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appointed his son Nafaina Troop Commander. The father autho-
rized, and the son executed, the destruction of the Jewish Temple
during Arsham’s absence on home leave with the king (EPEB19–20).
The destruction of the Temple opens a window on the activity of
two sets of provincial officials unattested elsewhere. A petition of an
unknown addressor urges the unknown addressee to have an investiga-
tion undertaken by “the judges, overseers (tiftaye), and hearers who are
appointed in the province of Tshetres” and verify the truth of their
version of events (EPEB17:8–10). The tiftayeappear last in a biblical
list of seven sets of officials, beginning with the satrap (Dan. 3:2–3),
while the “hearers” are better known in classical sources as the “king’s
ears,” that is, intelligence agents.^3 The judges, on the other hand,
are widely attested in the Elephantine documents, and several instances
have already been mentioned above. It is likely that the provincial
judges and the royal judges were the same, all appointed by the king
or his deputy, the satrap. Like the other officials, they, too, functioned
as a group. A suit against Mahseiah’s ownership of a piece of land was
brought before “Damidata and his colleagues the judges” (EPEB24:6).
In a formulaic waiver-of-suit clause, the judge sometimes appears
alongside “lord” and regularly alongside sîgan(TADB2.3:13; 3.1:13,
19, 3.12:28; 4.6:14). The latter title, rendered “prefect,” appears fre-
quently in contemporary Judah, following “nobles” (Neh. 2:16, 4:8,
13, 5:7, 7:5); it follows “governors” in other biblical accounts ( Jer.
51:23, 28, 57; Ezek. 23:6, 12, 23) but follows “satrap” and precedes
“governors” in the above-cited list from Daniel (3:2–3) and is not
found elsewhere in the Elephantine documents.2.2.3 On the local level were two organizations, perhaps intertwined
and overlapping, a military and a civilian one. The former was the
Troop, headed by the Troop Commander, and it was divided into
“detachments,” headed by a person with a Babylonian or Persian name.
There was a “Jewish Troop” and a “Syenian Troop.” The latter term
designates a group primarily of non-Jews that receives rations (TAD
C3.14, esp. line 32). The former appears twice, as the addressee along
with Jedaniah son of Gemariah, of the Passover Letter (EPE B13)(^3) Porten, Archives from Elephantine, 50–51. For the meaning of tiftaye, see Muraoka
and Porten, Grammar.. ., 373, and the reference there to discussion in W. Hinz. This
interpretation, rather than “police,” is the one preferred by Iranologist Shaul Shaked.
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