Wednesday Bible Study: The End

This is the last chapter of the Book of Kings, and the conclusion of the Deuteronomic History. It describes the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple. As far as historical accuracy, the only important quibble would be the number of captives taken to Babylon. Most likely it was not in the thousands, but more like the dozens. In essence, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to remove the literate priests and scribes -- what we might call he intelligentsia in a modern context -- and any military leaders or aristocrats who could challenge Babylonian rule. This chapter describes the massacre of some of them, but apparently ole Neb thought that some of them could be of value as captives. So the so-called Babylonian captivity was not at all like the (fictitious) Egyptian captivity -- most of the population remained, but under foreign rule.Looking ahead, just so you don ' t have to wonder because the Tanakh won ' t get around to the next part of the story for quite a while, Cyrus the Great of Persia will conquer Babylon. His philsophy of empire was different from Neb ' s. He freed the captives and sent them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Judean state, as a tributary to Persia, rather than trying to rule directly. Yes, that ' s historically accurate. They built the Second Temple, and restored the monarchy and the Levite priesthood. Unfortunately, we ' re going to have to slog through the Book of Chronicles before we get there. 5 1 And in the ninth year of his rei...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs