Cover

Preface

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

LOUIS JONKER: Introduction Reflecting on Historiography and Identity Negotiation

Bibliography

ROBERT VOSLOO: The Writing of History as Remedy or Poison? Some Remarks on Paul Ricoeur’s Reflections on Memory, Identity and “The Historiographical Operation”

A. Introduction

B. The Vulnerability and Abuse of Memory

C. The Epistemology of Historical Knowledge

I. Historiography: remedy or poison?

II. The historiographical operation

1. The documentary phase

2. The phase of explanation/understanding

3. The representative phase

D. Towards a Responsible Historical Hermeneutic – Also for Church and Theological Historiography?

Bibliography

Exploring Texts and Intertexts

GARY KNOPPERS: Exile, Return, and Diaspora Expatriates and Repatriates in Late Biblical Literature

A. Introduction

B. Invasion and Dislocation as Facts of Life in the Southern Levant

C. Giving Them the Silent Treatment: The Exilic Gap in Biblical Historiography

D. Exile and Restoration in the Prophets

E. Diaspora-Homeland Relations in Ezra-Nehemiah

F. Conclusions

Bibliography

LOUIS JONKER: Engaging with Different Contexts A Survey of the Various Levels of Identity Negotiation in Chronicles

A. Introduction

B. Socio-Historical Contexts

I. The Persian imperial context

II. Regional provincial context

III. Inner-Yehudite context

IV. Cultic context

C. Different Levels of Identity Negotiation in Chronicles

I. Intra-group categorisation within the Jerusalem cult (1 Chronicles 23–27)

II. Intra-group categorisation within Yehud (1 Chronicles 21)

III. Intra-group and inter-group categorisation among the neighbours (2 Chronicles 21)

IV. Inter-group categorisation within the Persian empire (Solomon in Chronicles)

D. Conclusion

Bibliography

EHUD BEN ZVI: On Social Memory and Identity Formation in Late Persian Yehud A Historian’s Viewpoint with a Focus on Prophetic Literature, Chronicles and the Deuteronomistic Historical Collection

A. Preliminary Considerations

I. To begin with

II. Social group and social memory

III. Reconstructing ancient social memory and the processes involved in its production and reproduction: social memory and socialisation

B. Particular Observations

I. Introduction

II. Social memory and self-identity in late Yehud from a perspective of communal anxiety/security about its own existence and their interrelation with perceptions of risk

III. Intentional creation or systemic expression of social memory? Was a particular social memory intentionally created to create self-identity in Yehud?

IV. Social memory, past-constructing texts, historical “degrees of freedom”, temple and self-identity.

V. Identity and social memory: how, what or who should be remembered in late Persian Yehud – temporal, spatial and main narrative considerations

VI. Social memory, some Israelitising tendencies in construction of the Other, boundaries and self-understanding

VII. Remembering earlier and future polities and the question of the Central Empire

VIII. Multiple views, portrayals, fuzziness and social memory

Bibliography

JOHANN COOK: Contextuality in Wisdom Literature The Provenance of LXX Proverbs and Job as Case Studies

A. Introduction

I. The Septuagint as translational intertext

II. Textual basis

III. Translation technique

B. The Septuagint of Proverbs

I. The ideology of LXX Proverbs

1. Religious ideology

1.1 The הרז השּׁא as foreign wisdom

1.1.1 Proverbs 2

1.1.2 Proverbs 9

1.2 The law in LXX Proverbs

2. Political ideology

2.1 Kingship as royal ideology in LXX Proverbs

2.2 The antithetical stance of LXX Proverbs

II. Conclusion

C. The Septuagint of Job

I. The historical, social and literary context of the Old Greek of Job

II. Job 42 – The epilogue

D. Conclusions

Bibliography

Exploring Contexts

JOSEF WIESEHÖFER: Achaemenid Rule and Its Impact on Yehud

A. Introduction

B. The King as Law-Giver

C. Achaemenid Rule and Yehud

Bibliography

ODED LIPSCHITS: Persian-Period Judah A New Perspective

A. Introduction

B. What Do We Know About, and What Kind of Archaeological Material Do We Have From, the Persian Period in Judah?

C. The Problem of Chronological Borderlines Around and Within the Archaeology of the “Post-Exilic” Period

D. The Problems with Historical Reconstructions based on Archaeological Material from Persian-period Judah

E. New Finds from the Persian Period and the Marked Continuity from the “Exilic Period” to the “Post-Exilic Period” in the Archaeology of Judah

F. A New Chronological Tool for Studying the Persian Period: The Stamped Jar Handles

G. Summary A New Perspective on the Archaeology of Persian-period Judah

Bibliography

IZAK CORNELIUS: “A Tale of Two Cities” The Visual Symbol Systems of Yehud and Samaria and Identity / Self-understanding in Persian-period Palestine

A. General Introduction

B. Seals

I. General

II. The lion seals from Judah

III. Samaria: The imagery of the Wadi Daliyeh bullae

IV. Comparison

C. Coins

I. General

II. Yehud

III. Samaria

1. Athenian

2. Phoenician

3. Persian

IV. Comparison

D. Conclusions

Images

Bibliography

Exploring Readings

GERRIE SNYMAN: Why Asa was not Deemed Good Enough A Decolonial Reading of 2 Chronicles 14−16

A. Introduction

B. Coloniality of Being

C. Aspects of Persian Power and the Province of Yehud

I. Cyrus the king and the nature of his kingship

II. The reality in Yehud

D. The Story of Asa as Public Transcript

I. The Chronicler’s particular emphasis

II. Asa and the Cyrus Cylinder

E. Conclusion

Bibliography

MAKHOSAZANA NZIMANDE: Imbokodo Explorations of the Prevalence of Historical Memory and Identity Contestations in the Expulsion of the Nāšîm Nokriyyōt in Ezra 9–10

A. Introduction

B. Methodological Considerations

C. An Overview of the Historical Background of the Book of Ezra (and Nehemiah)

D. The Prevalence of Historical Memory and Identity Contestations in Ezra-Nehemiah

I. Correlations between historical memory in Ezra 9–10 and the historical plight of African women

II. The Exile as a divisive communal experience

III. Commonality of struggles for maintaining cultural identity/restitution

1. Ukuthwala cultural custom

2. The persistence of the cultural practice of polygamy

IV. Ethnicity and identity contestations and the persistent presence of empire in Ezra 9–10

1. Ethnicity and identity contestations

2. The nāšîm nokriyyōt and Persian imperial presence

3. Ethnicity and identity contestations, African women and empire

4. Purity and defilement: anthropological categories responsible for the expulsion of the nāšîm nokriyyōt in Ezra 9–10

E. Purity and Defilement in the South African Context: The Case of the Mixed Marriages Act

1. Introduction

2. The Immorality Act: a synopsis

F. Conclusion

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Source Index

Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

Septuagint texts

Apocrypha / Pseudepigrapha

Persian texts

Ancient Authors

Author Index

Subject Index

Forschungen zum Alten Testament