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The Hebrew version of Ezra describes the envoys sent to a town called Casiphia. The Greek translations misunderstood the name, based on the word for silver, as the common word itself, changing it to “with the silver of the place.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ezra 8:17
Hebrew Bible
16 So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were teachers. 17 I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and his relatives, who were the temple servants in Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God. 18 Due to the fact that the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a skilled man, from the descendants of Mahli the son of Levi son of Israel. This man was Sherebiah, who was accompanied by his sons and brothers, 18 men;
LXX Ezra 8:17
Septuagint
17 And I brought them out to the ruler with the silver of the place, and I put in their mouths words to speak to their brothers, of the Athaneim, with silver of the place, so that they would bring for us singers for the house of our God. 18 And there came to us, since the good hand of our God was upon us, a man of discretion from the sons of Mahli, son of Levi, son of Israel, and at the beginning his sons and his brothers came, eighteen in all, 19 and Hashabiah and Jeshaiah from the sons of Merari, with his twenty brothers and their sons,
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Notes and References
... Casiphia, kāsiphyā', is an Aramaic toponym derived from the word keseph, 'silver'. Since Iddo is called the ro'š hammāqôm, 'head of the place', and the Hebrew word māqôm can also refer to a 'sanctuary' (e.g. in Nehemiah 1:9), it has been assumed that in Casiphia would have stood a sanctuary for the exiles in analogy with the temple of Yahô in Elephantine (Blenkinsopp; Jobsen). The existence of such a sanctuary is certainly not impossible, but as long as there is no written or archaeological evidence, the proposal remains speculative. While the location of Casiphia is uncertain, an identification with Kassappa/i is considered impossible by some because the place would be too far north from Babylon (Fried). An identification with the city of Ctesiphon at the Tigris (pondered by Fensham; Becker) meets the objection that this city was only founded around 120 BCE by the Parthians. ...
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