Babylon 587 539 BC The Winners View

A brief note on the historical background to this poem follows it. For those who wish to know more, there is a good book on the subject.

Judah's new exiles, rather odd
and as we know they've but one god,
like Israel's northern Kingdom.
A god of war and storms I hear
and not much else but threats and fear
and various commandments.
They Gilgameshed themselves a flood,
had lots of wars with lots of blood,
a bane to all good pagans.
In Egypt made a plaguey fuss
until they made their Exodus
to inoffensive Canaan.

I as a Zoroastrian priest
must teach and keep them all abreast
of our philosophy.
We are the worlds great Empire,
with Aramaic tongue sublime,
we'll teach the Good religion to Jew or Philistine.
They'll learn of Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda) the good
and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu) the black and bad.
Divine Duality.
Encourage fellows here and there
Ezra and young Nehemiah,
prophets by our example.
Add justice, love and trust and pity
to make Israel a better Deity,
a monotheistic's guy.
For their improved invocations
they brought their God we'll send them Satan.
Post mortem fate they'll try.

When chosen Israel goes once more
they'll carry with them all our lore,
Ineffable wisdom.
Tho' their small tribe will likely falter
and our great Empire live forever,
our noble King requires.
That men may say at any rate
we Maji'd them a better state,
till they are quite forgotten.
Then in shade of cedar Lebanon
relicts will think and say anon,
"I remember Babylon".

In 587 BC the Assyrian King Nebuchadrezzor conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and slaughtered the city's and the temple's elite. The remaining officials and skilled people of any standing were exiled to Nippur and Babylon to join their fellow Jews from Northern Israel who had been similarly banished in 722BC. Among those exiled was a man or small group, totally unknown, but possibly the greatest hero of Judeo/Christian/Islamic culture. This man forgot to return books to the Temple Library.

More precisely these Jews took into exile various unconnected writings, including old poems, songs & psalms, bits and pieces of law, a tradition of commandments, the book of Deuteronomy and the two ancient narratives E and J which had been written before 722 BC. It was not yet the Bible as we know it but the undoubted foundation stones of our religions and culture. During the Exile and immediately after, under Ezra, Nehemiah and their successors, the major part of the Jewish Bible was compiled within a century.

The Jews as the losers in the conflict and at the nadir of their history broke the rules. It was they, the losers who wrote the history of this tumult, not the winners. The great Assyrian and Persian Empires, their 'world language' and their culture were absorbed or faded away. Jews and Judaism survived and grew because their books and writing survived. Without those books Yeshua bar Joseph might have lived the humble life of a Galilean carpenter, Mohammed ibn Abdallah would not have had those Jews at Yathrib to bounce his ideas off and we might be just a tad different today.

In this poem I have taken a few liberties with the facts but if history is the propaganda of the winners that's allowed. The story of the flood was post exile (to the Jews) and Persian influence was post 439BC. I have ignored other gods such as the great Mother Goddess (Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte/Asherah/Isis) who was still a great influence throughout the Fertile Crescent.

The poem won't redress the record for the Babylonians but at least I made the attempt. In any event next time your library books are late you this might give you an idea for a good excuse.

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