Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet

[Regarding] 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila.

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Encyclopedia

Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet is a clay cuneiform

Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of writing system. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictography....
 inscription referring to an official at the court of Nebuchadrezzar II

Nebuchadrezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar II, also called King Nebuchadnezzar The Second , was a ruler of Babylon in the Chaldean Dynasty, who reigned c. 605 BC-562 BC....
, king of Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
. It may also refer to an official named in the Biblical Book of Jeremiah

Book of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah , is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism's Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianity's Old Testament....
.

It is currently in the collection of the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
 dated to circa 595 BC, The tablet was part of an archive from a large sun-worship

Solar deity

A Solar Deity , is a deity who represents the sun, or an aspect of it. People have worshiped these for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the "missing sun" found in many cultures ....
 temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ??templum?? constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur....
 at Sippar.

Description

The tablet is a clay cuneiform

Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of writing system. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictography....
 inscription (2.13 inches; 5.5 cm) with the following translation:

[Regarding] 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Discovery

Archaeologists unearthed the tablet in the ancient city of Sippar

Sippar

Sippar , was an ancient Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates, some 60 km north of Babylon....
 (about a mile from modern Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
) in the 1870s. The museum acquired it in 1920, but it had remained in storage unpublished until Michael Jursa (associate professor at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. Having opened in 1365, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe....
) made the discovery in 2007

Bible comparisons

According to Jeremiah

Book of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah , is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism's Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianity's Old Testament....
 (39:3 in the Masoretic Text

Masoretic Text

The Masoretic Text is the Hebrew language text of the Jewish Bible . It defines not just the Development of the Jewish Bible canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their niqqud and cantillation for both public reading and private study....
; 46:3 in the Septuagint

Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
), an individual by this same name visited Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 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 (implying that the named ones were the most well known).

Over the years, Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 translators have divided the named individuals in different ways (as seen in the table below), rendering anywhere from two to eight names. This cuneiform tablet may prompt more consistent revisions (i.e., alternate hyphenation or deletion of commas) in future versions.

Josephus

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

Antiquities of the Jews

Antiquities of the Jews was a work published by the important Jewish historian Josephus about the year 93 or 94. Antiquities of the Jews is a Jewish history, written in Greek language for Josephus' gentile patrons....
, Josephus

Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
 records the Babylonian officials as:

William Whiston

William Whiston

William Whiston , was as England theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism....
'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

See also

• Biblical archaeology
  Biblical archaeology
  
  For the movement associated with William F. Albright and known as Biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of Biblical archaeology in relation to Biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
  
• Cylinder of Nabonidus
  Cylinder of Nabonidus
  
  The Nabonidus Cylinder from Sippar is a long text in which king Nabonidus of Babylonia describes how he repaired three temples: the sanctuary of the moon god Sin in Harran, the sanctuary of the warrior goddess Anunitu in Sippar, and the temple of Shamash in Sippar....
  
• List of artifacts significant to the Bible
  List of artifacts significant to the Bible
  
  The following is a list of Artifact , objects created or modified by a human culture, that are significant to the historicity of the Bible....
  

External links

• Initial press releases:

• Josephus translations:

• Professional commentaries: