Approaching Yehud

Approaching Yehud
Author: Jon L. Berquist
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 1589831454

The long-held view that the Persian period in Israel (known as Yehud) was a historically derivative era that engendered little theological or literary innovation has been replaced in recent decades by an appreciation for the importance of the Persian period for understanding Israel's literature, religion, and sense of identity. A new image of Yehud is emerging that has shifted the focus from viewing the postexilic period as a staging ground for early Judaism or Christianity to dealing with Yehud on its own terms, as a Persian colony with a diverse population. Taken together, the thirteen chapters in this volume represent a range of studies that touch on a variety of textual and historical problems to advance the conversation about the significance of the Persian period and especially its formative influence on biblical literature. --From publisher's description.

Biblical History and Israel S Past

Biblical History and Israel S Past
Author: Megan Bishop Moore
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 537
Release: 2011-05-17
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 0802862608

Although scholars have for centuries primarily been interested in using the study of ancient Israel to explain, illuminate, and clarify the biblical story, Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle describe how scholars today seek more and more to tell the story of the past on its own terms, drawing from both biblical and extrabiblical sources to illuminate ancient Israel and its neighbors without privileging the biblical perspective. Biblical History and Israel s Past provides a comprehensive survey of how study of the Old Testament and the history of Israel has changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Moore and Kelle discuss significant trends in scholarship, trace the development of ideas since the 1970s, and summarize major scholars, viewpoints, issues, and developments.

The Persuasive Portrayal of David and Solomon in Chronicles

The Persuasive Portrayal of David and Solomon in Chronicles
Author: Suk-Il Ahn
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2018-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532604939

This study examines the speeches and prayers in the David-Solomon narrative in Chronicles and seeks to demonstrate that the Chronicler's portrayal of David and Solomon attempts to establish the Yehudite community's identity. Is the covenantal relationship still valid in the Persian period? The author asserts that as a commitment to YHWH involving the worship of YHWH through the Jerusalem temple, the covenantal relationship between YHWH and Israel continues even into the Persian period. This study employs Kennedy's rhetorical method with the new categories of the narrative situation and the Chronicler's situation being used to further delineate his concept of the narrative situation. The Chronicler's portrayal of David and Solomon through speeches and prayers serves to persuade his audience of the significance of the Jerusalem temple, reformulating the Yehudite community identity as a cultic community in the Persian period.

Constructing and Deconstructing Power in Psalms 107-150

Constructing and Deconstructing Power in Psalms 107-150
Author: W. Dennis Tucker Jr.
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1589839749

Essential research on the relationship between the Persian empire and the the formation of the book of Psalms In this latest entry in the Ancient Israel and Its Literature series, W. Dennis Tucker, Jr. examines the role of Persian imperial ideology in the creation of psalms in Book 5 of the Psalter and in the shaping of the book of Psalms as a whole. Although much research has been conducted on the relationship between the Persian empire and the creation of biblical texts, the book of Psalms has been largely absent from this discussion. Tucker seeks to rectify this omission by illustrating that Book 5 constructed a subtle anti-imperial ideology in response to the threats imposed from all empires both past and present. Features: Close study of the psalms portrayal of human power to that of Yahweh Comparison of Achaemenid propaganda to the ideology found in the psalms Evidence drawn from Persian iconography and inscriptions

The "Other" in Second Temple Judaism

The
Author: Daniel C. Harlow
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 543
Release: 2011-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802866255

Based on a conference held Apr. 4-5, 2008 at Amherst College.

Violence, Otherness and Identity in Isaiah 63:1-6

Violence, Otherness and Identity in Isaiah 63:1-6
Author: Dominic S. Irudayaraj
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2017-04-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 056767147X

Violence disturbs. And violent depictions, when encountered in the biblical texts, are all the more disconcerting. Isaiah 63:1-6 is an illustrative instance. The prophetic text presents the "Arriving One" in gory details ('trampling down people'; 'pouring out their lifeblood' v.6). Further, the introductory note that the Arriving One is “coming from Edom” (cf. v.1) may suggest Israel's unrelenting animosity towards Edom. These two themes: the "gory depiction" and "coming from Edom" are addressed in this book. Irudayaraj uses a social identity reading to show how Edom is consistently pictured as Israel's proximate and yet 'other'-ed entity. Approaching Edom as such thus helps situate the animosity within a larger prophetic vision of identity construction in the postexilic Third Isaian context. By adopting an iconographic reading of Isaiah 63:1-6, Irudayaraj shows how the prophetic portrayal of the 'Arriving One' in descriptions where it is clear that the 'Arriving One' is a marginalised identity correlates with the experiences of the "stooped" exiles (cf 51:14). He also demonstrates that the text leaves behind emphatic affirmations ('mighty' and 'splendidly robed' cf. v.1; “alone” cf. v.3), by which the relegated voice of the divine reasserts itself. It is in this divine reassertion that the hope of the Isaian community's reclamation of its own identity rests.

Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations

Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations
Author: Angelika Berlejung
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 695
Release: 2021-04-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3161600347

The articles in this volume of collected essays, written over the last two decades and all revised, updated, and supplemented with unpublished material, are grouped around two themes: Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations. The first essays deal with the production, initiation, use and function, the abduction, repatriation, and the replacement of divine images, their outer appearance, and the many facets of the divine presence theology in Ancient Mesopotamia. The essays on the second topic deal with human imaginations, human constructs, and constructed memories, which assign meaning to the past or to things or experiences that are beyond human control. Thematically, several aspects of the human condition are examined, such as the ideas associated in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East with death, corporeality, enemies, disasters, utopias, and passionate love.

Judah and Samaria in Postmonarchic Times

Judah and Samaria in Postmonarchic Times
Author: Gary N. Knoppers
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3161568044

"In eleven historical, literary, and theological essays, Gary N. Knoppers elucidates the shifting character of Judean-Samarian relations in Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman times. Engaging history, law, and narrative, these essays are vital to understanding early Jewish and Samaritan religion and scriptural interpretation."--Back cover.

Shaping Israelite Identity through Prayers in the Book of Chronicles

Shaping Israelite Identity through Prayers in the Book of Chronicles
Author: Kiyoung Kim
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2021-11-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666706914

What is the post-exilic Israelites’ destiny? What should they have hoped for? How could they actualize their desired community? This book discusses the identity of the post-exilic Israelite community by focusing on the unique rhetorical impetus in the book of Chronicles. Chronicles suggests a picture of the desired future Israel. Yet, the Chronicler does not call for a new identity, creation ex nihilo, from the community but calls for the restoration of the Israelites’ past identity by reporting the history of Israel and Judah. The restoration of their past identity can be actualized when members of the community fulfill portrayed roles and characteristics in Chronicles: worshiping, monotheistic believing, and praying, and Davidic citizenship. Further, recorded prayer plays a crucial role as Chronicles persuades its readers to render or exhibit those roles and characteristics. Prayer invites the community members to participate so that they transform past prayers into their own prayers. By doing so, the prayer participants perceive portrayed roles and characteristics and change their attitude. By rendering and exhibiting desired roles and characteristics, they eventually hope for and actualize a better community, the liturgical community.