Elephantine Papyri and Nehemiah

While most bible students are aware of Nehemiah and his struggles with the sons of Sanballat (governors of Samaria) during the restoration of Jerusalem's walls and temple, few are aware that during that time there was a group of Jews in Egypt at Elephantine that were wanting to build a temple of their own. 

There is actually a papyri that came to light in 1947 that confirms communication with Sanballat in effort to get approval for a temple at Elephantine.  The religious practices of these Egyptian Jews was far from orthodox yet it does confirm the history of Israel during this time.  These papyri found at Elephantine written in Aramaic date to about 400 B.C. much older than even the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It is interesting that 1947 was about the same time of the discovery of many of the Dead Scrolls and shortly after came the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948.