O
Illustrated portrait to come
Osnappar
A person of the Babylonian exile and the return, first named at Ezra 4:10.
What we know — and how we know it
Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 1
Archaeology — physical evidence · 1
Life, role & deeds
Bible'The great and noble Osnappar', remembered in Ezra as the emperor who deported conquered peoples and resettled them in the cities of Samaria — the origin the text gives for the later Samaritans.
Ezra 4:10
↳
Samaria
Name & titles
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) — CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
ArchaeologyOsnappar is generally identified with Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria (668–627 BC), whose vast library unearthed at Nineveh is one of the richest finds in all of archaeology — making this shadowy biblical name one of the best-documented rulers of the ancient world.
Identified with Ashurbanipal (Aššur-bani-apli, r. 668–627 BC); the Kuyunjik tablets of the Library of Nineveh excavated by A. H. Layard and Hormuzd Rassam (1850s), now in the British Museum. Cf. Ezra 4:10 ('Osnappar').