Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet is a clay

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

inscription referring to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon. It may also refer to an official named in the Biblical Book of Jeremiah. It is currently in the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Dated to circa 595 BC, the tablet was part of an archive from a large sun-worship

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

at Sippar.

Description

The tablet is a clay cuneiform inscription (2.13 inches; 5.5 cm) with the following translation:

egarding1.5 minas (~850 grams / 27 troy oz) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to he temple Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered tto Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, nd ofNadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 fNebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Discovery

Archaeologists unearthed the tablet in the ancient city of

Sippar Sippar ( Sumerian: , Zimbir) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its '' tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell Abu Habbah near Yusufiyah in Iraq's Baghdad Governorate, som ...

(about a mile from modern

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

) in the 1870s. The

acquired it in 1920, but it had remained in storage unpublished until Michael Jursa (associate professor at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

) discovered its relevance to biblical history. He noted that both the name and the title (''rab ša-rēši'') of the official closely matched the Hebrew text of Jeremiah 39:3. Additionally, the tablet is dated just eight years before the events in Jeremiah. According to Jursa, the rarity of the Babylonian name, the high rank of the ''rab ša-rēši'' and the close proximity in time make it almost certain that the person mentioned on the tablet is identical with the biblical figure.Jursa, M., "Nabû-šarrūssu-ukīn, ''rab ša-rēši'', und ,,Nebusarsekim“ (Jer 39:3)" ''Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires'' 2008-1 pp. 9-10
link

Bible comparisons

According to

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewi ...

( 39:3 in the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

or 46:3 in the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

), an individual by this same name visited

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

during the Babylonian conquest of it. The verse begins by stating that ''all'' the Babylonian officials sat authoritatively in the Middle Gate, then names several of them, and concludes by adding that all the other officials were there as well. Over the years,

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

translators have divided the named individuals in different ways (as seen in the table below), rendering anywhere from two to eight names.

Josephus

In Book 10 (chapter VIII, paragraph 2; or line 135) of his '' Antiquities of the Jews'',

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

records the Babylonian officials as:

William Whiston William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to inst ...

's translation follows the KJV/ASV rendition, albeit reversing two of them: : Nergal Sharezer, Samgar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sarsechim, and Rabmag The literal translation by Christopher T. Begg and Paul Spilsbury is: : Regalsar, Aremant, Semegar, Nabosaris, and Acarampsaris

References

External links