Sanballat the Horonite (Hebrew: סַנְבַלַּט Sanḇallaṭ) – or Sanballat I – was a Samaritan leader, official of the Achaemenid Empire, and contemporary of the Israelite leader Nehemiah who lived in the mid-to-late 5th century BC. He and his family are mentioned in the contemporary Elephantine papyri and ostraca.
Etymology
In Hebrew the name is Sanḇallaṭ (Hebrew: סַנְבַלַּט). Eberhard Schrader, cited in Brown–Driver–Briggs, considered that the name in Akkadian was Sīn-uballiṭ (Akkadian: *𒌍𒋾𒆷, 30.TI.LA) from the name of the Sumerian moon god Sīn, meaning "Sīn gave life."
The name of the god Sīn in the context of Sanballat's name has since been mistakenly confused with the unrelated English noun sin in some popular English commentaries on the Book of Nehemiah. Other earlier commentators sometimes considered Sanballat a military rank rather than a name.
Biblical account
Book of Nehemiah
Sanballat is best known from the Book of Nehemiah, which casts him as one of the chief opponents of Nehemiah, who had been appointed governor of Judah, during the latter's efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and carry out religious reforms. In the Book of Nehemiah, he was called "the Horonite," Horon possibly identified with present-day Huwara,) He was associated with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian. His home was in the city of Samaria.
According to Nehemiah, when he and his escort arrived in Jerusalem, their return aroused the hostility of Sanballat and his allies. Nehemiah 2:19, it says, "When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard, they mocked us and held us in contempt and said, 'What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?'" Nehemiah resented their insinuation and told them they had no right in Jerusalem or interest in its affairs. Tobiah appeased him by saying that a fox (or a jackal) climbing on their wall would break it down. Nehemiah and his builders hurried the work while Sanballat and his associates organized their forces to fight against Jerusalem.
In Nehemiah 6, Sanballat and his confederates challenged Nehemiah and his army to meet them in the villages of the Ono four times. However, Nehemiah only replied that he was busy rebuilding. Sanballat sent another message, stating that Nehemiah was making alliances against Assyria and planning a rebellion. Nehemiah replied, "None of these things you mention has occurred; they are figments of your imagination."
According to Nehemiah 6:10, Sanballat and local allies in Jerusalem attempted to entrap Nehemiah in the Second Temple, but the scheme failed. Sanballat's allies kept Sanballat and Tobiah informed about the progress of the reconstruction of Jerusalem. With the hand of God upon Nehemiah, along with Nehemiah's far-sighted policy and cunning, he was kept out of the hands of these neighbor-foes.
According to Nehemiah 13"28, Nehemiah discovered that one of the grandsons of the current high priest, Eliashib, had married a daughter of Sanballat and was thus son-in-law of his chief enemy. Nehemiah also found out that Eliashib had leased the Temple's storerooms to Tobiah, depriving the Levites of their tithes. Eliashib was driven out of Jerusalem for defiling the priesthood.
Book of Zechariah
It has been speculated that the business dealings of Sanballat with the descendants of Joshua the High Priest, in particular with Jeshua's grandson, the high priest Eliashib, and with Jeshua's great-grandson who had betrothed his son to a daughter of Sanballat, may form part of the context for the "vision" of Joshua the High Priest in a heavenly tribunal between the angel of the Lord and a satan figure in Zechariah 3. This connection between priestly intermarriage with the Samaritans and Sanballat's family in Nehemiah 13:28 to the "dirty clothes" of Joshua in Zechariah 3 was first asserted by Rav Pappa (300–375) and in Christian circles by Jerome. It is also noted by medieval Jewish commentators David Kimhi, Rashi, and Moses ibn Ezra, though ibn Ezra, after considering the connection, rejects it.
Josephus
Josephus (Antiquities xi. 7, § 2.) places Sanballat later on in Persian history, during the reign of Darius III (336–331 BCE). He likely confused this Sanballat with one of his successors, possibly Sanballat II or Sanballat III. Josephus's story is probably a traditional account of the origin of the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim. Josephus records the marriage of Manasseh, grandson of Eliashib, to Sanballat's daughter in Nehemiah 13:28 as having taken place and causing the founding of the temple.
Elephantine papyri
In the Elephantine papyri and ostraca, CAP 30, Sanballat is said to have had two sons, Delaiah bar Sanballat and Shelemiah bar Sanballat. The Jews of Elephantine asked Sanballat's sons for help rebuilding the Temple at Elephantine, which had been damaged or destroyed by rioters.
Modern research
According to Yitzakh Magen (2007), Sanballat appears to have been the scion of a veteran Samaritan family of the Israelite remnant originating in Horon, perhaps to be identified with the village of Huwara at the foot of Mount Gerizim. In Magen's reconstruction, he was commander of a garrison force who rose to be appointed governor of Samaria, the first of the Israelites to achieve this rank, sometime before Nehemiah's return from exile, and arrival in Judea in 444 BCE. He thought a sacred site was necessary to unite Samaria and its populations. The Levite priesthood had migrated to Judea, and the priests of Baal were idolatrous. He chose from tradition Mount Gerizim, over whose site he chose a high priest from a noble family in Jerusalem, a grandson of Eliashib, to preside, and to whom he gave his daughter in marriage. He established a temple to Yahweh on Mount Gerizim, over which his own descendants, born into priestly blood, could minister. Josephus describes his construction of the Temple on Gerizim and says it was modeled on the Temple in Jerusalem. He also relates that many Israelites who married Samaritans moved to Samaria, causing much bewilderment in Jerusalem.
Modern use
In the first half of the 20th century, the radical nationalist poet and political activist Uri Zvi Greenberg – considered the spiritual mentor of Revisionist Zionism and of the present Israeli settlers on the West Bank – regularly used the term "The Sanballats" or "The Sanballat Gang" (כנופית הסנבלטים) as a catch-all term of abuse for antisemites and Palestinian nationalists as well as for political opponents from the Socialist Zionist camp.
See also
Notes
- Cowley, A. E. (14 September 2005). Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59752-363-9.
- Josephus says Sanballat's daughter was named Nikaso, married to a Jerusalem high priest, Manasseh, the brother of the high priest Jehoiada.
References
- Record of Christian Work Volume 15 -Alexander McConnell, William Revell Moody, Arthur Percy Fitt - 1896 p 157 "Verse 10. Sanballat means, overseer of tbe [sic?] army. Probably Nehemiah called upon him at Shechem (oh. lv. 2), on his vay to Jerusalem."
- Lipschitz, Oded; Knoppers, Gary N.; Albertz, Rainer (2007). Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. Penn State Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-57506-580-9. OCLC 1266229513.
- Nehemiah 2:19, Nehemiah 4:7.
- "Nehemiah 2:19". www.sefaria.org.
- Nehemiah 4:8.
- R. Papa: "Was it Joshua's habit to wear filthy garments? Rather, this teaches that his sons were marrying wives who were not permitted for priests and he did not censure them."
- R. P. Gordon Studies in the Targum to the Twelve Prophets 1994 "the comment, 'Some say that the filthy garments (refer to the fact that) one of his descendants was son-in-law to Sanballat."
- Collins, John J.; Harlow, Daniel C. (11 November 2010). "The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism". Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
- Yitzakh Magen, 'The Dating of the First Phase of the Samaritan Temple on Mt Gerizim in Light of Archaeological Evidence,' in Oded Lipschitz, Gary N. Knoppers, Rainer Albertz (eds.) Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, 2007 pp. 157–212, 191 n.41
- Yitzakh Magen, 'The Dating of the First Phase of the Samaritan Temple on Mt Gerizim in Light of Archaeological Evidence,' in Oded Lipschitz, Gary N. Knoppers, Rainer Albertz (eds.) Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, 2007, pp. 157–212, p. 188
- Yitzakh Magen, 'The Dating of the First Phase of the Samaritan Temple on Mt Gerizim in Light of Archaeological Evidence,' in Oded Lipschitz, Gary N. Knoppers, Rainer Albertz (eds.) Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, 2007, pp. 157–212, p. 188.
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 11.302–312, 322–325
- Jacobs, Joseph and Ira Price. "Sanballat." Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906.