Pot of Jewish Gold
A golden treasure has been found in Jerusalem including 36 gold coins, gold and silver jewelry and a giant gold medallion depicting a seven branch menorah (candelabra), a shofar (ram’s horn) and a Torah scroll. Archaeologist Eilat Mazar dates the treasure to the 7th century CE. She figures that the two bundles of treasure that she discovered were abandoned in 614 CE during the Persian conquest of Jerusalem.
Mazar is a wonderful archaeologist and she keeps coming up with incredible finds. But can it be that this time her conclusions are conditioned by a stereotypical view of the Jewish past? According to her reenactment, the owners of the treasure were fleeing from advancing Persians. But the Jews were not always victims. The Persian monarch Khasrau II put a Jew, Nehemiah ben Hushiel, at the head of his army. The latter recruited 20,000 Jewish troops. They were then joined by the wealthy leader Benjamin of Tiberias and a military force of Tiberian Jews. The combined Jewish-Persian forces successfully captured Jerusalem in 614 CE, the exact date that Mazar points to. In other words, the Jews were not fleeing the Persians, they were leading them. This same Nehemiah was appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. He was a messianic figure who began the work of rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. He even appointed a council to sort out genealogies in order to establish a new High Priesthood.
The Christian population of the city, however, fearful that the reestablishment of a Jewish Temple would challenge the supremacy of the Church, rioted. A mob captured Nehemiah and his “council of the righteous”, murdered them and, after dragging their bodies through the streets of Jerusalem, dumped them over the city walls. Later, Nehemiah’s followers staged a bloody retaliation.
In other words, the treasure probably dates to this tragic moment in Jewish history when plans for the rebuilding of the Temple were suddenly aborted. Mazar speculates that the treasure was meant for the building of a synagogue. Unlikely. The treasure was found a mere 50 meters from the Temple Mount’s southern walls. This kind of treasure and this kind of symbolism are more likely connected to Nehemiah’s plans to rebuild the Holy Temple. You don’t build synagogues on the Temple Mount – you rebuild the Temple.
It’s ironic that this long forgotten episode should resurface now during a historic moment when Persia (modern Iran) is building nuclear weapons in an attempt to drive the Jews out of Jerusalem militarily and, in Washington DC, America is pressuring Israel through diplomatic means to divide its capital with the Palestinians. At precisely this moment it seems that Nehemiah ben Hushiel is once again having his say. His golden medallion, etched with Temple symbolism, is discovered as if to remind us of the Jewish people’s yearning that the third Temple will yet be rebuilt.
Click here to see my recent article “Nadal’s Jewish ancestry revisited” on The Times of Israel
