Exhibit Reveals Major Chapter in Jewish History

Exhibit Reveals Major Chapter in Jewish History

By Julie Stahl and Chris Mitchell
CBN News Middle East Bureau
Friday, March 27, 2015

JERUSALEM, Israel -- One of the most significant periods in Israel's history came during the Babylonian exile described in the books of Daniel, Jeremiah. and Ezekiel.

Today, some ancient artifacts from that period, never before displayed, are providing new insight.

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." These are the opening words of Psalm 137, written when King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried the Judeans away, captive to an area that's now present day Iraq.

It's also the name of a new exhibit at Jerusalem's Bible Lands Museum that chief curator Dr. Filip Vukosavovic calls an "incredible puzzle."

"What we do here is for the first time tell a complete story of the Babylonian exile from approximately 604 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar comes for the first time to the Land of Israel up to 539 [BC] when Cyrus …and the Persians conquer Babylon and release all the exiles," Vukosavovic told CBN News.

Much of the information for the exhibit came from clay tablets written in Akkadian, an ancient cuneiform script. On display for the first time ever, they tell of daily life in Al-Yahuda, the city of Judah in Babylonia.

Museum Director Amanda Weiss said the exhibit also opens a major chapter of Jewish history.

"Probably next to … the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is the most important documentation that has ever been revealed," Weiss told CBN News. "It's the thread that ties us to our ancestors."

An ancient tablet next to a modern one tells the story. The texts talk about real people -- exiled Judeans -- in everyday life scenarios, from rental agreements to tax issues.

"One of these people is Haggai, son of Ahikam," Vukosavovic explained. "I have actually chosen Haggai, simply [to] narrate the story of the Babylonia[n] exile that has never been told before."

Three animated movies feature Haggai telling the story from the first exiles all the way to Babylon.

Vukosavovic said he met Haggai in these texts.

"I know his brothers. I know his father. I know his grandfather and grandmother. You know, I know his great grandfather -- all this through these new texts that nobody has seen before," Vukosavovic said.

Weiss said one of her favorite parts of the exhibit is the model of the Al-Yahuda village.

"We actually are showing interactively a scene in daily life. And you can see plowing the fields and rowing down the canals and the rivers, people cooking in their home fires in the evening, and the date palm trees," Weiss said. "You get a sense of the cycle of life."

Part of what the tablets reveal is that the exiles followed Jeremiah's command to live prosperous lives.

"Build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce…multiply there and do not decrease. And seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare." -Jeremiah 29:5-7.

"So in 539, Cyrus the Great and the Persians conquered Babylon," Vukosavovic said. "Cyrus simply releases all the exiles. Many decide to stay, like Haggai and his family. They had established lives, they had rich lives, they had their families -- they had their schools."

"And only in 1950-1952, following the establishment of the State of Israel, the State of Iraq simply expelled thousands and thousands of Jews," he explained further. "So that is the full circle of the Jewish people that were exiled and returned after two-and-a-half thousand years."

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