Precious little of the Exile is given in Scripture. We know of it chiefly through secular history of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires, along with some Jewish traditional stories. Our focus will rest upon the two Prophets of Exile, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Ezekiel -- Ezekiel was removed in 597 BC, in the deportation of the noble classes with King Jehoiachin. He was a member of the Zadokite Priests, and is clearly familiar with the Temple and Jerusalem. We can safely estimate his age at departure as 25 years. He dates all his work from the date of the exile of King Jehoiachin. Thus, in the fifth year of that, he is called a prophet at age 30. His work is so very dramatic and unusual he has been accused of varying forms of mental illness. While that may well have been the case, he was clearly used of God.
We saw where Jeremiah made a strong case for seeing Jehovah as the God of all Creation, not just the national God of the Nation of Israel. Ezekiel furthers that case. A major theme behind all his writing is pressing the case for seeing the Lord as truly the One and Only God of all mankind. He was Lord over the Babylonians regardless of their recognition or lack of it. Human plans had no hold on God, who would indeed see His people return to their home land. Meanwhile, there was plenty to condemn in the nations who dared lay hands on God's people. That the Lord cared for His People laid the ground for the lessons they must learn in captivity: they cannot disobey Him with impunity.
We know that Ezekiel had his own house on the canal known as Chebar. This places him in a region somewhat north of the Babylonian Imperial capital. Unlike the Assyrians, who virtually forced their subjects to intermarry and lose their national identities, Babylon was content to let subject nations live in their own areas near the seat of power and maintain their own habits of life and cultures. Those of Judah who took Jeremiah's advice to settle in for the long haul did rather well. They engaged in commerce, established synagogues to continue the teaching the Law, and lived a rather normal life. Indeed, most of them became too comfortable, and made no attempt to return the Jerusalem when the chance was offered later. Instead, they became the eastern anchor of Jewish scholarship, building up the influential Babylonian School.
Additionally, this was the period where we believe the bar-Mitzvah arose. With the sure knowledge their exile was a result in part of not knowing the Law, it became the requirement of every male to learn to read, and memorize a significant portion of the Pentateuch, as a rite of passage toward manhood and responsible citizenship. There arose a dominant middle-class view of life. Being faithful meant settling in and making oneself better off. In time, it was more about rising from peasantry and becoming respectable. Exiled Jewish men were "men" only if they could make a decent living, and obeyed the Law in detail.
While the details of all this are somewhat fuzzy, some sort of picture of daily life can be drawn with what we do know. It's hard for us today to picture the strong divisions in society based on birth into privilege. While they were permitted a modicum of self-government under Babylon, it was nothing like living under the Davidic Monarchy. In the old days, there was a fairly clear distinction between wealthy nobles and princes on one hand, and the priests and Levites on the other. While the latter might indeed rise to wealth and prestige, their power was limited to what they could leverage via the nobles and the Royal Court. In exile, this division appeared to fade. By the time of Christ, almost the entirety of the noble class seemed restricted to the priesthood, followed by the Levites in a slightly lower ranking. To rule in Jesus' day was to be active in Jewish religion. Thus, during the Exile it seems the whole of self-government, such as it was, passed into the hands of the religious leaders. Some writings from or about that time indicate the priests rightly took over government of the Nation, seeing the nobles and princes had gotten them into trouble in the first place. This is lent some credence by observing how quickly the nobles of Judah, especially those based in Kiriath-jearim, turned to pagan practices when permitted.
Meanwhile, the peasants hardly rate notice. We see them seldom mentioned except in the abstract, with a few bit parts here and there in the main narrative of the Old Testament. We have a rather poor picture of their situation specifically in Israel and Judah, but a rather better picture for their class in that part of the world in general. It did not appear for Jews that they served in feudal misery, but remained rather free. Many did indeed depend on great land-holding nobles, but had their own homes and somewhat protected by custom and by the Law. Many simply performed day-labor, as is seen by stories of hiring workers for the harvest. A primary difference between the classes was food supply. While everyone had access to grains and produce outside of droughts, and it seems most had some limited access to dairy, it's doubtful eating meat was quite so democratic. Those born to wealth and power would naturally have access to superior nutrition. Noblemen and royalty were generally taller and heavier than peasants for this reason alone.
Along with that better nutrition came better education, simply because they had leisure to pursue it. While the peasants were born to labor early in life, the upper classes worked only as training. More often, they supervised peasants on behalf of the householder. They also had access to weapons training, not to mention an array of privately owned weapons. At times in Jewish history, everyman might have a small sword. Even after iron was available, swords were seldom as much as 18 inches (46cm) long. A peasant might have a sling for stones, perhaps a spear, but seldom all at once. Upper classes had plenty of weapons, along with armor and access to horses. They had plenty of time to learn the use of all these, and the better skilled often served as full-time soldiers and commanders. Beyond this, all could read, perhaps many could write, most knew geography, history, law, foreign languages, architecture and so forth.
There was also a class of skilled workmen and artisans, whose abilities were too precious to waste on agriculture. These formed a relatively slender middle-class. They clustered in cities and towns for the obvious reason of the job market. Everyone else was just a peasant, one of "the people of the land." In the minds of the time, that whole classes of folks were bigger, tougher and smarter was assumed to be a matter of one's blood -- that is, a superiority of birth. Thus, big folks were presumed noble, and presumed smarter and more useful by virtue of birth. Aside from any moral evil they chose, they were thought of as simply "better."
We mentioned previously how wise monarchs retained a personal bodyguard of foreign-born men. Their loyalty would be to the person of the ruler, or at least his household, and would generally avoid the politics of the nation. They were not easy targets for political intrigue by ambitious claimants to the throne born locally. As royal courts grew in size and complexity, this same rule applied to the numerous royal servants. At the imperial level, rulers hardly knew half the people in their court, and might expect all manner of political maneuvering. Having servants born elsewhere, subjects of the empire mostly, would serve to prevent full-scale uprisings within the palace, since everyone spied on everyone else. Bitter rivalries might be annoying, but were reassuring in terms of the ruler's personal safety. Fostering this internal competition was considered wise. No surprise, then, that Nebuchadnezzar chose some Jewish noble teenagers to serve in his court.
Daniel -- Daniel was carried off to Babylon in the first deportation when King Jehoikim was humbled by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC. We can't be certain of his age, but it seems he would be no more than 16. This would make him a couple of years younger than Ezekiel. Note at this point the name Israel again is applied to all Jews, and during the exile displaces the term Judah. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar followed previous policy in selecting court servants from the "Children of Israel" but left the task to the chief eunuch. While we cannot be certain whether the term "eunuch" is meant literally, it would not be out of the question Daniel and his friends were castrated as part of their induction into the imperial court.
It would seem from the boys available, only these four were chosen for court service after the final cut was made in Babylon. We can only imagine what sort of testing they went through to meet Babylonian requirements. Upon selection for the training, the fellows were given Babylonian names. Daniel, "God's Prince" became Belteshazzar, "Bel's Prince" -- a reference to a chief pagan god in Babylon. Hananiah, "Mercy of God" becomes Shadrach, "Voice of Aku," a pagan mood-god. Mishael, "Who is like God?" is given Meshach, "Who is like Aku?" while Azariah, "Whom Jehovah helps" is changed to Abed-nego, "Servant of Nebo," yet another pagan deity. Aside from the meanings of the names, they were a different language.
Language was among the many subjects these boys would learn in their new jobs. Three years for what is outlined is harder than any college education done today in four. Consider the boys probably knew some Aramaic already, the language of commerce and diplomacy. Babylonian scholars would surely have to learn it better, plus the ceremonial language of Akkadian (Abraham's native tongue), plus a few others. This was to enable learning the whole of Babylonian literature, which is now known to be quite extensive. It covered astronomy (the basis for the old Babylonian astrology), mathematics, Chaldean law, economics, and even some pagan magical junk.
There's nothing in the text to indicate the royal table was inherently bad food. The entire imperial court consumed the same stuff produced by the imperial kitchen, and most of it was quite delectable. However, it was surely including meat forbidden by Moses. Whether any of it was produced under pagan ritual was a moot point by now, since the boys would perforce be immersed in pagan ritual from now on. Much like the life of Joseph in Egypt, which required a great deal of pagan ritual, we can assume the Lord looked past that in favor of a plan of greater importance. We are left with Daniel and his friends simply doing what little is possible to show devotion to Jehovah. They were sure the Lord would see it turn out alright.
As we know, it did indeed, as they became prominent figures in the rather short-lived revival of the Babylonian Empire. Daniel served honorably until at least age 75, when the Medes and Persians marched in as the new rulers. They did this by stopping the canals flowing under the city walls, then marching in via the muddy conduits under the city walls 539 BC. The new regime simply adopted the bureaucracy of the Babylonian courts at first, until there was time to reorganize things. Thus, a couple of years later, Daniel is one of three ministers to whom all the Medo-Persian satraps (regional rulers in the empire) must report. They surely knew of his prophecy of their victory over Babylon, and regarded him a worthy servant, since he had a lifetime acquainted with the details of Babylonian government over her territories.
Daniel's prophecies are the earliest example of apocalypse, meaning dark and hidden things revealed. Obviously there's plenty of his work which cannot be taken literally, as he clearly meant it symbolically. While it's clear he prophesied to two imperial courts, he remained a prophet to his fellow Hebrews. His visions concern things far beyond his own time, but the point was to reinforce the doctrine Jehovah was God Almighty, the one real and universal deity. He was Lord of all events in Babylon, and all that happened in Medo-Persia. He would continue to be Lord over all the nations and empires to follow. At some point far distant to come, He would assert His rule over all mankind via a very different King. Inherent in his message was the idea one owed loyalty to Jehovah first, then simple compliance with whatever human government ruled.
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Ed Hurst
11 June 2005
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