historical coexistence of three ethnic communities open to each other’s religious traditions. After the codification of the Torah and the rise of Judaism, such a spirit of receptivity became a thing of the past.

Karel van der Toorn is Faculty Professor of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam.