event · E0364
Nebo-Sarsekim Tablet לוח נבו-שרסכים
An ordinary Babylonian temple receipt (British Museum, BM 114789): "Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the rab ša-rēši," donates about 750 grams of gold to the Esagila temple at Babylon, dated year 10 of Nevuchadnetzar — 595 BCE. The same name and title — Nevo Sarsechim the rav-saris — sits among Nevuchadnetzar's officers at the breached walls of Jerusalem in Yirmiyahu 39:3. Excavated at Sippar in the 1870s (Rassam's expeditions) and acquired by the museum in 1920, the tablet lay unremarked until Michael Jursa of the University of Vienna spotted the biblical match in July 2007.
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I. Who
- Hebrew
- לוח נבו-שרסכים
- Also known as
- Nabu-sharrussu-ukin Tablet
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3329 AM — two years after galut Yechonyah on the traditional count, a decade before the churban
- Civil (computed)
- 3329 AM · 432 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- 595 BCE
- Date range
- 595 BCE (year 10 of Nevuchadnetzar), a temple receipt from Sippar
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Bavel
IV. What
- Events
- Destruction of the First Temple
Why it matters
Yirmiyahu 39 reads like reportage: the wall breached, and the Babylonian high command sitting in the middle gate — a list of hard foreign names, among them "Nevo Sarsechim, rav-saris." Twenty-five centuries later, an Assyriologist reading routine receipts in the British Museum's Sippar collection found a courtier making a gold donation to a Babylonian temple: Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, chief ša-rēši officer — the same name, the same rank, dated 595 BCE, nine years before that officer would sit in Jerusalem's middle gate. A middle manager, a routine document, a perfect match. This is corroboration of the kind no forger and no legend-builder would ever trouble to invent — the eyewitness precision of Yirmiyahu's churban narrative, validated down to the payroll.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The tablet, BM 114789, is a receipt from the Ebabbar archive of Sippar (excavated in Hormuzd Rassam's expeditions of the 1870s; registered by the British Museum in 1920): Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, "the rab ša-rēši" (chief court officer), donates 1.5 minas — about 750 grams — of gold to the Esagila, Marduk's temple at Babylon, in year 10 of Nevuchadnetzar, 595 BCE. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| Yirmiyahu 39:3 seats Nevuchadnetzar's officers in Jerusalem's middle gate after the breach — among them נבו שרסכים רב־סריס, Nevo Sarsechim the rav-saris. Name (Nabu-sharrussu-ukin ≈ Nevo-Sarsechim), title (rab ša-rēši ≈ rav-saris), and period (595 BCE receipt; 586 BCE breach) all match: the officer of the receipt is, on the accepted identification, the officer of the verse. Michael Jursa (University of Vienna) made the match in July 2007.
The identification is widely accepted; the division of the verse's run of names and titles (which syllables belong to which officer) was long debated, and the tablet is itself the strongest evidence for the now-standard parsing.
|
biblical archaeology external | ★★★★☆ | |
| The AM placement (c. 3329) lays the receipt's date onto the traditional count two years after galut Yechonyah (3327 AM) — the officer banking gold in Babylon while Yirmiyahu (Yirmiyahu) in Jerusalem counted down the last decade to the churban (Destruction of the First Temple).
Schematic placement for the atlas timeline.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |
Referenced by: Yirmiyahu