Fic­tion

Baby­lon: A Nov­el of Jew­ish Captivity

Michelle Cameron
September 1, 2023

Sarah, ripped from her family’s Jerusalem farm when Nebuchadnezzar’s army takes the Judean peo­ple cap­tive, longs for noth­ing more than to return home. With the Tem­ple destroyed, the Judean peo­ple are tak­en cap­tive and marched across unfor­giv­ing desert sands to Baby­lon. Sarah rais­es two gen­er­a­tions of her fam­i­ly there, watch­ing help­less­ly as the empire’s wealth and idol wor­ship seduce her chil­dren away from their beliefs.

Mean­while, palace intrigues, betray­als, and even regi­cide rock the foun­da­tions of the Baby­lon­ian king­dom. Through it all, the Hebrews try to pre­serve their reli­gion by com­pil­ing bib­li­cal sto­ries and replac­ing Tem­ple sac­ri­fice with prayer and char­i­ty. Sarah and her fam­i­ly only sur­vive being uproot­ed from their home­land by rein­forc­ing their faith and under­stand­ing of God’s covenant.

jerusalem
dias­po­ra
jbc net­work

Discussion Questions

Cour­tesy of Michelle Cameron

  1. The pain of exile from your home­land – a severe type of home­sick­ness – can be quite acute. Have you ever felt some­thing akin to that pain? How did you han­dle it?
  2. The exiles in Baby­lon were tempt­ed to assim­i­late: to wor­ship Baby­lon­ian gods, eat food that wasn’t kosher, and for­get their own faith. How do such temp­ta­tions man­i­fest them­selves in your every­day life?
  3. One way the Judeans kept their faith alive was by record­ing the sto­ries that lat­er were includ­ed into the Bible. Uri was par­tic­u­lar­ly fas­ci­nat­ed by the ori­gin of the uni­verse. Which of the sto­ries that he tran­scribed spoke to you? Which did you wish had been included?
  4. Amit­tai was giv­en Sarah’s fam­i­ly farm as Keren’s dowry, yet he knew the farm was acquired by less than hon­or­able means. Do you think he should have accept­ed it? Why or why not?
  5. When Cyrus the Great con­quered Baby­lon, he allowed the Judeans to return home. Many, who had cre­at­ed com­fort­able lives for them­selves in Baby­lon, opt­ed to remain. If the choice were up to you, what would you choose – and why?
  6. Jerusalem is a dis­ap­point­ment to the return­ing Judeans – cer­tain­ly dif­fer­ent from what they’d dreamt of dur­ing the exile. Have you ever trav­eled or moved to a place that didn’t live up to your expec­ta­tions? How did you han­dle it?
  7. When Neb­uchad­nez­zar exiled the Jews to Baby­lon, he didn’t include the low­er class­es – am ha’aretz. They stepped in to take over aban­doned farms, stores, etc., and owned and worked them for two gen­er­a­tions. Do you think it was right for the Judeans who returned to reclaim these prop­er­ties? Why or why not?
  8. Cha­va is labeled a ​“loose woman” and is shunned by Jerusalem soci­ety after her mis­ad­ven­ture with Uziel. Do you think she deserved such treatment?
  9. Ancient soci­eties allowed a man to take more than one wife. We’ve since out­lawed this as bigamy. How did hav­ing more than one wife affect the fam­i­ly dynam­ic? What inequities arose as a result?
  10. Ezra is giv­en exten­sive pow­ers by the Per­sian king and uses them to dic­tate sweep­ing changes in Jerusalem, even ​“chang­ing the record” to reflect his own per­cep­tion of his­to­ry. How do you feel about how he han­dled him­self in the novel?
  11. Ezra’s direc­tive – to exile the non-Jew­ish wives and chil­dren – tore at the hearts of those who had accept­ed them into their fam­i­lies. If you were in Uri’s shoes, what would you have done?
  12. The Hebrews – both Israelites and Judeans – had inter­mar­ried for the entire­ty of their his­to­ry. Think of Moses and Zip­po­rah, or Boaz and Ruth. It is pos­si­ble that Ezra’s deci­sion to exile the non-Jew­ish wives and chil­dren end­ed up mean­ing that the Jew­ish peo­ple, unlike many oth­er ancient peo­ples, did not per­ish into obliv­ion. This being the case, does it change your mind about the cru­el­ty of this act? Why or why not?
Related Reading