The document, known to scholars as The Passover Papyrus, is part of an amazing trove of papyri (texts written on a material made from papyrus reeds) and ostraca (texts written on broken pottery) from a remarkable Jewish colony in Elephantine, Egypt. Preserved by the dry climate of the region, the documents span about a century and provide an invaluable glimpse into relations between the center of Jewish life in the Land of Israel and the early Jewish diaspora.For PaleoJudaica posts on the Passover Papyrus, see here and links. For the Elephantine Papyri more generally, see here and links, plus here and here.
Fun fact: the word "Passover does not actually appear in the "Passover Papyrus." It is reconstructed in a damaged spot. I have no trouble with the reconstruction, but Idan Dershowitz has offered a different reconstruction that takes Passover out of the papyrus and reads it as mandating a leap year (intercalated month) that year.
Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
