By Andrew L. Jaffee, netwmd.com 24 July 2007

Regardless of the “larger debate between scholars known as biblical ‘minimalists’ and ‘maximalists’,” this little clay tablet proves that the Babylonians knew about Jews and Israel in 595 B.C. Sorry to the historical revisionists: you cannot erase Jewish history. From Time Magazine:

… The tablet itself is certainly genuine. On July 10 the [British] Museum announced that a Viennese expert working his way through thousands of similar clay documents in its possession translated one dating from 595 B.C that described a gift of 1.7 lbs. of gold to a Babylonian temple by a “chief eunuch” named Nabu-sharrussu-ukin.

A museum official called it “a world-class find.” What makes the ancient but seemingly mundane receipt significant is that the book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) mentions the exact same official — though under a different transliteration, Nebo-Sarsekim, and a different title, chief officer, as accompanying the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar when he marched against Jerusalem in 587.

According to some experts, that proves that whoever wrote Jeremiah wasn’t making it up. …