, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Greeks, whose property
In some cases joined their own. The Jews had their own court which ranked
equally with the Persian and Egyptian law courts. Even native Egyptians,
who had cases against the Jews, appeared before it. The names of Arameans
and Arabs also appear in its lists of witnesses. From these contemporary
documents it is clear that the Jews of upper Egypt enjoyed great
privileges and entered freely into the life of the land. Ordinarily they
married members of their own race; but the marriage of a Jewess with a
foreigner is also reported. He appears, however, to have been a proselyte
to Judaism, Another Jewess married an Egyptian and took oath by the
Egyptian goddess Sati, suggesting that she had nominally at least adopted
the religion of her husband. One Hebrew also bears the suggestive name of
Hosea, the son of Petikhnum (an Egyptian name meaning _Gift of the god
Khnum_).

VIII. The Temple of Yahu at Elephantine. These Aramaic legal documents
also contain many references to Yahu (the older form of Yahweh or
Jehovah), the god worshipped by the Jews, and to Yahu's temple situated on
King's Street, one of the main thoroughfares of the city. These references
have been signally confirmed by a most remarkable letter recently
discovered by the Germans at this site. It was written in November of the
year 408 B.C., by the members of the Jewish colony at Elephantine to
Bagohi (the Bagoas of Josephus), the Persian governor of Judah. It states,
among other things, that "Already in the days of the kings of Egypt our
fathers had built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine. And when
Cambyses (529-522 B.C.) entered Egypt he found this temple built, and,
though the temple of the gods of Egypt were all at that time overthrown,
no one injured anything in this temple." It further states that recently
(in the year 411 B.C.), in the absence of the Persian governor in Egypt,
the foreigners in Elephantine had stirred up a certain minor official to
instruct his son, who was commander of a neighboring fortress, to destroy
the Jewish temple.

The Aramaic letter was intended to be sent, together with rich gifts, to
influence the powerful Persian governor of Judah, Bagohi, to issue an
order permitting the Jews to rebuild their temple. From this letter we
learn that the temple of the God Yahu was built of hewn stone with pillars
of stone in front, probably similar to those in the Egyptian temples, and