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Israel Museum Exhibit Reveals Wife and Mother from Bar Kochba Period

An exhibit of documents owned by the redoubtable Babata, a Jewish wife and mother of the second century A.D., and discovered in 1961 in a cave near the Dead Sea by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, will be on display through August at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Babata was among a group of Jews who fled from the oasis of Ein Gedi on the shore of the Dead Sea during the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132 A.D.–135 A.D.). The uprising is also known as the Bar Kochba revolt after its famous leader. When she fled, Babata took with her all of her important family documents. The Romans eventually found the refugees in the cave and murdered them. But Babata’s archive, each document carefully wrapped, tied, and then placed in a leather purse, survived.

The documents include deeds, one of Babata’s marriage contracts, agreements, court documents, affidavits and receipts. Twice—(and perhaps thrice)—married, brilliant (by her own account), wealthy and litigious, Babata is revealed in these documents with an intimacy and detail that easily allows us to appreciate her as a contemporary rather than as a woman who lived by the Dead Sea nearly two thousand years ago.

Babata’s archive consists of 35 documents in Aramaic, Greek and Nabataean (the first document in Nabataean ever found). Babata lived both in the village of Mahoza in the district of the Biblical city of Zoar (Lot found refuge in Zoar when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed), but also in Ein Gedi. Zoar was under semi-autonomous Nabataean rule during much of the period Babata lived there, while Ein Gedi was controlled by Jews subject, of course, to Roman overlordship. Babata owned property in both Zoar and Ein Gedi.

Babata had a son by her first husband. Both father and son were named Yeshua (the Aramaic equivalent of Jesus). After the death of her husband, the son is referred to as the orphan Yeshua. Because at that time Babata lived in Zoar, the Nabataean Senate at Petra appointed two guardians, one a Jew and one a Nabataean, for her son. Babata was unhappy with the way the guardians, or at least one of them, were handling the orphan’s funds and providing him with maintenance. Accordingly, she brought a suit to have the guardians removed. Babata suggested a new arrangement whereby the money held in trust for her son would be turned over to her, against security. She offered to guarantee 18% interest per annum as opposed to the 6% being paid by the guardians. This document is dated the equivalent of October 12, 125 A.D.

Apparently her suit was unsuccessful because her archive also included a receipt for three months of maintenance funds for her son, dated August 19, 132 A.D. just as the Bar Kochba revolt was beginning. The receipt is given, however, to a different guardian, “Shimeon (or Simon) the hunchback.” Perhaps a compromise was reached in her suit against the previous guardians by the appointment of a new, more acceptable guardian for her son.

The receipt for maintenance funds is written in both Aramaic and Greek. The Aramaic text is inserted into the middle of the Greek text, lines 1–10 being the Greek text, followed by the Aramaic text (lines 11–14), then followed by the balance of the Greek text (lines 15–19).

A complete translation of the receipt appears printed below. This is the first translation of a complete document from the Babata archive in English. The Aramaic text was translated by BAR Advisory Board member Jonas Greenfield. The Greek text was translated by S. Applebaum.

The Aramaic text reads as follows:

[I] Babata daughter of Shimeon have received (!) [from] Shimeon so[n of Yo]hana son of Yeho[sef] (of Joseph), [guardian] of Yeshua, my son, for clothing and for fo[od] for Yeshua my son, the sum of [six] denarii from the first of Tammuz until the thirtieth of Elul, year twenty-seven [which are] three whole months [?]. Babeli son of Menahem has written it …

The longer Greek text reads as follows:

In the consulships of Gaius Ser[r]ius Augurinos and Publius Trebius Sergianus, on the 14th day before the kalends of September in the twenty-seventh year of the era of the new province of Arabia, on the first day of the month of Gorpiaeus, at Mahozah in the village area of Zoar, Babata daughter of Simon, accompanied by her guardian Babeli son of Menahem, both of the aforesaid Mahozah, to Simon the hunchback, son of Iohannes Eglas, greetings. In view of your appointment by the city-council of Petraea as second guardian of my orphan son Yeshua, I have received from you, on account, for the sustenance and clothing of the same orphan, my son Yeshua, six silver denarii (for the period) from the first day of the month of Panemos of the same 27th year till the thirtieth of Gorpiaeus, three complete months. (The Aramaic text is inserted here.) I, Hermenias Babata daughter of Simon, have received from Simon the hunchback, for his sustenance and clothing, six denarii (for the period) from the 1st of the month of Panemos till the 30th of Gorpiaeus of the 27th year, these being three complete months, by agency of her (sic) guardian Babeli son of Menahem. I, Germanus, son of Judah, have written this.

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Dig-for-a-Day in Jerusalem

“Dig-for-a-Day” is a new day-tour opportunity in Israel for people who would like to dig at an archaeological site but who cannot spend several weeks at an excavation. The coordinator of the program, Jerusalem resident Bernie Alpert, was inspired to start “Dig-for-a-Day” after he had heard about BAR’s dig last summer at the Gate of the Essenes on Mt. Zion. More tourists, Alpert thought, should have the opportunity to experience Biblical archaeology in the field.

The thrice-weekly tour meets at 7:30 a.m. at Jerusalem’s Zion Gate. From then until 10:30 a.m., the group digs with Hebrew University archaeologist Shlomo Margalit at the first-centure B.C. Essene Gate, after which a tour guide leads a walk through the Old City. After a bring-your-own lunch break, the group goes to the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies, where Jim Fleming, BAR’s Jerusalem correspondent, Hebrew University faculty member, and leader of the BAR six-week Israel Seminar, gives two lectures: the first on the history of Mt. Zion, and the second on archaeological methods and dating.

“Dig-for-a-Day” may be booked in advance through Egged Tours in Jerusalem or people may join the tour at Zion Gate at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. The cost of the program is $17.00; special rates are available for groups.

Israel Museum Exhibit Reveals Wife and Mother from Bar Kochba Period