tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33250511385567300762024-02-21T14:14:46.459+02:00Biblical AuthorshipBiblical studies, biblical archaeology, biblical criticism, biblical authorship, biblical history.Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-64713670711418926972012-11-18T21:31:00.000+02:002012-11-18T21:34:36.910+02:00Research Reveals Ancient Struggle over Holy Land Supremacy<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Matthias Schulz
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<strong style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Jews had significant competition in antiquity when it came to worshipping Yahweh. Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem that predates its better known cousin. It belonged to the Samaritans, and may have been edited out of the Bible once the rivalry had been decided.</span></strong><br />
<strong style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-research-shows-that-jerusalem-may-not-be-the-first-temple-a-827144.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More</span></i></a></strong>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-59009383380136528342012-08-08T12:35:00.002+03:002012-08-08T14:00:26.502+03:00Samaritan Letter to Artaxerxes the King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBpffvRnJhIWSoEVhJFtCHzEK1p72LHN0wo4A5nUXRXqE148DlKcV5IW-ZCQpbFQJKQ35odSBDXxt_PIInwWzY0UoBwKD8cGjTJ8ZRLIwAa0boPQfqwI3dFvJPLcGLxxL1fbUkb8nsN07/s1600/Neh_Rebuilding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBpffvRnJhIWSoEVhJFtCHzEK1p72LHN0wo4A5nUXRXqE148DlKcV5IW-ZCQpbFQJKQ35odSBDXxt_PIInwWzY0UoBwKD8cGjTJ8ZRLIwAa0boPQfqwI3dFvJPLcGLxxL1fbUkb8nsN07/s320/Neh_Rebuilding.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">According to the fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra Zerubbabel, the leader of the Jews, has refused the Samaritan’s help in rebuilding the </span><st1:city style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;" w:st="on">Temple</st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> in </span><st1:place style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;" w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">. Offended, the Samaritans began to interfere with the Jews in rebuilding the temple and seduce the king's officials to stop construction of the temple. Later, they wrote a letter to the Persian king Artaxerxes with denunciation of the Jews. In it Samaritans warned the king that if rebuilding of the temple and the city of </span><st1:city style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> would complete the Jews will raise revolt and stop paying tribute. In support of his words the senders of the letter asked the king of search in the royal archives of old documents from which it can verify the rebellious nature of the Jews. After receiving and reading the letter King Artaxerxes has raised the old documents and saw that message senders were right. In response Artaxerxes ordered a prohibition rebuild </span><st1:city style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> and its temple. As a result the construction of the temple has been stopped all the reign of Artaxerxes until the next reign of Darius king of </span><st1:country -region="-region" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">. This storyline draws us to the fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Problem places of this story<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Textual problems<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this chapter the letter to Artaxerxes the King contains as many as four different versions of who wrote it and under which circumstances. Two versions have been written in Hebrew, and two in Aramaic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The first version:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">In the reign of Ahasuerus, in his accession year, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Judah</st1:country> and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: HE;"> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(Ezra 4:6)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The second version:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to King Artaxerxes of <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country>; the letter was written in Aramaic / translated in Aramaic. (Ezra 4:7)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The third version:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Rehum the royal deputy and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> to King Artaxerxes as follows. (Ezra 4:8)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fourth version:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Then Rehum the royal deputy, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, the judges, the envoys, the officials, the Persians, the people of Erech, the Babylonians, the people of Susa, that is, the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River wrote- and now this is a copy of the letter that they sent (Ezra 4:9-11)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the first version the senders of the letter are the same people who have bribed the royal officials to stop rebuilding of the temple in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. An addressee is not Artaxerxes, but Ahasuerus. This is a name of the king in the Book of Esther.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the second version an addressee is Artaxerxes the King, and the senders are unknown Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and their associates. In the same version there is mentioned that the letter was written in Aramaic and in the same time translated into Aramaic (?).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The third version is written in Aramaic. Its senders are another people: Rehum the royal deputy and Shimshai the scribe. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fourth version is also written in Aramaic. The senders are Rehum and Shimshai also, but this version is more advanced than the last. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After four versions of who wrote a letter to Artaxerxes there is our letter, written in Aramaic.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Substantial problems<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">According to the storyline of the Book of Ezra the letter to Artaxerxes has stopped the construction of the temple in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> until the reign of next King Darius. But in the letter to the king, as in his response, there is no single word concerning <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. The main theme of the correspondence is rebuilding the <i>city</i>. So this story misses the context of rebuilding the <i>temple</i>. Obviously, some editor of the book has understood this moment, and he inserted in correspondence the mention of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. But these insertions occurred only in the redaction, which became the basis for 1 Esdras. We can compare the passages of both books.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">And now may it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city; they are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Ezra 4:12)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Let it now be known to our lord the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem and are building that rebellious and wicked city, repairing its market places and walls <b>and laying the foundations for a temple</b>. (1 Esdras 2:18 NRSV)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this passage, except lexical differences, improvement of foundation of the walls replaced for the reconstruction of the temple. Another example:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Now because we share the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king's dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king, so that a search may be made in the annals of your ancestors. (Ezra 4:14-15)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Since the building of the temple is now going on</span></i></b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">, we think it best not to neglect such a matter, but to speak to our lord the king, in order that, if it seems good to you, search may be made in the records of your ancestors. (2 Esdras 2:20-21 NRSV)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this slightly shorter version of the letter it has been added the mention of temple building. Text in 1 Esdras has been harmonized with the overall context.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chronological problems<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In a previous story of Zerubbabel refusing assistance from the Samaritans is told that the Samaritans have obstructed rebuilding the temple all the reign of King Cyrus until the reign of King Darius. After this story we would hope that the next story will take place at the time of King Darius, who (according to the representations of biblical authors) reigned immediately after Cyrus. But the story suddenly jumps to the times of the Persian king Artaxerxes. Even if we assume that King Artaxerxes in the fourth chapter of Ezra book is Artaxerxes I, even this first Artaxerxes began to reign 73 years after. Then, the storyline of Artaxerxes' correspondence jumps to the time of King Darius. Which one? If he is Darius I Hystaspes, then he ruled before Artaxerxes I. If he is Darius II Oh, then he began to reign in 423 BCE, after 42 years. In this case, Zerubbabel would have died long ago and he would have not take part in the reconstruction of the temple.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Therefore, we must admit that after correspondence of Artaxerxes the book's storyline has returned back into the past, to the time of Darius I. This fact tells us that the story of correspondence of Artaxerxes in general storyline of Ezra book is excessive and interrupted the previous narrative. Perhaps, this story was an independent and over some time existed outside of the Book of Ezra. It has been inserted in the Book of Ezra in the later stage of book's development. If we remove the story (all Aramaic letter and four introductions), the storyline from the times of Cyrus the Great passed to the times of Darius I. However, the Persian kings Cambyses II and Haumata reigned between them, but biblical writers probably just do not know this reigns order, as they wrote several centuries after. They believed that Kind Darius I ruled after Cyrus, therefore, they formed the Book of Ezra accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Four different versions of the letter senders can also be explained if the story of correspondence with Artaxerxes existed separately in many copies during a period of time. And there were different variants of letter's senders in the various exemplars. In the composing of Ezra book the biblical redactors (not daring to choose from different variants) successively added all four variants of letter's senders. The same is true of statement why a letter has been written in Aramaic. In some exemplars of the story it was claimed that the letter to Artaxerxes was written in Aramaic, in other exemplars it was claimed that the letter were translated into Aramaic. Bible redactors decided to keep both variants and wrote both: "A letter was written in Aramaic / translated in Aramaic."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Context of Artaxerxes correspondence<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Why, then, the story of correspondence with Artaxerxes is now in the book of Ezra? If (according to storyline of the book) the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city></st1:place> has been restored at the times of Darius I (in 516 BCE), what rebuilding did Artaxerxes stop 60 years over?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Here we must remember that the main theme of the correspondence is a rebuilding of the city, not the temple. Letter from Artaxerxes is associated with rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. In Artaxerxes response there are these words:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.7pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE;">Therefore issue an order that these people be made to cease, and that this city not be rebuilt, <b>until I make a decree.</b></span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Ezra 4:21)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This mention of the future order, in which King Artaxerxes would allow the construction of the city, gave reason to many biblical scholars to suggest that this is the same Artaxerxes, during whose reign Ezra and Nehemiah have returned. This is the same king Artaxerxes who, according to the Book of Nehemiah, allowed the latter rebuild the walls of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In analyzing the correspondence with Artaxerxes one must also answer the question whether these letters are genuine correspondence between the Samaritans and the Persian king. If these letters are authentic, then we would expect that the text in various biblical sources would be identical or would differ only by some copyists' errors. However, the comparison of the text in the Book of Ezra with text in 1 Esdras reveals significant differences, characteristic of a literary work, not of a document. In addition, the Aramaic language, in which this letters have been written, is a Middle Aramaic and much later than the Imperial Aramaic, official language of <st1:place w:st="on">Persian Empire</st1:place>. Obviously, the letters have been written when the <st1:place w:st="on">Persian Empire</st1:place> no longer existed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: RU;">American biblical scholar Jacob Wright suggested that the story of correspondence with Artaxerxes is a prehistory of Nehemiah book. The biblical author, who created this story, was familiar with the Book of Nehemiah. In this book, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in 20<sup>th</sup> year of Artaxerxes reign. Perhaps, unknown author want to explain why the building of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> walls took place so late. Perhaps, the author had some other reason or desire. We do not know. We can only conclude that the story of correspondence with Artaxerxes is a literary prehistory of Nehemiah book that has been included in the Book of Ezra in a very late stage of development and has been placed very awry, tearing the previous storyline and creating a significant chronological issue.</span>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-25849126250231624652012-07-30T14:05:00.001+03:002012-07-30T20:27:53.554+03:00The Qumran Excavations 1993-2004. Preliminary report. Summary<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Jerusalem 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaOSj0dYQWkuhw3fUEEuJMN4aF8dWJTeswj6kjNxdG8guiydUn0xmpV8LzbI9CgRfSWQtAhT5wad_j6mzBSEk6mH2r1CjembCOxObvuwq6u3POtr-PBMuIsRuCaeRiTqYqlcDzxbuAgPq8/s1600/qumran-archaeology-site.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaOSj0dYQWkuhw3fUEEuJMN4aF8dWJTeswj6kjNxdG8guiydUn0xmpV8LzbI9CgRfSWQtAhT5wad_j6mzBSEk6mH2r1CjembCOxObvuwq6u3POtr-PBMuIsRuCaeRiTqYqlcDzxbuAgPq8/s320/qumran-archaeology-site.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Much has been written about <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, and endless theories have been proposed, some of which have attained the status of fact upon which archaeological research has built over the past fifty years. Here, we </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">wish to clearly distinguish between various hypotheses </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">concerning the site and the archaeological evidence </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">that we have exposed in our excavations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">The first settlement at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> was established in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">the Iron Age. When the site was again inhabited in <span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the Hasmonean period it was built in exactly the same </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">place. This fact itself, together with an analysis of </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">the topography and of the water regime of the area, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">provide clear evidence that this was the optimal—and </span>perhaps the only—location on the upper plateau of <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">the marl terraces next to the fault scarp in which a settlement would not be swept away by floods and </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">would be able to collect flowing water and potters' </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">clay. The claim that the location was chosen because </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">of its isolation, for the purpose of establishing a first </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">Jewish monastery or a community center for the </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Judean</span></st1:placename><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> sect, is groundless.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">Two important secondary roads from <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">met at Qumran, one descended along the riverbed of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Nahal Og and continued south along the fault scarp, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">and the other descended from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hyrcania</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:place>. </span><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">Qumran</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> was thus not isolated at all, although it </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">certainly was not located on a major crossroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">The reestablishment of <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> early in the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">Hasmonean period (the early first century BCE), </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">at the beginning of Alexander Janneus' reign, is a </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">solid archaeological fact supported by both pottery </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">and coins. The building's plan, construction method, numerous pools and the huge effort expended on all, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">indicate that Qumran was an official state building </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">project, with surprising similarities to two other sites </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">on the <st1:place w:st="on">Dead Sea</st1:place> shore: the docks of Rujm el-Bahr <span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">and Kh. Mezin. Qumran was part of the Hasmonean </span>military presence along the <st1:placename w:st="on">Jordan</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Valley</st1:placename> and the <st1:place w:st="on"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Dead Sea</span></st1:place><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">. The volume and quality of construction is </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">not consistent with a private building project of the </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Judean</span></st1:placename><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> sect, nor with a rural villa or agricultural </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">settlement. Qumran was a forward command post </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">for the <st1:place w:st="on">Dead Sea</st1:place> fortifications and docks, with the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">task of supervising coastal traffic and of maintaining </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">communication with the main headquarters at </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">Hyrcania.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">The archaeological evidence refutes both theories </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">that have been proposed concerning the initial purpose </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">of the main building: a monastery or community </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">center established as early as the Hasmonean period, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">or a rural villa or agricultural settlement. Except for </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">date palms near the Dead Sea shore, no crops can </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">be grown in <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>; a rural villa or agricultural </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">settlement would have been built near the sweet water </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">springs and reeds next to the shore, as in Ein Feshkha, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">and not on the marl terrace. There was no connection between Qumran and Ein Feshkha, and neither was </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">inhabited by members of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Judean</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></st1:place> sect.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">The plan, the architecture and the building technique </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">of the main building at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> are distinctly </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Hellenistic. After the Roman conquest, the site was </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">no longer used for military purposes and the building </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">deteriorated. There is no evidence that any significant </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">changes were made in the building in the days of <span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Herod or later. The only tangible improvement made </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">after the Roman conquest was the expansion of the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">water supply system, which brought about a dramatic change in the methods used for collecting water and a </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">great increase in the capacity of the pools. But the new </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">pools were built at the expense of the site's residential </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">area, so that it is highly unlikely that the increase in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">the water supply was accompanied by an increase </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">in population. During the first century CE, the site suffered from considerable neglect and was turned </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">into a pottery production center, again contrary to the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">hypothesis that it was then inhabited by a growing </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">number of sect members (eventually to reach 250 </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">residents).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">Another theory, that gained general acceptance </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">among scholars and contributed in establishing the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">belief that <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> was a religious site—a community center or monastery,—was that the stepped pools were </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">ritual baths. According to this position, these pools were required by the hundreds of sect members, for </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">whom ritual bathing was an important element of their </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">faith. Upon reexamination, the hypothesis that every </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">one of the pools was a ritual bath has been shown </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">to be an unfortunate error, bereft of any scientific or halakhic validity. According to Jewish law, most of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the pools were unfit for use as ritual baths because the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">water in them would have been considered "drawn </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">water." The entire site contained perhaps two ritual </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">baths, and even this is not certain. The purpose of the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">pools was to collect rainwater and potters' clay for the pottery industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Still another hypothesis that has been shown to be </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">groundless is that animals were sacrificed at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">In fact, all the animal bones that have been analyzed </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">were cooked and not burned as offerings. The theory </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">that sect members ate communal meals and that this </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">was connected to the burial of animal bones inside the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">site also lacks any factual basis. Animal bones were </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">buried in order to prevent attracting hungry animals, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">especially predators, from the surrounding desert.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">For some reason, again without scientific basis, the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">cemetery and its field graves were taken by scholars to represent a unique burial method used only by the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Judean</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></st1:place> sect. Indeed, this burial method was </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">typical of the <st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> period in general, and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, was the only practicable one. The area chosen for a cemetery, east of the site, was protected from flooding and optimally suitable for its purpose. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">The cemetery may already have been in use in the Iron Age, and at the beginning of the Hasmonean </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">period it was probably used for orderly mass burials, perhaps following a battle that had taken place in the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.4pt;">vicinity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">One more baseless hypothesis concerns the number </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">of sect members who lived at the site. This number ran, depending on the calculations of each scholar, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">from 200 to <st1:metricconverter productid="250. In" w:st="on">250. In</st1:metricconverter> fact, at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> there is room </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">for 20 to 30 people, at most. Certainly no evidence </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">has been found, like ovens and cooking utensils, to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">indicate that 250 people had been fed twice a day for 170 years. Nor is there any evidence that members of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">the sect lived in caves on the fault scarp (together with </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">the predators whose lairs the caves were) or in tents </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">near the scarp (which would have been washed away </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">in floods). Why should they have gone to such lengths </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">when the plateau on which the site is located could </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">easily accommodate 250 people?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">Of all the theories concerning the site, one is </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.4pt;">supported by incontrovertible evidence: the flourishing, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">decades-long pottery industry. Some scholars—but not </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">de Vaux—have explained the evidence by postulating </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">a pottery workshop, perhaps a kind of occupational </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">therapy to mitigate the boredom of life in the first </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">Jewish monastery. Others have claimed that members </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">of the sect produced their own pottery because of their </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">strict observance of the laws of ritual cleanliness.<sup> </sup>Needless to say, both claims are entirely groundless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Qumran</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> possessed a large, highly developed and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">sophisticated pottery production center. Already </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">in the Hasmonean period, the site's inhabitants had </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">discovered the potential value of the potters' clay that entered the site with the channeled flow of rainwater. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">De Vaux believes that pottery production at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">began in Stratum la. The great number of intact </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">vessels and their distribution, the extensive use of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">intact vessels for the disposal of animal bones, and the tremendous amount of production waste on the site all </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">indicate the existence of a pottery production center, whose raw material came in with the rainwater. The </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">three tons of clay found in the pools we excavated, <span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">in particular Pool L-71, provide positive evidence </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">for this. We estimate the total amount of clay in the </span><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Qumran</span></st1:place><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;"> pools to have been in the region of six to </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">seven tons, sufficient for producing tens of thousands </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">of clay vessels, with enough raw material left over </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">that it could be exported to other areas. It is quite </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">possible that, in addition to this extensive industry, the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">inhabitants of the site also utilized the dates growing </span>on the <st1:place w:st="on">Dead Sea</st1:place> shore to produce date honey, or <span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">packed dried dates in clay vessels of the kind that </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">has been mistakenly called "scroll jars." In any case, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">the main activity at the site was the production of </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">pottery, a fact that we find is hardly consistent with the identification of Qumran as a communal center </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Judean</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></st1:place> sect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">We are fully aware that it may not be easy for readers </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">to accept our conclusions. Certainly it has not been </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">easy for us to express them aloud, let alone put them </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">in writing. But after ten years of excavations, these </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">conclusions are inescapable. From the outset, we </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">have chosen not to become involved with the issue <span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">of the scrolls and the Essenes, but only to analyze the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">archaeological finds from the perspective of the field </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">archaeologist. However, since reaching the conclusion </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">that Qumran was a pottery production center and not </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">a communal center or monastery—as most scholars </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.4pt;">believe—we feel that it is only fair to ask ourselves how </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the scrolls came to be in the caves, and whether there was any connection between the scrolls and the site.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">Such a connection was assumed before excavations began. Furthermore, the site was in fact excavated for </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">the express purpose of discovering an explanation for the scrolls, which had begun to be found in the caves </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">north of <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>. But no association between the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">site and the scrolls was ever proven, even in the wake of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">de Vaux's lengthy excavations. Surprisingly, however, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">belief in such a link became so firmly entrenched that </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">it became a supposedly proven fact. The association between <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, the caves and the scrolls is thus a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">although it is very convenient for all parties concerned, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">historians as well as archaeologists. Whoever severs </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the link between the site, the Essene community there, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">and the scrolls found in the caves, of necessity also </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">undermines all previous ideas about the nature and <span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">the provenance of the scrolls. <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> scholarship </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">is not yet ready for such a revolution, even after 50 </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">years. The theory linking site and scrolls has survived </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">for so long only because it is so convenient.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">We now turn to a completely different issue, one that </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">has unfortunately been disregarded almost entirely <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">by Second Temple-period scholarship: the flight of people from Judea and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Benjamin</st1:placename></st1:place> during </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">the Great Revolt in an attempt to escape the Roman army. Despite our knowledge of the siege of <st1:place w:st="on">Masada</st1:place> and of the areas where the Bar Kokhba Revolt broke </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">out, thus far no one has asked how Jews came to be in </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">places where no Jews had resided before.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">In any war, individuals or groups may decide to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">escape with their lives, the lives of their families and their property. Taking with them their most prized </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">portable possessions—money, documents, books, and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">so on—they flee to a remote place where they hope </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the enemy will not reach them. The prophet Jeremiah, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">writing after the destruction of the First Temple, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">reported that Jews fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">also to what would in the Hellenistic period be known </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">as Idumea (namely the Hebron Hills and the northern </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.5pt;">part of the Negev desert; Jer. 40:11—12).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">Following the campaigns of Cestius Gallus<sup> </sup></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">and Vespasian, Jewish villages and towns were </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">abandoned. Amass exodus took place, some escaping </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>, others to southern Judea—Idumea, the </span><st1:placename w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">Judean</span></st1:placename><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype>, the Shephelah and the southern shores </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">of the <st1:place w:st="on">Dead Sea</st1:place>. The latter were all uninhabited or </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">only sparsely settled and featured a great number of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">accessible caves where thousands of refugees could <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">have found shelter. These remaining survivors of the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Great Revolt later became the nucleus around which the Bar Kokhba Revolt developed, and the survivors </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">of that second revolt then founded the settlements and synagogues in the southern Hebron Hills, at En Gedi </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">and in the Shephelah. Had scrolls survived in these </span>areas, their quantity would surely have exceeded <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">tenfold the number of scrolls found in the Qumran </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">caves and at <st1:place w:st="on">Masada</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">As already mentioned, <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> was located at the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">terminus of two roads. One road descended to Qumran </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">from the fault scarp north of Nahal Qumran along an </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">accessible route that had probably been constructed </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">in the First Temple period and then renovated during the Hasmonean period. It connected with many roads </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">and paths from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and from the numerous </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Jewish settlements that surrounded it on the north, <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">east and south. From the <st1:placename w:st="on">Kidron</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype> one would </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">walk toward the <st1:placename w:st="on">Hyrcania</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype> and from there descend to <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>. The second road was the "Salt </span>and Sugar" road, descending to <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> from the <span style="letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">north along the bottom of the fault scarp. The many </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">caves along the way enabled the fleeing populace to </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">hide during the day and continue walking at night. In </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">order to continue southward from Qumran, one had </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">to descend to the Dead Sea shore, continue south for </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">a while on foot and then board a boat to En Gedi, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Masada, the eastern coast of the Dead Sea, or to the </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">southern Hebron Hills. It was therefore no coincidence </span>that the scrolls were hidden in the <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> caves, <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">since these were located on the route of the fleeing </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">refugees. <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> was the last spot where they could </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">hide their scrolls before descending to the shore. Confusion reigns when refugees flee in time of war, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">and certainly there may have been refugees who took </span>their scrolls with them to En Gedi, and from there <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">to Masada, but most would have hidden them in the </span>Qumran caves before descending to the <st1:place w:st="on">Dead Sea</st1:place> <span style="letter-spacing: -0.95pt;">shore.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">In fact, evidence for such refugees has been found </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">in the caves of <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> and at En Gedi, but was misinterpreted by the excavators. Broshi and Eshel </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">excavated a number of natural caves formed by floodwater in the riverbeds around <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, which </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">they thought, mistakenly, had sheltered members </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">of the Essene sect for whom there was no room at </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the site. Most of the finds discovered in the caves </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">belonged to refugees who stayed at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> before </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">continuing on their way. No one could have resided </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">in these caves nor in those in the fault scarp for an extended period of time. Those who stayed there did </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">so because they had no choice; they would hide from the Romans during the day and continue on their way after nightfall.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">Another find, from En Gedi, was discovered by </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Hirschfeld and, in our opinion, also misinterpreted.<sup> </sup></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">During excavations, some temporary dwellings were </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">found and dated from the second half of the first <span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">century until the early second century CE. Hirschfeld </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">argues that a group of Essenes lived in them. We, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">however, believe that they were built by refugees who </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.4pt;">had fled from the Romans. Many more finds, which </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">are to be ascribed to these refugees, have been found in the many surveys earned out along the riverbeds of </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.5pt;">the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Judean</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">We have no way of knowing how long refugees </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.3pt;">continued to pass through <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>. Nor do we </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">know whether the site was already abandoned at the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">time or whether it was burned later. At any rate, the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">refugees found here a site full of clay vessels, including </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">cylindrical jars of the type that were mistakenly called </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">"scroll jars," which we believe were originally used for storing fresh and dried dates as well as date honey. We </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">believe that refugees took some of these jars and hid </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">scrolls inside them. The complete lack of order in the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">way the scrolls were hidden in the various caves, some </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">located more than a kilometer from the site, indicates </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">that concealing the scrolls was not an orderly project </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.4pt;">undertaken by members of the sect, but rather a random, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">hasty act, probably performed at night. Only someone </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">desperate, a refugee on the run, would hide scrolls in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the lairs of predators. If the scrolls had been hidden by </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">the 200 to 250 sect members at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, they would </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">surely have gone about it in a more orderly fashion, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">and would probably have found a better hiding place inside the site.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">In short, the scrolls found in the caves of <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> were not placed there by an organized community of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">several hundred men, but rather by refugees, probably at night, without any planning, except for the intention </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">to one day return and retrieve the scrolls.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Among the scrolls found at Qumran and <st1:place w:st="on">Masada</st1:place> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">were both sectarian and non-sectarian texts. Clearly </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">these texts did not originate in the official libraries </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> and in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city>, which were under </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">priestly control. Rather, they originated in sectarian <span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">libraries, as well as in libraries in Jewish towns outside </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">Jerusalem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Further evidence for the claim that the Qumran <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">scrolls originated in various locales lies in the high </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">number of biblical scrolls found among those in the </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;">area of <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>, approximately half. Additional </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">support lies in the large number of copies of these biblical texts: about 20 copies of Genesis, 16 copies </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">of Exodus, 27 copies of Deuteronomy, 36 copies of </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">Psalms, 21 copies of Isaiah, etc. Why would Qumran's </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">sectarian library require so many copies of biblical texts—or were the scrolls, as said, brought in from </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">other areas?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">Moreover, C-14 testing dates the scrolls from the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">third century BCE to ca. 70 CE. The <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> scrolls </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">are textually multifaceted: they differ in writing, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">spelling, language and content. Some are similar </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">to the Samaritan version of the Torah, others to the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">Septuagint translation, and still others—especially the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">later texts—to the Massorah version.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">The biblical scrolls from Qumran are non-sectarian; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">they reflect the state and tradition of the biblical text </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">in all of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Israel</st1:placename></st1:place>. Can we state the same </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">of sectarian scrolls found at <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>? These were </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">sectarian texts, but not all were necessarily composed </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">by the Essenes—and certainly not by Essenes </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;">inhabiting Qumran, but, as noted by Josephus, in every city and village in <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place> <i>(War </i>II, 124). We will go one </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">step further and ask whether the Qumran sectarian </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">texts may in fact represent not only the Essenes, but </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">all sects and streams of opinion present in Judaism at the end of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> period.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">It is our contention that every community decided what to do with its sacred books. Josephus states that the Essenes were represented in every city and town. In this context we should mention another significant </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">fact emerging from recent excavations that scholars </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">have generally ignored: every village and town that </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">survived until the end of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> period </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">contained a synagogue. These synagogues served </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">mainly for the reading of the Torah and for studying </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the commandments. It is possible that some of the non-sectarian texts originated in the many synagogues </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">that existed in the vicinity of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> before the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">destruction of the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> and were then smuggled out </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">as described above, ending up in the <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> caves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">The scholarly literature on <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> contains few </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">scientific facts supported by the archaeological </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">finds—but a great many conjectures. Archaeological </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">evidence can usually be interpreted in more than one </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">way; here we have attempted to interpret them in a way </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.15pt;">that we believe to be more consistent with what we </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.45pt;">know of life in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> period. In the process </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">we have brought the site down from the unwarranted </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">heights to which it had been raised by various scholars </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.35pt;">to serve their scientific interests, and placed it firmly on </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.25pt;">the somewhat mundane ground of the <st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">period and the destruction of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-8670187031696926712012-07-24T13:33:00.003+03:002012-08-07T13:17:11.970+03:00The Samaritan Version of Deuteronomy and the Origin of Deuteronomy<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17.77777862548828px; text-align: left;">Prof. Dr. Stefan Schorch</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17.77777862548828px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.222222328186035px; line-height: 17.77777862548828px; text-align: left;">Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg</span></i> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6lSqxJVubQdvLEjoG_W0sxOpHgamj7wbH7ROMdBCl1u8WBauMZ-3UYvfjxJ5EvXjEsoHF_j1l7QjEwavOLjMmaQPs4t6F-lZgOz1xtLihVSVsOifO8lk-sLdRRL7RWBqGFJIG_9y-ZWq/s1600/Samaritan+Deuteronomy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6lSqxJVubQdvLEjoG_W0sxOpHgamj7wbH7ROMdBCl1u8WBauMZ-3UYvfjxJ5EvXjEsoHF_j1l7QjEwavOLjMmaQPs4t6F-lZgOz1xtLihVSVsOifO8lk-sLdRRL7RWBqGFJIG_9y-ZWq/s320/Samaritan+Deuteronomy2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Since 1953, when Albrecht Alt’s famous essay “Die Heimat des Deuteronomiums” was published, the question about the historical origin of Deuteronomy became an important issue in the research on the Hebrew Bible. Pointing especially to conceptual parallels between Deuteronomy and the Book of Hosea, Alt argued that Deuteronomy was not composed in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Judah</st1:country> or in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, but in the North. Although this suggestion has been followed by important experts of Deuteronomy, Alt’s theory is today far from being generally accepted among Old Testament scholars. One of the main reasons for this situation seems to be one weak point: Alt’s study offers no explanation for how the idea of cult centralization, which is so prominently expressed in Deuteronomy (especially in chapters 12, 14, and 16), fits in the geographical context of <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country>. Therefore, this issue seems to be worth reconsideration, and this will be the main focus of the following article. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The idea of cult centralization appears for the first time in Deut 12:5:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">You shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes (םכיטבש לכמ םכיהלא הוהי רחבי רשא םוקמה) as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there… <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This or similar formulae appear in the Book of Deuteronomy no less than 22 times. From the perspective of the received Masoretic text as a whole, the chosen place is clearly identified within the so-called Deuteronomistic history. Accordingly, the chosen place is <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, as expressed in the extant narrative for the first time in 1 Kgs 8:16 (LXX//2 Chr 6:5‒6):<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel (לארשי יטבש לכמ ריעב יתרחב אל) in which to build a house, so that my name might be there, and I chose no one as ruler over my people Israel; but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that my name may be there (םש ימש תויהל םלשוריב רחבאו), and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This verse, together with eight similar references in the Book of Kings, creates a link between the promise רחבי (“he will choose”) in the text of Deuteronomy and the fulfillment (רחב או ‒ “and I chose”), which not only entered both Jewish and Christian tradition, but subsequently became widely accepted within critical scholarship. Accordingly, most reconstructions of the literary and religious history of ancient <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Israel</st1:country> regard the demand for the centralization of worship as originating in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>, and as referring to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> from the very beginning. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Regarding the literary history of this link, it seems quite clear that the passages in the Book of Kings are linguistically and contextually dependent on the centralization formula in Deuteronomy and not the reverse, as can be learned especially from the analysis of the Hebrew formula in Deuteronomy םש ומש ןכשל “to cause his name to dwell there.” Sandra Richter convincingly demonstrated that this Deuteronomic formula is based on the Akkadian formula šuma šakānu, which literally means “to place the name.” Without knowledge of its source, the Hebrew translation of this formula in Deuteronomy seems to have been difficult to understand for the contemporary authors and readers of Biblical Hebrew, and it was therefore changed into the more intelligible םש ומש תויהל “to be his name there” by the text of the Book of Kings, while the original difficult phrase םש ומש ןכשל is totally absent in this composition. Thus, the respective text in the Book of Kings is secondary to that in Deuteronomy. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On the other hand, it is generally acknowledged that Deuteronomy cannot be seen only in connection with the so-called Deuteronomistic history, but has to be taken as a literary composition on its own. Most obviously, therefore, as the Deuteronomistic identification of the chosen place as Jerusalem is realized only outside the limits of the text of Deuteronomy, it cannot be taken for granted as valid for the Book of Deuteronomy itself, but we should look which identification is provided within the literary borders of this literary composition. However, if we confine our search for hints about the identification of the chosen place to the text of Deuteronomy in its present state, the situation is much more complicated. Within these literary limits and generally speaking, two ways for explaining the centralization formula seem possible and have indeed been suggested as explanations: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1) The centralization formula originally has a distributive meaning, referring to different places, i.e. “wherever the LORD your God will choose to put his name there.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2) The centralization formula refers to only one, single place. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The first way, the distributive “wherever,” seems indeed not impossible from the perspective of Hebrew linguistics, although it would imply that the author of Deuteronomy was either not a skilled Hebrew writer or deliberately chose an ambiguous expression, since instead of writing םוקמּב he could have written םוקמ לכב (“in every place”), thus arriving at a doubtless distributive meaning, as for instance in the altar law of Exod 20:24: ימש תא ריכזא רשא םוקמ לכב – “in every place where I cause my name to be remembered.” Moreover, looking on the conceptual implications of this understanding, the distributive meaning seems excluded both in terms of space as well as of time. That the formula aims at the synchronic existence of a number of chosen places, as Baruch Halpern suggested, seems to make no sense due to the Deuteronomic concept of secular slaughter and in light of the fact that Deuteronomy presupposes the way to the holy place might be a long one (e.g. Deut 26:1‒3). The alternative, i.e. that the author of Deuteronomy might have had in mind several successive chosen places, favored for instance by Gerhard von Rad, seems to be equally difficult due to the Deuteronomic concept that Israel’s entry into the chosen land is the end of wandering and the beginning of a period of general rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, the centralization formula should be taken as referring to only one single place. Regarding the question, to which concrete place the Book of Deuteronomy refers, the text seems to provide a clear identification in 27:4‒8, although the Jerusalem-focused exegesis of generations of scholars mostly ignored that the latter text is a clear response to the demand for centralization as expressed in Deut 12. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The relevant passage, focusing on the centralization demand, already starts in Deut 11:31, as the literary structure and a Qitza-sign in the Samaritan Pentateuch indicate:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">When you cross the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Jordan</st1:country></st1:place> to go in to occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it, you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today. These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land… (Deut 11:31‒12:1) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The following passage starts in the 2nd person plural (לכ תא ןודבאת דבּ א תומוקמה … “You must demolish completely all the places…”, vv. 2-12), continuing in the singular from v. 13 onwards (ךל ר משּׁה … - “Take care…”). Due to the change in number and the presence of several doublets, the text is generally believed to be the result of a diachronic literary development. For our present question, however, the reconstruction of subsequent literary stages within Deut 12 is irrelevant insofar as Deut 27 clearly refers to the text as whole, a conclusion which is based on the observation that Deut 27:6-7 uses the singular, like Deut 12:13-18, but follows the sequence of the plural passage 12:4-7. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The following synopsis exhibits the several parallels in structure and wording between Deut 11:31-12:18 and Deut 27:2-7: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Deut 11:31–12:18<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Deut 27<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">11:31 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">When you cross the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Jordan</st1:country></st1:place> (םירבע םתא יכ), <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On the day that you cross over the <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place></st1:country> (ורבעת) <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">27:2 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">to go in to occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you… <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">into the land that the LORD your God is giving you… <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">12:2–3 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">(demolition of cult places)<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">–<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">12:4–5<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">…you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So when you have crossed over the <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Jordan</st1:country>, you shall set up these stones, about which I am commanding you today, on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Ebal</st1:placename></st1:place>, and you shall cover them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the LORD your God, an altar of stones… <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">27:4–6a <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">12:6 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">There you shall bring your burnt offerings (םכיתלע), <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Then offer up burnt offerings on it (תלוע תילעהו) to the LORD your God, <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">27:6b <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 6;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and your sacrifices (םכיחבזו),<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">make sacrifices of well-being (םימלש תחבזו) <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">27:7 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 7;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">–<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 8;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">12:7 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And you shall eat (םתלכאו) there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households together, <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">and eat them (תלכאו) there, <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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<tr style="height: 1.0cm; mso-yfti-irow: 9; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 53.85pt;" valign="top" width="72"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> rejoicing (םתחמשו)<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 182.4pt;" valign="top" width="243"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">… rejoicing (תחמשו) before the LORD your God… <o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 1.0cm; padding: 5.65pt 5.4pt 5.65pt 5.4pt; width: 57.0pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The synopsis demonstrates that Deut 27:4‒5 indeed identifies the “place that the LORD your God will choose” (Deut 12:5) as the place of the torah-stones and the altar.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">We have to realize, however, that the Masoretic reading in Deut 27:4 לביע רהב “on Mount Ebal” is almost certainly a secondary ideological correction, as opposed to the text-historically original םיזירג רהב “on Mount Gerizim”, which is preserved in the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Old Latin (Vetus Latina). According to the original text of the Book of Deuteronomy, therefore, this altar is to be built on Mount Gerizim, which is the mountain of the blessings according to the framing passages Deut 11:29 and 27:12-13. Having made this observation, we may approach the problem of the context and the aim of this identification. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As a starting point, we should note that the Deuteronomic designation of <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> as the chosen place seems to exclude <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> as the chosen place, since there is only one. Eckart Otto tried to avoid this problem through explaining Deut 27 as a late addition to the text, when Deuteronomy already was part of the Torah and, therefore, the altar on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> could be seen as covered by the altar law of Exod 20:24, allowing for several places. Similarly, Christophe Nihan suggested explaining the altar law of Deut 27 as being composed from the outset with close and specific reference to Exod 20: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In order to preserve the legitimacy of the Jerusalem temple […] the mention of the Gerizim sanctuary in Deuteronomy 27 was deliberately presented as corresponding to the regulation found in the altar law of Exod 20:24-26 […] and not to the Deuteronomistic law of centralization in Deuteronomy 12.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Both authors, however, seem to have overlooked that Deut 27 was from the beginning written with reference to the centralization demand of Deut 12, and this latter text, unlike and against Ex 20:24, exhibits the concept of only one legitimate cultic place. Their solution, therefore, is not satisfying. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">While these latter suggestions focused on the text and its development, other authors took the historical circumstances as their point of departure. According to Heinz-Josef Fabry, Deut 27:4</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">8 was inserted by a late Judean author, who aimed for a gesture of national reconciliation with the proto-Samaritans and their cultic places. This theory seems to be excluded by similar reasons like Nihan’s and Otto’s. Due to its literary connections with Deut 12, Deut 27 does not designate the altar on <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> as one possible cultic place <i>among others</i>, but as the <i>one and only</i> legitimate cultic place, delegitimizing all other cultic places, including <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. This makes reconciliation a rather improbable motif. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A different attitude was taken by Nadav Na’aman, who regarded the passages relating to Shechem in Deuteronomy (Deut 11:26</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">30; 27:4</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">10) and the Book of Joshua (Josh 8:30</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">35; 24) as the insertion of “a late, possibly Ephraimite scribe who sought to […] reinforce the idea of Shechem as the chosen place,” after doubts arose whether the first temple of Jerusalem could be the chosen place, following its destruction in 587 BCE. Na’aman’s suggestion, however, apart from being rather speculative at several points, like the origin and textual development of Deuteronomy or the intellectual history of Judah, leads to the fundamental problem how a single Ephramite scribe could expand the general textual tradition with several passages which must have been rather difficult to accept for his Judean colleagues. Moreover, since the transmission of texts in the Ancient Near East generally took place in a collective context, not in an individual one, Na’aman’s suggestion seems to overestimate the possible influence of a single scribe. Thus, his suggestion is rather improbable, too, and we will have to look for a different historical setting of Deut 27. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The only context within which the literary ambitions of Deut 27:4</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">8 are entirely understandable seems to be the cult on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place>, with the author of the text being a follower of the Gerizim cult, and one may even be inclined to say: a proto-Samaritan. Thus, if we come back to our initial question regarding the origin of Deuteronomy, the altar law of Deut 27 becomes a new point of departure for approaching this problem and solving it. Against Albrecht Alt, who spoke only of Deut 12</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">26 when he suggested a Northern origin of Deuteronomy, chapter 27 is obviously of Northern origin, too. And most obviously, the inclusion of this chapter must have occurred before Deuteronomy became accepted in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country>. This occurred most probably during the 7th century BCE, since at least some of the core ideas of Deuteronomy seem to have been known in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country> in the late 7th century. Given this observation, the most probable explanation for Deuteronomy’s southward journey seems to be the Assyrian conquest in the late 8th century BCE, when large parts of the Northern elite flew to the South. In an important study of Ancient Hebrew paleography, Johannes Renz demonstrated that after the Assyrian invasion of the North, the Northern writing tradition of Hebrew was continued in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Judah</st1:country></st1:place>. This fact seems to be due to the integration of the Northern scribal elite into the scribal culture of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Judah</st1:country></st1:place>. Therefore, it not only goes without any doubt that Deuteronomy entered the literal culture of Judah, but we even know at least one possible way on which Deuteronomy might have travelled from the North to the South. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">We may imagine that the strong Deuteronomic references to the Gerizim cult must have posed a serious challenge to Judeans. Therefore, we will have to answer the question why and how Deuteronomy was adopted in the South. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">One factor certainly was the integration of Northern scribes within Judean scribal culture already mentioned. Additionally, however, two further points should be reminded: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1.) One of the major issues the Book of Deuteronomy deals with is the composition and publishing of texts, as for instance expressed in the following instance:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">You shall write on the stones all the words of this torah very clearly. (Deut 27:8) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The identification of the writing on the stones as “this torah” (תאזה הרותה) means that the Book of Deuteronomy itself contains a reflection on its textual character. According to Deut 27, the torah which was written down by Moses is the very same which the actual reader holds in his hands. Therefore, Deuteronomy’s quest for authority is not voiced by an anonymous author, but by the present reader’s copy itself. It is the authority of the “book within the book”, in Jean-Pierre Sonnet’s famous formulation. As far as we know, this kind of authority claim is an invention of Deuteronomy, and it certainly helped prevent the book from being put aside and forgotten, as well as its acceptance among its new readers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2.) The transfer of Deuteronomy to the South certainly involved its de-contextualization, i.e. the book was taken out of its original historical, geographical and sociological contexts. This de-contextualization must have meant that the book was open for re-contextualization, i.e. in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country>, Deuteronomy could be and had to be connected to a new setting. Proceeding from this latter general observation, we now have to look for the hermeneutical strategies of connecting Deuteronomy to the new Judean context. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Generally speaking, this new orientation was carried out through joining Deuteronomy with the Books of Samuel and Kings in general, and the centralization formula, with the concepts of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> being the one chosen place with the Davidic dynasty as its rulers, in particular. Regarding this latter connection, the link is created by the word רחבאו “I have chosen” in 1 Kgs 8:16, corresponding to the Deuteronomic formula רחבי הוהי “the Lord will choose.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, yet another text-critical issue has to be dealt with, as the verbal form in the future רחבי is not the only reading, and the Samaritan Pentateuch preserves instead the reading רחב “he has chosen.” Regarding these variant readings, a broad scholarly consensus views the Samaritan reading as a late ideological correction from the supposed original reading רחבי, serving the needs of the Samaritan community. Most prominently, this judgment entered Emanuel Tov’s important handbook on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible as a paradigmatic case of textual correction out of ideological reasons. However, Adrian Schenker has pointed out in two recent articles that the reading רחב is not only found in the Samaritan Pentateuch, but is attested by some Greek Septuagint manuscripts, too, as well as by the Coptic and the Latin secondary translations of the Old Greek text of the Pentateuch. This indicates that the Hebrew Vorlage of the Old Greek translation of Deuteronomy read רחב, and in terms of textual criticism רחב is therefore certainly the original reading, while the Masoretic reading רחבי is secondary, being an ideological and maybe even an anti-Samaritan correction.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nevertheless, the Judean readership seems to have had no difficulty seeing a reference to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> even in the original and uncorrected רחב; that is, before the text was deliberately changed into רחבי. This can be learned from Neh 1:8</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">9:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name’ ( ןכּ שׁל י תּ ר חבּ ר שׁ א םוֹק מּה ם שׁ י מ שׁ־ת א ).” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This free paraphrase of Deut 30:1</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4 and the centralization formula clearly contextualizes the latter within the life time of Moses and links it to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. It presupposes, therefore, that the election of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> already happened before Moses, implying a concept of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>’s predestination as the chosen place. This view probably draws on old local traditions according to which Jerusalem was the seat of El, the highest God, and of the heavenly assembly of the Gods. Thus, the concept of Jerusalem’s pre-destination as the chosen place seems to have provided the first possibility for understanding Deuteronomy as referring to Jerusalem, even before the change from רחב to רחבי was carried out. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, the concept of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>’s predestination is the basis for only one of the literary strategies which have been applied in the context of the Judean re-reading of Deuteronomy. Yet a second strategy is attested, proceeding from the concept of the succession of several chosen places. This view is clearly expressed in Ps 78:60</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">‒</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">68: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">[60] He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals […] [67] He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; [68] but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves. (בהאָ ר שׁ א ןוֹיּצ רה־ת א ה דוּהי טב שׁ־ת א ר חביּו ) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">According to this view, there already were chosen places before <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was chosen, but their election faded away. For 2 Kgs 23:27 and Jer 7:14.16 the concept of succession even opens up the possibility that the election of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> disappear, too. Thus, just as the other places before, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> may lose its special status as the chosen place: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 31.65pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there (י תּ רחבּ־ר שׁ א תאזּה ריעה־ת א י תּ סאַ מוּ ם שׁ י מ שׁ היהי י תּ ר מאָ ר שׁ א תיבּה־ת או ם ל שׁוּרי־ת א). (2 Kgs 23:27) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Following this succession theory, Judeans could accept that <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> was one of the chosen places of the past, while <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> was the chosen place of the present and the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">That these Judean re-readings of Deuteronomy had some textual difficulties, both in the original text of the centralization formula, which contained the reading “the place which the LORD has chosen” ( םוקמה הוהי רחב רשא), and in the localization of the altar at Mount Gerizim (Deut 27:4), was, it seems, only realized in the late Second temple period, within the context of a changing scribal culture which shifted its attention from the textual deep-structure to the textual surface, and in connection with an ongoing discussion about the exact determination of the chosen place. Moreover, there is enough evidence preserved to date the textual corrections from רחב to רחבי in the centralization formula, and from םיזירג רה to לביע רה in Deut 27:4, which was carried out in the textual tradition which was the historical basis for the Masoretic text. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As mentioned above, the Old Greek translation of Deuteronomy, dating to the 3rd century BCE, exhibits the unchanged text of Deuteronomy, i.e. the verbal form in the perfect “he has chosen” in the centralization formula, and the reading Gerizim in Deut 27:4. The halachic text from <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place> 4QMMT, dating to the middle of the 2nd century BCE, still attests the centralization formula with the perfect reading רחב: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">[ יטבש לכמ וב רחבש םוקמה איהו שדקה הנחמ האיה םילשורי יכ ] לארשי … [ “For Jerusalem is the holy camp. It is the place that He chose from all the tribes of [<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">Israel</st1:country></st1:place> …]” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> scroll, on the other hand, dating to the second half of the 2nd century BCE, contains the verb in the future: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">רחבא רשא םוקמב הנשכ הנש ונלכואת ינפל </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> “You are to eat those before Me annually in the place that I shall choose.” (11Q19 52:9) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">וילע ימש םושל רחבא רשא םוקמב ינפל התחמשו </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> “and rejoice before Me in the place that I will choose to establish My name” (11Q19 52:16) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">וילע ימש ןיכשל רחבא רשא םוקמה ןמ </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> “in the place where I shall choose to establish My name” (11Q19 56:5) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">ימש ןכשל רחבא רשא םוקמה לא </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">-</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> “to the place where I will choose to establish My name” (11Q19 60:13</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">‒</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">14) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Thus, the textual change from “he has chosen” (רחב) to “he will chose” (רחבי) seems to have taken place in the period between 4QMMT and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Scroll</st1:placename></st1:place>, i.e. around the middle of the 2nd century BCE. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Yet a further question should be considered: If the verb רחב was left unchanged until the middle of the 2nd century BCE, why was it corrected into רחבי in the 2nd century BCE? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A number of textual witnesses attest that in the 2nd century BCE, under the rule of the Hasmoneans, the location of the chosen place became an important question. On the one hand side, the exact halachic status of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> seems to have needed clarification. Thus, 4QMMT shows that discussions about the status of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> took place in the middle of the 2nd century BCE, proceeding from certain textual tensions between the centralization formula in Deuteronomy and the reference to the centralization formula in the Book of Kings. The centralization formula speaks about a place for making offerings, namely a sanctuary, but <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> is a city. Therefore, the question yet to be answered was that of the exact relation between sanctuary and city. The oldest evidence that this question became an issue can already be detected in Chronicles. According to 2 Chr 3:1, for instance, the chosen place appears to be not <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> in general, but rather specifically the place where the temple is to be built, i.e. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Moriya</st1:placename></st1:place> and the threshing floor of Arauna: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 28.8pt 0.0001pt 28.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Moriah</st1:placename></st1:place>, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had designated, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, in spite of instances like this, Chronicles exhibits no systematic tendency to deal with that question. In 4QMMT, conversely, the exact location of the chosen place became an explicit issue: 4QMMT solves the problem by declaring both the temple as well as the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> as chosen, holy places, but attributing to the temple a higher measure of sanctity than to the city. Thus, 4QMMT clearly shows that an increasing interest in the exegesis of the centralization law and the location of the chosen place was at stake. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On the other hand, the attitude towards the proto-Samaritan Gerizim-followers changed dramatically for the worse, reaching its peak with John Hyrcanus’ destruction of the sanctuary on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> (128 BCE) and the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Shechem</st1:place></st1:city> (106 BCE). Thus, the textual changes from רחב to רחבי in the centralization formula and from “Gerizim” to “Ebal” in Deut 27:4 seem to have taken place within the contexts of an intensified exegetical interest in the centralization formula and the total delegitimation of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> and the proto-Samaritan claims of its sanctity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Like the Jews, the (proto-) Samaritans, too, introduced some textual interpolations in order to strengthen their position. The most substantial of them is the addition of the passage concerning the veneration of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> after the Ten Commandments. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">We may conclude, therefore, as follows: “Die Heimat des Deuteronomiums” seems to have been the Northern Kingdom, as was already suggested by Albrecht Alt, although Alt didn’t realize Deuteronomy’s focus on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place>. In spite of this focus, however, Deuteronomy was adopted in the South, too, where it arrived most probably through the hands of refugees who flew from the North after the Assyrian conquest. The fact that Deuteronomy was understood as the textual proof for the geographical and historical claims of both the followers of Mount Gerizim and Mount Zion seems to have been one of the major factors which made Deuteronomy one of the most read Hebrew books in the Hellenistic and Roman age, a fact which is at least suggested by the number of manuscripts of the different literary compositions preserved in the Judean desert. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-81200314583097575922012-07-23T11:49:00.001+03:002012-07-24T14:36:18.084+03:00The Composition of the Pentateuch in Recent Research: A Teaching and Study Resource<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">John E. Anderson <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I. Introduction <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. A lack of consensus in the last 30 years of scholarship <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Both diachronic and synchronic approaches, documentarian and supplementarian approaches <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. To understand where we are, it is important—briefly—to look at from where we have come <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">II. Precursors to the Documentary Hypothesis: Working Towards JEDP (emergent source-criticism) <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. <u>Spinoza</u> (1670): “it is thus clearer than the sun at noonday that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, but by someone who lived longer after Moses” (also Hobbes) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. <u>Jean Astruc</u> (1753): isolates in Genesis an E and J source, with other independent material (yet did not challenge Mosaic authorship; Moses as redactor) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. <u>Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette</u> (1780-1849) – decisive new phase in Pentateuchal investigations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Saw religious institutions in Chronicles as retrojection from time of writing in late Persian / early Hellenistic period <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 76.95pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. thus reasonable that Pentateuchal legal material dates from time after monarchy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 76.95pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Pentateuchal narrative traditions cannot be used as historical source material <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. 1805 – identified law book discovered by Josiah as early version of Deuteronomy (dates to 7<sup>th</sup> century) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. <u>H. Hupfeld</u> (1853): in Genesis, identifies earlier E strand (corresponding to P) and later one; also an even later J document <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">e. <u>K.H. Graf</u> (1860s): Hupfeld’s E1 = Priestly and is latest, not earliest source (also Reuss prior and Kuenen after re-dating) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">f. <u>Julius Wellhausen</u> (<i>Prolegomena to the History of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region></i>) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. J & E = earliest sources; not always clearly distinguishable by use of divine names <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 76.95pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. combined by a Jahwistic editor <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Q (<i>quattuor</i>, four covenants) provides basic chronological structure for P material fitted in <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. ritual law in Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26), which is dependent on Ezekiel <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. thus P is the latest stage in editorial history of 5x/6x, save for some late Deuteronomic retouchings <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Deuteronomy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. comes into existence independent of other sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. 622 with Josiah = first edition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. familiar with JE but not P, so combined with JE prior to P </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">®</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> JEDP <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. end result = publication of Pentateuch in final form at the time of Ezra (5<sup>th</sup> century) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Reveals an evolutionary view of Israelite religion (sees Moses as at end rather than beginning of historical process) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. JE = nature religion, spontaneous worship arising in daily life and festivals tethered to agrarian calendar <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. D = centralization of worship, ends spontaneity, seals prophecy with emphasis on written law <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. P = denatured religion dominated by clerical caste that remade past in own image <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vi. This view of sources dominated largely for nearly a century <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">III. Refining the Documentary Hypothesis: First Half of The Twentieth Century <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. <u>Gunkel</u> (1901 Genesis commentary begins a shift away from reigning hypothesis) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Does not question existence of sources, but interested rather in their prehistory (non-literate culture of pre-monarchic <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>) – Genesis is a collection of legends and sagas <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. deems it possible to establish <i>Gattungen</i> and <i>Sitz</i> of Genesis narrative units <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. result is that narrative achieves ‘final form’ by means of oral transmission <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. leads to a shift from large-scale documents to small units, from texts to traditions, from authors to preliterate society <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Gunkel does not explicitly challenge documentarians, but form-criticism and tradition history elicit questions that documentarians would find difficult to answer <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. <u>von Rad</u> (“<i>The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch</i>,” 1938) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. addressing a stalemate; gone too far already in analyzing source documents <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. agrees with Gunkel that answers sought by source critics were to be found in earliest period of oral traditions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. emphasizes final form of Hexateuch (a massive expansion of <i>kleine credo</i>: Deut 26:5-9 and Josh 24:2-13) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. creeds speak of entry into <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, exodus, and land occupation, but Sinai missing <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. concludes Sinai belongs to separate tradition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. settlement tradition originates in Shavuoth/Weeks at Gilgal at time of Judges, Sinai tradition in Sukkoth at Shechem/Tabernacles in central highlands. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. the work of J <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. two traditions joined together for first time by J writer during United Monarchy upon their separation from the cult (Settlement tradition as outline plan) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. also adds primeval history and ancestral narratives to create national epic of origins <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. J as ‘controlling genius’; main contribution is method governing arrangement, establishing framework of Pentateuch to which others add <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. Hexateuch achieves final form by hand of redactors <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Criticism: credos actually date much later (could they not be a distillation) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. <u>Martin Noth</u> (<i>The Deuteronomistic History</i>, 1943; <i>A History of Pentateuchal Traditions</i>, 1948) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Tradition-history <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Deuteronomy is an introduction to Former Prophets (Joshua – 2 Kings); thus have Tetrateuch, not Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. no J, E, P in Joshua; D stands on its own <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. 1948 – origin and development of traditions constituting Israelite origins <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. traditions limited in scope and tied to specific localities (usually sanctuaries) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. over time coalesced into 5 major “themes,” which are a ‘deposit’ of very early oral tradition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. guidance out of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> (Exodus) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. guidance into land <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. ancestral promise <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. guidance in the wilderness <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">e. Sinai revelation <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. main contribution: essential content, themes, and sequence of history laid down before any document was written (contra von Rad’s conception of J) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. shape and most of contents of J and E already fixed in pre-existent common traditions (“G,” Grundlage) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. JE an ‘enrichment’ of P, which now serves as basic framework for the whole <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. accepts documents J, E, and P (attributed to individual authors), but they added nothing essential to what was already there (save for early history of humanity by J, genealogical linkage by P) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. The ‘Consensus’ by the 1970s <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. J = 10<sup>th</sup>/9<sup>th</sup> century Judean proto-Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. E = a later, independent Northern Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. D = comprised mostly of the book of Deuteronomy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. P = exilic/post-exilic priestly source <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IV. Challenging the Consensus: Criticisms of the Documentary Hypothesis <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. <u>Rendtorff</u> (<i>The Problem of the Process of the Transmission of the Pentateuch</i>, 1976) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Saw source-criticism as incompatible with tradition-historical method in von Rad, Noth <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Noth and von Rad too beholden to Wellhausen, so even their discussions of pre-history fed into the four sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Argued that moving from smallest units to larger complexes of tradition as evident in work of Noth and von Rad leaves no room for hypothetical literary sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Held that larger units attained their form independent of one another; editorially combined at late stage (thus no continuous pre-exilic narrative cources corr. to J and E) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. J and E eliminated (no consensus re: their respective continuity) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Blocks of tradition (not sources) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. different traditions (i.e., Abraham, Jacob, Exodus, etc. – ‘character centered’) come together in blocks <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Gen 1-11 has different literary character than 12-50 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Exodus story does not presuppose ancestral narratives, nor do the remaining blocks (“absence of cross-references,” 177) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Six units of tradition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Primeval history (Gen 1-11) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Patriarchal narratives (Gen 12-50) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Moses and the Exodus (Exod 1-15) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Sinai (Exod 19-24, 32-34) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Desert sojourn (Exod 16-18, Num 11-20) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vi. Land occupation (Num 20-36) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. editorial linkage by a D-redactor by extending promise of land, nationhood, and divine guidance/blessing to entire corpus through strategically placed cross-references (e.g., Gen 50:24; Exod 33:1-3) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. cohesion given by means of theme of promise of land (cf. Clines below) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. post-exilic Priestly editorial strand in Exod 6:2-9 only <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. <u>Whybray</u> (<i>The Making of the Pentateuch: A Methodological Study</i>, 1987) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Most comprehensive attempt to date attempting to refute documentary hypothesis <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Critiques of documentary hypothesis (see esp. pp. 129-131) – key word: “assumption” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. “relies on a complexity of converging arguments” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. cannot account for all material in Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Wellhausen even forced to admit law codes did not fit tidily <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Distinction between earliest sources J and E often blurred <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. “dependent on a particular view of the history of the religion of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. authors and their consistency, which is unparalleled in ancient lit and ignores possibility of deliberate use of these features for aesthetic and literary purposes <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. authors required consistency, but this same criterion not applied to redactors<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Other explanations are possible to explain the seeming ‘disunity’ of the Pentateuch (doublets, repetitions, inconsistencies, etc. – all hallmark evidence used by documentarians) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. doublets, repetitions, inconsistencies may already have existed in oral stage of transmission <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">6. breaking up of these narratives (‘scissors and paste method’) lacks ancient literary analogies, and destroys literary/aesthetic qualities of the narratives that should not be ignored <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">7. over-emphasis on differences of language and style (esp. given our ignorance of history of Hebrew language) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">8. ‘constants’ required throughout each document (single style, purpose, theology) and an unbroken narrative thread do not exist <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">9. pre-exilic authors appear to know nothing of ancestral and Mosaic traditions, raising doubt about early J or E <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">10. attempts to modify the hypothesis are only indicators of its breakdown <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">11. supplementary and fragmentary hypothesis have been neglected and need to be reassessed <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Form-critical and tradition-historical hypothesis (critique, see esp. pp. 215-219) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. argument that large part of Pentateuchal narratives formed, transmitted, developed orally from very ancient times because writing not used for these purposes in ancient Near East until late period is “fallacious,” based on selective use of evidence and on confusion between oral tradition and practice within other cultures of oral recital of texts that were already in written form<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. assumption that Pentateuchal narratives are very ancient, and this assumption used to prove could not have been written at early date <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. use of foreign models from practice of oral tradition among other peoples and in different periods problematic <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Olrik’s ‘epic laws’ – likely used by writers and oral narrators <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Icelandic ‘family sagas’ (Jolles, Noth, Koch, Westermann) – now agreed these sagas not based on more ancient oral traditions but are literary compositions; also little resemblance between these sagas and ancestral narratives <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Analogies from modern ‘oral literature’ – what modern oral literature is truly comparable to that of the OT? Also usually comparisons made between OT prose texts and modern poetic texts (problematic) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. ‘fluidity of oral tradition’ – modifications occur throughout the transmission process, and what is put in writing is just one of any number of potential versions (oral tradition “has no fixity: fluidity is its major characteristic” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. how could a continuous oral tradition have been maintained when the OT makes no mention of a “class of professional storytellers in ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>”? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. no satisfactory technique exists to detect origins of written narratives from evidence provided by texts themselves – subjective method <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. His proposal: a single author for the Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. agrees with Van Seters that Pentateuch may be compared to Greek historiographical works (i.e., Herodotus); author/compiler thus an ancient historian <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. first edition = final edition (6<sup>th</sup> century BCE) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. uses a variety of available materials from the tradition, and invents where the tradition is inadequate <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. uncertain about nature of these sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. is clear, though, that are not sustained documents like J, E, or P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. only Exodus tradition can truly be said to be ancient <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. thus there is, in a sense, ‘unity’ to the Pentateuch, despite its diversity <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">V. New Approaches to the Formation of the Pentateuch: Sources and Traditions (in light of Rendtorff [and Whybray]) <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Erhard Blum <o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Student of Rendtorff; carries his methodology forward <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Pentateuch made up of independent tradition complexes <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Tradition-history, but concerned with literary history (not oral history) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. <i>Die Komposition der Vätergeschichte</i>, 1984 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. traces development from smallest literary units to final revision and incorporation into Pentateuch (focuses here on ancestral narratives) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Evidence of independent traditions: no ‘cross-referencing’ between Genesis 12-50 and Exodus-Numbers to suggest a larger work including ancestral history and Moses prior to respective D and P redactions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Stages of growth in ancestral narratives (2 stages: pre-P [Deuteronomic] and P) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Vg1 – etiological folk history used as a programmatic document for political consolidation under Jeroboam I (ca. 721 at earliest) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Combination of <i>Jakobgeschichte</i> with Abraham-Lot story <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Done through promises (Gen 13:14-17; 28:13, 14) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Vg2 – major revision and expansion of Vg1 during exile <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Framework provided by four speeches of God (Gen 12:6-9, 10-20; 16; 21:8-21; 22; 26) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. this combined work revised by a D redactor (Gen 15; 24; rest of Pentateuch) – post exile (ca. 530-500) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. Priestly revision (El-Shaddai texts, toledot framework, and chronological statements) belongs to larger Pentateuchal revision <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. A ‘compromise document’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. Note: no J or E (no continuous sources in Pentateuch) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. <i>Studien zur Komposition des Pentateuch</i>, 1990 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Focuses here on Exodus and Numbers (some treatment of Leviticus) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Pentateuch emerges from inclusion of D work into more inclusive P work (both D and P date to post-exilic period); note also P is not an independent source for him<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Continues D source from Gen 12-50, Exod, Num <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Reworked and expanded by P narrator <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Eventually linked to Deuteronomic History = continuous narrative from Abel to exile <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. Pentateuch a document fulfilling various needs <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. For those returning from exile <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Response to Persian demand for civil constitution <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. KD (D-Komposition) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Extensive pre-P composition (ancestral narratives, exodus, Sinai, wilderness) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. After Deuteronomic History (attached to it, thus post-exile and a D-Komposition) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Theme: new presentation of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s origins by incorporation of ancestors and foundation of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s life in obedience to prophetic word which is Torah (KD not a history book, contra Van Seters, but is Torah) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. KP (P-Komposition) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Limited to Pentateuch, ending with Num 28ff. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Neither a source nor a redaction but a revision and expansion of earlier material but also an extensive composition also including its own traditions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Emphasis on presence of God, election of people through Abraham, and est. orders of the cult for continued presence <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Gives the basic shape of the Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Is also Torah, but scope is now world history, not <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s history <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Compositional character of KP an ‘inner-Jewish compromise’ at time of Persian period, reflecting a community that was coalition of peasants and priests <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. Final form of the Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Sees evidence still of post-Priestly additions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Not a final redaction; no evidence of a single hand <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">6. Main contribution: stories typically viewed as earlier (J, E) actually Deuteronomic composition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Came together much later, associated with Deuteronomy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Priestly composer was last redactor of Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. No continuous literary sources in Pentateuch (rather pre-existing, independent literary units come to make up Pentateuch) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. This is the tradition out of which the Dozeman/Schmid volume comes <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. <u>Joseph Blenkinsopp</u> (<i>The Pentateuch</i>, 1992) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Historical-critical and literary methodology <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Method: start with most objectively solid foundation (P) then expand out to more conjectural (cf. Carr below) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. The ‘sources’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. P – dates between destruction of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> and rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in 515; from creation to setting up wilderness sanctuary at <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> (Joshua 18-19) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. D - associated with reforms of Josiah (640-609); ‘canonical’ corpus inclusive of Deuteronomy, collection of ‘Mosaic prophetic books’ ending with Jeremiah, and history of period after Moses <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Other sources – J material is late, if it is there at all (no E) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Proposal: combination of D and P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. P as a base line narrative for the Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Deuteronomic redaction of material (evidence: promissory covenant in Gen 15 and making/breaking/remaking Horeb covenant in Exod 19-34) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. resultant document, the Pentateuch, is a “constitutional document” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. final form of Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. represents compromise between different interest groups worked out in several stages during two centuries of Persian rule <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. authorized by imperial authorities as the law and constitution of Jewish ethnos <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. <u>David Carr</u> (<i>Reading the Fractures of Genesis</i>, 1996) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Combines synchronic and diachronic approaches to illuminate one-another <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. synchronic analysis can point out the ‘fractures’ and inform book’s formation <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. diachronic analysis can help maintain ‘fractures’ and has a bearing on interpretation<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. after the transmission history of Genesis to help understand its final form <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. fractures = doublets, breaks in continuity, contradictions (resumptive repetition) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. “intratextuality” – how a later text builds self around earlier text, claiming to reproduce it; this is the way to see the ‘fractures’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. method <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. moving from youngest to oldest textual strands <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. uses other examples of textual growth to ground his arguments (i.e., Gilgamesh Epic, MT/LXX/SP) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Two sources: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. non-P (early independent texts supplemented and shaped into a “Proto-Genesis”) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. P (separate source, reaction or alternative to “Proto-Genesis”) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. P and “Proto-Genesis” combined by a redactor (Rp) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. P as originally separate but not independent (based on non-P), but designed to stand over-against non-P and replace it <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vi. five stage evolution of Genesis <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Primeval history and two versions of Jacob-Joseph narratives (from N and S) in independent circulation <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Primeval history and S Jacob-Joseph narrative under structure of “promise theme,” resulting in “Proto-Genesis” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Deuteronomistic influenced revisions made to Proto-Genesis <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. early post-exilic period, P composes own version of Genesis to replace account on which it was based (so P aiming to replace non-P) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. non-P = Gen of exilic and post-exilic lay leaders <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. P = Gen of priestly contemporaries <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. Rp merges Proto-Genesis with P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Goal of Rp = “preservation” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Result is a “multivoiced whole” c. Persian sponsorship of Rp; a ‘compromise document’ between Priestly and non-Priestly groups to maintain status under Persian hegemony <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vii. Points to note re: Carr <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. his study seems almost to be a ‘hinge’ in Pentateuchal scholarship <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. very traditional in seeing non-P material as quite ancient (monarchy), and as first <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. yet also highlights the growing hesitancy that so-called ‘sources’ can be isolated (or dated) with any level of confidence – note his designations of P and non-P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. In a way he hearkens back to the emergence of the documentary hypothesis with his emphasis on Genesis, the text which set off this enterprise <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. <u>John Van Seters</u> (<i>The Pentateuch: A Social-Science Commentary</i>, 1999) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Supplemental theory of composition for Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. <i>contra</i> Rendtorff, emphasis is on creative role of authors; <i>Grundlage</i> rejected; no need for redactors (each worked with pre-existing documents) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. <i>contra</i> Rendtorff, no gradual growth or development of tradition complexes can account for intellectual and creative endeavor necessary to produce final Pent. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Critiquing Pentateuchal theories (part one of his book) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. DH: “greatest weakness of the Documentary Hypothesis is its lack of clarity about the literary role and function of the ‘redactor’ and how one can identify redactional activity in the text” (41) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Form-criticism/tradition history: “fine in principle, but it becomes too speculative in practice (48) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Forming the Pentateuch (see p. 78) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Deuteronomy – 7<sup>th</sup> century; used as intro to Deuteronomic History; first “source” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. J expansion – late exilic period; from creation to the death of Moses <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. J as “historian”; Pentateuch as historiography (corresponds to Greek historiography) – shares genealogical form and antiquarian interest <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Used a body of traditional fragments—some literary, others as motifs or stories—all used and shaped with his own theological and ideological concerns <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Produces a combined D+J work; produces a unity for the whole <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Priestly supplement in post-exilic period, again with own traditional material and ideological interests (P an expansion of J) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. The Works <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Deuteronomy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. D originates in North (cf. affinities with Hosea) as part of Josiah’s reform program and comes to South with fall of North; Manasseh is king at this time <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Vassal treaties of Esarhaddon offer better analogy to covenant in Deuteronomy; thus dates to late monarchic period (7<sup>th</sup> century) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Also dates D prior to J and P because of no references to ancestral narratives <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Confident of his D dating, so is the basis for everything subsequent <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. YHWHist <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. J follows conventions of ancient historiography (pattern: genealogical framework, itineraries, theme of divine promise) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Gen 1-11 is type of material one would expect in antiquarian histories <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Dated to Babylonian exile <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Notes similarities in stories (i.e., flood narrative) to Babylonian myths <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Gen 1-11 written in response to these Babylonian myths <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. J material contains all essential elements of D and then some, while D has nothing that is not in J (thus, J must be dependent) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. Each story (primeval history, ancestors, Moses) all fit cogently into the time period of exile and its social context; fosters an ethnic identity <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Priestly revisions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Dated to Persian period (in which he also sees final form of Pentateuch) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Does not, however, see final form as not arising from urging of Persian authority to create a constitutional Jewish document <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Reason: J had already done this <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. P’s additions to J represent “a series of etiologies that explain and legitimate priestly thought and practice and set out a program for cultic reform” (183) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. Law in the Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. J and P as two separate responses to Deuteronomic reform <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Holiness Code (Lev 17-26) and Covenant Code (Exod 20:22-23:33) presuppose Deut 12-26 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Holiness Code shares perspective with Ezekiel; Covenant Code used to regulate life in Jewish community during exile <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. After <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> cult re-established in Persian period, Priestly code seeks to elevate priesthood to supreme political and religious authority <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Conclusions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Faults documentary hypothesis for reading J as earlier than D and P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Conservative: refusal to abandon D, J, P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Progressive: different (later) dating; does not see them as sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">e. <u>Dozeman/Schmid</u>, ed. (<i>A Farewell to the Yahwist?,</i> 2006) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Arises out of Pentateuch seminar at SBL; concerned with addressing uneasiness re: lack of direction in wake of Noth and von Rad; Pentateuchal composition in European interpretation <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Carrying forward Rendtorff’s theory of ‘complexes of tradition’ in growth of Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. This volume also seeks to address the ‘literary gap’ between Gen and Exod treated by Blum (see above); Blum saw KP as bringing about first literary connection between the two <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Thesis of the volume: was P author the first to combine tradition of ancestors with that of Moses/exodus, creating a master narrative of salvation history? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. pre-P independence of stories in Genesis and Exodus; represent two distinct narratives of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s origins <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. first literary outline of Pentateuch not J of monarchic period or pre-P exilic J (Van Seters) but the Priestly author in postexilic period <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. non-P literature presupposing same master narrative of SH was composition of post-P redactor dependent on P material <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. P lays the foundation for the Pentateuch, is one responsible for putting together these blocks of tradition (Dozeman’s essay offers a dissenting voice, seeing pre-P author of Exod 3-4 as doing this) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. The Essays (in brief): A Sampling <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Thomas Römer: HoR on J, concludes J debate is ‘confused’ and not everyone defends the same conception of J still <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Konrad Schmid: J as coherent redactional work only evident in Gen; negative (lack of pre-P connection, i.e., ancestral promises do not presuppose exodus) and positive (redactional links between Genesis and Exodus) evidence treated; explicit literary connections between Genesis and Exodus exist only in P or that which presupposes P <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Albert de Pury: non-P Jacob story is pre-exilic and a Northern <i>gesta</i>; Jacob tradition rejected by prophetic tradition (see silencing in Deut 26:5); Pg recuperates old story to situate founding of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s mission within history of God’s work in world; Pg thus lays blueprint for ‘Pentateuch-to-be’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. Jan Christian Gertz: reads transition between Gen 50 and Exod 1; P and redactional links; “The string holding the pearls of the non-Priestly pentateuchal narratives was furnished by P” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. Erhard Blum: motif of Joseph’s bones</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">®</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">profile of related texts (Gen 50:24-26; Exod 1:6, 8; Judg 2:6-8; Josh 24:28-31) that represent redactional stratum by same author seeking to fashion a Hexateuch (“the book of the Torah of God,” Josh 24:26); post-P author dependent on P composition of Exod 1:1-<st1:metricconverter productid="5 in" w:st="on">5 in</st1:metricconverter> composing Gen 5:24-26 and Exod 1:6, 8 suggest P first to connect major traditions of Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">6. Thomas Dozeman: compares Exod 3-4 to P version in 6-7 to see whether is pre or post-P; form-criticism shows Exod 3-4 is pre-P and 6-7 P version dependent on it; concludes pre-P author of Exod 3-4 was first to relate Gen and Exod into master narrative of Pentateuch<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vi. Responses (in brief) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Christoph Levin: emphasizes areas of agreement (late combination of Gen and Exod; non-P texts not forming coherent work from beginning; narrative formation of Tetrateuch in postexilic period); does not see relationship between Genesis and Exodus as central problem in formation of Pentateuch; sees pre-P “editor J” as redactor responsible for first fashioning of continuous narrative of Tetrateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. John Van Seters: critical of emphasis on redaction and complex editorial processes to account for Pentateuch’s formation; argues for von Rad’s view of J as author and historian; study of Gen 50-Exod 1 shows a pre-P, exilic J author combined ancestral material in Gen w/ story of Moses in Exod-Num <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. David Carr: debate over identification of pre-P Pentateuch has nothing to do with classical J source; sees ways in which post-P material is identified as problematic <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">vii. Conclusions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. Offers a significant ‘snapshot’ of Pentateuchal studies at present, with main essays, a dissenting voice (Dozeman), and formal responses (Levin, Van Seters, Carr) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. P and non-P material as central ‘designations’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Viability of saving J (in a modified, later-dated form such as in VS), or doing away with it (see Römer, Schmid) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. highlights the persistence and flexibility of the question of Pentateuchal composition, as well as the lasting effect of Rendtorff’s seminal study <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. P as first to combine Gen-Exod</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">®</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pentateuch is new <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Cf. early documentarians who saw P as the last source <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Cf. above, where P is a final redactor, not the one responsible for providing the base for the Pentateuch (although Blenkinsopp seems to be saying this in a way) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">VI. Approaches Emphasizing Literary Unity <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. <u>David Clines</u> (<i>The Theme of the Pentateuch</i>, 1978) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Argues OT scholarship has read Pentateuch either atomistically or genetically; as response he proposes a reading of the final form <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. “The theme of the Pentateuch is the partial fulfillment—which implies also the partial non-fulfillment—of the promise to or blessing of the patriarchs.” (30) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. three parts: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. posterity – dominant in Gen 12-50 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. relationship – dominant in Exod-Lev <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. land – dominant in Num-Deut <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. promise does not occur in all its particulars always, but allusions continue throughout Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. theme of Gen 1-11: creation-uncreation-recreation (sin pervasive, God’s grace) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. ‘Diachronic’ chapter: notes that elements of promise are evident in each of the three (does not treat E) traditional Pentateuchal sources <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Final shape of Pentateuch: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. redaction in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>, thus an exilic document <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. provides basis for Ezra’s reform; brought by him from <st1:place w:st="on">Babylonia</st1:place> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. in existence by end of fifth century <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. addresses post-exilic community in same place as at end of Deuteronomy: promise behind them, land before them <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. Pentateuch as interpretation of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s history and summons to obedience in present and hope leading to action (focus on God of promise = certainty) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. <u>Thomas Mann</u> (<i>The Book of the Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch</i>, 1988) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Similar to Clines in wanting to read Pentateuch as a single literary work (Mann uses “modern, secular literary criticism” (6) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. does not deny or abandon, however, traditional four-source hypothesis <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. J – time of David/Solomon (1000-922) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. E – from North (850) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. D – dominates in Deut-2 Kings (620-587) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. P – before, after, or coterminous with D <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Torah as a “fictive world” in which the reader assumes and looks for continuity <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. a “historical novel” not cemented in time <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. cf. Van Seters “ancient historiography” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Pentateuch comes into existence in exile; people are to understand their election as God’s chosen people and to live as such (cf. Moses’ speeches to future gens at end of Deuteronomy) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Creation narrative establishes three themes resonating throughout Pentateuch <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. divinely-established order – reflected in law and sense of responsibility to divine will <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. relationship between human beings and land – punishments of Adam and Cain; land promise to ancestors; anticipation of possession moving toward land in Numbers; land and covenant linked in Deuteronomy<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Blessing – ancestors, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s fecundity at beginning of Exodus; blessings and curses in Deuteronomy<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. <u>Anthony Campbell and Mark O’Brien</u> – show an interesting movement in their two contributions that seems to mirror the larger enterprise of Pentateuchal scholarship <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. <i>Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts, Introductions, Annotations</i> (1993) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. argue for a source-critical model of Pentateuchal composition <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. accept Noth’s source understandings in his <i>A History of Pentateuchal</i> . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. do argue, though, that Noth’s “E” is too fragmentary; do away with it <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Chapters on P, J, E, and “non-source texts” and “composite texts” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Lay out, in two-column form, the texts from each source in each book <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. an imiplicit defence of the documentary hypothesis<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. <i>Rethinking the Pentateuch: Prolegomena to the Theology of Ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region></i> (2005) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. propose a “radically new insight that eliminates the documentary sources from the Pentateuch altogether” (xiii) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. Proposal <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. “text-as-base-for-user” approach <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Text a base for storytellers to expand and select from, rather than a completed product to be received by readers <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Text thus a base for development of traditions rather than end process, rather than end-product of such a process <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Evidence often pointed to by documentarians for multiple sources can be explained as the concern to preserve different versions of traditions and stories for selection by users of these ancient texts (assigning intelligence to ancient writers, something not assumed by documentarians) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. Evidence for this proposal: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Brevity of biblical stories <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Preserving of variants/doublets <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">e. smaller cycles of tradition blend/come together over time <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. Evaluation <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. Move to final form of biblical text; elimination of sources; textual unity <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Focus on theology rather than history <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 99.75pt; tab-stops: 99.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Potential difficulties: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. No comparative evidence for ‘base-texts’ in other cultures <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Are smaller cycles of tradition displacing or refining documentary hypothesis? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Failure to treat legal material is problematic <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 116.85pt; tab-stops: 116.85pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. Is it a full-blown giving up of the question? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">VII. Conclusion <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a. A lack of consensus pervades the question of Pentateuchal composition; question remains open and discussion remains quite lively <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">b. Important to note that historical-critical questions still persist, are still being asked (evidenced most recently by Dozeman/Schmid volume) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">c. Movement/trends <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Origin of Pentateuch now seen as much later than von Rad; exile and after, mainly <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Priestly strand still retained; also retain a Deuteronomic presence <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1. but what is P? a source? Or a redactional stage? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 79.8pt; tab-stops: 79.8pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2. what is D? just Deuteronomy? A redactional stage? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. A growing agnosticism regarding what was there prior <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. A growing hesitancy to see a J; total elimination of E <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">d. Moving forward <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">i. Importance of methodological awareness <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ii. Importance of remaining tentative (not getting over-confident) in one’s conclusions <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iii. Litmus test for any proposal: does it account fully for both narrative and legal material <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">iv. A humble appreciation for the HoR<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 57.0pt; tab-stops: 57.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">v. Synchronic and diachronic analyses together? (cf. Carr’s methodology above)<o:p></o:p></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-50447311418797934982012-07-19T12:55:00.004+03:002014-12-01T09:16:00.786+02:00The Origin of the Samaritans<i>By Magnar Kartveit</i><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Many Bible readers will think that chapter 17 of the second book of Kings refers to the origin of the Samaritans. According to the Authorized Version we read about “the Samaritans” in verse 29, and a number of translations reveal the same understanding. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that 2Kgs 17:29 does not refer to the Samaritans, but to the “people of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city></st1:place>,” whose relation to the Samaritans is not immediately clear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The understanding of 2Kgs 17 as dealing with the Samaritans has its earliest attestation in the works of Josephus. He offers a story where he describes them as “Chouthaioi,” a group which was brought by the Assyrian king Salmanasser from “Chouthas” in Persia into Samaria after the occupation and subsequent depopulation of that area, Ant. 9.278f., 288–291.This version takes us back to the eighth century B.C.E., and it has led scholars and lay people to believe that the Samaritans were deportees from the East, brought into Samaria in this early period; in Samaria they remained through the ages, and perhaps they mixed with the local population—a situation which most likely resulted in syncretism. The story resembles 2Kgs 17 and this has led to reading the chapter as referring to the origin of the Samaritans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Josephus adds to this account a narrative about a priest who was forced to leave <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> and move to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> because of his exogamous marriage. In this involuntary exodus he was followed by other Jerusalemites who were in a similar situation in regard to their marriages. This migration to <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> led to the building of the temple on <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> at the time of Alexander the Great, and thus provided the “Chouthaioi” with their sanctuary, <st1:place w:st="on">Ant.</st1:place> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">11</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">302</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">f, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">306-312</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">. This description of events would explain the existence of the temple and provide a rationale for connections between the Samaritans and the population in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. It is perhaps less generally known than the former account, but scholars often refer to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To these reports from Josephus one may add the Samaritans’ own story of their origin. It is found in the Samaritan chronicles Kitab al-Tarikh and the Arabic Book of Joshua. These documents were created in the late Middle Ages, in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1355</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1362</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">/</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> respectively, and they provide us with an origin story which assumes that the Samaritans represent the true <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> from the time of Jacob, whereas the Jews split of from this true <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> by following the aberrant priest Eli. This version of their origin is standard among the Samaritans themselves, and a limited number of scholars have relied on the main elements in this story in the quest for their origin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On the one hand, therefore, we are provided with several narratives about the origin of the Samaritans. These narratives could be a natural point to start a search for their origin. One might take one or more of these stories, adjust for possible unhistorical idiosyncrasies, and locate the result in a larger historical framework. In chapter </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> I will survey some attempts made in this direction. On the other hand, these stories might complicate the matter, as they cannot at the outset be acquitted of the suspicion of having their own agenda and therefore blur the question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You can read or download full text of this book directly here: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOdjVNSHV6dHlrV0k/edit" target="_blank">The Origin of the Samaritans (pdf)</a></span></i></div>
Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-12421760697145314022012-05-31T19:19:00.012+03:002012-06-29T13:24:31.928+03:00Laying the Foundations of Jerusalem Temple by Zerubbabel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO35MgEO8GwBU20Q5yRQXnAhQf5pQX7Jl-F7wrZczURhaq3462EJXIlL2t6nbBCWfJvQngfusQNswrEPWjAI5h15szjoNWxG2RA3duKqqOzbkoUnbOgTlrD0BfxCR9sC5Ws2pM_e2Y56IA/s1600/Laying+foundations+of+temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO35MgEO8GwBU20Q5yRQXnAhQf5pQX7Jl-F7wrZczURhaq3462EJXIlL2t6nbBCWfJvQngfusQNswrEPWjAI5h15szjoNWxG2RA3duKqqOzbkoUnbOgTlrD0BfxCR9sC5Ws2pM_e2Y56IA/s320/Laying+foundations+of+temple.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Third chapter of Ezra book tells us how after the return from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> the Jews led by Zerubbabel and Joshua built an altar and restored the sacrifice to God Yahweh. After celebration of religious holidays they began to rebuild the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">First, they brought wood from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> according to the order of King Cyrus. The priests began construction of the temple and laid its foundations. After laying the foundations the priests and Levites with trumpets and cymbals began to praise the Lord and to thank him for establishing the foundations of the temple. There were also the people who have seen the previous <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Solomon</st1:placename></st1:place> by their own eyes. They wept for joy and someone just loudly rejoiced. This noise has been heard by Samaritans who wanted to participate in the reconstruction of the temple. But Zerubbabel refused them. Consequently, Samaritans began to interfere with the Jews to build the temple and its rebuilding has been delayed from the reign of King Cyrus until the reign of King Darius.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Premature celebration</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the plot line of this story about laying the foundations of the temple there is a confusing thing. For what did the Jews celebrate so joyfully with trumpets and cymbals? For what did they so grateful to God? What did the elders compare with the previous Solomon Temple? According to the storyline of Ezra book, they merely laid the foundation but rejoiced as if the temple has </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">already</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">been built.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The book of Haggai the prophet could offer the answer to this question. It contains a very similar story. In this book, God gave orders to the Jews to rebuild their temple in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Residents of <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place> with his governor Zerubbabel restored the temple for few weeks. Then God told them:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? (Haggai 2:3 NRSV)</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">According to the story of Haggai book the Jews rebuilt the temple. Then the Lord has asked those who had seen the previous temple, compare the new temple with old. The new temple was much smaller and more modest. But God promised the Jews that the glory of this second temple will be even greater than the glory of previous one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The story of Ezra book with elders comparing the new temple with previous one has been taken directly from the Book of Haggai the prophet. But there was no temple yet in the book of Ezra. What did they look on? They only laid the foundations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Evidence of 1 Esdras</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras will help us for this. In the appropriate place, where the canonical book tells us about laying the foundations of the temple, 1 Esdras tells (1 Esdras 5:57-65 NRSV):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And they laid the foundation of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename> on the new moon of the second month in the second year after they came to Judea and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">They appointed the Levites who were twenty or more years of age to have charge of the work of the Lord. And Jeshua arose, and his sons and kindred and his brother Kadmiel and the sons of Jeshua Emadabun and the sons of Joda son of Iliadun, with their sons and kindred, all the Levites, pressing forward the work on the house of God with a single purpose. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So the builders built the temple of the Lord.</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And the priests stood arrayed in their vestments, with musical instruments and trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, praising the Lord and blessing him, according to the directions of King David of Israel; they sang hymns, giving thanks to the Lord, "For his goodness and his glory are forever upon all Israel."</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And all the people sounded trumpets and shouted with a great shout, praising the Lord <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">for the erection of the house of the Lord.</b></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Some of the levitical priests and heads of ancestral houses, old men who had seen the former house, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">came to the building of this one</b> with outcries and loud weeping, while many came with trumpets and a joyful noise, so that the people could not hear the trumpets because of the weeping of the people.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The storyline of laying the foundations of the temple in 1 Esdras is:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1. Jews laid the foundations of the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2. Priests and Levites began construction.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3. They built the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4. People began to celebrate the completion of construction.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">5. Elders who had seen the previous temple wept for joy in contemplation of a new temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The storyline of 1 Esdras is a natural and logical. It is likely that in this book preserved the original form of story about laying the foundations of the temple. In the canonical book rebuilding the temple has been replaced on an interim action - the establishment of the temple (the laying of the foundations).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Continuation of the story</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Once, the story about laying the foundations of the temple already contained a description of completion the construction and its celebration. But in our book of Ezra the story of building the temple is not finished. Unknown enemies constantly interfered completion, there were new challenges, there were passed new solutions. Why?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">During creation of Ezra book the unknown biblical authors had attempted to bring together various stories, tales and legends on the return from captivity and restoration of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. So they combined different independent stories in one continuous storyline. If original independent stories did not contain obvious contradictions, they have been combined together by creation transitions from one story to another. If the stories contained explicit contradictions and they could not exist together, the biblical authors and editors had to make corrections, to alter or delete parts of independent stories. As a result, there has been formed continuous storyline.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Shifting the stories</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In both books the laying of the foundations of the temple occurred in the second year after returning from captivity. In canonical Book of Ezra this events took place at the times of King Cyrus, but in apocryphal 1 Esdras the events took place at the times of King Darius. Accordingly, in the Book of Ezra the laying of the temple foundations took place in the second year of Cyrus, and in 1 Esdras - in the second year of Darius. What date is primary?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">We can not answer definitely. But one should note that the story on the laying of the temple foundations follows the narrative of the Book of Haggai. In this book rebuilding of the temple occurred in the second year of King Darius. Therefore we can assume that in our story the primary date is the times of Darius. Another argument in favor of this assumption is that at the start of rebuilding of the temple the Jews got the cedar trees from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> by order of King Cyrus. But in our canonical Book of Ezra there is no mention of this order. However, it is contained in 1 Esdras. And it is not an order of King Cyrus, but King Darius.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, the more likely that shifting the stories has been carried in the opposite direction from the times of Cyrus to the times of Darius. This is evidenced by the text of the story. Whatever it was, already at an early stage of the Books of Ezra the stories associated with the return from exile and rebuilding of the temple in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> have been reworked. Events since the times of one king have been shifted to the times of another king. Why?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Possible answer is that historical knowledge of some authors of the book was substantially different from historical knowledge of other authors.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Darius the Mede</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the prophecies on the end of Babylonian captivity and return from exile has been prophesied future fall of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. It has been prophesied that Babylonian captivity would last 70 years, and after this time the Lord will do judgment upon <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>, and he will be destroyed. This coming fall of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> has been perceived as God's punishment, and the man, who will destroy it, will be God's agent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Babylon</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> really fell, and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> kingdom ceased to exist. But over 49 years, not 70. However, all biblical authors really believed that the Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years, and the fall of <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> took place 70 years after the destruction of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. Greek historians told that the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> kingdom fell at the hands of the Persian king Cyrus the Great. Accordingly, the authors of biblical books considered him an agent of God Yahweh in the punishment of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. In the Book of Isaiah the Persian king Cyrus even has been named God's anointed (Messiah). And as God's anointed he authorized the Jews to return and rebuild the destroyed <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, not all authors of biblical books shared this view. By the analysis of the Book of Daniel we can assume that the authors of this book really thought that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> kingdom fell at the hands of the Medes, but not Persians. In the book of Jeremiah also it has been predicted that Median kings will destroy <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. It is difficult to say what was the data of authors of Daniel book - the prophecies of Jeremiah, or some additional data - but they really believed that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> fell at the hands of the Median king. In the Book of Daniel this king has even been named - Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus. It has been believed that this mythical king ruled the mythical united Median-Persian kingdom before the Persian king Cyrus, and the capital of this mythical <st1:country-region w:st="on">united kingdom</st1:country-region> was city <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ecbatana</st1:place></st1:city> in Media. Exactly for some biblical authors Darius the Mede was a main hero. Because he destroyed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>, he was an agent of God Yahweh, he was anointed. And he gave permission to the Jews to return from exile, he gave the order to rebuild the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the guards story (story of Zerubbabel origin in 1 Esdras) King Darius - who figures in the guards story, who reigned over the Medes and Persia, who gave permission to the Jews to return, handed on the temple vessels, who wrote letters to satraps in order to help the Jews in building of Jerusalem Temple - is not the Persian king Darius I Hystaspes. He is a mythical Darius the Mede who allegedly destroyed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. Reworking of stories about the return from captivity, in which events from the times of one king have been shifted to the times of another king, has been made by authors who thought that Darius the Mede was original agent of God Yahweh.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">But shifting the events from the times of one king to the times of another one took place only in some manuscripts. In other manuscripts the previous version had preserved. As a result, already at an early stage of the Ezra book there were two versions of events. In one of them rebuilding the temple by Zerubbabel took place at the times of Cyrus, in another - at the times of Darius. These different versions of events had caused developing of Ezra book in two editions. One of these editions became the basis for the canonical Book of Ezra. Another edition became the basis for 1 Esdras, which largely underestimated today.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-29572319592019117242012-05-23T11:59:00.004+03:002014-11-28T10:01:18.269+02:00Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (pdf)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This is a book about ordinary people in ancient </span><st1:country-region style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and their everyday religious lives, not about the extraordinary few who wrote and edited the Hebrew Bible. It is also a book for ordinary people today who know instinctively that "religion" is about experience, not about the doctrines of scholars, theologians, and clerics who study religion dispassionately and claim authority. My concern in this book is popular religion, or, better, "folk religion" in all its variety and vitality.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This is a book that, although it hopes to be true to the facts we know, does not attempt objectivity; for that is impossible and perhaps even undesirable. One can understand religion only from within, or at least from a sympathetic viewpoint. As an archaeologist, I shall try to describe the religions of ancient Israel — not theoretically, from the top down, as it were, but practically, "from the bottom up," from the evidence on the ground. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This is a book mostly about the practice of religion, not about belief, much less theology. It is concerned with what religion actually does, not with what religionists past or present think that it should do. Beliefs matter, for they are the wellspring of action; and theological formulations may be helpful or even necessary for some. But archaeologists are more at home with the things that past peoples made, used, and discarded or reused, and what these artifacts reveal about their behavior, than they are with speculations about what these people thought that they were doing. As Lewis Binford reminds us, "archaeologists are poorly equipped to be paleo-psychologists."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This is a book that attempts what is admittedly impossible, to draw a clear picture of a religious life that, as many have observed, is like a puzzle with many missing pieces. Even at best, it is not a "reconstruction," as though we could or should bring ancient religious beliefs and practices back to life. Like the peoples of ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> themselves, the folk religions of ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> are extinct. They have no practitioners today, however much Jews, Christians, and even secular humanists in the West may think that they are the heirs of the biblical traditions. I do not wish to replicate the religions of ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>, even if that were possible. I hope only to offer a reasonable portrait, based largely on archaeological evidence, but incorporating information from the Hebrew Bible where I think it may be illuminating. A portrait may present a believable likeness; but it is not flesh and blood, it does not breathe. It will seem lifelike only to those who know the original and recognize it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This is a book that does not presume to judge what was or should be regarded as religiously "normative." I can only try to describe what religious life was "really like" for most people in ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>, in most places, most of the time. I do not know if this was "right" belief or practice (nor does anyone else, it seems). And I cannot prescribe any of these beliefs and practices for anyone else, since I can evaluate them only in light of my own rather parochial experience. The Hebrew Bible may indeed be revealing, but I shall not regard it here as Revelation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">From the experiences of many in ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> — priests, prophets, kings, even scoundrels — we may distill some moral truths and lay down some ethical guidelines for a vastly different world. But each of us must decide for ourselves what the reported experiences of people in ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> "mean," whether we learn of these experiences from stories preserved in the biblical texts or long-lost artifacts dug up from the soil of the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, a word about my own biases (although they will be clear enough in time). I have been involved in religion one way or another throughout a long and adventuresome life. I was reared in a deeply religious family in small towns in the South and <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place>. My father was a fire-breathing fundamentalist preacher, sometime tent evangelist, for a while a missionary in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Jamaica</st1:country-region></st1:place>, from whom I inherited a lifelong love of the Bible. In time I went to a small, unaccredited church college in the hills of <st1:place w:st="on">East Tennessee</st1:place>. Then it was on to a liberal Protestant seminary, where I did an M.A. thesis in the 1950s on the then-current "revival of biblical theology." Finally I went to Harvard to study Old Testament theology with the legendary George Ernest Wright, only to discover that while I had the necessary dogmatic temperament, I really had no talent for that discipline, and little patience. Indeed, theology by now seemed to me a dead end. What more could be learned from endless reinterpretation of the same texts? So I turned to the archaeology of the World of the Bible (as I thought of it then). Fortunately, Ernest Wright was not only a noted biblical scholar, but also a leading archaeologist. He became my mentor. Throughout my years in seminary and graduate school I had served as a parish minister, but in the mid-1960s I began a forty-year career in archaeological fieldwork in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in research and teaching and publication. The Hebrew Bible finally became real for me, indeed more "credible," because I dealt constantly with the tangible evidence. But the question remained: "What do these things <i>mean</i>?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In late mid-life, after having lived in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> for many years, dealing every day "hands-on" with the world of the Hebrew Bible and the remains of ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>, I became a nominal Jew. Today I am somewhat active in the Reform community, but I am not observant, in fact not a theist. Like many Jews, I am essentially a secular humanist, but one who finds value in the Jewish tradition — especially Reform Judaism's emphasis on praxis, on a living community, rather than on systematic theology. I feel at home in this tradition, and it fits well with the interest in "folk religion" that prompted this work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the end, I have become more a student of religion than a practitioner — sometimes filled with nostalgia for what I suspect is "a biblical world that never was," but often a skeptic. I view the religions of ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> as an ethnographer would — as cultural phenomena whose importance I try to appreciate, but finally as elements of a "lost world" in which I can participate only partially. If archaeology really is the "ethnology of the dead," what we need are what anthropologists call "informants," and we have none who are totally trustworthy. As I shall argue, the Hebrew Bible itself is not always reliable, because it is "revisionist history." And the archaeological artifacts, although not subject to editing in the same way as the texts, do not easily reveal their meaning. Nevertheless, I shall take a modest, optimistic, "functionalist" approach here, assuming that both texts and artifacts can be made to speak if we are persistent, if we are willing to try to "think and feel ourselves" empathetically into the past. Our knowledge of actual ancient religious beliefs and practices will still be in complete, but such an approach is better than theory alone (and certainly better than theology alone). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A word about the scope of our inquiry. Except for drawing on "Canaanite" traditions, it will be limited to the biblical "period of the Judges" (12th-10th cents. B.C.) and the Israelite monarchy (10th-early 6th cents. B.C.). That is because "<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>" as a distinctive people and soon-to-be nation appear in the full light of history only here, in the Iron Age of ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city></st1:place> (see Dever 2003 for a full discussion). And my major topic here is "Israelite" religion, neither its precursors in the Bronze Age, nor its transformation into Judaism in the Persian-Hellenistic or "<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place>" period (something quite different and requiring a separate discussion). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, some practical matters, such as defining terms. I shall use the general term "folk religion" throughout, as defined in Chapter I, but in a generic sense, aware that it embraces a wide variety of beliefs and practices. For that reason, the term "religions" often and deliberately appears in the plural. "<st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city>" here has no reference to modern conflicts in the Middle East and denotes the ancient <st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Canaan</st1:placename>, later biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Similarly, I use the conventional "B.C." rather than "B.C.E." (before the Common Era), but I attach to it neither religious nor political connotations (this is the way it is used, for instance, in the Israel Exploration Journal). I use "Hebrew Bible" throughout, in keeping with mainstream biblical scholarship, because I wish to view this literature on its own terms, not as the Christian "Old Testament" that it became long after the period I am surveying here. Needless to say, "Bible" here always means the Hebrew Bible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In order to make this book more accessible to non-specialists I have eliminated the footnotes so beloved by scholars. In doing so, I make many statements that I cannot document, especially when summarizing an extensive and often controversial body of literature. Some of the basic literature will be found in the Bibliography for readers who wish to pursue certain topics further. The quotations I use in the text (for example, Jones 2000:13) can easily be found there under the various headings and authors' names. My rationale for the format here is that this is intended as a popular work. My scholarly colleagues can quarrel with me elsewhere for what they may see as oversimplifications. For more on individual sites, see further the encyclopedias listed under "Archaeological Sites," and also bibliographies in Nakhai 2001 and Zevit 2001. Translations of biblical texts follow the Revised Standard Version, except where noted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I am indebted to too many people even to begin acknowledging them. To my parents, long gone, I am grateful for inculcating in me a deep respect for the Bible and an awareness of the awesome power of religion (even though they would be horrified to see how I have turned out). I have been fortunate in my teachers, and even more fortunate in my many graduate students over the years, who have been among my best teachers. I thank several colleagues who have made suggestions, though the final statement is my own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I must mention several colleagues in particular who have made detailed and very helpful suggestions: Beth Nakhai, Susan Ackerman, Carol Meyers, James Sanders, and Ziony Zevit. I want to mention also several anonymous men and women friends who are not specialists but are sensitive readers. I own an incalculable debt to Susan and Carol, whose amazingly close reading of my manuscript revealed to me not only some egregious errors in biblical studies, but both conceptual and structural problems with some of my characterization of women's cults. I have followed their astute criticisms wherever possible, but I remained unpersuaded on a few methodological points. Let me clarify these at the outset. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Categorizing scholarly works by "schools" may be helpful or even necessary for purposes of comparison, but it can pose problems. This is especially so with "feminism," so let me define how I shall use the term. First, it may help to distinguish, as women colleagues often do, between (1) scholarly feminism, which is research and publication that focuses largely on particular women's issues, such as gender bias in scholarship; (2) and political feminism, which actively pursues an agenda that would give women full equality, access, and recognition in all areas of life. A woman might be committed to only one of these feminist movements, or to both; in what sense is she then a "feminist"? In theory at least, a man might also embrace one or both of these aspects of feminism. Thus I would insist that I am, politically speaking, a feminist. Nevertheless, I would not want to be described as either a "feminist" or a "masculinist" scholar, since both perspectives focus the inquiry too narrowly for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A second qualification has more to do with degree than kind: how far does one go in feminist enterprises? I distinguish here between (1) "mainstream" feminists — competent, honest scholars who happen to be women, and who focus on women's issues among other scholarly interests; and (2) "doctrinaire" feminists, whose extremist ideology trumps any scholarly credentials they might have, and who as a result become as chauvinist as the men whose agenda they reject. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Even the more sensible of the doctrinaire feminists are often characterized by what Susan Ackerman describes to me as "wishful thinking." They hope to reconstruct a past in which women's full equality (or even superiority) was actually realized, but which in their view has been obscured by male scholars. Thus they tend to ignore the realities of ancient patriarchal worldviews, such as the Bible's — hardly the way to combat patriarchy, it seems to me. Furthermore, positing such a "matriarchal Garden of Eden" is bad historical scholarship (more on this in Chapter IX). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Even alluding to possible differences in men's and women's approaches to the study of ancient Israelite religion raises another issue: Do such gender differences actually exist; and if so, do they shape the way the portrait of religion is drawn? To phrase the question more pointedly, who is better suited to write about women's religious beliefs and practices (that is, their experience of religion), as I am attempting here: a man or a woman? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In theory, I would like to say that it doesn't matter: good scholarship is simply good scholarship. In practice, however, women may be more likely to take up the topic, and they are probably also better suited to empathize personally with the plight of ancient Israelite women who have been so invisible in biblical scholarship until recently. That being said, my approach here may differ significantly from that of some women colleagues, but I undertake my own statement for what it is worth, and I alone must be held accountable. I encourage more women colleagues to do the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Whatever the results, I remain convinced that there are significant differences in men's and women's fundamental approach to religion and to the study of religion, men generally being perhaps more analytical (i.e., inclined to theology), and women by and large more attuned to the emotional aspects of religion (experiential). Neither approach is necessarily "better" than the other; but ironically here I side as a man more with the latter. I can only hope that I will not be thought presumptuous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">One other issue raised by reviewers should be addressed up front. That is the apparent contradiction between "folk" religion, with its veneration of Asherah (and perhaps other deities), and the fact that these elements of "pagan" religion found their way into the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> and thus became part of "official" or "state religion." There they were tolerated until the Deuteronomistic reforms (see below) in the late 7th century B.C., when "Book religion" began to prevail. But the apparent contradiction is easily resolved. Although originally part of the predominant folk religion in the countryside, always centered in the family, these "foreign" elements eventually penetrated into the urban cult in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, where they finally came to be regarded as intrusive — if the biblical writers (the "Deuteronomists") are to be believed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Some reviewers have suggested that my "Book religion" (following van der Toorn; below), which I have set up as a counterfoil to the more pervasive "folk religion," is late in the Monarchy, emerging only with the 7th-6th century B.C. Deuteronomistic reform movements. Thus they argue that for the earlier period in the Monarchy, not to mention the "Period of the Judges" (12th-11th cents, B.C.), I can reconstruct nothing but "folk religion." This overlooks, however, the consensus of mainstream biblical scholars that behind the admittedly late written tradition there is a long oral tradition. The major theological motifs of canonical Scripture, although I have downplayed their popular appeal, did not appear suddenly overnight. These themes (see Chapter VIII) had a long tradition among the literati who later wrote and edited the Hebrew Bible; so "Book religion" merely represents their final crystallization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, regarding the emergence of "Book religion," some reviewers have wondered whether I have made the dichotomy between that expression of belief and "folk religion" too strong. That would seem to depreciate biblical (i.e. canonical) religion, which after all was the only version that survived, and which for all its shortcomings eventually laid the major foundations for the Western cultural tradition. Now that that tradition is under sustained attack, both symbolically and physically, some may fear that my book will undermine the foundations. That is a concern of mine as well; but then all truly critical scholarship may appear subversive. I think that is a risk that we must take. I can only say that elsewhere I have mounted a sustained defense of the Western cultural tradition and its biblical roots (see, for example, Dever 2001). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, what I know about "family," which shapes religion so fundamentally, I have learned in 50 eventful years with my own wives and children. Norma, a loyal companion in many years of exploration and travel, contributed much to life's long journey. Pamela, born a feminist and now a religious educator, has listened patiently to many trial formulations of ideas presented here and has sharpened my focus at many points. In particular, she has embodied many aspects of the Great Mother, to whom I hope I do justice here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">WILLIAM G. DEVER <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Bedford Hills</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><i>You can read or download this book directly here:</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZONE13SEl4RFNnQkE/edit" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank"><i>William G. Dever "Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel"</i></a></span></div>
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Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-11064148116383278182012-05-23T11:13:00.002+03:002014-12-01T09:17:46.485+02:00The Bible Unearthed. Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (pdf)<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">Prologue. In the Days of King Josiah</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The world in which the Bible was created was not a mythic realm of great cities and saintly heroes, but a tiny, down-to-earth kingdom where people struggled for their future against the all-too-human fears of war, poverty, injustice, disease, famine, and drought. The historical saga contained in the Bible—from Abraham's encounter with God and his journey to Canaan, to Moses' deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, to the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah—-was not a miraculous revelation, but a brilliant product of the human imagination. It was first conceived—as recent archaeological findings suggest—during the span of two or three generations, about twenty-six hundred years ago. Its birthplace was the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename></st1:place>, a sparsely settled region of shepherds and farmers, ruled from an out-of-the-way royal city precariously perched in the heart of the hill country on a narrow ridge between steep, rocky ravines. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">During a few extraordinary decades of spiritual ferment and political agitation toward the end of the seventh century ВСЕ, an unlikely coalition of Judahite court officials, scribes, priests, peasants, and prophets came together to create a new movement. At its core was a sacred scripture of unparalleled literary and spiritual genius. It was an epic saga woven together from an astonishingly rich collection of historical writings, memories, legends, folk tales, anecdotes, royal propaganda, prophecy, and ancient poetry. Partly an original composition, partly adapted from earlier versions and sources, that literary masterpiece would undergo further editing and elaboration to become a spiritual anchor not only for the descendants of the people of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place> but for communities all over the world.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The historical core of the Bible was born in the bustle of the crowded streets of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>, in the courts of the royal palace of the Davidic dynasty, and in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> of the God of Israel. In stark contrast to the countless other sanctuaries of the ancient Near East, with their ecumenical readiness to conduct international relations through the honoring of allies' deities and religious symbols, Jerusalem's Temple stood insistently alone J In reaction to the pace and scope of the changes brought to Judah from the outside, the seventh-century leaders in Jerusalem, headed by King Josiah—a sixteenth-generation descendant of King David—declared all traces of foreign worship to be anathema, and indeed the cause of Judah’s current misfortunes. They embarked on a vigorous campaign of religious purification in the countryside, ordering the destruction of rural shrines, declaring them to be sources of evil. Henceforth, <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>'s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city></st1:place>, with its inner sanctuary, altar, and surrounding courtyards at the summit of the city would be recognized as the only legitimate place of worship for the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. In that innovation, modern monotheism was born. At the same time, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s leaders' political ambitions soared. They aimed to make the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> and royal palace the center of a vast Pan-Israelite kingdom, a realization of the legendary united Israel of David and Solomon. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">How strange it is to think that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> only belatedly—and suddenly—rose to the center of Israelite consciousness. Such is the power of the Bible's own story that it has persuaded the world that Jerusalem was always central to the experience of all Israel and that the descendants of David were always blessed with special holiness, rather than being just another aristocratic clan fighting to remain in power despite internal strife and unprecedented threats from outside. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">How tiny their royal city would have appeared to a modern observer! The built-up area of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the seventh century ВСЕ covered an area of no more than one hundred and fifty acres, about half the size of the present Old City of Jerusalem. Its population of around fifteen thousand would have made it seem hardly more than a small Middle Eastern market town huddling behind walls and gates, with bazaars and houses clustered to the west and south of a modest royal palace and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city></st1:place> complex. Yet <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> had never before been even as large as this. In the seventh century it was bursting at the seams with a swollen population of royal officials, priests, prophets, refugees, and displaced peasants. Few other cities in any historical eras have been so tensely self-conscious of their history, identity, destiny, and direct relationship with God.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">These new perceptions of ancient <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and the historical circumstances that gave birth to the Bible are due in large measure to the recent discoveries of archaeology. Its finds have revolutionized the study of early <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and have cast serious doubt on the historical basis of such famous biblical stories as the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region> and conquest of <st1:place w:st="on">Canaan</st1:place>, and the glorious empire of David and Solomon. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This book aims to tell the story of ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the birth of its sacred scriptures from a new, archaeological perspective. Our goal will be to attempt to separate history from legend. Through the evidence of recent discoveries, we will construct a new history of ancient <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> In which some of the most famous events and personalities mentioned in the Bible play unexpectedly different roles. Yet our purpose, ultimately, is not mere deconstruction. It is to share the most recent archaeological insights—still largely unknown outside scholarly circles—not only on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">when</i>, but also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i> the Bible was written, and why it remains so powerful today.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><i>You can read or download full text of this book in pdf format directly here:</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOOTJxc0FUMmE0bEE/edit" target="_blank"><i>Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman "The Bible Unearthed. Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts"</i></a></span></div>
Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-5013537348075682412012-05-04T13:15:00.010+03:002012-08-16T11:00:50.116+03:00The Story of Zerubbabel (Origin of the Guards Story)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN5YKhKuT24ZQVv-E8wKde7lSPhozVfGA8358DyCqeCW0Uuh35E-jdj9u5_A8h7EIf_xF-1wyh0m5_OaAogfCKvsi39x6v5m8s5iwCSpchvO1saNFlru2Ni_IBagcgeL3mRGNtiPC9y464/s1600/building_altar_gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN5YKhKuT24ZQVv-E8wKde7lSPhozVfGA8358DyCqeCW0Uuh35E-jdj9u5_A8h7EIf_xF-1wyh0m5_OaAogfCKvsi39x6v5m8s5iwCSpchvO1saNFlru2Ni_IBagcgeL3mRGNtiPC9y464/s320/building_altar_gallery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">One of the main characters of the biblical Book of Ezra is Zerubbabel. He heads the list of exiles that returned from the Babylonian captivity. After returning core group of exiles in the reign of the Persian king Cyrus Zerubbabel led the process of rebuilding the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, he built an altar and laid the foundations of the temple. Despite the various obstacles Zerubbabel along with other exiles finished building the temple in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the King.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, the book didn't disclose the figure of Zerubbabel absolutely. Who was he? How did he become the leader of Jews? For what achievements? What is its fate?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Zerubbabel in the Book of Haggai<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The book of Haggai gives us some information about this hero. But this information is largely contrary to the events of the book of Ezra. The book of Haggai tells us that Zerubbabel was governor of <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place> at the time of king Darius. In those days people lived in <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place>, but their life was uncomfortable. The land gave poor yields. Then God Yahweh through the prophet Haggai addressed the Jews and explained them that the reason of calamity is that the people of Judah didn’t rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. If they would rebuild it God will bless the land and it will give generous yields. Then residents of <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place> led by the governor Zerubbabel began to build the temple and a few weeks they resumed it in the second year of the reign of king Darius.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In this book there is no single word on the return from captivity and obstacles of Samaritans in building the temple. In addition, the temple has been rebuilt four years earlier than stated in the book of Ezra. In the book of Haggai, Zerubbabel is not a head of the exiles, but governor of the Judeans who live in the province for many years. Therefore, book of Haggai doesn’t <span class="hps"><span style="background-color: whitesmoke;">bring</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: whitesmoke;"> </span></span><span class="hps"><span style="background-color: whitesmoke;">clarity regarding</span></span> origin of Zerubbabel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Zerubbabel in 1 Esdras (story of three guards)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zerubbabel before the King Darius</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In non-canonical today 1 Esdras there is an attempt to fill the gap in the origin of Zerubbabel. In this book the return of exiles from the Babylonian captivity dated to the times of King Darius, not Cyrus (as in canonical Ezra). In 1 Esdras besides significant chronological differences there is a story of three guards of the king Darius. One of these guards is our hero Zerubbabel.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This story of the guards tells us that the king Darius organized a great feast for his subordinated commanders, satraps, and a whole court. After a loud celebration the king tired and went to sleep. Meanwhile, three of his guards organized contest: what is the strongest in the world? Each of them wrote his answer and put under the pillow of sleeping king.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The first guard wrote: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Wine is the strongest</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The second guard wrote: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The king is strongest. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A third guard wrote: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Women are strongest but above all things Truth bears away the victory.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Waking up, king Darius found the answers and he read them. Having gathered all the guests again he asked the guards to explain their points of view. And each of the guards brought his arguments. The third guard, who was Zerubbabel, first continuously argued that women are strongest. And when he already stated his point of view, he unexpectedly began to argue the opposite, namely that the truth is strongest. As a result, all recognized the correctness of Zerubbabel, he won the contest. King Darius decided to award the winner and asked him about reward. Then Zerubbabel asked King Darius to help rebuild <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> and return the temple vessels to their previous place. Darius agreed and wrote letters to his subjects with order to help Zerubbabel rebuild the temple. Also he sent to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> all the temple vessels that Persian king Cyrus planned to return, but didn't do this.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Origin of the guards story<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The storyline of this account is constructed as if at the times of king Darius there was no any activity on the reconstruction of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and its temple. There was no return of a large group of exiles in the first year of King Cyrus there was no return of the temple vessels by Jewish leader Sheshbazzar. The return from captivity and the rebuilding of the temple began during the reign of King Darius. Obviously, this storyline directly contradicts the canonical Book of Ezra (chapter 1). Therefore we can assume that at the early stage of literary development the story of Zerubbabel return from captivity and rebuilding the temple by him has not been in any way connected with the story of Sheshbazzar in the first chapter of Ezra. These stories are different alternatives of Jewish returning from exile and rebuilding the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As the story of the guards missing in the canonical Book of Ezra, most biblical scholars agree that it has been added in 1 Esdras in very late stage of development this book. The story of the guards belongs to the literary genre of a "court novel", which was very popular among Jewish Diaspora. This literary genre also includes the story of Joseph in Genesis, the story of Daniel, and story of Esther. Biblical scholars believe that the story of the guards that contained in 1 Esdras has not been in any way connected with Zerubbabel. It was the usual story about the contest of three unnamed guards, one of which won, received many honors and has been named royal cousin.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In this story the king's concubine Apama is mentioned. Thanks to the Greek historians we know that King Darius really had concubine named Apama. And not Darius I, but Darius III, last king of <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country>. Therefore, it is clear that this legend has been written when the <st1:place w:st="on">Persian Empire</st1:place> no longer existed, and stories about the activities of the Persian kings became the legends. Scholars agree that it has been written no earlier second century BCE but not later first century CE, because the Jewish historian Josephus mentioned it in his book "Antiquity." Open pronounced polemics against Idumea suggest that inclusion of this story in 1 Esdras took place during the Jewish-Idumean conflict at the end of second century BCE.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Hymn to the truth<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the story of the guards contest there is a strange moment. Two guards gave one answer, and the third (Zerubbabel) gave two answers. First he argued that women are the strongest, and then he denied himself and argued that the truth is strongest. This complex and confusing answer of the third guard gave reason to some scholars argue that the initial story about the contest three guards contained only one answer - women are strongest. A second answer has been added in order to represent Zerubbabel more wise and righteous.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Another possible explanation for the double reply of Zerubbabel offers us by ancient Syrian translation of 1 Esdras. It has no the story of the guards, and Zerubbabel story begins with words:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The truth is great, and stronger than all things. All the earth cries upon the truth, and the heaven blesses it, all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing. The truth endures, and is always strong; it lives and conquers for evermore. With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards; but she does the things that are just, and refrains from all unjust and wicked things; and all men do well like of her works. Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And then goes the story about Darius assistance in rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. This introduction in the story of Zerubbabel is similar to the introduction in the Gospel of John:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Introduction to the Gospel of John has been named as Hymn to the Word (Logos). Similarly, introduction to the story of Zerubbabel in Syrian translation can be named as Hymn to the Truth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The biblical author, who added the story about the contest of three guards in 1 Esdras, had before him some intermediate version of this book. I</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">n this version t</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">he events on restoration began during the reign of King Darius. Before this events there was contained a brief introduction, so called Hymn to the Truth. The author could insert the guards story before or after the hymn, but he decided to put this hymn in Zerubbabel reply. So he has changed the guards story. This unknown author added second answer of the third guard (truth is strongest) to the first answer (women are strongest). And after a long speech of the third guard (now turned into Zerubbabel), in which he argued that women are strongest, the biblical author inserted Hymn to the Truth. And he didn't just add, but insert it in the second reply of Zerubbabel. Also he added some other statements to connect this hymn to the previous storyline. As a result he has created a story (bold highlighted Hymn to the Truth that is now a part of Zerubbabel speech):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So he began to speak of the truth. “O ye men, are not women strong? great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he compasses the heavens round about, and fetches his course again to his own place in one day. Is he not great that makes these things? </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the truth is great and stronger than all things</b>. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">All the earth cries upon the truth, and the heaven blesses it: all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing.</b></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked, all the children of men are wicked, and such are all their wicked works; and there is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they shall perish.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The truth endures, and is always strong; it lives and conquers for evermore. With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards; but she does the things that are just, and refrains from all unjust and wicked things; and all men do well like of her works. Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth.”</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">And with that he held his peace. And all the people then shouted, and said, “Great is Truth, and mighty above all things.” </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 28.8pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Then said the king unto him, “Ask what thou wilt more than is appointed in the writing, and we will give it thee, because thou art found wisest; and thou shall sit next me, and shall be called my cousin.” (1 Esdras 4:34-42)</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As a result, inclusion the story of three guards, one of which was Zerubbabel, in 1 Esdras filled the gap in the origin of this hero. Consequently, 1 Esdras that contained the story of Zerubbabel became more popular than the canonical Book of Ezra, because it has been considered to be more complete. Greek translation of this book has been called Ezra A, that is, the first book of Ezra.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the first century CE there were two versions of the Book of Ezra at the same time. According to the storyline of one version the returning of the Jews from Babylonian captivity under Zerubbabel took place at the times of the Persian king Cyrus. According to the storyline of another version the returning of captives took place at the times of King Darius after Zerubbabel's victory in contest of three guards. In the late first century CE Jewish historian Josephus, writing his book "Antiquity," was familiar with both versions. Not daring to give preference to any one versions, he simply combined the chronologies of both Ezra books. As a result, Josephus described Zerubbabel's return from captivity at the time of King Cyrus (according to the canonical books of Ezra), then returned him back to Medes and made him a guard of King Darius (according to 1 Esdras). Thus he combined events of both books and he described two waves of returnees. First wave was at the times of Cyrus, and the second one - at the times of Darius.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">But eventually the shorter version has been recognized as the canonical book of Ezra and more complete version has been added to the list of non-canonical books. Today biblical scholars consider non-canonical 1 Esdras so important, as canonical. Because both books of Ezra are different literary editions of a same book about returning from captivity and rebuilding <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Comparison of difficulties and the problem verses in these books (and their translations) will help us to understand better the process of their literary development.</span> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-37327711973923645662012-04-21T17:05:00.002+03:002012-12-07T23:44:14.280+02:00List of Exiles Who Returned from Babylonian Captivity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In Ezra 2 there is a list of people who returned from <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> by order of the Persian king Cyrus. In the list it is given the heads of Jews, division of people by genealogy, division of local origin, division of the profession. There is given total number of captives, the number of cattle and slaves. After returning to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> the people donated gold and silver for the reconstruction of the temple and settled in their cities. The following start of the temple building described in the next chapter of the book.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 12pt;">Textual problems</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This list</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">is also located in the Book of Nehemiah and in 1 Esdras. Moreover, 1 Esdras states that these exiles returned not at the time of King Cyrus, but at the time of King Darius. These three versions contain significant differences. They are different genealogies, numbers in groups, the number of donated money, the number of animals, the replacing of some groups. These discrepancies are chaotic in nature. Only part of them can be explained by errors of copyists. Therefore impossible to determine what list is original and what is derived from the original list.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The list indicated the total number of captives, which are 42,360 people. But in none of the lists in both books of Ezra and Nehemiah the total number of people does not exceed 34,000 people. Thus the lists are incomplete in all three books, the total number of listed exiles is 30000 - 34000 people.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Analysis of the list of exiles reveals also many chronological problems. Thus, among the leaders of the Jews who returned in the first year of King Cyrus (in 538 BCE), after the names of Zerubbabel and Joshua, we find the names of Nehemiah, who returned at the time of the king Artaxerxes, who ruled much later, and the name of Mordecai, the uncle of Esther (the protagonist of the same book, events of what also occurred in times of Artaxerxes). In addition, among the leaders of the Jews mentioned Bilsham and Rehum who mentioned also in Ezra. 4:7-8 among the senders of the letter to King Artaxerxes. Among other names mentioned Delaiah and Tobiah. Delaiah is a son of Sanballat, the governor of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city>, and Tobiah is Sanballat contemporary. These characters are also mentioned in the book of Nehemiah, the events of what occurred at the times of Artaxerxes. Such way, the list of exiles who returned in 538 BCE presents the persons who are mentioned in the times of the Persian king Artaxerxes in other chapters of Ezra-Nehemiah. The first of the Persian kings with the name of Artaxerxes I began to rule through 73 years in 465 BCE and he ruled over 41 years.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">How the persons who lived in the days of king Artaxerxes through 73 - 114 years can be present in the list of Jews who came in 538 BCE at the time of King Cyrus?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to the storyline of this list a huge amount of exiles (42,360 people) returned to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place> led by its leaders Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, and many others. There was no one in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place> at this time, the land rested. After returning the exiles proved their genealogies (that they belong to the children of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>) through supporting records in the books of genealogy. The priests also proved their genealogies in order to be eligible to serve in the temple. After confirmation of their genealogy the exiles settled in their cities. According to this storyline after the destruction of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> by armies of Nebuchadnezzar king of <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> in 586 BCE <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> was empty and uninhabited. The life in the province resumed only after returning a huge number of exiles.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">However, this settlement pattern contradicts the archaeological data. Archaeologists estimate the population of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> before the Babylonian invasion about 100 thousand. According to archaeological data after the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar the population of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> fell 3 times - estimated up to 30 thousand people. But <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> was not empty and uninhabited. In addition, in the early Persian period, there didn't observe any increase in the number of inhabitants of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The population of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> gradually increased due to natural increase. And so it goes on for 300 years. The population of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> increased significantly only in the mid-2nd century BCE, the number of cities and villages increased, the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> grew.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Comparison of the Book of Ezra with archaeological data gives reason to believe that if the mass return from the captivity of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> ever took place in reality, it could happen only in 2 century BCE.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In his article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Archaeology and the List of Returnees in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah</i> Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein argues that a large number of sites mentioned in the list of returnees didn’t exist in Persian times. They appeared only in 2 century BCE. Therefore, the list of returnees that contained today in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah could not be written before 2 century BCE.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ancient Syro-Hexaplar translations of 1 Esdras and Nehemiah doesn’t contain the list of exiles nor in the first book, nor in the second. Critical analysis of the list of exiles allows us to assume that this list has been created as a separate story on the return from captivity. And this story has been inserted in Ezra and Nehemiah in very late stage of development of these books.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 12pt;">Integration of the list into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the book of Ezra the list of returnees is inserted between the story about the return of temple vessels and the start of temple building. As a result of this placement the time of return from exile has been changed. Without this list the returning took place in the middle of Sheshbazzar story before returning the temple vessels, but after inserting this list the returning shifted to a later period - before the arrival of Zerubbabel. But this location has created various chronological problems, namely the presence in the list of many persons who lived and was active much later.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But in the book of Nehemiah this list has got a completely different way, much more interesting. In Nehemiah 7 relates that after the building of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> walls Nehemiah decided to make a census of all inhabitants of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He gathered the people, divided them into groups, and prepared to make a census, but by chance found an old list of those who came before in the times of Zerubbabel. This list is our list of exiles. After finding the list Nehemiah read it and he found the names of those who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah (!) and others. That is, he accidentally found a list of those who came before about 100 years ago, and this list contained his own name. How is this possible? After citing a list of exiles the story of census breaks and begins the story of the collective reading the Book of the Law by Nehemiah and Ezra.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The account of Book of Nehemiah about finding the list raises another question. Why didn’t Nehemiah complete that, for what he gathered together all the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>? He gathered them together to make a list of people who lived in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the days of Nehemiah. Nothing has changed with finding the old list. He needed a list of the Jews who lived in his own time, why didn’t he finish his task and didn’t rewrite them?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The answer is hidden in the Greek translation of the book of Nehemiah (Septuagint version). Here is a partial translation:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And part of the heads of families gave into the treasury <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">to Neemias</b> for the work a thousand pieces of gold, fifty bowls, and thirty priests’ garments. (Nehemiah 7:70)</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In Greek translation Nehemiah read the old list that told that the chiefs of the fathers handed Nehemiah in donate gold, silver, glassware and priestly garments. How is this possible?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Perhaps the answer is that the list of exiles, which Nehemiah "found" is actually the same list that he was going to create at the beginning of the story. Nehemiah planned to make a census of the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, gathered all the people, divided them into groups and rewrote them. Then chiefs of the fathers passed Nehemiah donations. Such a storyline partially preserved in the text of the Septuagint.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Confirmation of this assumption is further the book of Nehemiah. After the "finding" the list in Nehemiah 11 describes the repopulation of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Repopulation took place as follows. By lot it has been determined by one tenth of the inhabitants of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region>, which should settle in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. In this chapter given a detailed list of those who moved to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Their total number is 3,044 people. This number is exactly the tenth part of the people listed in Nehemiah 7. Thus, the list of returnees in Nehemiah 7 is, in fact, not from the time of Zerubbabel but from the time of Nehemiah. Nehemiah rewrote the people of his own time, which is 30447 (or <st1:metricconverter productid="30439 in" w:st="on">30439 in</st1:metricconverter> the Septuagint), and one tenth of these people (3044) moved to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The biblical author who inserted a list of exiles in the book of Nehemiah, did it in such a way as to assign the authorship of this list is Nehemiah.</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Why, then, present canonical Book of Nehemiah tells us that Nehemiah found the list of exiles, not wrote it?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 12pt;">Harmonization of two different stories</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Books of Ezra and Nehemiah evolved separately during a period of time. List of exiles, that was another story of repopulation of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, has been originally adapted to the Book of Nehemiah. Then it has been inserted in the Book of Ezra before the arrival of Zerubbabel. Approximately in the 2nd century CE the books of Ezra and Nehemiah have been combined into the single Book of Ezra-Nehemiah. Greek translation of that time records one combined book called Ezra β.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Merging the two books had a problem. In the book of Ezra the list of exiles related to the days of Zerubbabel but in the book of Nehemiah it related to the days of Nehemiah. The combined book could not have the same list related to different times. So editors had to make a redaction of the text and to remove this contradiction. As a result, one of the editors made </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">a correction in Nehemiah 7:5 and after the remark on the preparation to the census he added <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"... and I found a register of the company that came up first, and I found written in it as follows ..."</i> Thus, the list that earlier in the book of Nehemiah belonged to Nehemiah himself became the old list of those who returned earlier in the days of Zerubbabel. This stage of literary development is recorded by Septuagint translation.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But the text still remains mention that the chiefs of the fathers gave Nehemiah donations. So later it has been made another edition in the text. Transfer the donations from chiefs of the fathers to Nehemiah has been changed. Nehemiah has been replaced by another person - one of the main characters in the list, which in the Hebrew text called by word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thirshata</i>. This word means a title that in most translations listed as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">governor</i>, although this interpretation is only one possible. Among other possible meanings of the word I like most about the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">butler</i>. Probably, this title means a temple administrator. He ordered the priests <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"that they should not eat from the most holy things until a priest arose with Urim and Thummim."</i> Transfer the donations to Nehemiah has been changed to transfer donations from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thirshata</i>. And in such form the story is present in our times.</span><br />
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Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-1969419975452197242012-04-18T11:10:00.001+03:002012-04-18T23:14:50.133+03:00Le Seigneur choisira-t-il le lieu de son nom ou l’a-t-il choisi? L’apport de la Bible Grecque ancienne á l’histoire du texte Samaritain et Massorétique<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Adrian Schenker</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">1. La formule du Deutéronome : Le lieu que le Seigneur a choisi pour y établir son nom</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">L’étude d’un point particulier d’histoire du texte de <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> hébraïque à la lumière de <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> grecque ancienne est dédiée en hommage cordial à la collègue éminente Madame Raija Sollamo dont les echerches ont contribué si magnifiquement à la connaissance de <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> grecque des Septante. Il s’agira d’une formule deutéronomique bien connue, différente dans <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> massorétique et samaritaine. Qu’en est-il de son attestation dans <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> grecque ancienne ? La formule elle-même se rencontre en trois formulations légèrement différentes 21 fois dans le Deutéronome. Voici la première forme : « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira (texte massorétique,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm) ou a choisi (Pentateuque samaritain [Sam]) pour y faire habiter son nom». Elle se trouve six fois en Dt 12 : 11 ; 14 : 23 ; 16 : 2,6,11 ; 26 : 2. La deuxième forme est la suivante: « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira (tm) ou a choisi (Sam) pour y placer son nom ». Elle est attestée deux fois en Dt 12 : 21 ; 14 : 24. En Dt 12 : 5, les deux formes se cumulent : « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira (tm) ou a choisi (Sam) pour y placer son nom et le faire habiter ». La troisième forme n’a pas de complément d’infinitif et se borne à constater le choix que le Seigneur fait du lieu : « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira (tm) ou a choisi » (Sam). Le Deutéronome s’en sert douze fois en 12 : 14,18,26 ; 14 : 25 ; 15 : 20 ; 16 : 7,15,16 ; 17 : 8,10 ; 18 : 6 ; 31 : 11. D’autres éléments comme l’épithète « ton Dieu » ou «parmi toutes les tribus» peuvent entrer dans la formule. Il n’est pas nécessaire de s’y arrêter ici. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Ne 1 : 9 cite cette formule deutéronomique dans une parole du Seigneur dans sa première forme, mais avec le verbe conjugué au prétérit : « au lieu que j’ai choisi pour y faire habiter mon nom ». Roland de Vaux a consacré une étude à l’origine de cette formule dans une tournure semblable des lettres d’El-Amarna. Mais il n’a pas traité de la différence du temps qui sépare le futur employé systématiquement par le<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm du passé, utilisé non moins systématiquement par le Sam. En 2004 Sandra L. Richter a approfondi et élargi la question d’une possible origine mésopotamienne de la tournure « faire habiter ou placer le nom de YHWH là » dans une dissertation américaine. Elle n’a pas touché à la première partie de l’expression : «le lieu que YHWH choisira ou a choisi».</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Faut-il reconnaître dans le Sam une des leçons spécifiques des Samaritains, secondaires en comparaison avec celle du tm ? Par un côté la question relève de la critique textuelle, et par un autre de l’histoire des religions antiques en Orient et en Occident car dans la conception religieuse d’alors le choix de l’emplacement d’un lieu saint dépend des divinités.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">2. La formule en critique textuelle</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Le Pentateuque Samaritain (Sam) lit l’accompli partout alors que le tm offre toujours l’inaccompli : il choisira. Dans cette alternative textuelle, la forme originaire doit être identifiée à l’aide des autres témoins du texte. Or, les manuscrits bibliques de Qumran ne sont pas préservés pour ces 21 passages, ni dans le Deutéronome écrit en caractères paléo-hébreu ni dans les fragments hébreux et le fragment grec retrouvés à la grotte 4. Les traductions hexaplaires, Théodotion (1er s. après J.-Chr.), Aquila et Symmaque (2e s.) ne sont pas non plus conservées pour cette leçon. Les exégètes antiques qui nous ont laissé leurs notes glanées dans les Hexaples d’Origène, composés dans la première moitié du 3e s., ne se sont pas intéressés à cette expression, sans doute parce qu’ils ne constataient pas de différence entre leur Bible grecque, qui lisait partout le futur, « le Seigneur choisira », et <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> hébraïque, elle aussi avec le futur du verbe. Les Targums Onkelos, Pseudo-Jonathan et Néophyti s’accordent pour lire eux aussi partout le futur. Le même constat doit être fait pour <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> syriaque de <st1:personname productid="la Peshitta" w:st="on">la Peshitta</st1:personname> qui offre souvent l’inaccompli et quelquefois le participe, qui a valeur de présent. Mais elle n’a jamais un accompli. Saint Jérôme a toujours traduit le verbe en question par un temps correspondant au futur. Jamais il n’a un prétérit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Reste <st1:personname productid="la Septante" w:st="on">la Septante</st1:personname>, la plus ancienne des traductions puisqu’elle fut faite selon toute vraisemblance vers le milieu du 3e s. av. J.-Chr. Lorsqu’on la lit dans l’édition critique la plus moderne, celle de John W. Wevers, on y trouve également partout le futur. Faut-il donc constater l’isolement complet du Sam et en conclure que la formule employant le verbe au prétérit, « le Seigneur a choisi le lieu pour son nom », est une leçon spécifiquement samaritaine et par conséquent secondaire?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Il est utile de rappeler ici cependant la citation du Deutéronome déjà évoquée que le livre de Néhémie fait de notre formule, Ne 1 : 9. C’est la plus ancienne citation que nous ayons, et elle est combinée avec une citation de Dt 30 : 4. Cette double citation se trouve dans <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> elle-même. La voici : « si votre expulsion atteignait l’extrémité du ciel, de là-bas je vous rassemblerais, et je les ferais venir au lieu que j’ai choisi pour y faire habiter mon nom ». Deux différences principales séparent la formulation du Deutéronome de celle de Néhémie. D’abord le Deutéronome parle du Seigneur, alors que, en Néhémie, le Seigneur parle lui-même à la première personne. Ensuite le Seigneur conduira, selon le Deutéronome, « l’expulsion », terme qui désigne l’ensemble des exilés, dans le pays de leurs pères tandis qu’en Néhémie il les amènera au lieu qu’il avait choisi pour la demeure de son nom. En réalité, Ne 1 : 9 combine Dt 30 : 4 avec la formule deutéronomique du choix d’un lieu pour le nom du Seigneur. Les deux, Dt 30 : 4 et la formule, sont tirés du Deutéronome car dans tout l’A.T., les deux ne se trouvent que dans ce livre. Or, Néhémie semble connaître la formule du choix du lieu dans une forme où le verbe est conjugué à l’accompli : « au lieu que j’ai choisi ».</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Lorsqu’on étudie les<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>variantes de la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx dans les 21 passages qui offrent la formule du choix du lieu que le Seigneur fait pour y placer son nom, on s’aperçoit qu’il existe en plusieurs endroits des témoins du grec qui présentent une forme verbale du passé. Il est donc sage de regarder ces passages de plus près, d’autant plus que l’édition de Göttingen ne les signale pas toutes!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12:5: la cursive grecque 72 (= m dans l’édition critique de Cambridge) offre l’aoriste </span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-ansi-language: FR;">ἐ</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">ξελ</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-ansi-language: FR;">έ</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">ξατο, et la traduction bohaïrique de <st1:personname productid="la LXX" w:st="on">la LXX</st1:personname> donne le parfait I pour le verbe etaFsotpF (sans variantes dans les témoins). Brooke-McLean et Wevers notent cette variante grecque et copte. Les éditions de David Wilkins, Londres, et de Paul de Lagarde l’avaient donnée dans leur texte.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12:11,26: <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname> offre le prétérit (parfait I) selon les éditions de Peters et déjà de Lagarde. Peters ne signale aucune variante dans les manuscrits utilisés par lui. Ni Brooke-McLean ni Wevers ne signalent la leçon dans les deux endroits.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12:14: un manuscrit parmi ceux qui ont servi à l’édition de Peters offre le verbe au passé (parfait I). Il s’agit du ms F (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Cod. Huntington 33, daté de 1674). Tous les autres témoins bohaïriques et grecs lisent le verbe au futur.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12:21: deux témoins sahidiques, celui du Museo Borgiano de <st1:personname productid="la Congr←gation" w:st="on">la Congrégation</st1:personname> de <st1:personname productid="la Curie" w:st="on">la Curie</st1:personname> romaine De Propaganda Fide, et le manuscrit Londres, British Museum Oriental 7594 offrent ici le verbe au passé, alors que dans les cinq autres emplois de la formule dans ce chapitre le verbe est au futur. Bien que Brooke-McLean et Wevers collationnent le manuscrit du Cardinal Borgia, et Wevers en plus celui du British Museum, ils n’offrent pas cette variante du verbe au passé. Il faut souligner que les deux manuscrits coptes n’ont qu’ici au v. 21 la forme du verbe conjugué au passé. Le v. 21 atteste ainsi une forme non assimilée, corroborée parce que attestée par deux témoins.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">14:23(22): la cursive 72 (= m) offre l’aoriste dans la même forme qu’en 12 : 5. Quatre manuscrits bohaïriques de Peters A (Paris, B. N. copte 1, de 1356), C (Paris, B. N. copte 56, de 1660), D (Londres, British Museum Oriental 422, de 1393) et F (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Huntington 33, de 1674) présentent le verbe conjugué au passé (parfait I). L’édition de de Lagarde donne cette forme dans son texte, mais ni Brooke-McLean ni Wevers ne la citent dans leur apparat critique.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">14:24(23) et 14:25(24) : la cursive 72 (= m) et tous les témoins bohaïriques donnent le verbe au passé (parfait I). La leçon est choisie dans les éditions de de Lagarde et Peters, mais ne figure ni dans l’apparat de Brooke-McLean ni dans celui de Wevers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">16:2: la cursive 16, que Brooke-McLean n’avaient pas collationnée, offre l’aoriste<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-ansi-language: FR;">ἐ</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">ξελ</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: Tahoma; mso-ansi-language: FR;">έ</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">ξατο, enregistré par Wevers, et cette leçon a un parallèle dans un manuscrit de <st1:personname productid="la Vetus" w:st="on">la Vetus</st1:personname> latina : elegit au parfait. Brooke-McLean et Wevers citent cette leçon latine. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">16:7: la leçon du verbe au passé est attestée d’une part par les manuscrits bohaïriques G, qui est le plus ancien et le meilleur témoin bohaïrique, et H (Rome, Bibliothèque Vaticane copte 4, de 1399), une copie de G, et d’autre part par <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> selon le manuscrit de Lyon. Ni Brooke-McLean ni Wevers ne mentionnent ici la leçon bohaïrique de G, H, mais bien la leçon de <st1:personname productid="la VL." w:st="on">la VL.</st1:personname></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">17:8: tous les manuscrits bohaïriques sauf H offrent le verbe au passé (parfait I). L’édition de de Lagarde et celle de Peters adoptent cette leçon. Mais ni Brooke-McLean ni Wevers ne l’enregistrent!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">17:10: ici Lucifer de Cagliari cite <st1:personname productid="la Vieille Latine" w:st="on">la Vieille Latine</st1:personname> dans De Athanasio I,6 avec le verbe au parfait :<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>elegit. Le manuscrit de Lyon donne ce même verbe au subjonctif parfait, qui correspond à un subjonctif aoriste en grec, qui correspond à l’inaccompli de l’hébreu dans le contexte. Comme Lucifer cite dans le même extrait du Deutéronome également v. 8 avec le verbe dans la forme elegerit il présente deux formes différentes dans le même passage, alors que le manuscrit de Lyon lit deux fois la même forme (elegerit), il est vraisemblable que le scribe de ce manuscrit ou celui de sa Vorlage grecque ou hébraïque avaient déjà assimilé les deux formes verbales. Ni Brooke-McLean ni Wevers ne semblent connaître Lucifer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Cette leçon de <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> est ici appuyée par le manuscrit 7594 de Londres : enta . . . peknoute sotpF. Elle n’est pas signalée par Wevers. Comme ces deux témoins sont sûrement indépendants l’un de l’autre, leur témoignage conjoint est précieux. Or, Wevers ne signale la leçon ni de <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> ni de <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique." w:st="on">la Sahidique.</st1:personname> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Puisque aussi bien dans <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> que dans le manuscrit sahidique de Londres le verbe est au futur dans la formule deutéronomique en général, et en particulier dans ce ême chapitre 17 au v. 8, qui </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">précède immédiatement, la leçon du verbe au passé n’est pas assimilée à la majorité des cas. Pour cette raison même il a des chances d’être original.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Lorsqu’on rassemble ces glanures dans le champ des variantes de la lxx la moisson n’est pas négligeable. Premièrement, on compte onze cas sur les 21 emplois de la formule deutéronomique où un ou deux témoins offrent le verbe au passé : 12 : 5, 11, 21, 26 ; 14 : 23(22), 24(23), 25(24) ; 16 : 2, 7 ; 17 : 8, 10.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Deuxièmement, de ces onze cas, cinq ont l’appui de deux témoins : en 12 : 5 ; 14 : 24(23), 25(24) ce sont la cursive grecque 72 (= m) avec <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname> dans l’ensemble de ses témoins ; en 16 : 2 ce sont la cursive grecque 16 et <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> alors qu’en 17 : 10 ce sont <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> et <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique. Il" w:st="on">la Sahidique. Il</st1:personname> faut y ajouter également 14 : 23(22) où l’un des deux groupes qui forment l’ensemble des témoins bohaïriques, à savoir celui qui est formé par les manuscrits A, C, D, F, appuient le témoignage du ms grec 72, et 16 : 7 où <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> correspond à l’autre groupe des manuscrits bohaïriques, à savoir G et H. Or, il convient de souligner dès ici que ce sont des témoins indépendants qui n’ont pas exercé d’influence les uns sur les autres, excepté éventuellement les deux versions coptes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Troisièmement, à l’intérieur du texte de chacun des témoins mentionnés, c’est-à-dire les cursives 16 et 72, <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname>, <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique" w:st="on">la Sahidique</st1:personname> et <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname>, les passages offrant le verbe conjugué au prétérit sont minoritaires en face des autres avec le futur. Dans le ms 72, qui n’est pas conservé en Dt 16 : 15–16, la formule est attestée dix-neuf fois. Le verbe apparaît à l’aoriste indicatif, donc au passé, seulement quatre fois tandis que dans les autres quinze occurrences la forme verbale équivaut à un futur. Le ms 16, collationnée par Wevers pour tout le Deutéronome, n’atteste qu’une fois le prétérit (l’aoriste de l’indicatif ) en face de vingt fois avec une forme équivalente à un futur. Quant à <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname>, elle présente trois fois le parfait elegit sur dix-huit fois où on y lit le subjonctif du parfait, qui équivaut à un futur dans le contexte. <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">La Bohaïrique</st1:personname> présente le prétérit cinq fois attesté par l’ensemble de ses manuscrits, et trois fois dans une attestation formée au moins par tous les témoins d’un des deux groupes des manuscrits. Dans un cas, un ms bohaïrique a probablement assimilé la forme verbale du passé à deux verbes au passé qui précèdent immédiatement, à savoir le ms F en 12 : 14 après 12 : 5, 11. En tout <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname> atteste ainsi sept ou huit passages où il est probable que le verbe fût originalement au prétérit, contre treize au futur. Quant à <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique" w:st="on">la Sahidique</st1:personname>, elle offre deux fois la formule deutéronomique avec le verbe au passé.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Lorsque les cinq témoins, les deux cursives grecques 16 et 72, <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname>, <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique" w:st="on">la Sahidique</st1:personname><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>et <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname>, attestent donc le verbe conjugué au passé, cette leçon est chez eux une leçon minoritaire, car elle se trouve à l’intérieur d’une formule toujours identique, sous l’aspect du temps du verbe, et répétée 21 fois dans le Deutéronome. Ainsi cette leçon a-t-elle de bonnes chances d’être originale dans chacun des cas où elle se rencontre.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Quatrièmement, la nature de ces témoins textuels de la leçon conjuguant le verbe «choisir» au passé suggère la possibilité d’une haute antiquité de cette leçon. En effet, <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname> et <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique" w:st="on">la Sahidique</st1:personname> attestent souvent la lxx ancienne, c’est-à-dire antérieure à la recension origénienne ou hexaplaire. La même chose vaut pour <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname> qui représente en bien des cas une forme de la lxx non recensée30</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">La cursive 72 (= m), un Octateuque grec du 13e s. de <st1:personname productid="la Bodl←ienne" w:st="on">la Bodléienne</st1:personname> à Oxford fut classée par Wevers dans le deuxième sous-groupe des témoins hexaplaires, comprenant également les cursives 29, 58, 707 et la version arménienne. Ce sont les témoins les moins origéniens parmi les témoins de la lxx origénienne. Ils sont en effet marqués par certains traits spécifiques de la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx hexaplaire mais il leur manque d’autres. C’est donc un manuscrit à caractère mixte. Il n’est pas entièrement hexaplaire. La cursive 16, un Octateuque du 11e s. de <st1:personname productid="la Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurenziana" w:st="on">la Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurenziana</st1:personname> de Florence, est un représentant typique de la lxx du groupe des chaînes, où des variantes sporadiques peuvent se rencontrer, notamment dans un manuscrit ancien comme le 16. En effet, en notre cas, il atteste une unique leçon propre (16 : 2) sur vingt autres leçons majoritaires.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Cinquièmement, il est pour ainsi dire certain que ces cinq témoins ne dépendent pas du Pentateuque samaritain. Ils reflètent la transmission du texte de <st1:personname productid="la LXX." w:st="on">la LXX.</st1:personname></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">En conclusion, voici le jugement textuel que l’on peut porter sur le temps du verbe « choisir » dans la formule deutéronomique « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira ou a choisi » dans <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> grecque des LXX : premièrement, les onze leçons du verbe au prétérit sont attestées par cinq témoins différents et indépendants les uns des autres, à l’exception possible de <st1:personname productid="la Boharique" w:st="on">la Bohaïrique</st1:personname> et <st1:personname productid="la Sahidique." w:st="on">la Sahidique.</st1:personname></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Deuxièmement, cette leçon est intégrée en chacun de ces cinq témoins dans une formule, répétée vingt-et-une fois. La leçon est par conséquent minoritaire et a pour cette raison même de bonnes chances d’être plus originale que la leçon majoritaire. En effet, à cause du caractère formulaïque du contexte, la pression s’exerce pour les copistes en direction d’une formulation identique partout et non vers la diversification, pour laquelle le contexte n’offre aucun motif nulle part.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Troisièmement, cette leçon se distingue du<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm alors que la leçon majoritaire, celle qui présente le verbe « choisir » au futur, s’accorde avec lui. Or, dans la transmission textuelle de la lxx, la tendance allait vers l’assimilation du grec à l’hébreu. Dans cette perspective aussi, la leçon minoritaire a des chances de représenter le texte grec non assimilé, c’est-à-dire non recensé.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Quatrièmement, le prétérit du verbe est attesté dans le Sam qui n’a pas exercé d’influence ni sur la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx ancienne (il n’exista pas encore lorsque <st1:personname productid="la Bible" w:st="on">la Bible</st1:personname> grecque des lxx fut traduite) ni sur les cinq témoins qui conservent également la leçon du verbe au passé. Par conséquent, la leçon du Sam et celle des cinq témoins se confirment mutuellement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Cinquièmement, la quasi-citation de la formule en Ne 1 : 9 avec le verbe « choisir » à l’accompli appuie ce jugement. Ne 1 : 9 ne se situe pas après le choix du lieu que le Seigneur avait fait au temps de David comme c’est le cas dans l’emploi de la formule en 1–2 R et en 2 Ch32. Car Ne 1 : 9 cite la formule dans la forme même dans laquelle Moïse l’avait prononcée selon le Deutéronome. Ne 1 : 9 ne fut certainement pas influencé par le Sam, et il est hautement improbable que le passage néhémien ait influencé les cinq témoins textuels de la lxx du Deutéronome qui offrent quelquefois le verbe « choisir » conjugué au prétérit. Ainsi Ne 1 : 9 devient-il un témoin textuel indirect dans le<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm même pour appuyer la forme originale du verbe à l’accompli.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">En résumé, la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx originale a probablement lu au 3e s. av. J.-Chr. le verbe à l’accompli : « le lieu que le Seigneur a choisi », puisqu’elle a trouvé cette forme du verbe dans son modèle hébreu. Elle atteste ainsi la leçon du Sam comme présamaritaine. L’accompli du verbe dans cette formule deutéronomique n’est pas une leçon secondaire créée par les Samaritains. Reste la question de savoir quelle forme, celle du tm avec l’inaccompli du verbe, ou celle de la lxx originale et du Sam avec l’accompli, est première, et quelle forme est secondaire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pour répondre à cette question il faut peser les probabilités contextuelles. Car la différence entre le futur et le passé n’est pas une question d’erreur scribale, mais de conception théologique du lieu du sanctuaire unique prescrit par le Seigneur dans le Deutéronome. En d’autres termes, il s’agit ici non d’une variante textuelle, mais d’une variante théologique. Ces variantes de contenu s’appellent souvent leçons littéraires. Car elles ne doivent pas leur existence à des erreurs ou interventions normales de scribes désireux d’améliorer leur copie ou négligents dans leur tâche. Elles correspondent à des modifications délibérées d’éditeurs du texte biblique, soucieux du sens correct de l’Ecriture. On peut ainsi parler également de corrections littéraires ou théologiques.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">3. La portée de la formule deutéronomique dans le TM</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Le tm annonce un choix futur du lieu où le Seigneur placera son nom. Moïse ne le connaît pas encore. Ce choix se révèlera en 2 S 24 = 1 Ch 21 à l’époque de David. Avant cette époque la liturgie était célébrée dans la tente établie au désert après la sortie d’Egypte des Israélites. La tente représentait le paradoxe d’une maison du Seigneur sans lieu. Ce sanctuaire transportable était dressé dans des lieux divers en Israël.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">La formule deutéronomique du lieu que le Seigneur allait choisir à l’avenir pour sa maison jette un pont entre l’époque de la sortie d’Egypte et, selon le Deutéronome, des plaines de Moab (Dt 12–28) où YHWH avait fondé la liturgie israélite, et le temps de David à qui le Seigneur révéla alors le lieu où sa maison devait être édifiée.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">4. La portée de la formule deutéronomique dans <st1:personname productid="la LXX" w:st="on">la LXX</st1:personname> ancienne et le Pentateuque samaritain</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Ici le Seigneur a déjà fait son choix du lieu où il allait placer son nom dans la terre où les Israélites se préparaient d’entrer. Dans la formule aucun nom n’est mentionné pour ce lieu. Mais en Dt 27 : 5–7, Moïse reçoit l’ordre de bâtir un autel sur une montagne, appelée au v. 4 Ebal dans le tm, Garizim dans le Sam et <st1:personname productid="la Vetus Latina" w:st="on">la Vetus Latina</st1:personname>33. Là devaient être offerts les holocaustes et les sacrifices de communion, et à l’occasion de ces sacrifices, les Israélites pouvaient se réjouir là-haut, comme le Seigneur les invitait à le faire en Dt 12 : 5–6, juste après avoir dit au v. 5, en employant la formule du lieu choisi par le Seigneur, que ces fêtes devaient se célébrer uniquement et exclusivement dans ce seul lieu! Quel lecteur non prévenu du Deutéronome n’établira pas ingénument le lien entre le lieu que le Seigneur allait choisir, ou avait déjà choisi et le mont Garizim ? La leçon de la lxx ancienne, rejointe par le Sam, conjuguant le verbe au passé dans la formule du choix d’un lieu pour le nom du Seigneur, crée une forte tension avec la désignation de l’aire d’Arauna sur une hauteur au-dessus de Jérusalem, choisie si tard par le Seigneur, seulement au temps de David, comme lieu où le Seigneur allait faire habiter son nom, selon le hieros logos vénérable et important de 2 S 24 et 1 Ch 21. Or, le verbe « choisir » conjugué au futur ôte du coup cette tension.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Il semble ainsi bien plausible en conclusion, que le<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm représente la correction textuelle d’une forme plus ancienne pour des motifs théologiques. Car on voit clairement les raisons qui expliquent la modification.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">5. Conclusion d’ensemble</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Un examen approfondi montre que la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx ancienne offrait le verbe « choisir », dans la formule deutéronomique : « le lieu que le Seigneur choisira / a choisi », dans la conjugaison de l’accompli. Elle atteste ainsi la leçon du Pentateuque samaritain au milieu du 3e siècle avant notre ère. À ce moment-là elle n’est pas encore influencée par le Pentateuque samaritain car selon toute vraisemblance, celui-ci n’exista pas encore dans sa forme spécifique à cette haute époque. Puisqu’on voit bien la forte tension que cette leçon a dû créer en Juda et à Jérusalem à cause du<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hieros logos du temple fondé sur le Sion, 2 S 24 et 1 Ch 21, il est plus plausible d’expliquer le<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm comme une modification apportée à la formule afin d’enlever une tension théologique importante que de supposer une modification inverse qui eût affecté le modèle hébreu de la<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lxx ancienne avant le 3e s. avant notre ère, en dehors de tout contexte samaritain spécifique. On ne voit aucun motif pour une telle modification.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">La leçon nouvelle du<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tm a dû être créée après la traduction du Pentateuque en grec au 3e s. Car il est probable que les traducteurs juifs d’Alexandrie se soient servis d’un texte du Deutéronome en provenance de Jérusalem et par conséquent approuvé par les autorités compétentes de là-bas.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Très tôt les exemplaires grecs furent alignés sur le texte hébreu précurseur du tm si bien que la forme ancienne, non révisée ne s’est conservée que dans les zones marginales du monde grec, dans les milieux de langue copte en Egypte et de langue latine en Gaule. Mais ces témoins marginaux donnent accès à l’histoire du texte biblique dans un point particulièrement névralgique. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Tableau synoptique:</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Le verbe conjugué au passé selon <st1:personname productid="la Septante" w:st="on">la Septante</st1:personname> ancienne</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">1 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12: 5 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Greek 72 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bohairic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">2 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12: 11 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bohairic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">3 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12: 14 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">(Bo : F)</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">4 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12: 21 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Sahidic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">5 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12 : 26 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bohairic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">6 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">14 : 23(22) </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Greek 72 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">(Bo : ACDF)</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">7 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">14 : 24(23) </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Greek 72 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bohairic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">8 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">14 : 25(24) </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Greek 72 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bohairic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">9 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">16 : 2 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">16 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Vetus Latina</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 9;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">10 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">16 : 7 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">(Bo : GH) </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Vetus Latina</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">11 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">17 : 8 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Bo (sauf H)</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 47.4pt;" valign="top" width="63"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">12 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">17 : 10 </span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" valign="top" width="113"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Sahidic</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 106.1pt;" valign="top" width="141"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Vetus Latina (Luc)</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-53846872667340999052012-04-16T12:47:00.001+03:002012-05-05T17:31:04.212+03:00How Does One Date an Expression of Mental History? The Old Testament and Hellenism<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Niels Peter Lemche, </span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Professor of </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Department of Biblical Exegesis</i><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Faculty of Theology</i><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><i>University of Copenhagen</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the good days of old—not so far removed from us in time—a biblical text was usually dated according to its historical referent. A text that seemed to include historical information might well belong to the age when this historical referent seemed likely to have existed. At least this was the general attitude. The historical referent was the decisive factor. If the information included in the historical referent was considered likely or even precise, the text that provided this information was considered more or less contemporary with the event—that is, the historical referent—although the only source of this event was often the text in question that referred to it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In those days, everybody knew and talked about the 'hermeneutic circle'. It was generally accepted that the study of ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> was from a logical point of view based on a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">circellus logicus vitiosum</i>, a false logical circle, but nobody within biblical studies believed that it was possible to avoid this logical trap. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A classical example of this 'methodology'—or lack of methodology—is the way biblical studies have dealt with the last years of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s history. Today it is becoming almost mainstream scholarship to argue that the united monarchy of David and Solomon never existed. It is also accepted that, as far as the early days of the independent kingdoms of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> are concerned, most of the information in the books of Kings is legendary. In spite of this, when it comes to the final part of the history of the kingdom of Judah, scholars still consider large sections of the Deuteronomistic History to include vital historical information about Judah in the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE. Thus the reformation of King Josiah in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> is still generally assumed to have taken place in 623/622 BCE, more or less as described by the authors of 2 Kings. That Chronicles have a different story to tell about the reformation does not worry scholars who all too readily accept the version presented by 2 Kings. Chronicles believe King Hezekiah and not Josiah to have been the great reformer (2 Chron. 29-31). Although Chronicles know the story about Josiah's reform (2 Chron. 34-35), it is Hezekiah and not Josiah who reinstalls the celebration of the Passover as it used to be in the days of old. Evidently, even if the author of Chronicles borrowed from the Deuteronomistic History, he did not accept the image of the past created by the author of 2 Kings. Here he demonstrates that he is a more independent mind than many scholars of the present century who have in great numbers simply paraphrased 2 Kings, thereby disregarding the warning provided by Chronicles.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is obvious that ancient historiographers could handle so-called historical narrative in many different ways. Sometimes they elaborated on a text describing a well-known historical event, such as Sennacherib's attack on Hezekiah in 701. Here the biblical historiographers include a short note simply stating a series of 'facts' relating to Sennacherib's campaign (2 Kgs 18.13-16). This short note that might well have been found in some kind of an archive. It is, however, more than likely that the biblical historiographers cited it in order to present it as a jumping-off point for an elaborate, however invented story about the liberation of Jerusalem from the mighty army of the Assyrians (2 Kgs 18.17-19.37). At other times the historiographers found historical information about the past within their tradition but were not able (from a historian's vantage point) to localize it properly. But they were also able to create 'history' almost from scratch. All in all it is clear that biblical historiographers did not share any modern idea of history as a scholarly discipline. They simply made the tradition about the past fit the version of the history of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> which they presented to their audience. The biblical historiographers shared this sentiment of tradition with their colleagues in the ancient world. The past was not something that just happened once upon a time and was thereafter forgotten. It was part of a living tradition—or was simply the tradition—and was brought to life again and again whenever an ancient author decided to call upon the past to illustrate the present but always in a form that suited the actual situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Because of such standards of dealing with the past, it is unlikely that we can date a biblical historical narrative on the background of its historical referent. It is obvious that the historical truth and nothing but the truth was not a criterion employed by historiographers of the ancient world who reconstructed or simply constructed the past in this way. The historiographers evidently had a programme and historical narrative was the medium selected by them to present their case. Specific ideas and sentiments, religious convictions as well as ideas about the nation and people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, directed their thinking. We may call it propaganda or educational literature as we wish. The aim of this kind of literature was not only to entertain people of the present but also, and much more importantly, to make an impression on the next generation. Political ideas and religious sentiments all come together to form the 'mental matrix' of a person. Such a 'mental matrix' governs the expressions of all writers—ancient as well as modern. Moreover, biblical historiographers carried within themselves mental matrices that were decisive when they were about to choose what to include and what to leave out in their retelling of the past. The student of this literature should investigate whether or not it is possible to reconstruct their mental matrix (matrices). Were they governed by ideas that originated in ancient <st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city>, or in Mesopotamia or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, or had Greek philosophy already influenced them to such a degree that knowledge of Greek (Hellenistic) civilization seems evident? What did the biblical historiographers know?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">They were of course governed by an antiquarian interest. They were simply interested in the past. Ancient historiographers shared such an interest with their modern colleagues, the historians of the present. However, this is a superficial similarity that only says that ancient historiographers wanted to tell people of their own time the meaning of the past.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In order to understand this interest in the past it has to be stressed that ancient societies were by all accounts very conservative—not to say reactionary—societies. This is nowhere better reflected than in the antique tale of the ages of the world, the original 'golden age' that was supplanted by the less prosperous 'silver age' that was for its part supplanted by the ferocious 'brazen age'. Everything was from the beginning perfect: 'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good' (Gen. 1.31). Any innovation was carried out to reestablish the original world order. This was the ideology behind, for example, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">misarum</i> acts of the old Babylonian world when debts were abolished and property handed back to its original owner. Ancient societies were not 'primitive' societies but 'traditional' societies, a term adopted by anthropologists of the present day as a general term for so-called 'primitive cultures'. The past had to be preserved to provide guidelines for the present and future generations. The past carried a meaning that should not be lost, and it was the duty of the historiographer to retell the past in such a way that the meaning was not lost. The meaning was more important than what really happened: Is this true or something that just happened?'</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The past as a concept and a reality also created a chronological distance to the present, and thus made unlikely things possible, that is, things that are unlikely in the present 'brazen age'. The past—the 'golden age'—was a kind of never-never world. Anything that happened in this never-never world, once upon a time, has a meaning for the present. Because ancient writers had no definite ideas about history in the modern sense of the word, they did not distinguish between the many kinds of information about the past but mixed all genres together. In this way it is understandable that literary genres such as fairy-tales, legends, myths, and so on, are joined by biblical authors in a—to our eyes—most uncritical way. According to ancient historiographers, there were no qualitative differences between a fairy-tale and a proper historical report. The past was the subject of both the fairy-tale and the report. Therefore both fairy-tale and report contained evidence about the meaning of history.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Describing and dating the mental matrix of an ancient writer is difficult. It is especially difficult when the author in question is anonymous and not dated by external evidence. We only have one way to go, and that is to concentrate on the written piece of evidence produced by the writer in question, in this case the biblical texts, in order to see whether it is possible to establish an intellectual 'profile' of this author. If this is possible, we may continue our quest and even propose—but no more than that—the situational background of the author, which also nails this person to a certain stage in the development of human thinking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The authors of biblical literature are always anonymous. The text is the only evidence we possess. It is important evidence. After all, all texts come into being within a certain intellectual environment and are to be considered expressions of their environment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Allow me to illustrate my point. In a discussion about the similarities and dissimilarities between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament, my <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Copenhagen</st1:place></st1:city> colleague in New Testament studies, Niels Hyldahl, talks about 'structural similarities'. Scholars have pointed out the many parallels as evidence of a physical relationship between the Essenes (supposed to be the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) and the early Christians. In the same way other scholars have stressed the many divergences between the New Testament and the scrolls from <st1:place w:st="on">Qumran</st1:place>. Although it is a fact that the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls are related in one way or the other—both group of texts belong to more or less the same age—it would be wrong to maintain that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls were Christians. However, the similarity between the two bodies of literature still remains. This similarity should not be misunderstood to establish any kind of identity. It does not allow us to identify early Christians with the Essenes. It is a similarity that has to do with the type of issues raised by the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as by the New Testament.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Every period will include specific questions and subjects of discussion. An overview of scholarship within Old Testament studies in the twentieth century will tell us that this is not only obvious, it is a truism. Thus around the turn of the nineteenth century, the Babel-Bibel controversy was at the centre of scholarly (and public) interest following the discovery of the ancient civilizations of <st1:place w:st="on">Mesopotamia</st1:place>. This controversy died out before the outbreak of the First World War. All studies that centre on this discussion can accordingly be dated safely to the period between the decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform in the nineteenth century and 1914. After that date it became mainly irrelevant. It was never the case that all scholars of the period agreed on a certain position in relationship to this controversy; it was rather that they all had to address it in some way or another. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In historical studies, the amphictyony became a major subject after the publication in 1930 of Martin Noth's famous study of Israelite society in the period of the Judges. For the next 40 years this hypothesis dominated every single study about pre-monarchical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Although most scholars adopted the hypothesis as their own, a few important divergent voices were heard, but even scholars who rejected the amphictyony had to address the question of such a tribal organization. If not, nobody would have paid any attention to what they wrote. For the last two decades there has been an almost total silence about the amphictyony, after a series of studies that appeared in the early 1970s removed any historical foundation for its existence. In 1984 I was able to conclude the discussion in this way: 'The hypothesis of the amphictyony by now is irrelevant to the investigations into <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s past history'. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Between 1954 and 1970 as a consequence of the publication of George Mendenhall's articles about the relationship between the Sinai covenant and Hittite vassal treaties from the Late Bronze Age, Old Testament scholars invested a great deal of interest in covenant theology. For the next decade and a half everything centred on the covenant that was supposed to appear here, there and everywhere in the Old Testament. After 1969, when Lothar Perlitt simply announced that covenant theology was invented by the circle of Deuteronomist theologians towards the end of independent Israelite and Judean history, nobody continued to discuss the subject, which went into oblivion as if the discussion had never happened.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">These are of course only rather insignificant examples from a minor field within the academic world. However, they show how every period in the history of humankind will give birth to a number of questions—within philosophy, religion or simple politics—that are specifically related to this period, hot subjects for a while and then forgotten.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The same was the case in ancient times, although because of limited resources of communication, the stream of ever-changing ideas did not flow as fast as in modern times. Every era included a number of issues that specifically related to this period, and subjects of a lively discussion among the intellectuals of the time. We should not be surprised when two corpora of texts squarely belonging to the same period can display so many similarities and yet be so different as the texts of the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls need not agree on every single point because they might be more or less from the same time. It is simply an old scholarly hoax that people belonging to one and the same period should agree on anything and everything; on the contrary, in a society of the real world outside the academia, there are almost as many opinions around as people to discuss them. It is not the variety of opinions but the number of issues that is limited. Niels Hyldahl accordingly does not speak about individual points of contact but about a systemic kind of relationship: the same questions but different answers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Since the beginning of academic discussion it has been a favoured pastime to indulge oneself in comparative studies. I do not intend to elaborate on this theme here. I only have to refer the reader to James G. Frazer's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Golden Bough</i> as a famous but also contested specimen. It is much too easy to find similarities between the literary expressions of different cultures when they basically belong to the same stage of development, especially when we talk about relatively simple societies with a more or less uniform socio-economic system such as basic agriculture. In basic agrarian cultures, peasants all over the world share many ideas without ever having been in mutual contact. This is in itself an interesting scholarly occupation and can—when put together—result in something like Stith Thompson's index of folk-motifs in fairy-tales and legendary stories originating in a mostly oral environment, later elaborated upon in writing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">When, however, cultures get more complicated and the diversification of occupation in the old Durkheimian fashion begins to create separation within one and the same society, cultural expressions also become more elaborate and sophisticated. In this case a systemic similarity such as the one discussed above is more likely to reflect not only political but also and especially cultural interchange between two interrelated cultural zones, such as, for example, Mesopotamia and Western Syria and the Levant in the Bronze Age, or Mesopotamia and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> already before the dawn of history. The famous saying that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit</i>', 'conquered Greece conquered its barbaric conqueror', says precisely that the Romans became Hellenized when they entered into contact with Greece and were overwhelmed by its superior civilization and cultural tradition.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The moment we approach the problem of dating an Old Testament text—not to say the Old Testament itself—we are confronted with the literary remains of a culturally very rich civilization. No primitive literature is found in the Old Testament. Every part of the collection of Scripture included in the Old Testament displays a sophistication that brings us far beyond the cultural borders of an undeveloped basic agrarian society. The Primary History (Genesis to 2 Kings) is a fine example of this and need not be discussed in this context. Of more interest in this connection are the patriarchal narratives. Although these stories include many motifs from folk-literature or simply reflect popular stories, they are much too complicated to have originated within a milieu that was almost exclusively oral—Gunkel's notorious campfire society—or which had just changed from oral to a written stage of literary transmission. I do not intend to reiterate the ideas of Andre Jolles that oral literature is perforce simple and devoid of literary elaboration—there are plenty of examples of the complexity of orally transmitted literature. I do, however, say that the complexity is different from the one found in, say, the Ugaritic epics, or from another age, the Serbo-Croatian heroic epics collected by Parry and Lord. The complexity of a literary corpus such as the patriarchal narratives depends on the number of themes that are combined by the authors of these narratives and are difficult to separate. It also has to do with themes such as 'how God educates human beings', illustrated by the unique humoresque that constitutes the Abraham-complex or 'the struggle between creator and creation' that governs the traditions united in the Primary History.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It goes without saying that the form of these very narratives, almost exclusively prose narrative, is also an indication of a milieu of written literature that is almost unique in the ancient Near East. Literary fiction in the form of prose narrative was not widely distributed among the cultures of the ancient Near East. Mesopotamian literary creations were—like the literature from, say, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ugarit</st1:place></st1:city>—mostly preserved in the forms of written poems or epics. The literary elite of the Middle Kingdom made an extended use of prose stories. From a literary point of view this is probably the best comparison with the milieu that created literature such as the patriarchal narratives, but it is removed from this by at least 1000 years—perhaps more. Prose was of course known and dominates royal annals, Hittite as well as Babylonian and Mesopotamian, but although the forms of, for example, Assyrian royal annals may show up within biblical literature, the Old Testament does not include royal annals but, at most, literature that borrows its form from such reports. The patriarchal narratives have of course nothing to do with royal official literature. The author(s) who wrote these stories were evidently well-educated people who could both write and read. They did not write with gods in mind. They wrote literature to be read by other people. Their literature was composed with other educated people in mind, people who were able to understand and appreciate it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">When we change to the subject of 'how to create profiles of the authors of Old Testament texts', we have to keep these remarks in mind when we want to describe the mental matrices of these authors.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Search of 'Ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>'</i>, Philip R. Davies distinguishes between three different kinds of '<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'. One is 'historical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>', that is, the state otherwise known from Assyrian sources as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bit Humriya</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samarina</i>. This Palestinian state came into being some time in the ninth century BCE and was destroyed by the Assyrians 722 BCE. Historical Israel did not include the Palestinian petty state called Judah that only appeared on the historical scene as a state, say, after 800 BCE and was in existence as a semi-autonomous political entity until 597 or 587 BCE. The second <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> is 'biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>', the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> of the Old Testament. This <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> is the creation of the authors of the Old Testament and can only partly be related to historical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Thirdly, modern scholars created still another <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, the so-called 'ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'. This ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> represents a curious mixture of biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and historical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Although I have always respected the Dumezilian theory about the importance of the number three in the Indo-European tradition, Davies's theory about the three different '<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israels</st1:place></st1:country-region>' is one short of being correct. There are not one, but two biblical '<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israels</st1:place></st1:country-region>'. In my recent study <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Israelites in History and Tradition</i>, a comprehensive section has as its subject 'the People of God'. The term 'the People of God' includes the concept of the Israelite nation as the creation of the authors of the Old Testament prose narratives from Genesis to 2 Kings. It is my argument that in the Old Testament there is more than one biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>; there are, as a matter of fact, two '<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israels</st1:place></st1:country-region>' here. One of them is the 'old Israel', understood to be the people of the covenant written in stone (cf. the Sinai-complex but also Josh. 24); the second is the 'new Israel', the people of the covenant written in the heart (Jer. 31.31-4). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to the Old Testament, the Babylonian exile constitutes the line of division between the old and the new Israel. Old Israel is destroyed and its people banished from their country because they rejected their God and broke the covenant. The new Israel is the Israel supposed to arise in the future as the true people of God. It has at various times been identified with the Jewish nation, or with the Christian Church (cf. Rom. 9-11). Any sectarian group within Judaism or Christianity is expected to refer to itself as the true 'new Israel'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Most often it is argued that the same nation that the Babylonians forced into exile returned to Palestine in the Persian period. Now it is to this day an unsolved question whether there ever was a return of the dimensions envisaged by the Old Testament, namely, a movement of a people from one part of the Middle East to another. I will maintain that the 'exile' in Babylonia never ended, and that the presence of exilic people from Palestine lasted at least until 1951 CE. We probably have no other sources than the texts of the Old Testament that say that a major migration actually took place. Most of the constructions of Jewish history in the Persian period depend on the same type of hermeneutic circular exegesis as already described here. It is, however, an extraordinary fact that scholars have paid so little attention to the meaning of the different images of Jerusalem and Judah found in Chronicles, the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. When we read Nehemiah, it is as if the author of Nehemiah 1-4—the so-called 'autobiography of Nehemiah'—has never read Ezra. We cannot say with absolute certainty that 'Nehemiah's autobiography' is a historical document that reflects conditions in Jerusalem in the fourth century BCE. It could be a kind of novel from a much later period, that is, the Hellenistic period. However, whether or not it is a piece of literature going back to a historical person of the name of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 1-4 describes conditions in Jerusalem and its environment that are almost totally different from the impression of Jerusalem in the Persian period found in other biblical books. Has a Jewish community already appeared in this place in the fourth century BCE? This is an open question. And from an archaeological perspective: do we possess evidence that a major migration took place at the end of the sixth century BCE from Mesopotamia to Palestine? If this was the case, if Jews from Babylonia really returned to Jerusalem and Judah in numbers between, say 538 and 516 BCE, where are their Babylonian cooking-pots? Would women leave their homes without bringing their utensils with them?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The point is that the 'old Israel' is a construction of biblical authors, whereas the 'new Israel' is a Utopia created by the same authors as an expression of their religious and national programme for the future. There never was an 'old Israel' in the biblical sense but the 'new Israel' is also an invention. It includes a project for the future: God-loving persons will found the 'new Israel'. Only the righteous are going to survive and to assemble at Zion protected by the Lord himself (cf. Isa. 4).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Two ideas are central to the concept of the 'new Israel'. On one hand the covenant between God and Israel and on the second God's torah. The covenant of Sinai failed miserably to unite the people of Israel with its God. The new covenant of Jeremiah 31 will substitute the old one and cannot be broken because it is not something from the outside but a part of the person who has entered the covenant. Together with the covenant goes God's torah or instruction. This instruction will guide the new Israel that it shall one day enter Zion. Without the torah there is no way to God. Most people will perish before they ever reach this place of blessing, 'because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel' (Isa. 5.24).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The new Israel is the people of God. It is a people of 12 tribes assembled around a holy centre, the shrine of Yahweh at Zion. It is believed to include people with a common blood and a common religion—to a lesser degree with a common language, but with a land of its own.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The mental matrix of biblical authors centres around the establishment of the new Israel. This matrix can be nothing less than the expression of a sectarian view of society. It creates a division between two kinds of people: the righteous that belong to this society and the unjust who will be condemned and thrown out. The criterion for deciding who is righteous and who is not is exclusively a religious one: do people keep the covenant and follow the instructions? The image of the new Israel is one of a sectarian community that—as other similar organizations in the Hellenistic world—excludes itself from the greater society that surrounds it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Without the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">torah</i> there will never be a new Israel. What does this tell us about the authors who introduced the concept of the torah? The Decalogue opens the torah (Exod. 20.1-21; in Deuteronomy it serves the same purpose: 5.6-21). Irrespective of its origin and tradition-history, it probably serves as an index for the following sections of the legislation of Moses. This legislation opens with the 'Book of Covenant', Exodus 21-23. The Assyriologist Raymond Westbrook has argued that the first, so-called 'secular' part of this collection represents Mesopotamian law tradition. He is certainly right—we only have to refer to the extensive degree of similarity analysed by, among others, Shalom Paul and Eckhart Otto. Westbrook believes that this proves the Book of Covenant to be old. However, in Mesopotamia the tradition of the law codes lasted for millennia, from Sumerian times until at least the coming of the Greeks and probably even longer (the cuneiform literary tradition did not die totally out before the first or second centuries CE). This law tradition was rather stable and not easily exported. More importantly, it was not a law tradition in the usual sense of the word, but rather an academic tradition only remotely related to the life in court. It was nourished in the universities of the time (the misnamed 'scribal schools') and belonged exclusively to this milieu. In short: the Mesopotamian law codices are not primarily expressions of forensic experience but belong among wisdom literature and represent an academic pastime.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The biblical collectors or authors of the law traditions that were included among the instructions of Moses evidently chose one of the Mesopotamian law codes (or created their own within the Babylonian law tradition) as the first part of the divine legislation. These collectors hereby reveal where they got their education. They must have studied in university institutions of their own time, most likely in Mesopotamia (this is a safe assumption as long as we have no evidence of comparable institutions outside of Mesopotamia—at least in the Iron Age [first millennium BCE]). It is clear that our collectors and/or authors had an academic background. They evidently belonged to academic circles and were brought up within a system of education that in their time had lasted for more than 2000 years.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">We now know two things about our authors. First, from a religious standpoint they were sectarians, people who believed themselves to belong among the chosen few who are destined to escape from extermination when God returns his people to Zion. Second, they were also academics and part of an age-old educational system.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">None of this proves our authors to be late, not to say from the Hellenistic-Roman period. They must obviously postdate the events of 587 BCE (if this is a historical date—the Old Testament is the only testimony to the second destruction of Jerusalem) or at least 597 BCE (the date of the conquest of Jerusalem confirmed by the Babylonian Chronicle). The destruction of Jerusalem is a necessary part of the construction. It is of fundamental importance for the future return of the 'new Israel' to Zion. The question is only whether the authors belonged to the Persian or the Hellenistic period.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is probably not a fair argument to say that the Persian period has been popular among scholars because we know so little about this period—as far as Palestine is concerned. However, the esteem for the Persian period among modern scholars compares well with the estimation of 'early Israel' as the cradle of Israelite civilization a generation ago. Like 'early Israel', the Persian period constitutes a kind of 'black box'. We know so very little about early Israel and only slightly more about the Persian period.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Many scholars think that in the Persian period the biblical tradition either originated or developed into the literature known from the Old Testament. The capacity of being a 'black box' makes the Persian period a likely candidate for such an assumption as it cannot be refuted by extant evidence that says the opposite. The 'black box' concept makes everything possible and allows the scholar to propose all kinds of theories that cannot be controlled. The procedure is illegitimate as it provides us with a hypothesis that cannot be falsified.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is of course possible that a religious idea such as the dualism between good and evil that is found in Old Testament texts, but much more expressly in para-biblical literature such as the War Scroll from Qumran (clearly Hellenistic-Roman in date), is the result of influences from Persian religion. It may also be the case that the idea of a theocratic government in Yehud has been moulded on the basis of the citizen-temple-society system that developed elsewhere in the Persian Empire. The evidence of such a theocratic system from Judah, however, hardly predates the second century BCE.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">At the end of the day we simply have to admit that we know too little about the Persian period to make it a viable option and thus not only wishful thinking that the Old Testament was largely written during the centuries of Persian occupation of Palestine. If there are reflections in Old Testament literature of ideas current within the Persian Empire in, say the fifth or early fourth centuries BCE we cannot identify such ideas with any certainty. We cannot place biblical texts within an intellectual development that is otherwise unknown to us.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Matters gradually improve as we turn to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as we are well informed about the general development in the intellectual history of humankind in this era. We are acquainted with the history of philosophy in the Hellenistic world, and we possess a fair share of Hellenistic literature, mostly but not exclusively of Greek origin. We also have an impression of the impact of Greek civilization in the Near East. At the moment we know too little about the precise history of this development, especially in remote areas such as the nooks and crannies of Palestine. We must hope that in the future it will be possible to describe how Greek civilization during the third and second centuries gradually extended its influence from region to region. The initial centres of Greek-Hellenistic influence were located in Egypt and Mesopotamia but subsequently Hellenistic civilization spread to other areas including also Palestine and Jordan in the second century BCE.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Now the question is: is it possible to find traces of the general intellectual climate of Hellenism within biblical literature?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The traditions of the ancient Near East are very much in evidence in biblical literature. It would be foolish to say anything else. From the very beginning of the collection of writings in the Old Testament, Near Eastern tradition manifests itself both in single stories and in more complex narratives. If we are to present an image of the authors and collectors of biblical literature we must keep this evidence of ancient Near Eastern culture in mind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The procedure of analysis can alternatively be compared to an archaeological excavation. In the text of the Old Testament a variety of items dating from different places and times are available. Mesopotamian material is quite evident. Thus the story of the creation in Genesis 2 is definitely embedded within Mesopotamian tradition and the story of the flood in Genesis 6-8 is closely related to the Neo-BabyIonian version in the Gilgamesh Epic. Some textual material comes from Egypt, for example, the chapters of Proverbs that are shared by the Egyptian wisdom book of Amenemopet (Prov. 22.17-24.22). More Egyptian or 'Egyptianized' material can be found in stories about Israel in Egypt. Ideas and notions from Syrian and the Levant abound, for example, in the allusions to the battle between God and the sea included in many Old Testament psalms. Biblical authors share many genres of literature with their Near Eastern colleagues, such as the already mentioned law-tradition but also wisdom literature in its many forms.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Although this Near Eastern influence is evident, it is not enough to date its literary context exactly. Just as in archaeology, a literary stratum must be dated according to the youngest item found within and not according to the oldest evidence. Any piece of literature may reflect ideas and concepts that trace their origins way back in the history of humankind. If the text also includes elements that belong to a more recent period, the context that includes old as well as new material will always be the context of the youngest item at the earliest. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This hardly comes as a surprise to students of the Old Testament who have for centuries looked for solutions to the problem, not least by splitting biblical literature into several literary strata—sources or documents. In a recent contribution I argued that it is important whether information is part of the structure of the text or simply added to the text during its transmission. Thus the idea that the content of the patriarchal narratives somehow goes back to an alleged 'patriarchal age' or belongs to an age not too far removed from the patriarchs makes it necessary to consider the information that Abraham came from 'Ur in Chaldea' anachronistic (Gen. 11.31). Ur could only be considered a 'Chaldean' city from, say, 800 BCE. This piece of information could have been added to the story about Abraham's migration by a secondary hand. The information that the patriarchs used camels (cf., e.g., Gen. 24) is different although equally anachronistic as the camels had not been domesticated when the patriarchs are supposed to have lived. If the information about the camels in, say, Genesis 24 is secondary, this chapter has been the subject of a far more elaborate rewriting to make it fit the conditions of the first millennium BCE. The camel was domesticated shortly before 1000 BCE. As it now appears in Genesis 24 the camel may not be absolutely essential to the plot (the bringing of Rebecca to Isaac), but it would demand a number of changes to the narrative to substitute with, for example, a donkey.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Such examples say that a single piece of information might not be sufficient evidence to date a text. Even if undisputed 'Hellenistic' material was present in the Bible it will not automatically make the Old Testament a Hellenistic book. We need more than isolated examples, items found 'out of context'. We need to find parts of what might belong to the 'mainstream intellectual tradition' of the period in question, not primarily single texts but larger pieces of literature, even genres.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A few isolated points of contact between Old Testament literature and the Hellenistic world will not satisfy us. We might decide to make a systemic comparison and see whether or not an analysis of the literature of the Old Testament will open it up for extended comparison so as to indicate that these texts could be related to an intellectual development that presupposes the blending together of Near Eastern and Greek traditions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This comparative procedure may lead us in many directions. I do not intend to present an exhaustive catalogue of possibilities. Recently scholars and laypeople alike have been active, not least on the Internet, showing the Old Testament to belong to the Hellenistic Age. I will, however, concentrate on one genre only: the presence of history-writing in the Old Testament and in the Hellenistic world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This subject has been of interest not least since John Van Seters more than 15 years ago made classical history-writing relevant to biblical studies. His point of contact were the early 'logographers' of the Greek world, writers who in the sixth century BCE began to collect memories and traditions from 'ancient times'. The comparison, however, does not end here. We may question how Near Eastern intellectuals got to know the tradition of the logographers already in the Iron Age. Although contacts between the Aegean Archipelagos and the Levant existed, there are no traces of any influence of the logographers in any Iron Age source known from Syria or Palestine, not to mention Mesopotamia. Van Seters' idea of an early transmission of Greek culture to the Levant is obviously a part of his general appraisal of the exilic period and his dating of the Yahwist source to the sixth century. It is the weak link in his argumentation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Other scholars have gone further. Recently a series of studies has appeared or are going to be published shortly that argues a dependence between biblical history writing and Herodotus' <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Histories</i> of the middle fifth century BCE. Thus Jan-Wim Wesselius has published a series of articles—partly in Dutch—about Herodotus and the Old Testament, among them a recent contribution to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament</i> where he argues a dependency between the primeval history in Genesis and Herodotus' work. This comparison is to be expanded in a forthcoming monograph by Wesselius.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Obviously Wesselius like Flemming A. Nielsen in his recent work on Greek history writing and the Deuteronomistic History, concentrates on the striking similarity between Herodotus and Old Testament historical prose narrative. Evidently the focus of attention has moved from the sixth to the fifth century BCE! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Still, the comparison between the Bible and Herodotus' Histories seems directed by the same tendency as is evident in Van Seters' already mentioned link to the logographers. Herodotus stands at the beginning of the Greek historiographical tradition and although he borrows from the logographers, the later Greek and Roman traditions probably correctly considered him 'the father of history'. There is no reason why we should limit our investigations only to the relationship between Herodotus and the Bible.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In a forthcoming publication I present a different approach to the study of biblical and Hellenistic history writing. In this study it will be argued that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of Rome</i> by Livy is actually closer to the biblical history than Herodotus' 'investigations'. It is not because biblical literature presupposes the existence of Livy's extensive work dating from the end of the first century BCE but because it presupposes the historiographical tradition within which Livy's history should be situated. Livy's work is part of the Hellenistic tradition of writing history as it developed within the Greek system of education in the third and second centuries BCE.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Flemming A. Nielsen's study on Herodotus and the Deuteronomistic History demonstrates an extensive similarity as far as it involves the general arrangement of the two works. He accordingly makes use of the systemic approach advocated above. It is possible to apply this approach to a wider field that also includes other aspects of biblical narrative, not least philosophy (theology and anthropology). In such a study the Hellenistic quest for the 'good person' might be of interest as the goal of education.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">History is therefore a main point of contact between biblical and Hellenistic literature. Although the authors of the history of the Old Testament sometimes employ old literary forms or borrow from, for example, the annalistic tradition of Mesopotamia, the concept of history as a process with a purpose unites Greek and Old Testament historical narrative.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The 'historical' mode of interpreting the fate of humankind, which biblical as well as Greek historiographers employ, is an important part of the mental matrix. Now we can see at least a shadow of our writers. They are sectarians with a definite sectarian view of humankind: few are elected, most will vanish because they have forsaken God's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">torah</i>. How it happened belongs to history and it is the historiographers' duty to explain how and why it happened so that it never happens again. Our sectarians are clearly academically educated persons. They are well acquainted with oriental mythology and traditions as well as the Greek tradition of history-writing. Furthermore, they combine both the Greek and oriental traditions in an organic fashion that shows that they are brought up within an intellectual milieu that is at the same time both Greek and oriental. Such a milieu is hardly likely to have existed before the Hellenistic period and even then probably only in a few major urban centres, especially in Mesopotamia or Egypt.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">We therefore assume that the historical literature of the Old Testament belongs to the Hellenistic period. It is not unique. At the same time as the biblical historical literature came into being other similar constructions of the past were published, such as Manetho's history of Egypt, or Berossus' history of Mesopotamia. Philo of Byblos' <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phoenician History</i> is much later. Little has been preserved of the works of Manetho and Berossus, but the fact that they appeared more or less at the same time (early second century BCE) in different places illustrates the early impact of Greek literary tradition on the major centres of the Near East.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">When we put the evidence together and ask for a place where the amalgamation between oriental and Greek traditions might have taken place, the fact that the historical literature of the Old Testament presupposes an amalgamation between Greek and Oriental academic traditions is important. Within the Hellenistic-Roman educational system, history was an integral part of the academic curriculum identified with the dominating discipline of rhetoric. We therefore have to look for a place where oriental and Greek traditions came together in an educational system or academic environment that included both traditions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Many years ago I joyfully proposed a new theory about the origin of the Pentateuch that should never be published. It has later publicly been referred to as 'Lemche's famous "three pub hypothesis'". The 'hypothesis' claims that the Pentateuch came into being over a very short time in the third century BCE in three different pubs in a Jewish suburb in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. One of these was called 'Y', another 'E' and the third 'P'. It took little more than three months of lively interchange between the three pubs to finish the first four books of Moses. Although no more than a joke, it may nonetheless be closer to reality than we perhaps realize. We should probably not look for the intellectual milieu of our authors in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. In the third century BCE people gradually deserted <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> and resettled in newly founded <st1:city w:st="on">Seleucia</st1:city>, the present <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Baghdad</st1:place></st1:city>. The Seleucid Empire was, however, excellently set up to provide the intellectual conditions for an amalgamation between Mesopotamian and Greek traditions that could also have provoked the appearance of Old Testament historical prose literature.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is probably more than likely that the centre of this intellectual development was <st1:place w:st="on">Mesopotamia</st1:place> itself. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region> might be considered an alternative (<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Damascus</st1:place></st1:city>?). The Utopian character of the concept of the 'people of God' and its likewise Utopian concept of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Israel</st1:placename> in the Old Testament speak in favour of an origin of the historical literature in the Old Testament outside of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city>. If Hellenism came late to Palestine we may have still another argument in favour of a non-Palestinian origin of this literature.</span> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-32475208016904759002012-01-16T16:58:00.019+02:002012-06-01T12:18:53.342+03:00The Story of Sheshbazzar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfT967yob8ALRtPlMRICaUXNC3pyx_fct5tEwDPELvWOJBTb6uEoFVrclcHyiKHDmVSBnygPKvGDvl2IG60vHAiGRLF95D5ddqXRrn37ijLZZ7eFomFz4c9CmZ7wX5BjkoA3KJo6wO5m1/s1600/9-Cyrus-returns-vessels-of-Jews-Gustave-Dore1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfT967yob8ALRtPlMRICaUXNC3pyx_fct5tEwDPELvWOJBTb6uEoFVrclcHyiKHDmVSBnygPKvGDvl2IG60vHAiGRLF95D5ddqXRrn37ijLZZ7eFomFz4c9CmZ7wX5BjkoA3KJo6wO5m1/s320/9-Cyrus-returns-vessels-of-Jews-Gustave-Dore1.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The book of Ezra tells us how after 70 years of Babylonian captivity the Jewish people returned to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> and rebuilt<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> temple. Rebuilding of the temple was quite complex process. Due to various circumstances the rebuilding of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>temple<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> permanently delayed. Starting at the first year of the Persian king Cyrus the rebuilding of the temple ended only in the sixth year of Darius the king.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the first chapter of the book (so called Story of Sheshbazzar) the Persian king Cyrus the Great issued an order and allowed the Jews return to Judah and rebuild the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Then Cyrus sent to Jewish ruler Sheshbazzar the temple vessels which Nebuchadnezzar king of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>brought from the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on">Solomon</st1:placename></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>before its destruction. In the following chapters of the book is given a list of people who returned from captivity and described the beginning of the process of rebuilding the temple. But in following chapters nothing is said about Sheshbazzar. In the next chapters of this book the main characters are Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest and Ezra the scribe later. Nothing is said about what happened with temple vessels which the Persian king Cyrus gave Sheshbazzar through his treasurer Mithredath. Consequently, the book contains a puzzle. Whither did Sheshbazzar disappear? And where did he put the temple vessels that he brought from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Biblical scholars who explore the book of Ezra note that in this book the Story of Sheshbazzar is incomplete. After the story about the receiving the temple vessels of Sheshbazzar and return from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>this story ends. The next story in chapter 2 contains a list of those who returned from captivity. But such leader as Sheshbazzar is not mentioned on this list that contains 42,360 people. Therefore, scholars believe that the first chapter of the book of Ezra (the Story of Sheshbazzar) has preserved in the corrupted form. And in order to solve our puzzle, we must restore the original form of that story. Then we can answer the question where did Sheshbazzar put the vessels of Solomon's temple?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">We will try to restore this chapter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The storyline of Sheshbazzar story in present form is as follows:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the first year of his reign Cyrus the king issued a permit to rebuild the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The leaders of Judah and Benjamin, priests and Levites responded to this permit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Their neighbors helped them financially.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">King Cyrus gave the temple vessels to Sheshbazzar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Sheshbazzar brought the temple vessels from <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> with all exiles.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But this chronology of events is not original. Two sources are the proofs of this. One of them a Greek translation of Ezra as it contained in the Septuagint. This translation contains a small but very important difference. After the story about the receiving of Sheshbazzar the temple vessels and a brief description of the vessels in the canonical book of Ezra states:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"Sheshbazzar brought them all up<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">with the exiles who went up</span></u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. (Ezra 1:11 NAS)"</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But in Septuagint we read:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">“…all that went up with Sasabasar from the place of transportation, from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezra 1:11 LXA)</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The marked fragment that combines the return of temple vessels and return of all exiles in a single event is absent in Septuagint. This means that in the Hebrew text of this book at the time of the Greek translation in 2-1 centuries BCE these two events have not been linked chronologically. If we carefully analyze the text of the order of King Cyrus, we may notice that he ordered help the Jewish returnees not to their neighbors in <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> but those who lived in <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place> at that time:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">“And every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:4 NAS)”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Another source is the book of Jewish historian Josephus "Antiquities" written at the end of the first century CE. Telling about the events of the book of Ezra Josephus gave the same chronology as in the Septuagint translation. According to his book the exiles did not return to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with the temple vessels, but earlier:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"When Cyrus had said this to the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, went in haste to Jerusalem; yet did many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">;<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <b>and when they were come thither</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">, all the king's friends assisted them, and brought in, for the building of the temple, some gold, and some silver, and some a great many cattle and horses. So they performed their vows to God, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">offered the sacrifices<i> </i></span><i>t</i></b><i>hat had been accustomed of old time; I mean this upon the rebuilding of their city, and the revival of the ancient practices relating to their worship. Cyrus also sent back to them the vessels of God which king Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged out of the temple, and had carried to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city>. (Antiquities XI. 1. 3)”</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Thus the original<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>storyline<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of events was as follows:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the first year of his reign Cyrus the king issued a permit to rebuild the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The leaders of Judah and Benjamin, priests and Levites responded to this permit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Exiles returned to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Other inhabitants of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> helped them<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">to do something</span></u>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">King Cyrus gave the temple vessels to Sheshbazzar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 42.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Sheshbazzar brought the vessels from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">placed somewhere</span></u>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to the original chronology the exiles returned to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>before the return of temple vessels. After return the exiles other inhabitants of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>helped them with gold and silver, horses, cattle, jewels (by order of Cyrus the king). Then the exiles did something that is not present today in the book of Ezra. After that, the Jews made a sacrifice (as in the book of Josephus). And only then Cyrus handed over the temple vessels to Sheshbazzar. The account what did Sheshbazzar do with this vessels is also absent in the text of the book.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A hint of what did the Jews do at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> led by Sheshbazzar is contained in another part of the book of Ezra. There is an account that Sheshbazzar laid the foundations of the temple in the letters to King Darius from Tatnai and Shetharboznai, the governors of Beyond the River.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>laid the foundation of the house of God</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>which is in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezra 5:16 KJV)”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But in another part of the book there is an account that Zerubbabel laid the foundations of the temple. Therefore we can assume that in the first chapter of the book, which describes the activities of Sheshbazzar, it has been removed the reference of the laying the foundations of the temple. This reference could be deleted because it contradicted with other stories about laying the foundations of the temple of other character (Zerubbabel). The book could not contain two different accounts about the laying the foundations of the same temple, so one of these accounts had to be removed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But even this assumption does not remove all contradictions. The question remains, where did Sheshbazzar put the vessels of Solomon's temple? He had to place it into the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In terms of the sequence of events would be logical to assume that the transmission of temple vessels would take place after rebuilding the temple in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Why did Cyrus hand over the vessels if there was no place to put them?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The story of the transmissions of the temple vessels contains in the first chapter of the book of Ezra (Sheshbazzar story). But in this chapter, it is submitted very shortly. More detailed about it is told in the letters to king Darius. In these letters mentions that king Cyrus commanded:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"Take these vessels, go, carry them into the temple that is in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, [<u>and let the house of God be built]</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in his place.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezra 5:15 KJV)”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The marked fragment is missing in the Septuagint. Accordingly, at the time of translation into Greek the Hebrew text of the order of Cyrus was as follows:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">“Take all the vessels, and go, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">put them in the house that is in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in their place</b>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezra 5:15 LXA)”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to Septuagint Cyrus handed over the temple vessels when the temple was already built! The above quote from Septuagint is a trace of the previous edition of Sheshbazzar story.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, we can restore the full original storyline of the Story of Sheshbazzar:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the first year of his reign Cyrus the king issued a permit to rebuild the temple.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The leaders of Judah and Benjamin, priests and Levites responded to this permit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Exiles returned to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Other inhabitants of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> helped them <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">to build a temple</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">King Cyrus gave the temple vessels to Sheshbazzar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 48.2pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 48.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.85pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Sheshbazzar brought the vessels from <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">and placed them in the temple.</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">How could it be? After all, the temple was built by Zerubbabel in the sixth year of Darius the king!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Obviously, Sheshbazzar story once was short, completely independent story, in no way connected with the stories of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It was the story with complete fulfillment the prophecy of the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah. The book of Jeremiah contained the prophecy about 70 years of captivity, and the book of Isaiah contained the prophecy about the Lord's anointed Cyrus, who will rebuild the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>temple. In the story of Sheshbazzar these prophecies successfully implemented. The exile lasted 70 years, King Cyrus came to power, and in the first year of his reign he allowed Jews to return from exile and rebuild the temple in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. And immediately after that the returnees rebuilt the temple and placed there the temple vessels, what symbolize the restoration of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on">Solomon</st1:placename></st1:place>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But when the story of Sheshbazzar has been combined with the stories of Zerubbabel it created the controversy. In the story of Sheshbazzar the temple has been rebuilt in the first year of King Cyrus, but in the stories of Zerubbabel it has been rebuilt at the time of Persian king Darius. In order to somehow resolve this contradiction, the chronology of the events has been changed. According to the new chronology rebuilding the temple only began at the times of Cyrus, but did not complete. For some reason it has been delayed until the time of Darius the king, and has been completed in the second (in the sixth, later) year of his reign.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Ezra 4:4-5)</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, in the intermediate stage of development of the Sheshbazzar story the rebuilding of the temple by Sheshbazzar has been replaced by laying the foundations of the temple. This interim stage of literary development of the book is reflected in the letters to the king Darius by mention of laying the foundations of the temple by Sheshbazzar. But this event there isn't anymore in the story of Sheshbazzar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gradually, in the biblical texts Zerubbabel began to displace Sheshbazzar. A new and more popular character Zerubbabel established and rebuilt the temple in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. As a result, these two characters became to merge. Already mentioned historian Josephus treated these two characters as one person under the different names. Even today in much of the dictionaries states that Sheshbazzar is another name for Zerubbabel. An example of such an association of the characters is an excerpt from the 1 Esdras. Unlike the canonical book of Ezra, which states that the temple vessels have been handed over to Sheshbazzar, in this book the name of Zerubbabel is inserted before the name of Sheshbazzar, although the sentence is clearly refers only to one person.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"And the holy vessels of gold and of silver, that Nabuchodonosor had carried away out of the house at Jerusalem, and had set them in his own temple those Cyrus the king brought forth again out of the temple at Babylon, and they were delivered to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Zorobabel</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and to Sanabassarus the <u>ruler</u>, with commandment that<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>he</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>should carry away the same vessels, and put them in the temple at Jerusalem." (1 Esdras 6:18-19 LXA).</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Accordingly, the return of temple vessels has been shifted from the time of Cyrus to the time of Darius. But this shifting has been carried out only on those scrolls that became the basis for 1 Esdras. In these scrolls the return of Zerubbabel occurred at the times of king Darius. Therefore, in these scrolls the reference to the bringing of the temple vessels by Sheshbazzar to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>at the times Cyrus has been deleted. Instead, in the book appeared the story that the temple vessels (which King Cyrus only promised return to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>but not did it) have been returned by king Darius and have been brought by the exiles who returned at the time of this king.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 28.5pt; margin-right: 20.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"He<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>[Darius]<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>sent away also all the vessels from Babylon, that Cyrus had set apart; and all that Cyrus had given in commandment, the same charged he also to be done, and sent unto Jerusalem." (1 Esdras 4:57 LXA)</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In our canonical book of Ezra the mention of the return of temple vessels at the times of Cyrus had remained, but the story about placing them in the temple there is no more, because according to the new chronology of events the temple did not exist yet.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-7771118905517424242011-12-21T23:45:00.002+02:002011-12-22T00:02:04.807+02:00Aspects of Samaria’s Religious Culture During the Early Hellenistic Period<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Gary N. Knoppers <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPyL8n4i8gd4rWcz5WmexWIBfGYdg-H69rc9OBu-89jlZv764_XplLc4ZZIuS-QeeYFzpCjwqtgPKcupoYynLJw0N1dpviyAreKYf86yoDP-YSVMYpRgU8TaBRYSLOcfoCmVj9tF6BpFSg/s1600/Gerizim+precinct.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPyL8n4i8gd4rWcz5WmexWIBfGYdg-H69rc9OBu-89jlZv764_XplLc4ZZIuS-QeeYFzpCjwqtgPKcupoYynLJw0N1dpviyAreKYf86yoDP-YSVMYpRgU8TaBRYSLOcfoCmVj9tF6BpFSg/s320/Gerizim+precinct.jpeg" width="283" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In the first volume of his extensive study, A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Grabbe comments that a number of peculiar problems confront the would-be historian in attempting to write about the Persian period. Among these are the survival of few primary (contemporary) documents, the types of extant written sources, large gaps in the available sources, and the fact that most narrative descriptions written about this era in antiquity are late works in Greek or Latin, presenting events from a Hellenic or Roman perspective. When he later turns to discussing the history of one of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region>’s neighbors, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city>, during the Achaemenid era, Grabbe describes our present knowledge as “skimpy.” One might add that scholarly reconstructions have been hampered by an over-reliance on late Judean biblical texts, most of which are polemical in tone, and the testimony of Josephus. Happily, as Grabbe himself notes, recent discoveries have begun to change this picture. The publication of the Samaria papyri and seal impressions, the publication and analysis of hundreds of Samarian coins, and the partial publication of the Mt. Gerizim excavations have enhanced our knowledge and complicated older reconstructions of the religious history of the region of Samaria during the Achaemenid and Hellenistic eras. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">My essay deals with some aspects of <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city>’s religious culture as reflected in the hundreds of short (fragmentary) inscriptions from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> written in Lapidary Aramaic, the so-called Proto-Jewish script, and the Neo-Hebrew script. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions written in the Samaritan script may be left out of this discussion as these texts date to the late antique and medieval periods. Given space constraints, my study will focus on the composition of proper names within the available epigraphic sources. At the outset, some caution must be exercised in dealing with onomastic evidence so as not to draw far-reaching and detailed conclusions about the history and culture of a particular area. There are limits to how much information about ethnicity or religious affiliation can be derived from the make-up of proper names. To take one example, the element <i>baal</i> can function in a proper name as a theonym or as an appellative. In the former case, the term can refer to a particular deity, the Canaanite god Haddad or Haddu; but, in the latter case, <i>baal</i> can function as an epithet for a variety of ancient Near Eastern deities, including Yahweh.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">To take a second example, in dealing with the onomastic evidence stemming from the Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Hellenistic periods, one has to account for the phenomenon of double (or second) names. Double names are cases in which a person may carry a second name with no relationship to that person’s own ethnic background. The use of double names may be subject to several different explanations within the larger international context of various ethnic groups coexisting during the post-monarchic era. But, in any case, the very phenomenon of second names augurs against assuming that those bearing foreign names had somehow abandoned their traditional gods or ethnic backgrounds. In short, the linguistic and religious features of personal names may be used in some cases to provide some indication of their bearers’ identities, but one must be careful to recognize the limitations of the evidence available to us. If the names appear with patronyms, affiliations, titles, or place-names, that information may be very useful as a control in contextualizing the possible significance of such anthroponyms. In any case, one has to deal with the evidence that is available to us, recognizing its limitations and cultural contexts. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Some issues of script nomenclature: what Cross and others have called the paleo-Hebrew script, the imitation (or continuation) of the old Hebrew script, Magen, Misgav, and Tsfania call the Neo-Hebrew script. What Cross and others have called Proto-Hasmonean script, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> epigraphers call Proto-Jewish. For the sake of the convenience of readers, I will follow the nomenclature used in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> publications. The so-called Proto-Jewish (a.k.a. Proto-Hasmonean) script was once thought to be a distinctive local development from the standard Aramaic cursive of the late <st1:place w:st="on">Persian empire</st1:place>. But, given the appearance of the same script in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions, the script should be renamed. Indeed, the question may be raised whether this script is unique to Yehud and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">1. Proper Names in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> Inscriptions<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In looking at the composition of Samarian proper names in the Hellenistic period, the recently published inscriptions discovered at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> are of considerable help. The approximately 400 fragmentary inscriptions unearthed over the course of the recent excavations on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> represent a most welcome epigraphic discovery. The inscriptions are written in Lapidary Aramaic, Proto-Jewish, Neo-Hebrew, and Samaritan scripts. The discovery of a large number of inscriptions in the so-called Proto-Jewish script is especially notable. Most of the inscriptions from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> are dated to the third and second centuries B.C.E.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Unfortunately, most of the inscriptions, whatever their exact dates, were not found in situ, but were found scattered in various areas around the site. Almost all of the inscriptions are of a votive or dedicatory character. It should be noted that many of the texts written in Aramaic script and Neo-Hebrew script were discovered in and around the area of the sacred precinct. Magen, Misgav, and Tsfania hypothesize that the votives were inscribed on already extant stones embedded in walls surrounding or leading up to the temple. After the temple was destroyed, many of the stones upon which the votive texts were inscribed were reused in later building phases. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In what follows, I wish to discuss not only certain aspects of the inscriptions written in Lapidary Aramaic, but also some of the Proto-Jewish and Neo-Hebrew inscriptions. It must be remembered that although these texts date to the Hellenistic era, they provide a glimpse into the longue durée of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> site. They either presuppose the existence of a Yahwistic temple or make explicit references to this shrine. As such, the inscriptions may provide us with insight into the character of the developing Samarian community and its reception of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> sanctuary. Since epigraphic evidence from this general area dating to the third and second centuries is not abundant, the texts provide welcome light on an obscure era.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">It may be appropriate to begin with a very brief discussion of some personal names among the inscriptions before we move on to discuss inscriptions involving the temple and its religious affairs. As is the case with the Samaria papyri and the Samarian numismatic remains, one finds a variety of personal names of a Yahwistic character, such as Delaiah, Hananiah and/or Honiah, Jehonathan, Jehoseph, Joseph, Shemaiah, as well as common names, such as Elnatan, Ephraim, Zabdi, Haggai, Jacob, and Simeon. Less common names include Abishag and Shobai. In a northern context, it is not surprising to find personal names such as Ephraim, Jacob, and Joseph. Yet, one also finds “Yehud” and “Judah” among the anthroponyms at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place>. If there was a long history of intense rivalry and ongoing enmity between the <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> and <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> communities, it would be less likely that one would find individuals named Judah and Yehud making dedications at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> shrine.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Also of interest is the threefold occurrence of the personal name Miriam among the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions. In the Hebrew scriptures, the name occurs prominently as the nomenclature for the sister of Moses, one of the leaders of the exodus generation (Exod 15:20; Num 12:1–15; 20:1; 26:59; Deut 24:9; Mic 6:4; 1 Chr 5:29). The name appears only once elsewhere, as the proper name of a descendant of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> (1 Chr 4:17). The name is thus far unattested, to my knowledge, on any Israelite or Judahite inscriptions, seals, or bullas. On two of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions, Miriam appears as the name of a donor. In one case, an inscription written in Lapidary Aramaic script, a certain Miriam makes an unspecified offering on behalf of herself and on behalf of her sons. In another case, Miriam appears as one of a number of benefactors (Lapidary Aramaic script). In the third case, an inscription in Proto-Jewish script, the context is too fragmentary to reach any larger conclusions. Miriam is thus only one of several names found among the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions that are reminiscent of the appellatives given to prominent figures in the people’s classical past. Some recall the time of the Ancestors (e.g. Jacob, Joseph, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Ephraim</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place>, Levi), while others recall major figures associated with the times of Exodus, Sinai, and the emergence in the land (e.g. Amram, Eleazar, Miriam, Phinehas). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As with the names found among the <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> papyri, there are some foreign names in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions, for example, “Bagohi” (Lapidary Aramaic). Interestingly, but not too surprisingly given the long history of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> Gerizim sacred precinct in the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine eras, about one-fifth of the total proper names attested are Greek names. In summary, when surveying the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> Gerizim onomasticon with the early Hellenistic period in view, one is struck by three things: (1) the number of common Yahwistic proper names; (2) the number of archaizing personal names, that is, names that recall the names of male and female figures associated with Israel’s ancient past; and (3) the number of common Hebrew names. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">2. The Mt. Gerizim Inscriptions and the Mt. Gerizim Temple</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The names found in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions may be approached from another vantage point. It may be useful to pay some attention to the relevance of the inscriptions for our understanding of the sanctuary and its religious context. To begin with one inscription written in Lapidary Aramaic mentions “bulls in all…sacrificed in the house of sacrifice.” The reference to a “house of sacrifice” is especially intriguing, because the same expression (in Hebrew) is used by the deity in the book of Chronicles to refer to his election of the temple in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> (2 Chr 7:12). Other inscriptions contain formulae, such as “before God/the Lord in this place,” or simply “before God” or “before the Lord”. Based on biblical and extra-biblical parallels, such phraseology almost always suggests the context of a sacred precinct. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3vKgbRc2JyBkzm4lSrjIVwUAACwRu3LZimryYW3-9qjoOEC-4SU86K9NM8QAHNhaBiJ7LZMj7biKo5sJlHPQUfUJ029bYjifN37wWCOjWVWPkYx7IiIDdJjWbaXVqDaqAPgCwrISGHqf/s1600/PC152683.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3vKgbRc2JyBkzm4lSrjIVwUAACwRu3LZimryYW3-9qjoOEC-4SU86K9NM8QAHNhaBiJ7LZMj7biKo5sJlHPQUfUJ029bYjifN37wWCOjWVWPkYx7IiIDdJjWbaXVqDaqAPgCwrISGHqf/s320/PC152683.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Inscription "that which Joseph son of… offered for his wife and for his sons before the Lord in the temple"</span> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">One of the inscriptions written in paleo-Hebrew (or Neo-Hebrew) script contains the Tetragrammaton, apparently as part of the phrase “the house of Yhwh”. The use of the Tetragrammaton is, however, relatively rare and is not found among the extant Proto-Jewish inscriptions. The common terms for the divine are “God” (<i>elaha</i>) and “the Lord” (<i>adonai</i>). For example, an inscription in Proto-Jewish script reads, in part, “that which Joseph son of… offered for his wife and for his sons before the Lord in the temple”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnTb9kYK-bs1NkSvggH8AooDybYrkYNr11HNOxlTjh-J4TV9QTrj-t-aXnwTjkIGT3Rz0yQbdU_sX1VDiCr4HgxhqiUOZAJ8oZ258SFbeLMirZdlF9TyxgXcQFpnsNZYsQNm5B1UXT7uB/s1600/BSBA360603420.jpg+%2528300%25C3%2597239%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnTb9kYK-bs1NkSvggH8AooDybYrkYNr11HNOxlTjh-J4TV9QTrj-t-aXnwTjkIGT3Rz0yQbdU_sX1VDiCr4HgxhqiUOZAJ8oZ258SFbeLMirZdlF9TyxgXcQFpnsNZYsQNm5B1UXT7uB/s1600/BSBA360603420.jpg+%2528300%25C3%2597239%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tetragrammaton</span></span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Some inscriptions contain the titles of a priest or priests, who served as religious specialists at the </span><st1:place style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> shrine. One should mention, in this context, the appearance of some Levitical and priestly names found in the </span><st1:place style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;" w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> inscriptions, such as Levi, a personal name that is found on two different inscriptions. It should be pointed out, however, that unlike the situation with the references to the priests as a group, there are no attested references to the Levites as a group. Among the priestly names attested in the </span><st1:placetype style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;" w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> Gerizim inscriptions are Amram, the name of the father of Moses in biblical tradition (Exod 6:18, 20; Num 3:19; 26:58; 1 Chr 5:28; 6:3; 23:12; 24:20; cf. Ezra 10:34; Proto-Jewish script) and Eleazar, the name of the son of Aaron (Exod 6:23; Josh 24:33; Judg 20:28; Ezra 7:5; 1 Chr 5:29; 6:35; 24:1–6). The name Eleazar is found on two separate inscriptions, as well as on one square-shaped object, possibly a late seal. Another common priestly name found among the inscriptions is Phinehas, the son of Eleazar in biblical tradition (Exod 6:25; Num 25:7, 11; 31:6; Josh 22:13, 30–32; 24:33; Judg 20:28; Ps 106:30; Ezra 7:5; 8:2; 1 Chr 5:30; 6:35; 9:20; 24:1; Sir 45:23; 50:24). The name Phinehas is found on five different inscriptions. The repeated appearance of the name in Neo-Hebrew (or paleo-Hebrew) script may be important insofar as this script seems to have been favored (although not exclusively so) in some sacerdotal dedications.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FpgDEC8rvz0PU7I1x1quojH0prxv0DQwV5qcKTJTL49Hham4eRiiWg4I-N5EjIA9Jj32Zw3kijYWtgF7RwrPh95wyagjh29BWHFxzsBYeG__WaLeXSm1Fp9_L2hPdlCQo3rWyLiWXkHf/s1600/PC152682_number8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FpgDEC8rvz0PU7I1x1quojH0prxv0DQwV5qcKTJTL49Hham4eRiiWg4I-N5EjIA9Jj32Zw3kijYWtgF7RwrPh95wyagjh29BWHFxzsBYeG__WaLeXSm1Fp9_L2hPdlCQo3rWyLiWXkHf/s320/PC152682_number8.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Iscription "son of Phinehas the prist"</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">My argument is that not all of these figures with traditional Levitical and priestly names actually served as cultic functionaries or priests at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place>. The fragmentary evidence does not permit such a sweeping conclusion. Nevertheless, a few of the inscriptions do mention such sacerdotal personnel, along with their personal names, as the source of the relevant dedications. In other words, it is clear that priests were among those who made dedications at the shrine. It is also interesting that many of these priestly names replicate priestly names associated with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s ancient past. Perhaps some of the other dedicatory inscriptions included additional priestly names along with priestly titles, but the evidence is too partial to know for sure. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">3. Biblical Names, Samarian Names, and Judean Names<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In their studies of the epigraphic remains from northern Israel, both Lemaire and Zadok observe that the percentage of Yahwistic names attested from the fifth and fourth centuries in epigraphic sources (Samaria papyri, Samarian coins) is much higher than the percentage of Yahwistic names attested from the ninth-eighth centuries in epigraphic sources (the Samaria ostraca and various seal impressions). It might be tempting to draw similar contrasts between the fifth and fourth centuries and the third and second centuries. Based on such a broad comparison, one could leap to the conclusion that the Samarian community became more conservative during the Hellenistic era. Such a conclusion about a major onomastic shift would be potentially misleading, however. The names available from the Persian period derive from commercial, administrative, and political contexts, whereas the names available from the Hellenistic period largely derive from a cultic setting at a different geographic location. It is not surprising that a good number of the appellations in the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> inscriptions are priestly or Levitical in nature, whereas such appellations are rare, if non-existent, among the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> papyri and the Samarian coins. If one examines, for the sake of comparison, the anthroponyms found within the lists in Ezra–Nehemiah, one discovers that the lists of priests and Levites contain more Yahwistic names than those pertaining to other groups. Similarly, the fact that the Samarian coins and papyri contain a fair number of Persian and Babylonian names is understandable, given the nature of the documentation and the larger imperial, diplomatic, and commercial setting within which the capital of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> functioned. Indeed, one cannot presume that all of the names in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> papyri (mostly slave sales and slave dockets) are those of Samarians. Similarly, some allowance has to be made, for example, for the appearance of regional satraps on Samarian coins. One has to situate, as best one can, each onomasticon within its own particular geographic, social, and historical setting. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">It may be more prudent to maintain that the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename> inscriptions provide evidence of some continuity within the history of the Yahwistic community in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city></st1:place>. As in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place>, the elite was populated largely by Yahwists, but each of these communities had its own particular history and character. It hardly seems likely that Yahwism in <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> was a late arrival or that Yahwistic Samarians were a late breakaway group from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Similarly, it is not particularly helpful to view the Yahwists in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> as completely dominated by or particularly beholden to the Yahwistic Samarians, even though <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> appears to have been larger and more populous than was Yehud. Each of these provinces had its own particular cultic emphases and traits. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Analysis of the proper names may bear this out. Certain names appearing in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions are rare in Judean biblical literature, except as anthroponyms of traditional northern figures. The name of one of the dedicators in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions, Ephraim, appears regularly in biblical literature as the son of the patriarch Joseph, the eponymous ancestor of the Ephraimites, the tribe bearing this appellation, the hill country associated with Ephraim, and a synonym of the northern kingdom itself. The association of Ephraim with the tribe of Ephraim or with northern <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> continues in the early <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Second</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place> period (e.g. Zech 9:10, 11; 10:7; 1 Chr 9:3; 2 Chr 25:10; 28:7). But the name of Ephraim does not appear in the genealogies and lists of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah as the proper name of any individuals from Judah, Benjamin, or Levi. The name does not appear as a personal name, to my knowledge, in any Judean extra-biblical inscriptions dating to the Iron age, the Persian period, or the early Hellenistic period. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Similar things may be said of the name Joseph. The name appears in biblical literature as the son of Jacob and Rachel, the name of a tribe, a synonym of northern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and the name of the northern kingdom. But the name Joseph only rarely appears in exilic or postexilic Judean literature as the proper name of a layperson (Ezra 10:42) or a priest (Neh 12:14). The personal name does not appear, to my knowledge, in any Judean extra-biblical inscriptions dating to the Iron Age, the Persian period, and the early Hellenistic period. The situation is quite different with the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions. Within the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> texts, the personal name Joseph, or more often Jehoseph, appears in six different contexts. Joseph becomes, however, a very common proper name both in Syro-Palestine and in the diaspora during late Hellenistic and Roman times. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The situation is somewhat more complicated with another famous biblical figure, Jacob. This name also appears in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> inscriptions as one of two brothers, sons of Simeon, making an offering. In biblical literature, Jacob functions as a patriarchal name, a synonym for the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, and a synonym for northern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>. There has been considerable discussion about the usage of this name, like that of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in some prophetic passages to refer to some portion of the people as a whole or to some portion thereof. In some texts in Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah, the term may designate Judah or a particular group within <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, such as the Babylonian deportees. In one passage in Lamentations (2:2), the phrase the “settlements of Jacob” parallels the “fortresses of the daughter of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>.” Nevertheless, the new usage does not signal an unequivocal shift in meaning, because there are other passages in Second and Third Isaiah in which the name Jacob still relates to the people as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Apart from its use to signal a patriarch or a collective ethnicity bearing his name, the appellation Jacob is used relatively infrequently in what is traditionally considered to be Persian- or early Hellenistic-period Judean literature. The name does not appear as a personal name in any of the lists and genealogies in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, with one possible exception. The name Jacob seems to be unattested in extra-biblical Judean inscriptions dating to the Iron and Persian ages, including the Elephantine papyri. The name does appear, however, in the later Wadi Murabba‘at documents, the <st1:place w:st="on">Masada</st1:place> ostraca, a variety of ossuaries, and a number of other Jewish texts. Indeed, during late Hellenistic and Roman times, Jacob becomes a common Judean proper name. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In short, the appearance of certain personal names, such as Jeroboam, Ephraim, Jacob, and Joseph on inscriptions from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> does not seem to be accidental. The redeployment of such names suggests that at least some residents of <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> identified with earlier figures in the history of northern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The Samarians have often been viewed as a schismatic sect, but it must be recognized that the Samarians had their own particular historical traits and traditions. Approaching the Samarians as Judeans under a different name is too simplistic. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nevertheless, it must also be said that the evidence from the papyri, coins, and inscriptions suggests many lines of continuity between <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> and Yehud in Persian and Hellenistic times. Even as some members in each community may have been emphasizing distinctions between the two groups, the material evidence indicates that the two adjacent provinces possessed many common traits. The overlap in Yahwistic names and in Hebrew names is particularly noteworthy. The reuse of traditional Levitical and priestly names, such as Levi, Amram, Phinehas, and Eleazar, demonstrates that the Samarians, like the Judeans, construed their identity, at least in part, by recourse to traditions about and figures drawn from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s classical past. The avoidance of the use of the Tetragrammaton in the third-to-second century B.C.E. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place> dedicatory inscriptions, especially those written in the proto-Jewish script, is striking. The preference for the use of “God” (<i>elaha</i>) or the “Lord” (<i>adonai</i>) over the use of <i>yahweh</i> is important, because the same preference as a religious phenomenon to protect the sanctity of the personal name of the God of Israel occurs in the development of early Judaism.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Such parallels between the two communities are all the more interesting, because other material evidence from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Samaria</st1:placename></st1:place>, limited though it is, points to an overlap in cultural tradition with Yehud during the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods. The epigraphic (onomastic) evidence from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename></st1:place>, dating mostly to the third and second centuries B.C.E., shows that the religious overlap between the Samarians and the Judeans was as strong, if not stronger, in the Hellenistic period as it was in the Persian period. From the vantage point of the material remains, there is no clear indication that the two communities were moving in two opposite directions or that the two communities were drifting far apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusions<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The available material evidence underscores some strong similarities between the elites of both the Samarians and the Judeans, even as other evidence (chiefly literary) suggests that some members of communities advanced competing claims about upholding the heritage of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s ancient institutions. Paradoxically, the recourse to traditional writings, the means to distinguish a particular heritage (e.g. through the reuse of particular names), and the means to honor the deity both groups worshiped (whether at <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Gerizim</st1:placename>, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, or another shrine) were implemented in similar ways. Doing justice to the history of <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> entails acknowledging this paradox in the history of Samarian–Judean relations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-38317249261758667322011-11-01T13:32:00.010+02:002014-11-28T10:44:51.980+02:00Lester L. Grabbe, Ezra-Nehemiah (pdf)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The books of Ezra and Nehemiah have not been the most popular of the books in the Hebrew Bible. Yet they have had great influence on how the Jewish religion is assumed to have developed. They describe the reconstruction of the Jewish temple and state after their destruction by the Babylonians in 587/586 BCE and set the theme for the concerns and even the basis of Early Judaism which is usually seen as the Torah. The figure of Ezra has been profoundly associated with the origin or promulgation or interpretation of that Torah. The consequence is that the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are in many ways the foundation of much scholarship, not only about the development of the Jewish religion but even of how the Old Testament (OT) literature emerged.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The aim of this book is to make a contribution to a better understanding of these two books which, in my opinion, are crucial writings in the Hebrew Bible. My study has implications for the history of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the religion of Israelites and Judeans, the literary development of the OT, and OT theology. This is inevitable because of the importance of Ezra and Nehemiah for all these areas. All the various implications are not drawn here because of my focus purely on Ezra and Nehemiah. Some of the consequences were drawn in chapter 2 of my <i>Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian</i> (1992a) and will be dealt with in more detail in my forthcoming </span><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Yehud: The Persian Province of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region></st1:place></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (in preparation).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As a part of the series ‘<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place></st1:city>’ the heart of this study is a close reading of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Part I focuses purely on the literary aspects of the two books; it is primarily a close reading of the Hebrew books of Ezra and Nehemiah plus 1 Esdras and other Ezra and Nehemiah traditions. The aim is to read the texts as they exist in their final form. This does not reject the concept of authorial intent—indeed, authorial intent will be frequently discussed in Part II—but the emphasis in Part I is asking what the text actually says and what its structure implies. Questions of literary growth and source criticism come only as secondary questions: they are not the concern of chapters 2 to 4; however, occasional references may be given in anticipation of the later discussion, for questions of literary growth and sources and, especially, the historical questions will eventually be addressed. Chapter 5 asks about the relationship between the various traditions and goes on to discuss not only how the Hebrew books</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">of Ezra and Nehemiah are put together but also what their</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">structure and content imply about the growth of the traditions. It</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">is necessary for these matters of sources and literary growth to be</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">dealt with before historical questions can be asked in Part II.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, the analysis in chapters 2 to 4 goes beyond a</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">conventional literary analysis; it also looks at the implications of</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">content as well as structure to consider what these imply about</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">the development and redaction of the traditions.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In my view, it is a mistake to assume that a close reading or a</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">structural</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">analysis will clarify all aspects of the text. In some</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">cases they will but often, especially with traditional literature, they</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">show the imperfections and the disjunctures in the text as well as</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">the literary skill of the compiler/author/redactor. Part of a holistic</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">reading is not just to see how the text is structured and the parts</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">fit the whole but also to recognize that sometimes a purely literary</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">reading of the final form of the text does not do justice to what lies</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">before us. A full analysis of the text may require one to ask how it</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">came about—about its history, evolution, redaction, compilation.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The emphasis in some of the literary approaches has been on how</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">the work is structured and how the various elements within the</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">narrative contribute to the message of the book; that is, they</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">emphasize unity and integrity of the narrative. Such analyses</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">have often been very helpful in appreciating the literature, have</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">brought previously unrecognized meanings to the surface, and</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">have corrected an earlier over-emphasis on tradition-historical</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">criticism. However, a close reading does not always show literary</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">skill; on the contrary, it may well disclose textual disharmony, bad</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">writing, and clumsy editing. It may raise questions about the use</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">of earlier traditions (which is, of course, a form of intertextuality),</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">and it may well call into question the matter of authorial</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">competence. Such points are noted in chapters 2 and 3 wherever</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">they arise. Discussion of sources is also essential to chapter 4</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">because the other Ezra and Nehemiah traditions cannot be</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">discussed without reference to the Hebrew books of Ezra and</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nehemiah. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The analysis in Part I was done as independently as possible.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Although the standard commentaries were consulted at various</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">points when the need was felt, the aim was to try to put previous</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">interpretations out of mind—as far as that was possible to do—</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">and to approach the texts afresh, trying to eliminate preconceived</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">ideas. Most of the secondary literature was read or reviewed only</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">after the texts had been analysed. This is why few references to</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">secondary literature are found in Part I, especially in chapters 2–4.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The various Ezra and Nehemiah traditions occur in a variety of</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">text types and languages, each of which can be analysed in its</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">own right. However, the core of the study is the Hebrew texts of</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra and Nehemiah (using the text in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Biblia Hebraica</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Stuttgartensia</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">). We know these mainly from the Masoretic</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">tradition (MT) which is the basis of the analysis. The Greek</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">versions of Ezra and Nehemiah (often called Esdras β or Esdras B</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">or occasionally even 2 Esdras—but not to be confused with 4 Ezra</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">which is also often called 2 Esdras) are fairly literal translations of</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">a Hebrew text which was very close to our present Masoretic text.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, these Greek translations were not investigated further</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">(except as they might be used for purposes of textual criticism).</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras was different, however. Although for much of its length it</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">is parallel to sections of 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, it</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">represents a different textual tradition. The contents are in a</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">different order from anything in the Hebrew Bible and, as far as</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">one can tell from a translation, often represent a slightly divergent</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Hebrew original. The Göttingen edition (Hanhart 1974) was used</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">for this text.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Part II relies heavily on the close reading of Part I, but it asks</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">about history: What is the relationship between the Hebrew Ezra</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">and Nehemiah and the other Ezra and Nehemiah traditions and</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">the historical events of the time? Granted that the Hebrew books</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">are a part of our historical sources, how trustworthy are they and</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">can we ultimately accept them as historical</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">—</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">or, to put it another</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">way, to what extent are they historical? What quality of sources</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">are they? To answer these questions we need to look at other</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">sources and also to bring in our knowledge of history in the</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Persian period generally.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">These sources for Persian history and especially for the Persian</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">province</span></st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> are surveyed in my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Judaism from Cyrus to</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Hadrian</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> (1992a: ch. 2). Although some of the points made in the</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">earlier work are also included here, this is because they still seem</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">to be valid in the light of subsequent study. I have attempted to</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">rethink the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and also to go beyond what was included in my study of 1992. My thinking on the two</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">books continues to develop, and a number of further studies</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">relating to this investigation here have been done since then as well.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You can read and download full text of this book here: </span></span></i><br />
<i><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOdHdSN3NVTEp3cGM/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lester L. Grabbe "Ezra-Nehemiah" (pdf)</span></span></a></i>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-65083164758499828092011-10-04T22:46:00.014+03:002011-11-17T09:38:38.783+02:00The Two Recensions of the Book of Ezra: Ezra-Nehemiah (MT) and 1 Esdras (LXX)<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Dieter Bohler </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://solvg.narod.ru/dore/bible/img/large/vz108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://solvg.narod.ru/dore/bible/img/large/vz108.jpg" width="155" /></a></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Abstract:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> Like Proverbs, Jeremiah and Daniel, the book of Ezra has been transmitted in two recensions: Ezra-Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible and 1 Esdras in the Greek Bible. Each version has its own distinct literary shape. Both editions overlap in the account of Zerubbabel's temple building and Ezra's mission. In addition to this common material both versions contain special property: 1 Esdras starts with the last two chapters of Chronicles (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Ezra</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">MT</st1:state></st1:place> only with the last verses) and includes the so-called guardsmen story, a Zerubbabel legend not found in Ezra-Nehemiah. On the other hand Ezra-Nehemiah contains the account of Nehemiah's city building lacking in 1 Esdras. The article shows that this last difference in literary shape is connected with a whole series of small textual differences between the overlapping material of two versions which therefore betray themselves as being part of an intentional recension rather than scribal errors. The Zerubbabel and Ezra account of 1 Esdras does not expect a coming Nehemiah story whereas MT's Zerubbabel and Ezra text is compatible with the following Nehemiah account.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"font-size: 12pt;">1. The Literary Differences between the Two Recensions </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Whereas the Hebrew Bible has preserved just one version of the Book of Ezra, the Septuagint contains two versions, each one with its own literary shape. Esdras B is a quite literal translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic book of Ezra-Nehemiah (MT). Esdras B is preceeded in the Septuagint by Esdras A (or 1 Esdras). The following table outlines the literary differences between the two editions:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras (LXX)</span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">MT</span></b></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(2 Chr 35–36)</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">End of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Southern Kingdom</span></i></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2:1–14</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 1</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Cyrus: Sheshbazzar's return</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2:15–25</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 4:7–24</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Artaxerxes: correspondence</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">3:1–5:6</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">–</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Guardsmen story</span></i></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">5:7–70</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 2:1–4:5<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Zerubbabel's return, altar building</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">6–7</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 5–6</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Temple</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> building</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">8–9:37</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 7–10<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra story</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">–</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 1–7<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Nehemiah story</span></i></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 9;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">9:38–55<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 8</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra story</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" width="199"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">–</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" width="204"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 9–13<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 171.0pt;" width="228"><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Nehemiah story</span></i></div></td> </tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">- Ezra-Nehemiah (MT) begins with the two last verses of Chronicles. 1 Esdras begins with the two last chapters of those books. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">- The correspondence with king Artaxerxes and the account of Zerubbabel's return to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> have changed positions in the two versions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">- 1 Esdras contains the story of the three guardsmen (a Zerubbabel legend) lacking in Ezra-Nehemiah. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">- On the other hand Ezra-Nehemiah contains the story of Nehemiah's city building lacking in 1 Esdras. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Both versions share the narration of Zerubbabel's temple building and the Ezra story. Critical research tended to consider 1 Esdras as a whole either as a later compilation of texts from Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles and the guardsmen story or as the original ending of the Chronicler's work (with or without the guardsmen story). Now the four differences in literary shape may be connected to each other, but they are not necessarily so. The relationships between them have to be examined for each case separately. On the other hand the numerous small textual differences between the overlapping parts of the two versions have not been sufficiently taken into consideration in literary criticism.' Hardly ever has a variant on the text critical level been linked to the literary differences. Ezra 4:21 is a noteworthy exception. In Ezra 4 (1 Esdras 2) king Artaxerxes prohibits the rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. In the MT however he adds a reservation which is lacking in 1 Esdras: "this city may not be rebuilt <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">until the decree is issued by me</i>". </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 4:21f</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 2:23f</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Now therefore make a decree to stop the work of those men, and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">this city may not be rebuilt </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">until the decree is issued by me</span></b></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Now therefore I have commanded to hinder those men from building the city, and heed to be taken that there be no more done in it</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Several commentators, such as Williamson, Blenkinsopp, Clines and Rudolph notice the textual variant between Ezra (MT) and 1 Esdras and don't explain the difference as a simple scribal error, but relate it to the fact, that in Ezra (MT) there will follow the story of Nehemiah's city building. Rudolph e.g. comments: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">To the categorical claim 22 it will not fit well with that 21 ultimately abolishing the ban on the construction makes it appear as possible, we will ... the words ‘from my command is given' which 1 Esdras has not as a later addition in terms of the granted Nehemiah [Neh 2.4 ff] view permission.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Rudolph rightly connects the small text critical issue here with the bigger differences in literary shape. Ezra-Nehemiah (MT) needs this small reservation because it contains the Nehemiah story which will narrate the reconstruction of the city with the king's consent. 1 Esdras lacks both. This version preserves, as Rudolph correctly remarks, the more original text of 1 Esdras 2:23/Ezra 4:21. It does so because it simply does not know about a following Nehemiah story.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The thesis I propose in this paper is this: One big difference in literary shape of the two versions is that Ezra-Nehemiah (MT) contains the Nehemiah story while 1 Esdras does not. This difference in literary shape is related to a whole number of small text differences. These differences seem on first sight to be located on a text critical level as if they were just scribal errors. However they form a coherent series and fit so well with the difference in literary shape, that they obviously leave behind the level of mere textual criticism and enter the realm of literary criticism. As Emanuel Tov puts it: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The complicated growth of the books of the Bible created situations in which textual witnesses reflect different stages in the development of the books and thus contribute to literary rather than textual criticism.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">How can we distinguish involuntary mistakes of a copyist from intentional developments which form part of a new conception? According to Tov, textual variants which form a series with a systematic tendency cannot be considered accidental individual variants, they rather betray intentional recension and belong to the process of literary shaping of the relevant book: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Our working hypothesis is to separate the two types of evidence [scil. accidental mistakes and intentional reworking] with a quantitative criterion which also has qualitative aspects. It is assumed that large-scale differences displaying a certain coherence were created at the level of the literary growth of the books by persons who considered themselves actively involved in the literary process of composition.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">I will first list a number of textual variants between the two versions. The question which one is more original will be left open at this stage. It will be taken up later. Here I just want to show that: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1) These variants form a coherent series. It betrays systematics. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2) This series of variants is related to the overall literary shapes of the two versions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:metricconverter productid="2. A" w:st="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial";">2. A</span></b></st1:metricconverter><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial";"> Series of Textual Variants with a Clear Tendency </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Having been informed about the scandal of the mixed marriages, Ezra recites the long prayer of Ezra 9. First he thanks God because the Jews were able to - I quote MT: "erect the house of our God and rebuild its ruins." Ezra is looking back on the reconstruction of the temple, nothing else. In 1 Esdras however he says: "erect our temple and rebuild the ruins of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place></st1:city>." In 1 Esdras Ezra is looking back on the rebuilding of the temple and of the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>! The city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> has already been rebuilt!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" width="319"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 9:9</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 252.0pt;" width="336"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 8:78</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to set up the house of our God, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and to repair the desolations thereof, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and to give us a wall in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> and in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 252.0pt;" valign="top" width="336"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and honoured the temple of our Lord, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and raised up the desolate <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sion</b>, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">that they have given us a sure abiding in Jewry and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This is not an isolated variant. While Zerubbabel is rebuilding the temple, the governor Tattenai comes along for an inspection. According to the Masoretic text he writes to the Persian king: "We went to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename></st1:place> to the temple of the great God, which is being rebuilt." According to 1 Esdras however the governor reports: "We went to the <st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename> and came to the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. We found the elders of the exiles of the Jews in the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> rebuilding the great <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 5:8</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 6:8</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 115.55pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 115.55pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Be it known to the king, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">that we went into the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judea</st1:placename></st1:place>, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the house of the great God; and it is building with choice stones, and they are laying timbers in the walls, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and that work is prospering, and goes on favorably in their hands</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 115.55pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Let all things be known unto our lord the king, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">that being come into the country of <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place>, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and entered into the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">city of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place></b> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">we found in the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">city of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place></b> the ancients of the Jews that were of the captivity</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">building an house unto the Lord, great and new, of hewn and costly stones, and the timber already laid upon the walls. And those works are done with great speed, and the work goes on prosperously in their hands.</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to 1 Esdras <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was already rebuilt in Zerubbabel's time. Tattenai finds the restored city. Whereas in the MT he finds no city but a temple construction place in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename></st1:place>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Both editions state that the exiles returned to "<st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>" (Ezra 2:1; 1 Esdras 5:8). But when they settle down 1 Esdras says (5:45): "The priests and the Levites and some of the lay people settled in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and the province. The singers however, the gatekeepers and all (the other) Israelites in their towns." Zerubbabel finds the rebuilt city. The clergy and part of the laity can at once move to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. The situation in Ezra-Nehemiah is quite different: "The priests and the Levites and part of the lay people and the singers and the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their towns and all the rest of the Israelites in their towns" (Ezra 2:70).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 2:70</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 5:45</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nathinim, dwelt in their cities, and all <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> in their cities.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And so dwelt the priests and the Levites and the people <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></b>, and in the country, the singers also and the porters; and all <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> in their villages.</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Settlement in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> does not yet take place in the Masoretic text. That will be Nehemiah's task in his famous settlement (Neh 7:4--5 and 11:1ff). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras presupposes in the following, that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> is inhabited in Ezra's time. After Ezra's prayer "a very large crowd from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>" gathered around him (1 Esdras 8:88). Not so in MT: here gathers "a very large crowd from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 10:1</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 8:88</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">So when Esdras <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">had<i> </i></span>prayed, and when he <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">had<i> </i></span>confessed, weeping and praying before the house of God, a very great assembly of Israel came together to him, men and women and youths; for the people wept, and wept aloud.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And as Esdras in his prayer made his confession, weeping, and lying flat upon the ground before the temple, there gathered unto him <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city></b> a very great multitude of men and women and children: for there was great weeping among the multitude.</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The two editions differ in the idea they have about the actual state of the city of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> at the times of Zerubbabel and Ezra. According to 1 Esdras, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> has been reconstructed before the temple. According to Ezra-Nehemiah, the city is still in ruins. Only later will Nehemiah rebuild <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and repopulate the city. The beginning of the book of Nehemiah states explicitly:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">"The walls of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> are torn down and its gates are burnt" (Neh 1:3, cf. 2:3). "<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> is in ruins and its gates are burnt with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>!" (Neh 2:17) </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This is the conception of Ezra-Nehemiah: the city especially its gates are in ruins until the arrival of Nehemiah. It's Nehemiah who will rebuild the gates of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> (Neh 2:8; 3; 7:1.3). That is the presupposition of the Nehemiah story. The Masoretic Ezra text complies with this supposition: there is no rebuilt city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and there are no gates. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">After their settlement the exiles gather for the reconstruction of the altar. According to 1 Esdras they come together "on the square of the first gate facing the east" (5:46). That is not possible in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Ezra</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">MT.</st1:state></st1:place> In fact here it says: "in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>" (2:70.) According to Ezra-Nehemiah there can be no gate in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 3:1</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 5:46</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And the seventh month came on, and the children of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">were<i> </i></span>in their cities, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and the people assembled as one man at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But when the seventh month was at hand, and when the children of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> were every man in his own place, they came all together with one consent into the open place <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">of the first gate</b> which is toward the east.</span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras doesn't see any problem to talk about gates at the time of Zerubbabel. After the dedication of the temple both versions notice the participation of the clergy: priests and Levites gather in divisions for the service. 1 Esdras continues: "and the gatekeepers at every gate." Such a remark is not yet possible in MT. It is lacking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 20.35pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 20.35pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 6:18</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 20.35pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esdras 7:9</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their separate orders, for the services of God in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, according to the writing of the book of Moses</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" valign="top" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The priests also and the Levites stood arrayed in their vestments, according to their kindreds, in the service of the Lord God of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>, according to the book of Moses: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">and the porters at every gate</b></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Both versions do speak of active gate keepers. But 1 Esdras knows them already at the time of Zerubbabel. Ezra-Nehemiah will not mention them before the accomplishment of Nehemiah's wall building (Neh 7:1; 10:40; 11:19; 12:25.45). Ezra-Nehemiah reserves all gates, including the temple gates (2:8), for Nehemiah. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">That means, of course, that the temple didn't have a temple court, a walled precinct before Nehemiah in MT. In 1 Esdras it does: "Ezra got up from the court of the temple" (9:1). MT however: "Ezra got up from before the temple" (10:6). The temple precinct with its gates does not yet exist in MT.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezra 10:6</span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esd 9:1</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.4pt;" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And Esdras rose up from before the house of God</span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 19.85pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 253.45pt;" width="338"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Then Esdras rising from <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the court</b> of the temple </span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">All these minor and major variants form a coherent series. Every single one could be considered accidental. The series is no accident. It shows intentional reworking. The tendency of all these differences always goes in the same direction. 1 Esdras again and again presupposes by the way that (1) the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> is rebuilt at the time of Zerubbabel and Ezra, (2) that the returning exiles can at once settle down in it, and (3) that the temple is furnished with a walled precinct, gates and active gatekeepers. All remarks of this kind are systematically lacking in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Ezra</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">MT.</st1:state></st1:place> The rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, settlement in the city, reconstruction of the gates and institution of gatekeepers - all these will be Nehemiah's achievements. Whereas the Masoretic Ezra text is compatible with the following Nehemiah story, 1 Esdras is not. The text of 1 Esdras is not prepared for a following Nehemiah account. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"font-size: 12pt;">3. The Priority of 1 Esdras </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The question whether 1 Esdras left out Nehemiah's story or the other way round Ezra-Nehemiah (MT) inserted it cannot be answered on direct literary critical grounds. On these grounds both directions could be conceived and have actually been proposed. But as I have shown it is not just a question of simply omitting or adding a story. The whole text of the Zerubbabel and Ezra stories had to be adapted to the omission or addition of the Nehemiah account. That makes feasible an indirect access to the answer. If <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> has been secondarily reduced to a state of ruins in the Masoretic text; if the repopulation of the city has been secondarily postponed, then this version is a later adaptation in order to become Nehemiah compatible, and then also 1 Esdras represents an older stage of the textual and literary development of Ezra-Nehemiah. My thesis is that this is indeed the case: the Masoretic Ezra text has been prepared secondarily to fit with the inserted Nehemiah story. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Quite often the apparatus of the BHS notes the priority of the text of 1 Esdras. Ezra 5:8 e.g. as compared with 1 Esdras 6:8 deleted the mention of "the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>." Even in the Masoretic version the continuation of the letter refers back to the elders (Ezra 5:9), mentioned in 1 Esdras 6:8, now lacking in Ezra 5:8. The omission cannot be explained technically, it is intentional. The twofold mention of "the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>" was not tolerable any more because of the insertion of the Nehemiah account.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The same applies to Ezra 2:70, where MT deleted "<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and the province" (compare 1 Esdras 5:45). We still have in MT two series of settlers in descending rank: (1) higher clergy and part of the laity, (2) lower clergy and the rest of the laity, but it is not understandable any more, why two series of settlers had to be distinguished, why part of the laity and the rest of the laity had to be opposed to each other. The twofold <i>city</i> does not give the necessary disjunction, which once consisted in the distinction of settling places: <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and other towns. <st1:city w:st="on">Ezra</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">MT</st1:state> had to omit "<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>" to make room for Nehemiah's settlement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The gate of 1 Esdras 5:46 has been deleted in Ezra 3:1, but is still preserved in Neh 8:1.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Most of the aforementioned variants of the Masoretic text can be shown to be secondary on text critical grounds. The decisive point is however, that only the assumption of a systematic recension does really explain all these variants, their coherence and clear-cut tendency. Every single passage of 1 Esdras that had been talking about the already rebuilt city, its repopulation and about its gates has been systematically reworked. Why? To prepare a Nehemiah-compatible text of Ezra. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This reworking shows that the Nehemiah story has been inserted later into the restoration account. Originally Neh 8 (Ezra's reading of the Law) followed directly Ezra 10 (Ezra's action against mixed marriages) and concluded the whole restoration narrative. 1 Esdras preserves this older text arrangement. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"font-size: 12pt;">4. Intention and Date of the Reworking </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The revisor combined the old restoration account 1 Esdras (without the guardsmen story) with the so called Nehemiah Memoirs. These comprised more or less the passages in the first person singular, that is Neh 1-6* and 12*, 13*. These Memoirs had still been circulating independently from the restoration account (Zerubbabel and Ezra story) for a long time. Even Josephus still knew them in the 1't century A.D. In his Jewish Antiquities XI 1-158 he first tells the story of Zerubbabel's temple reconstruction and the Ezra account following closely 1 Esdras (including the guardsmen story). Only then (after Ezra's death in Ant. XI 158!) he continues in Ant. XI 159-183 with a Nehemiah story as he knew it: it comprises exactly what we still have in Neh 1-7:3 and 12*-13*, that means the so called Memoirs, which were still much shorter than our book of Nehemiah (lacking chapters 7-12*) and certainly were not yet integrated into the whole of Ezra-Nehemiah.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" width="79"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 Esd*:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.0pt;" width="91"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ezr 1–10</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 85.0pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 8</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.0pt;" width="120"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" width="79"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Memoirs:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.0pt;" width="91"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 1–6</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 85.0pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.0pt;" width="120"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 12:27ff; 13*</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" width="79"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Redactor:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.0pt;" width="91"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 85.0pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Neh 7 = Ezra 2)</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 63.0pt;" width="84"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 9–12*</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.0pt;" width="120"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The redactor who wanted to insert the Nehemiah Memoirs into the older restoration account reworked the old Zerubbabel and Ezra story (1 Esdras) to make it Nehemiah compatible. He then inserted the wall building account Neh 1-6 placing it before Ezra's Torah reading. Neh 7 is a repetition of Ezr 2, Neh 9-12 are the redactor's material. The end is again taken from Nehemiah's Memoirs (Neh 12 and 13). The redactor has created an entirely new work with a well defined structure. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wall</i> dominates Neh 1-6, then disappears and reappears with the dedication of the walls in 12:27ff. The construction of the wall is the outer frame. The lists in Neh 7 and 11 are the preparation and carrying out of the repopulation of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. The core is Neh 8-10 under the leitmotiv "Torah."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">City Walls:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.95pt;" width="99"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 1–6</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 12:27–13:3</span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Repopulation:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.95pt;" width="99"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 7</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 11</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 19.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.45pt;" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Torah:</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.95pt;" width="99"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neh 8–10</span></div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.0pt;" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="height: 19.85pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 84.5pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Within the frame of Nehemiah's walls the exiles can settle down, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> can constitute herself on the basis of the Torah. Obedience to the Torah is not possible without the organizational frame of a visible societal body. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The two restoration accounts define in a narrative way the essentials of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>: what is to be restored, so that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> can be called restored? The old story 1 Esdras said: temple and Torah obedience. The new edition says: temple, Torah obedience and social organization of the people of God (symbolized in the City). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A last remark on the possible date of this new recension of the restoration account. Various indications point to the second century B.C.E. for this reworking. The dates of Neh 1:1 and 2:1 which make Kislew precede Nisan of the same year presuppose the Seleucid autumnal year. The extension of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> according to the city list of Neh 11 was achieved only in Maccabean times. The prayer of Neh 9 cries for political sovereignty which fits Maccabean aspirations. 2 Macc 2:13f reports about Nehemiah's (!) and Judah the Maccabee's literary efforts. Kellermann and Blenkinsopp speak of a "Nehemiah renaissance" under the Maccabees. In any case the new version Ezra-Nehemiah would better substantiate the Maccabean aspiration for political independence than the old edition did.</span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-29250152158173264042011-08-07T18:54:00.004+03:002011-11-17T09:39:55.806+02:00Archaeology and the List of Returnees in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah<div style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"><i>Israel Finkelstein</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="20"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><i>The list of returnees (Ezra 2, 1-67; Nehemiah 7, 6-68) forms one of the cornerstones for the study of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place> in the Persian period. Because of the lack of ancient Near Eastern sources on Yehud, discussion has focused primarily on the biblical texts and has thus, in certain cases, become trapped in circular reasonin. The only source of information that can break this deadlock is archaeology. The finds at the places mentioned in the list of returnees seems to show that it does not represent Persian-period realities. Important Persian-period places not mentioned in the list support this notion. The archaeology of the list seems to indicate that it was compiled in the late Hellenistic (Hasmonaean) period and represents the reality of that time.<br />
</i></span></span></i></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In a recent article (Finkelstein, in press) I questioned Nehemiah 3's description of the construction of the <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> wall in the light of the archaeology of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period. The finds indicate that the settlement was small and poor. It covered an area of c. 2-<st1:metricconverter productid="2.5 hectares" w:st="on">2.5 hectares</st1:metricconverter> and was inhabited by 400-500 people. The archaeology of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> shows no evidence for construction of a wall in the Persian period, or renovation of the ruined Iron II city-wall. I concluded with three alternatives for understanding the discrepancy between the biblical text and the archaeological finds: 1) that the description in Nehemiah 3 is utopian; 2) that it preserves a memory of an Iron Age construction or renovation of the city-wall; 3) that the description is influenced by the construction of the First Wall in the Hasmonaean period. All three options pose significant difficulties, but the third one seems to me the least problematic. In any event, I argued, the archaeology of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period must be the starting point for any future discussion of this issue. Accordingly, I believe it is now time to deal with the other lists in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the light of modern archaeological research — first and foremost with the list of the returnees to Zion (Ezra 2.1—67; Nehemiah 7.6—68).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The list of returnees forms one of the cornerstones for the study of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place> in the Persian period. Scholars have debated the relationship between the two versions of the list, the historical authenticity of this source, its date, whether it represents one wave of returnees or a summary of several waves, and its value for estimating the population of Yehud (for the latest discussions see Carter 1999, 77—78; Edelman 2005, 175—176; and especially Lipschits 2005, 158—168 with extensive bibliography). Because of the lack of ancient Near Eastern sources on Yehud, discussion has focused primarily on the biblical texts and has thus, in certain cases, become trapped in circular reasoning. The only source of information that can break this deadlock is archaeology. Yet until now, archaeology has been brought in only in order to reconstruct settlement patterns and establish the population of Yehud (Carter 1999; Lipschits 2005, 258—271). The archaeology of the sites mentioned in the list of returnees has never been dealt with systematically. It is the aim of this article to do so.</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Twenty places are mentioned in the list. They are located in the highlands of Benjamin, the vicinity of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> (to <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> in the south), and the areas of Lod in the west and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place></st1:city> in the east. The location of three of these places — Netophah, Nebo (Nob) and</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Senaah — is not sufficiently well established, while the rest are well (or reasonably well) identified and hence their archaeology can be consulted. In each case, I intend to review the finds from the late Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic periods. In the case of thorough excavations, the discussion may go into sub-phases within these periods; obviously this cannot be done in the case of survey material. In addition, I will mention safely dated sources from the late Iron II (biblical material) and Hellenistic periods (the Books of Maccabees) that refer to these places. I will commence with the excavated sites and continue with the surveyed sites.</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="410" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span class="40"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">SITES EXCAVATED</span></b></span><span class="40"><b><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="410" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="26"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Jerusalem</span></b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="26"><b><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the late Iron II, <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> extended over both the City of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city></st1:place> and the southwestern hill, an area of c. <st1:metricconverter productid="60 hectares" w:st="on">60 hectares</st1:metricconverter> (e.g., Geva 2003a; Reich and Shukron 2003).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the Persian period, the settlement was restricted to a sector of the City of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city></st1:place>. Most finds were retrieved from the central part of the ridge, between Areas G and D of the <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> excavations (Shiloh 1984, 4). The Persian period (Stratum 9) fully appears, according to <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> (1984, 4, Table 2), in Areas Di (Ariel, Hirschfeld and Savir 2000, 59-62), D2, and G (Shiloh 1984, 20) and is partially represented in Area Ei. But even in these areas the finds were meagre and poor; most came from fills and quarrying refuse. Persian-period sherds and a few seal impressions were found in Reich and Shukron's Areas A and B, located in the Kidron Valley and mid-slope respectively, c. 200-<st1:metricconverter productid="250 m" w:st="on">250 m</st1:metricconverter> south of the Gihon Spring; they seem to have originated in the settlement located on the ridge (Reich and Shukron 2007). Reich and Shukron<span class="a0"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> (ibid.)</span></span> also note that 75 of the 85 Yehud seal impressions from the <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> excavations published by Ariel and Shoham (2000) originated from Areas B, D, and E. They conclude that the settlement of the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods was restricted to the top of the ridge, to the south of Area G (see a somewhat similar view in Ariel and Shoham 2000, 138). Different excavation fields in the southern tip of the City of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city></st1:place> and in its northern sector yielded negative evidence for the Persian period; in several of these places late-Hellenistic remains were found superimposed over Iron II remains (see in detail Finkelstein in press).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The early Hellenistic settlement (Stratum 8) is restricted to approximately the same area of the City of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city></st1:place>. It fully appears only in Area E2, partially represented in Areas Ei and E3, and scarcely represented in Areas Di and D2 (Shiloh 1984, 4, Table 2). In this case, too, the finds are meagre, consisting of three<span class="a0"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> columbaria</span></span> (De Groot 2004) and a structure that yielded the only assemblage of Early Hellenistic pottery from Jerusalem (in Area Ei — Shiloh i984, i5).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The maximal size of the Persian and Early Hellenistic settlement was therefore c. <st1:metricconverter productid="240 m" w:st="on">240 m</st1:metricconverter> (N-S) x <st1:metricconverter productid="120 m" w:st="on">120 m</st1:metricconverter> (E-W), that is c. 2-<st1:metricconverter productid="2.5 hectares" w:st="on">2.5 hectares</st1:metricconverter> (contra to the idea of a 6-hectare settlement [excluding the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Mount</st1:placename>] in Carter 1999, 200; Lipschits 2006, 32; and a 30-acre settlement [possibly including the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Mount</st1:placename></st1:place>] in Avigad 1993, 720).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the late Hellenistic period, Jerusalem expanded again, to cover the entire area of the previous Iron II city, that is, the City of David and the southwestern hill (summaries in Geva 2003b 526-534; Wightman I993, 111-i57).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="26"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Gibeon</span></b></span></st1:place><span class="26"><b><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gibeon</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> prospered in the late Iron II. It produced wine, was surrounded by strong fortifications, and was equipped with a sophisticated water system (Pritchard 1962, 53-99). An elaborate late-Iron II cemetery lies to the east of the mound (Eshel i987).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gibeon</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> did not yield unambiguous Persian-period finds. Without going into the debate over the dating of the Gibeon winery and inscriptions </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">late monarchic or 6th century (see summaries in Stern </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1982, 32-33; 2001, 433; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lipschits </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1999, 287-291) — </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">the<span class="6"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> mwsh</span></span> seal impressions and wedge-shaped and reed impressed sherds found at the site (Pritchard </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1964 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Figs </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">32,7, 48,17) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">attest to a certain activity in the Babylonian or Babylonian/early Persian period. Yet, typical Persian-period pottery and Yehud seal impressions were not found (for the latter see Lipschits </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2005, 180). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">According to Pritchard, there is 'only scant evidence of occupation from the end of the sixth century until the beginning of the first century</span><span class="8pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все' </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">at <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place> (Pritchard </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1993, 513). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Still, in an attempt to provide evidence for the Gibeon of Nehemiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">3, 7 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and the list of returnees he proposed that 'scattered and sporadic settlements' did exist there during the Persian and Hellenistic periods (Pritchard </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1962, 163). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Stern rightly interpreted the <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place> finds as evidence for only 6th century and possibly early Persian-period activity (Stern </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1982, 32-33; 2001, 433; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lipschits </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2005, 243-245 — </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">6th century).</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Late Hellenistic pottery and coins dated to the days of Antiochus III and John Hyrcanus are attested at <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place> (Pritchard </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1962, 163).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gibeon</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> is mentioned in late monarchic biblical sources — in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.25), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">unanimously dated to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">with previous literature) and in the book ofJeremiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(28.1; 41.16).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="25"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Bethel</span></b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="25"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Bethel</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> was fully settled in the late Iron II (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 36-37). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A wedge-shaped and reed- impressed sherd found at the site (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Pl. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">67,8) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and a Babylonian seal bought from the villagers of Beitin (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 37; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Stern </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1982, 31) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">seem to indicate that the site continued to be inhabited in the 6th century</span><span class="8pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(and see below for the reference in Zechariah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">7.2). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1968, 37, 38) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">suggested that the town was destroyed in the second half of the 6th century.</span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">No unambiguous evidence for a Persian-period occupation was found at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city></st1:place>; there were no architectural remains, no pottery, and no seal impressions. Moreover, the foundations of the Hellenistic walls penetrated into the Iron II remains (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 36). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The excavators speculated that a Persian-period settlement may have been located under the built-up area of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Beitin</st1:placename></st1:place>, near the spring, in the southern part of the site (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 38), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">but such a settlement should have left a clear ceramic imprint at the site. The only such clue is a tiny sherd identified by Illiffe as part of a 5th century</span><span class="8pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Greek lekythos (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 80, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Pl. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">37, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">10).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A prosperous Hellenistic settlement was uncovered at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> (Kelso </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 36, 40, 52; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lapp </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Bethel is mentioned in a large number of late-monarchic biblical sources, such as the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.22), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century (Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and the description of the days ofJosiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(2 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kings </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">23). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Papyrus <st1:city w:st="on">Amherst</st1:city> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">63 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">mentions deportees by the Assyrians, who were probably settled at <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> (Steiner </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">If the mention of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> in Zechariah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">7.2 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">refers to a place (e.g., Meyers and Meyers </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1987, 382-383; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and is not part of a name of a person </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">e.g., Ackroyd </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1968, 207), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">it testifies to the fact that the site was inhabited in the late 6th century. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city></st1:place> is mentioned in the list of forts built by Bacchides </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">9.50).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="25"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Hadid<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hadid is safely identified in the mound of el-Haditheh northeast of Lod. Salvage excavations at the site indicate that the late Iron Age settlement extended over the main mound and its northwestern slope (Brand </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1998, 27-29). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The excavation yielded two 7th century</span><span class="8pt4"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt4"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Neo-Assyrian cuneiform tablets (Na'aman and Zadok </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2000). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The site was occupied in both the Persian and Hellenistic periods (Brand </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1997; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">for the Hellenistic settlement see also Nagorsky </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2005).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hadid is mentioned in connection with the history of the Hasmonaeans; it was fortified by Simon the Hasmonaean </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">12.38; 13.13; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Jos.,<span class="5"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> <st1:place w:st="on">Ant.</st1:place></span></span><span class="60"><span style="font-family: "Arial";"> xiii,</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">203, 392).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="24"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Jericho</span></b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="24"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Tell es-Sultan was intensively settled in the 7th century</span><span class="8pt4"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt4"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все.</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Yehud seal impressions and attic vessels (Vanderhooft and Lipschits </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2007; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Stern </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1982, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">38,respectively) indicate that the site was inhabited in the Persian period. The late Hellenistic settlement was located at Tulul Abu el-Alayiq to the southwest of Tell es-Sultan (Netzer </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2001).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Jericho</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> is mentioned in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.21) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt4"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt4"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is referred to in various Hellenistic sources </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">the Zenon papyri, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc., Diodorus, and Strabo (Tsafrir, De Segni and Green ^^ 143).<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The mound of Lod has never been properly excavated; in fact, its exact extent under the modern Arab town is not very clear (see Gophna and Beit-Arieh </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1997, 88). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Still, enough finds have been unearthed to show that Lod was inhabited from Neolithic to Ottoman times <span class="5"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;">(ibid.).</span></span> Excavations at Neve Yarak, a neighborhood of modern Lod situated near the ancient mound, yielded Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic finds (Rosenberger and Shavit </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1993; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Feldstein </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1997; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Khalaily and Gopher </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1997; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Arbel </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2004). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is quite clear, then, that the site was inhabited in all three periods discussed in this paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lod is mentioned in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">11.34 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">as one of the three toparchies added to the Hasmonaean territory in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">145<span class="8pt4"><span style="font-family: "Arial";"> все.</span></span></span><span class="8pt4"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="410" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span class="42"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">SITES SURVEYED<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="410" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="24"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Bethlehem</span></b></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="24"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The mound occupies the eastern sector of the ridge overbuilt by the town of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city></st1:place>. It seems to have been fully occupied in the Iron II (see list of spots with Iron II finds in Prag </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2000, 170-171). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A recent survey of parcels of land still available for research to the east of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Nativity</st1:placename></st1:place> revealed Iron II and Byzantine sherds (Prag </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2000); </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">no other period is mentioned.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The only quantitative survey at the site was conducted by Ofer </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Appendix IIA, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">13), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">who collected </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">26 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">rims from the late Iron II, two rims from the Persian period, and one or two rims from the Hellenistic period. Beyond indicating periods of occupation, these data are insufficient for reconstructing the size of the site and the intensity of activity in the various periods of habitation.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Bethlehem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> is mentioned in the LXX version of the list of towns ofJudah (Joshua 15.59a) which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt4"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt4"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and in the book of Jeremiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(41.17).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="24"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Anathoth<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Early studies did not locate pre-Roman remains at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Anata</st1:placename></st1:place> (Blair </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1936; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Albright </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1936). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hence, the location of biblical Anathoth was sought at two sites in the vicinity of the village.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ras el-Kharubeh was both surveyed and excavated (for early research see Bergman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1936). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The modern excavation yielded a small number of sherds </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(40 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">altogether) from the late Iron II, sherds from the Persian period (about </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">25% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">of the material from the dig), and a large number of sherds from the late Hellenistic period. The site was found to be eroded and sparsely inhabited (Biran </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1985, 209-211). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A survey conducted at the site yielded Iron II and Hellenistic sherds, but no Persian-period finds (Dinur and Feig </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1993, 358).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Another site suggested for the location of biblical Anathoth is Khirbet Deir es-Sidd, which was also excavated by Biran </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1985, 211-213). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It was strongly inhabited in the late-Iron II, but did not yield Persian-period finds. Only a few Hellenistic-Roman sherds were found. A survey conducted at the site yielded a large number of sherds, 70% of which were dated to the Iron II. Persian-period sherds were found in a tomb. Hellenistic sherds were also present (Dinur and Feig </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1993, 379).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A thorough, modern survey of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Anata</st1:placename></st1:place> (Dinur and Feig </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1993, 359-360) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">has shown that it is built on an ancient site. Hence there is no reason to seek the location of Anathoth elsewhere. The survey yielded 242 sherds, 35% of which date to the Iron II and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">10% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Hellenistic period. The Persian period is not represented.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The mention of Anathoth in the book of Jeremiah attests to its being settled in late-monarchic times.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="23"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Azmaveth<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Azmaveth is safely identified with the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Hizma</st1:placename></st1:place> northeast ofJerusalem. The site was surveyed twice. Kallai </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1972, 185) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">reported sherds from the Roman period and later. A more thorough and modern survey was conducted by Dinur and Feig </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, 372-373), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">who reported sherds from the Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic periods (see also Dinur </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1986).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="23"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Kirjath-Jearim<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kirjath-Jearim is safely identified in the mound of Deir el-'Azar, above the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Abu-Ghosh</st1:placename></st1:place>. A large collection of pottery from the site, stored by the Antiquities Authority, was studied by the author in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1992. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It includes </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">440 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">sherds, of which </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">310 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">date to the Iron II, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Persian period, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">49 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Persian or Hellenistic period, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">23 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Hellenistic period, and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">11 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Hellenistic or Roman period. The number of sherds collected at the site is sufficient to state that it was strongly inhabited in the late Iron II, very sparsely inhabited — if at all — in the Persian period, and inhabited in the Hellenistic period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kirjath-Jearim is mentioned in the list of towns of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">15.60; 18.14), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt3"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt3"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and in the book of Jeremiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">26.</span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="23"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Chephirah<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Chephirah is safely identified with Kh. el-Kafira northwest of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. The site was surveyed twice. Vriezen </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1975) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">collected a large number of Iron II sherds and several Persian and Hellenistic sherds (idem Figs. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">4, 23-25 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">5, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">respectively). Feldstein<span class="41"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al.</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, 209-211) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">surveyed the site thoroughly and collected </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">243 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">sherds, of which </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">81% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">date to the Iron II. A few sherds were tentatively dated to the Persian period and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">13% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">were assigned to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is clear from these data that the main period of occupation was the Iron II, that activity at the site in the Persian period was weak, and that occupation intensified in the Hellenistic period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Chephirah is mentioned in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.26) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt2"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="22"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Beeroth<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The location of Beeroth was debated in the early years of research (summary in Yeivin </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1971, 141-142), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">but was later safely fixed at the site of Khirbet el-Burj on the outskirts of the modern <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> neighborhood of Ramot (Yeivein </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1971). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The site was surveyed and partially excavated in a salvage operation.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kallai </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1972, 186-187) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">was the first to conduct a modern survey at the site. He reported Iron II pottery and a single wedge-shaped and reed-impressed sherd that should probably be dated to the 6th century</span><span class="8pt2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt2"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все.</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Feldstein<span class="3"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al.</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, 231-233) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">conducted a more modern and thorough survey at the site and collected </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">212 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">sherds, of which </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">74% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">date to the Iron II, a few to the Persian period, </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">9% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Persian or Hellenistic period, and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">8% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Hellenistic period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A salvage excavation was conducted at the site in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1992 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Onn and Rapuano </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1994). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Most of the finds belonged to medieval times, but evidence was revealed for a settlement that was occupied from the Iron Age through the Hellenistic period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is clear from this data that the settlement was at its peak in the Iron II, that activity in the Persian period was weak, and that a certain recovery occurred in the Hellenistic period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Beeroth is mentioned in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.25) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt2"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It is possibly mentioned in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">9.4 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">as Bepea. (Jos.<span class="3"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> Ant.</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">12, 422 </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">writes Begpfeh, but see discussion in Rappaport </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2004, 233).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="22"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Ramah<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ramah is unanimously identified with the village of er-Ram north of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. Only one modern survey was conducted at the site </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">by Feldstein<span class="3"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al.</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, 168-169). </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">They collected a large number of 359 sherds, of which 20% date to the Iron II, 2% to the Persian period and </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">13% </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">to the Hellenistic period. This means that the site was strongly inhabited in the Iron II, that it declined in the Persian period, and that it recovered in the Hellenistic period.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ramah appears in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.25) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt2"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">and in the book ofJeremiah </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(31.15; 40.1).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="22"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Geba<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Geba is safely identified with the <st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Jaba</st1:placename> northeast of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. The site was surveyed twice. Kallai </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1972, 183) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">reported sherds from the Iron II and the Persian period. Feldstein<span class="3"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al.</span></span> </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(1993, 177-179) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">conducted a more thorough survey at the site and collected 284 sherds, of which 23% date to the Iron II and 22% to the Hellenistic period. It seems, therefore, that the site was strongly inhabited in both the Iron II and the Hellenistic period. It was probably deserted (or very sparsely inhabited) in the Persian period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Geba appears in the list of towns of Benjamin (Joshua </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">18.24), </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">which dates to the late 7th century</span><span class="8pt2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt2"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Alt </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1925; </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Na'aman </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1991).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="22"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;">Michmash<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div class="210" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Michmash is safely identified with the <st1:placetype w:st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Mukhmas</st1:placename> to the northeast of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>. The ancient site </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Khirbet el-Hara el-Fauqa </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">— </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">is located on the northern edge of the village. The site was thoroughly surveyed by Feldstein<span class="21"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al.</span></span> (1993, 185—186), who collected 643 sherds (!), of which 14% date to the Iron II, 10% to the Persian period and 19% to the Hellenistic period. This means that the site was strongly inhabited in all three periods discussed here.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Michmash served for a while as the seat of Jonathan the Hasmonaean (1 Macc. 9.73; Jos.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="21"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial";"><i>An</i></span></span><span class="1"><span style="font-family: "Arial";"><i>t. </i></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;">13:</span></span> 3</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: x-small;">4).</span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ai</span></b></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ai of the list of returnees is a riddle. The site of et-Tell was not inhabited after the Iron I. Assuming that there is a connection between the Ai of the book of Joshua (as a name originally derived from an etiological story) and the Ai of the list, the only sites which may provide an archaeological reality behind this place-name are the village of Deir Dibwan, or better (from the preservation of the name point of view) Khirbet el-Haiyan, located on the southern outskirts of Deir Dibwan.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Deir Dibwan is a large village that has never been properly surveyed. Feldstein<span class="21"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al. </span></span>(1993, 183—184) managed to collect 20 sherds there, among them a single sherd from the Iron II and all the others from the Roman period and later. This is insufficient to reach conclusions regarding the settlement history of the site.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Khirbet el-Haiyan was both excavated and surveyed. Excavation at the site revealed evidence for occupation starting in the Roman period (Callaway and Nicol 1966, 19). Kallai's survey (1972, 178—179) revealed sherds from the Roman period and later. Feldstein<span class="21"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> et al. </span></span>(1993, 183) collected 112 sherds at the site, of which 32% were dated to the Hellenistic or Roman period.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">These data are not sufficient for this discussion. It seems logical to suggest that Ai of the list of returnees should be sought at Deir Dibwan.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ono</span></b></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gophna, Taxel and Feldstein (2005) have recently shown that Ono cannot be identified with Kafr Ana, a site that was not occupied from the Chalcolithic to the Byzantine period. Instead, they suggested identifying Ono at the site of Kafr Juna, located <st1:metricconverter productid="1 km" w:st="on">1 km</st1:metricconverter> to the northeast of Kafr Ana. Surveys conducted there yielded a large number of Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic sherds<span class="21"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-style: normal;"> (ibid.).<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span class="52"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal !important;">DISCUSSION<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="51" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Table 1 summarizes the finds at the sites mentioned in the list of returnees.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Three-to-five places mentioned in the list (including places which were thoroughly excavated), were not inhabited in the Persian period, and at other sites activity was meagre. Some places which are not listed are also worth mentioning. The best marker for importance of sites in the Persian period is the number of Yehud seal impression found in the course of their excavations (I refer to types 1—15 in Vanderhooft and Lipschits 2007). The sites with the largest number of such seal impressions are Ramat Rahel, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, Mizpah, Nebi Samuel and En Gedi. Mizpah, En Gedi and Beth-haccherem (most probably Ramat Rahel — Aharoni 1979, 418) do not appear in the list, and the list does not include any name which can fit the location of Nebi Samuel. In other words, four of the five sites with the largest number of Yehud seal impressions are absent from the list— another indication that the list does not fit the reality of the Persian period. Finally, it is evident that the number of returnees which appear in the list (see discussion in Lipschits 2005, 161—162) — if taken as reflecting a real demographic reality — do not fit the depleted population of Yehud in the Persian period (for the latter see, e.g., Carter 1999, 195—205; Lipschits 2005, 270).</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
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<tr> <td style="padding-bottom: 0cm; padding-left: 0cm; padding-right: 0cm; padding-top: 0cm; text-align: left;" valign="top"><div class="10" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="a"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Table 1.</span></span><span class="a2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="a2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Summary of the archaeology of the sites mentioned in the list of returnees, including intensity of occupation<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="10" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div align="center"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-table-layout-alt: fixed;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 14.15pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 14.15pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 14.15pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Iron II</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 14.15pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Persian</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 14.15pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hellenistic</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 14.4pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="background: white; border: none; height: 14.4pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Jerusalem</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border: none; height: 14.4pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border: none; height: 14.4pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border: none; height: 14.4pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Bethlehem</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V*</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.55pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.55pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gibeon</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.55pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.55pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="64pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">—</span></span><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> (except for 6th cent)?</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.55pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Anathoth</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="81" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="80"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">-</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Medium</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.35pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Azmaveth</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 11.05pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;"> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kirjath-Jearim</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Medium</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Chephirah</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.35pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Beeroth</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.35pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Medium</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 9;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ramah</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Weak</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Medium</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.8pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.8pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Geba</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.8pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.8pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="64pt"><sub><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">—</span></sub></span><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">?</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.8pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Michmash</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Medium</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 12;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Bethel</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="64pt"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">—</span></span><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> (except for 6th cent)?</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.85pt; mso-yfti-irow: 13;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ai (if Kh. Haiyan)</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="81" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="80"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">-</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="81" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="80"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">—</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.85pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V?</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 9.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 14;"> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(if Deir Dibwan)</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="81" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="80"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 9.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 15;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lod</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 10.1pt; mso-yfti-irow: 16;"> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hadid</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 10.1pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 11.05pt; mso-yfti-irow: 17;"> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ono</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 11.05pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div class="610" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span class="62"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Strong</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 8.65pt; mso-yfti-irow: 18; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background: white; height: 8.65pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: left;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Jericho</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 8.65pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 117.65pt;" valign="top" width="157"><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 8.65pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 141.1pt;" valign="top" width="188"><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; height: 8.65pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 103.25pt;" valign="top" width="138"><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br clear="ALL" /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" hspace="0" style="text-align: justify;" vspace="0"><tbody>
<tr> <td align="left" style="padding-bottom: 0cm; padding-left: 0cm; padding-right: 0cm; padding-top: 0cm;" valign="top"><div align="left" class="10" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-left: center; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: no-wrap-beside; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: left;"><span class="a2"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">* evidence for activity, but data not sufficient to specify intensity of activity</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br clear="ALL" /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">All this is sufficient to argue that the list of returnees cannot be seen as an authentic record of the places where returnees settled in the Persian period. The archaeology of the list contradicts the ideas of both those who accept the list as genuinely representing the early settlement, immediately after the return (e.g., Galling 1951; Myers 1965, 14-17), or in the days of Nehemiah (Blenkinsopp 1988, 83), and those who see it as summarizing several waves of returnees up to the days of Nehemiah (summary in Lipschits 2005, 159-160, n. 91). On the basis of a demographic estimation for Persian-period Yehud, Lipschits (2005, 160161) rejected the notions of large-scale deportations at the end of the Iron II and significant waves of returnees thereafter, and suggested that the list is a literary compilation that could have been based on several censuses that were undertaken during the Persian period (for other scholars who proposed a similar solution see references in idem, 160, n. 92). The results of this investigation make this suggestion untenable.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">There are several ways to decipher the reality behind the list of returnees. According to the first, it reflects a late Iron II situation, possibly focused on a vague memory of the main areas from which people were deported, or the main areas to which they returned. Another possibility is that the list has no historical value at all, and simply mentions important settlements of the late Iron II, in areas that were included in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place>. A third explanation could be that the list was compiled in the late Hellenistic (Hasmonaean) period and reflects the settlement reality of that time, against the background of a vague memory of the territory of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place> with the addition of the area of Lod (below). The latter possibility would also fit the demographic reality hidden behind the list.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, it is noteworthy that seven of the places in the list appear in the books of Maccabees, including important places in the history of the Hasmonaeans such as Beeroth, Michmash and Hadid. The appearance in the list of Lod, Hadid, and Ono is also significant. According to the distribution of the Persian-period Yehud seal impressions (Vanderhooft and Lipschits 2007), this area was not part of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place>. The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> district of Lod was added to the Hasmonaean territory in </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">145<span class="8pt1"><span style="font-family: "Arial";"> все (</span></span></span><span class="8pt1"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Macc. </span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">11.34) — </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">another clue that the list may depict a second century</span><span class="8pt1"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="8pt1"><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">все</span></span><span lang="UK" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div align="left" class="MsoBodyText" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span class="52"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal !important;">SUMMARY<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="51" style="background: transparent; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The archaeology of the places mentioned in the list of returnees seems to show that it does not represent Persian-period realities. Important Persian-period places not mentioned in the list support this notion. The archaeology of the list leaves two main options for understanding the reality behind it. According to the first, the list portrays late Iron II places. According to the second, it was compiled in the late Hellenistic (Hasmonaean) period and represents the reality of the time. The latter solution, also proposed as a possibility for the understanding of Nehemiah </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">3 — </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Finkelstein, in press), raises significant difficulties, as it has </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">[Ц </span><span style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">far-reaching implications regarding the date of the final redaction of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Yet, without extra-biblical sources to support a Persian-period date for the list of returnees, the archaeological evidence cannot be ignored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-22933399992773029142011-07-23T19:08:00.006+03:002011-07-25T00:37:31.644+03:00Genesis and the Moses Story<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Genesis and the Moses story were two competing myths of origin for Israel that were literarily and conceptually independent from each other. They both explained in different ways how Israel came to be.See also Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible (Siphrut 3; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2010)</i><br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>By Konrad Schmid</b><br />
Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism<br />
University of Zurich, Switzerland<br />
October 2010</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In the 20th century, the so-called Documentary Hypothesis with its four elements J, E, P, D was a commonly accepted explanation for the literary growth of the Pentateuch. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that there are three similar narrative accounts of Israel's history of the creation, the ancestors, the exodus, and the conquest of the land: J, E, and P. The story line of the Pentateuch was considered very ancient. J adapted the structure of the narrative from the old creeds of ancient Israel, and the structure of the narrative accounts of E and P were mere epigones or imitations of J. However, in the last thirty years, serious doubts have arisen concerning this model. Only P, because of its clear structure and its specific language, has remained generally uncontested.<br />
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Since the work of Rolf Rendtorff and others, a very common and simple observation on the narrative structure of the Pentateuch has gained increasing acceptance: the different narrative parts of the Pentateuch – especially Genesis on the one hand and the Moses story in Exodus and the following books on the other hand – stand more or less on their own. They seem much more likely to have been autonomous literary units in their original form than parts of a long story extending from the creation to the conquest of the land. So the question arises: did the older sources, J and E, which are supposed to connect all the themes of the Pentateuch together, really exist? Or should we look for other solutions in order to explain the genesis of the Pentateuch before P?<br />
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The weakness of E has long been recognized. Its different parts do not form a continuous narrative account, but they are instead mere fragments. But also J has been the object of controversial discussion in recent years. The J hypothesis was developed from the texts in the book of Genesis, and it never really fit the other books of the Pentateuch. Martin Noth, for example, wrote at the outset of his commentary on Numbers: “If one takes the book of Numbers for itself, one would not explain it by ‘continuous sources". ”This is exactly how many European scholars today think of the composition of the pre-Priestly Pentateuch: It is not made up out of three continuing sources, but of larger units like the ancestor’s story or the exodus story. Only on the level of P, the sole surviving source dating to the early postexilic period, is there clear evidence of a literary connection between Genesis and Exodus, as I have argued in detail in my Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible (Siphrut 3; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2010). Before P, Genesis and the Moses story were two competing myths of origin for Israel that were literarily and conceptually independent from each other. They both explained in different ways how Israel came to be. Genesis does this in a peaceful, inclusive, and autochthonous (Israel originating from its own land) manner, while the Moses story sets some more aggressive, exclusive, and allochthonous (Israel’s origins lie in the exodus from Egypt) accents. The fundamental literary-historical separation of Genesis and the Moses story proposed in my book relies on fundamental observations made in 1928 by Kurt Galling and in 1943 by Martin Noth. Furthermore, Albert de Pury and Thomas Römer suggested already in 1989 and 1990 that there are no pre-Priestly links between Genesis and Exodus. Independent from my work, Jan Christian Gertz came to the same conclusion in his study on the exodus story. Eckart Otto’s recent publications and, to a certain extent, but with some hesitations, Reinhard Kratz’s The Composition of the Historical Books of the Old Testament as well, share the same basic tenets of this theory.<br />
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What are the reasons that make some European scholars think this way? There are several arguments that need to be taken into account. Firstly, P’s report of the call of Moses in Exod 6:2–3 explains that God has revealed himself to the patriarchs as El Shadday,but now he announces that his name is YHWH. P’s theory is so well known among exegetes that one has hardly ever bothered to ask why P makes such a distinction. Sometimes it has been argued that P adopts the theological concept of E since E was supposed to include a similar change from Elohim to YHWH in Exod 3, but this does not explain the use of El Shadday. Furthermore, on a methodological level it is hardly convincing to use a problematic hypothesis like E to explain literary problems of other texts. Furthermore, there is also little reason within the internal logic of P itself to separate the period of the patriarchs from the one of the exodus. For P, the time of Moses is the time of the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, and a qualitative separation of the two is far from natural for P. Apparently, this theory was necessary to help P combine two divergent blocks of tradition, the pre-Priestly Genesis and the Moses story. Exod 6:2–3 shows quite clearly that P was unable to utilize any previously known sequence of the epochs of the history of Israel that could simply be reproduced with a slightly different focus. P instead had to create this sequence from scratch.<br />
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Secondly, the Joseph story (Genesis 37–50) casts further doubts on an original continuing narrative in Genesis – Exodus as the J and E hypotheses would suggest. The narrative goes to great pains to explain why and how Israel ended up in Egypt. However, it does not succeed in creating a wholly plausible transition from the patriarchs to the exodus: the book of Genesis depicts Joseph as an honored man serving at the Egyptian court under a pharaoh who was favorable towards him, while also picturing the Israelites as nomads. Yet the same Israelites appear in the beginning of the book of Exodus as badly treated conscript laborers (a status normally reserved for prisoners of war) under a pharaoh who is now a cruel despot and who attempts to exploit and contain them. This complete change in circumstances and setting of the narrative is only explained by a brief transitional note in Exod 1:6–8, which mentions the death of Joseph and his generation. This text, moreover, introduces a new pharaoh that is no longer acquainted with Joseph, even though Joseph’s position of leadership had made him the second most prominent man in the state. Is that the narrative style of a continuous story? One gets the impression that two already fixed and separate literary blocks were joined together, rather than a single narrative in which events move organically from Genesis to Exodus. Apparently the statement in Exod 1:8, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph,” is a narrative device that serves to set the story of Joseph in parentheses because otherwise the story of the exodus cannot be told. This means at the same time that the Joseph story was not originally shaped to bridge the gap between Genesis and Exodus. Only by means of later redactional insertions could the story of Joseph fulfill this function as is evident in Gen 50:14. The forefathers of Israel dwell in the Land of Canaan in Gen 50, and it is only by means of this one verse (Gen 50:14) that they are brought back to Egypt to set the stage for the exodus.<br />
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Thirdly, the several promises to the patriarchs, which are obviously the most important redactional pieces of cohesion in Genesis, do not imply that they originally focused on the exodus. Among the many promises of the land in Genesis, only one passage (Gen 15:13–16; cf. 50:24) states that the descendants of the patriarchs will have to leave Canaan first before the promise of the land will be fulfilled in a second immigration. The other promises in Genesis do not share this view. On the contrary it is quite alien to them as the formulation, “to you and to your descendants,” indicates.<br />
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In addition, the non-P texts containing promises (the traditional J texts) concerning the increase of descendants do not point to the story of the exodus. The same absence of a literary connection can be noticed in the non-P stories in Exodus. The statement about Israel becoming a great people does not refer to the prominent non-Priestly promises of increase at the beginning of the patriarchal narrative (e.g., Gen 12:2; 13:13). The comparison of the promise of descendants to Abraham in Gen 12:2 and the statement of Pharaoh in Exod 1:9 illustrates the absence of a clear relationship between the two bodies of literature.</span></span><br />
</div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr valign="top"> <td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 0in 0.08in;" width="48%"><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gen 12:2<br />
And I will make you to a great people.</span></span></div></td><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 0in 0.08in;" width="48%"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Exod 1:9<br />
And he [Pharaoh] spoke to his people: Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 180%; margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand, it is all the more remarkable that the connections on the P-level are very tight.</span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr valign="top"> <td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 0in 0.08in;" width="48%"><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;">Gen 1:28<br />
Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth</span></span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;">Gen 9:7<br />
And you, be fruitful, and multiply; increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.</span></span></div><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;">Gen 17:2<br />
And I will multiply you exceedingly.</span></span></div></td> <td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 0in 0.08in;" width="48%"><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;">Exod 1:7<br />
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;">filled with them.</span></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "Helvetica", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If the non-Priestly substance of the patriarchal and exodus narrative was really written by the same author, it would be very difficult to explain why he did not correlate the promise to become a great people with its fulfillment as is done in P. Therefore, it is much more likely that Gen 12:2 and Exod 1:9 were written by different authors than to assume that it is a Yahwistic bridge between Genesis and Exodus as the traditional Documentary Hypothesis suggests.<br />
<br />
Apart from the P connections between Genesis and Exodus, Genesis 15 and Exodus 3 are also key texts linking the two blocks together. However, both pieces are stand-alone units in their contexts (which they interrupt). Both also seem too dependent upon their P-counterparts in Genesis 17 and Exodus 6 and thus to be dated after P.<br />
<br />
Therefore, it is not a far lying assumption to conclude that both the narrative substance of the book of Genesis as well as its reception outside the Pentateuch support the suspicion that this text was not originally written as a prelude to the book of Exodus. Explicit literary connections between Genesis and Exodus appear only in Priestly texts or in texts that presuppose P. P itself shows in Exod 6:2–3 that it creates something new by joining the patriarchal narrative with the exodus. Furthermore, the literature from outside the Pentateuch also points to the fundamental separation between the patriarchs and the exodus. The Psalms provide especially strong evidence for an original separation between Genesis and the Moses story: Apart from the late Psalm 105, the so-called historical Psalms all reckon with the beginning of Israel’s history in the exodus. Apparently the Psalms attest to Genesis as a secondary introduction before the Moses story. The prophetic books reinforce this impression. Hosea 12 places Jacob and Moses (“a prophet”) in opposition to each other. The contrast is especially striking, and the detailed interpretation of this chapter by Albert de Pury supports the theory of a fundamental separation of the Jacob and the Moses stories. Finally, one could mention texts like Amos 3:11; Mic 7:20; Ezek 20:5; 33:24, which seem to imply the same thing, but limited space does not allow a detailed discussion here.<br />
<br />
The redaction-historical separation of Genesis and Exodus before P has fundamental consequences for the understanding of the history of religion and theology of the Hebrew Bible. Firstly, it is obvious that this new perspective abandons the thesis so popular in the 20th century that the religion of ancient Israel is based on salvation history (Heilsgeschichte). That such a view can no longer be maintained has been made clear by the numerous archaeological finds published in recent years. One should envisage the religion of Israel differently than the biblical picture suggests. The polemics of the Deuteronomists are probably closer to the preexilic reality in ancient Israel than the normative-orthodox statements in the Bible that promulgate a salvation-history based monotheism. Without the J hypothesis, the paradigm of a clear discontinuity between ancient Israel and its neighbors can no longer be maintained. This paradigm of discontinuity developed in the wake of Karl Barth’s dialectical theology and can be explained as an application of its basic tenets to the history of ancient Israel’s religion. It presupposed that Israel occupies a very special place in the ancient Near East from its very beginning. But if there has been no early (i.e., Solomonic) or at least monarchic (Josiah) conception of a salvation history that begins with the creation and ends with the conquest of the land, Israel must be seen in continuity rather than discontinuity with its neighbors. The paradigm of discontinuity is not a peculiarity of ancient Israel but rather a characteristic feature of the Judaism of the Persian period which projects its ideals back into the Hebrew Bible.<br />
<br />
Contrary to the assumptions of the Documentary Hypothesis, Genesis and the Moses story stood next to each other as two competing concepts containing two traditions of the origin of Israel with different theological profiles. The different conceptions still remain apparent behind the carefully crafted final form of the Pentateuch. Genesis is mainly autochthonous and inclusive, while the Moses story is allochthonous and exclusive. Of course such a polar opposition can only serve as a model, but it points nevertheless to a basic difference between the two blocks of tradition. To be more precise, the patriarchal narrative constructs a picture of the origin of Israel in its own land – a fact that is especially prominent in the specific formulations of the promises of the land, which do not presuppose that there will be several centuries between promise and fulfillment. At the same time, the patriarchal story is both theologically and politically inclusive: the different gods can – without any problems – be identified with YHWH, and the Patriarchs dwell together with the inhabitants of the land and make treaties with them. In contrast, the story of the exodus stresses Israel’s origin abroad in Egypt and puts forward an exclusive theological argument: YHWH is a jealous god that does not tolerate any other gods besides himself and the Israelites shall not make peace with the inhabitants of the land. <br />
<br />
The Bible therefore contains both concepts that also serve as arguments in modern discussions: inclusiveness and exclusiveness. However, it is only by means of historical reconstruction that this important inner-biblical difference regarding how Genesis and the Moses story determine Israel’s origins and its relation to its land and to other nations becomes fully apparent.</span></span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-62842340522449465402011-07-21T18:53:00.003+03:002011-07-23T19:26:15.282+03:00The Origin of Biblical Israel<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Philip R Davies</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">University</span></i></st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Sheffield</st1:placename></span></i></st1:place></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The most important development in recent years in the study of the history of ancient Israel and Judah has been, in my opinion, the interest in Judah during the Neo-Babylonian period, a period previously somewhat neglected, and strangely so, since it offers the most peculiar anomaly: for the entire period, a province called ‘Judah’ was in fact governed from a territory that, as the Bible and biblical historians themselves would describe it, was 'Benjamin’. The former capital of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename>, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, was replaced by Mizpah. In the majority of modern histories of Israel/Judah that I have consulted, no explanation is offered for this choice.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">How long this state of affairs continued remains unclear: the narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah are silent about this (as they are confused about the rebuilding of the Temple), and, as Edelman has recently argued (Edelman 2005), Jerusalem was probably not restored as the capital of Judah until the middle of the 5th century at the earliest (indeed, if Jerusalem had been the capital before the time of Artaxerxes, the story of Nehemiah would be largely pointless!).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Thus, for well over a century, the political life of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> was centered in a territory which had once been part of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Israel</st1:placename></st1:place>. How, when and why it became attached to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> is unknown. The claim in 1 Kings 12:16-21 that Benjamin sided with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> when the ‘kingdom’ was ‘divided’ is hardly to be taken as reliable. If, when the Assyrians divided the territory of the former kingdom of Israel into provinces, the territory we know as ‘Benjamin’ was allocated to Assyria’s vassal Judah, it seems not to have been involved in the campaign of Sennacherib—or had it been, it would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have probably been removed from Judah. Perhaps it was annexed by Josiah: but if so, why would it not have been reclaimed by <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region> or by <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Babylon</st1:place></st1:city> after his death?). The reign of Manasseh looks more probable, given the favourable relations between him and <st1:place w:st="on">Assyria</st1:place>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">II</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">But this territory—the most densely populated part of the Neo-Babylonian province—was the focus of not only political but also religious life in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Whether or not the remains of the <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> temple continued as a site of religious activity,[1] such activity would not have involved those inhabitants of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">territory</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Benjamin</st1:placename></st1:place>, who had their own sanctuaries. Despite the rhetoric about the centrality and uniqueness of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region>’s literature, we cannot take it as a historical fact that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was the only sanctuary active in the territory of Judah-and-Benjamin prior to the Neo-Babylonian period. Thus, Mizpah itself (Tell en-Nasbeh; Zorn 2003), Bethel (Beitin; Kelso 1968) and Gibeon (el-Jib; Edelman 2003), to name three, presumably continued during the 6th and much of the 5th century as active cult centers; the archaeological evidence (usually rather poorly retrieved and reported) supports this conclusion, despite, in some cases, earlier opinions to the contrary.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Blenkinsopp (2003) has argued that of these, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> was pre-eminent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first place, if the tradition of 2 Kings is correct, it has been a royal sanctuary during the existence of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Israel</st1:placename></st1:place>. Second, another biblical tradition associates it with Jacob, the eponymous ancestor of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Thirdly, the polemic in the Judean scriptural canon against <st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city> in 1 Kings 12–13; 2 Kings 23; Amos passim points to it having been the chief rival to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, as its geographical locations would in any cases suggest. Anti-Benjaminite (including anti-Saulide) sentiment in the so-called ‘Deuteronomistic history’ is also evident, perhaps emanating from the sixth-fifth centuries. In particular the stories associated with the transfer of the ark, and the golden calf episode (connected with the legend of Josiah’s destruction of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city>), show that Bethel-Jerusalem rivalry constituted a major issue in the production of much of the material in Judean literature. This, it has been argued, may have its roots in the sixth century (Amit 2003), but must have achieved its literary expression in the period when <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> reasserted its supremacy over <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> (religiously) as well as over Mizpeh (politically).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">III</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">As already said, these observations represent nothing new or original: they are essentially a summary of recent conclusions. My own contribution consists in exploring an important implication of these conclusions, starting from the fact that for over a century the most influential sanctuary in the <st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Judah</st1:placename> was almost certainly <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city>. Its connection with Jacob probably emerged during the period of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Israel</st1:placename></st1:place> in connection with its status (or as the reason, if the connection is even earlier) as one of the two royal sanctuaries. The association of Jacob with Esau in the Jacob cycle, however, is perhaps not so old, because while Esau himself is possibly a figure from an earlier period, his identification with Edom in any case surely belongs to the Neo-Babylonian or early Persian period, when Edom was the immediate neighbor of the territory, and not when it was relatively remotely located beyond the Rift Valley to the southeast. The association of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Edom</st1:country-region> in fact obliterates the name of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region>’ from the territory of southern central <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palestine</st1:place></st1:city>. I will argue presently that the ‘Jacob’ of the cycle as a whole possibly includes <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> as his descendant. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Although anti-Benjaminite (and anti-‘northern’) ideology can be found throughout the Judean canonical writings (though largely absent from the Pentateuch), pointing to a specific rivalry that requires a concrete setting, we can also suggest in some cases a substratum of Benjaminite material. There are grounds for concluding, as I have argued elsewhere (Davies, forthcoming) that the literati of Benjamin originated the skeleton of an account of the rise of the kingdom of Israel, beginning with a conquest of the territory by Benjamin, a sequence of ‘judges’ initiated by a Benjaminite, and how Benjamin finally provided the first king of Israel (no verdict on the historicity of all this is implied). Again, whether this account crystallized specifically in the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian period is difficult to establish, but the people of Benjamin perhaps had no great love of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and supported the Babylonians during their hegemony of Judah (Blenkinsopp 2003; Davies forthcoming). They perhaps thought of themselves as the rump of ‘Israel’, an identity nurtured and sustained by the cult at Bethel, even after the Anschluss, whenever that occurred, and now, in a kind of reversed Anschluss, had the opportunity either to incorporate (or exclude) Judah in their own history. Was it to overturn such a chauvinistic Benjaminite, ‘history of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’ that the books of the ‘Deuteronomistic History’ were in fact composed?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Certainly, in a sense, there existed a period of over a century in which Judah was really ‘Israel’, and this context to my mind offers the solution to one of the fundamental problems of biblical studies: why did Judeans subsequently call themselves by the name ‘Israel’?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">IV</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Until fairly recently, this problem was not seen as a problem because it was already answered; there had been a United Monarchy bearing the name <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, in which <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> were pre-eminent. But that assertion can no longer be made as a historical fact: on the contrary, it is counter-indicated by the archaeological evidence. (That same evidence has also finally removed any suggestion of an ethnic entity prior to settlement in the highlands at the very end of the Late Bronze age.) When, then, did <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> come to see itself as part of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>? Perhaps at a time when the kingdom of Israel effectively linked the two kingdoms, under a single king Jehoram (2 Kings 3:1-2, 8:16, where the fact is possibly disguised by inventing a second Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, and perhaps in a separate, later editorial process changing ‘Jehoram’ to ‘Joram’ for the king of Israel)? Whether or not there was at this time a period of political union, or even merely political collusion (as also narrated in 2 Kings under Jehoshaphat), the circumstances seem to have been short-lived. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> pursued its own political career as independently of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> as possible, and indeed, against <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s interests, by allying itself to <st1:place w:st="on">Assyria</st1:place>. It seems unlikely, then, that we have here any plausible basis for the continued adoption of the name ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, if the name had ever been attached to the population.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The reign of Hezekiah is frequently cited as a time when <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> was swollen with Israelite refugees and when ‘northern’ influence might have been brought to bear on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. However, the undoubted expansion of the city is as well attributable to an influx of refugees from the Judean countryside or other Judean cities, and there is no positive evidence of a population move from <st1:city w:st="on">Samaria</st1:city> to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Even if such a move had taken place, this new population element from the north could hardly have imposed its name on its new host, and would hardly have been adopted voluntarily.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Another possibility is the reign of Josiah. The current theory of Josiah’s expansion posits a recapture of territory claimed by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> as part of the same political-religious entity, and as such implies a previous union that I have suggested did not occur. His reported destruction of <st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city> may, of course, be a legendary retrojection to justify <st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city>’s replacement by <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> at a later time. But equally an attack on <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> might have been undertaken by Josiah, since something is needed to explain his execution, if that is how he died. But in any case, one cannot see why a move by Josiah to annex Benjamin would result in the adoption of the name ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ by <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> rather than the reverse (in fact, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> was probably part of Judean territory at this time in any case; see above)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">V</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Fundamentally, the reason why all these traditional alternatives fail is that they suppose a situation in which <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> is the stronger partner and thus unlikely to assume the name of the weaker. We are obliged, on the contrary, to look for a period when ‘Israel’ was dominant and ‘Judah’ subordinate, and a period of time in which an identity ‘Israel’ could be absorbed by a population that also saw itself as ‘Judah’ in such a way that it was irreversible. However, we do not need to look specifically for a political definition of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’, since when it is defined so as to include Judah (especially the Pentateuch) rather than when referring to the kingdom that bore the name (especially Samuel and Kings), ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’ is used in a primarily religious (including ethnic) sense, not a political one. This accords well with its usage in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. The ‘all-Israel’ political entity is part of an invented history that seeks, among other things, to undergird the integration of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> into <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> (and of course deny <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city> any continuing claim in this entity). But it has its origin in the spread throughout much of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> of the name ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ in a religious sense, deriving from the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethel</st1:place></st1:city> cult.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Addressed as ‘children of Jacob’ (or rather more simply, just ‘Jacob’) and induced to venerate him as their ancestor, worshippers at Bethel identified themselves as ‘Israel’; and while before 722 this identity coincided also with the kingdom in which Bethel was a royal sanctuary, this identity thereafter persisted more as a religious term (though probably without losing its ethnic connotation for Benjaminites). While <st1:city w:st="on">Bethel</st1:city> may have attracted some Judeans into its orbit even before 586, it made a serious impact only after the demise of its rival <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. With the <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> royal house and aristocracy removed, Judeans had no institutional support for any ‘traditions’ of ‘<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place></st1:city>’ or of ‘house of David’. In a period of over a century, spanning at least four generations, the identity ‘Israel’ could very easily permeate the population of ‘Benjamin-Judah’ in such a way that the later restoration of political and cultic supremacy to Jerusalem could not challenge it, let alone remove it. But with the reestablishment of Jerusalem, Bethel was defamed and destroyed; ‘Israelite’ stories were revised and overlaid with Judean ones, and (if Blenkinsopp [1998] is correct) its Aaronite priesthood was transferred to Jerusalem, thus relocating the religious centre of Jacob/Israel to the ‘city of David’. The name ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ was thus retained and redefined: ‘biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ was invented, with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> at its head.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">VI</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">It remains to consider whether the merging of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Judah</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> (or specifically ‘Jacob’) can be traced in datable Judean literature. We can begin with texts such as Isaiah 2:3:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And many people will go and say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Come let us go up to the mountain of Yhwh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yhwh from Jerusalem’.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jacob</i>’ occurs at least 40 times in Isaiah, but is especially concentrated in chapters 40–55 (22 times). This is a totally unexpected phenomenon in a poet supposedly exiled among Zionists and addressing them (I use the term precisely: the ‘exile’ was a deportation of Jerusalemites, whose descendants presumably were responsible for supporting the restoration of their beloved city):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yhwh, and make mention of the god of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Isa 48:1)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">I have argued before (Davies 1995: see also Barstad 1989, 1997) that the contents of Second Isaiah stem largely if not entirely from Judah in the fifth century, when the issue of Jerusalem’s claims and the claims of its ‘children’ were being advanced in a way that did not, as in Ezra and Nehemiah, seek to exclude the indigenous population. For this poet, the returning Zionists (to whom he is sympathetic, if not even one himself) are part of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’; they are ‘Jacob’ and should be welcomed. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The usage recurs in Trito-Isaiah: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall live there”</i> (Isa 65:9).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The usage is also found in Jeremiah; for example, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> ...”</i> (Jer. 5:20).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Are these two terms synonymous? Or is ‘house of Jacob’ a reference to Benjamin, the rump of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>? McKane (1986) prefers the former: ‘The form of address in v. 20 is new, but בית יעקב almost certainly functions as a synonym of יהודה and is not a reference to the northern kingdom’. This seems to me also more plausible: in 30:10, 31:7, 11; 33:26; 46:27-8, ‘Jacob’ apparently refers to Judeans (2:4; 10:16, 25 cannot be decided). It is surprising that such language has not attracted more comment from commentators. Does the collocation date from the late Judean monarchy, or reflect a later period when which the book was assuming its canonical forms?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A similar collocation in Lamentations fits the proposed period very well:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Yhwh has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not shown pity: he has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>; he has brought them down to the ground: he has polluted the kingdom and its princes. He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, that devours round about</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Lam. 2:2-3)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">See also Lam. 17 where Jacob is collocated with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the two collocations of Jacob and Judah in Hosea, on the other hand, the terms are not synonymous: ‘Judah’ and ‘Jacob’ apply to different entities:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">And Ephraim is like a heifer that is trained, and loves to tread out the corn; and I put a yoke upon her fair neck: I will harness Ephraim; <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region> shall plough, and Jacob shall break up the ground. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Hos. 10:11). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Yhwh has also a dispute with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">(Hos. 12:2)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The same is true of the last collocation, in Micah 1:5:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">All this is because of Jacob’s rebellion, and for the sins of the house of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place></st1:city>? and what are the high places of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>? are they not <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Here, for reasons that it would be interesting to explore (they might be statements from the monarchic period or from a post-monarchic period, serving to distinguish Samarians from Judeans as faithful ‘Israelites’), the Deuteronomistic distinction of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’ and ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>’ is preserved: but this usage of ‘Jacob’ is definitely not Deuteronomistic.[2]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">VII</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In this very brief paper I do not have the scope to examine any further the textual evidence of the identification of ‘<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place></st1:country-region>’ as ‘Jacob’, as opposed to ‘Judah’ and ‘Jacob’ as pairs. I hope to finish a more detailed presentation of this thesis in the near future. I have here only outlined my answer to the problem of the origin of ‘biblical <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’. The implications of the answer for the history of biblical traditions are considerable and will of course have to be addressed: the antiquity or otherwise of the tribal system in particular, the invention of the ‘united monarchy’ and the functions of David and Solomon as historiographical and literary figures; the true nature of relations between the populations of Judah and Samaria in the Persian period, and the place of Benjamin between these. Also of some importance is the role of the conflict between Benjaminite and Judean religious traditions (whether real or invented) and the origin of the Judean scriptures themselves. For the historical roots of ‘biblical Israel’ in the religious discourse and practice of the sixth and fifth centuries may hold the key to the burst of Judean literary activity that laid the basis of the canon we know call the «Hebrew Bible».</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"></span></i></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-21722053395895113952011-07-20T12:20:00.001+03:002011-11-17T09:37:34.758+02:00Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) Period and the Wall of Nehemiah<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Israel</span></i></st1:country-region><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> Finkelstein, <st1:placetype w:st="on">Institute</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Archaeology</st1:placename>, <st1:placename w:st="on">Tel</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Aviv</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>, Tel <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Aviv</st1:city> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">69978</st1:postalcode>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place> </span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Vol 32.4 (2008): 501-520 </span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Abstract</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Knowledge of the archaeology of Jerusalem in the Persian (and Early Hellenistic) period — the size of the settlement and whether it was fortified — is crucial to understanding the history of the province of Yehud, the reality behind the book of Nehemiah and the process of compilation and redaction of certain biblical texts. It is therefore essential to look at the finds free of preconceptions (which may stem from the account in the book of Nehemiah) and only then attempt to merge archaeology and text.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: white; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The Current View</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">A considerable number of studies dealing with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period have been published in recent years (e.g. Carter 1999; Eshel 2000; Stern 2001: 434-36; Edelman 2005; Lipschits 2005, 2006; Ussishkin 2006). Although the authors were aware of the results of recent excavations, which have shown that the settlement was limited to the eastern ridge (the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>), they continued to refer to a meaningful, fortified 'city' with a relatively large population.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Carter argued that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> grew from a built-up area of 30 dunams in the Persian I period to 60 dunams 'after the mission of Nehemiah' (1999: 200) and estimated the peak population to have been between 1250 and 1500 people (1999: 288). Based on detailed archaeological data from excavations and surveys, and using a density coefficient of 25 people per one built-up dunam (a number which may be somewhat too high—see below), Carter (1999: 195-205) reached a population estimate of c. 20,000 people for the entire province of Yehud in the Persian period (compared to c. 30,000 according to Lipschits 2003: 364, also using the 25 people per one built-up dunam coefficient). Carter rightly asked: If Yehud 'was this small and this poor, how could the social and religious elite sustain the literary activity attributed to the Persian period? ... How could such a small community have built a temple and/or refortified <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>' (1999: 285; see the same line of thought in Schniedewind 2003; 2004: 165-78). Based on 'historical and sociological parallels'—in fact, almost solely on the biblical text—Carter (1999: 288) answered in the positive, arguing that the urban elite was large enough for both the production of a large body of texts and for the fortification of Jerusalem.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Eshel (2000) reconstructed the history of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period almost solely according to the biblical texts, arguing that the 'Jerusalem of Nehemiah was a small town...nevertheless it had eight gates. much more than the real need of the town at that time' (2000: 341). Eshel acknowledged that the population of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> was depleted (in line with Neh. 7.4), but in the same breath argued that it was populated by Levites and others, who were brought to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> by Nehemiah (11.1). He compared the demographic actions taken by Nehemiah to the synoikismos policy of Greek tyrants (also Weinberg 1992: 43; 2000: 308-309, 313-16). Regarding the rebuilding of the walls, following Nehemiah 3, Eshel envisioned a major operation, which involved many groups of builders.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Stern began the discussion of the archaeology of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> in the Persian period with a sentence based solely on the biblical text: 'Persian period <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was bounded by walls erected by Nehemiah' (2001: 434). At the same time, Stern acknowledged that 'only a few traces have survived of the city wall of Nehemiah along the course described in the Bible (2001: 435). Stern referred to a segment of a city-wall at the top of the eastern slope of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, which was dated by Kenyon (1974: 183-84) to the Persian period (see below).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Edelman accepted Nehemiah 3 as accurately reflecting 'the names of individuals and settlements in Yehud at the time the walls of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> were constructed during the reign of Artaxerxes I' (2005: 222). Edelman, like Lipschits (below), saw the construction of the walls by Nehemiah as a turning point in the history of Yehud — marking the transfer of the capital from Mizpah to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. The walls provided 'protection for the civilian population and government officials who would man the fort and carry out the administration of the province' (2005: 206). Edelman saw a major construction effort in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> under Persian auspices in the days of Artaxerxes I — an effort far greater than the reconstruction of the city-walls, that also included the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> and a fort (2005: 344-48).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ussishkin declared that 'the corpus of archaeological data should be the starting point for the study of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>... This source of information should take precedence, wherever possible, over the written sources, which are largely biased, incomplete, and open to different interpretations' (2006: 147-48). Reviewing the archaeological data, he rightly concluded that the description in Nehemiah 3 must relate to the maximal length of the city-walls, including the western hill. But then, solely according to the textual evidence in Nehemiah 3, he accepted that the Persian-period settlement was indeed fortified: 'When Nehemiah restored the city wall destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, it is clear ...that he restored the city wall that encompassed the Southwestern Hill, as suggested by the "maximalists" (Ussishkin 2006: 159; also 160).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Lipschits' reconstruction of the history of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period (2006) revolved around the rebuilding of the city-wall by Nehemiah. Though 'there are no architectural or other finds that attest to Jerusalem as an urban center during the Persian Period' (2006: 31), 'the real change in the history of Jerusalem occurred in the middle of the fifth century BCE, when the fortifications of Jerusalem were rebuilt. Along with scanty archaeological evidence, we have a clear description of this event in the Nehemiah narrative.' (2006: 34). Lipschits saw the construction of the city-wall as the turning point in the history of Jerusalem — when it became the capital of Yehud: 'The agreement of the Persians to build fortifications in Jerusalem and to alter the status of the city to the capital of the province was the most dramatic change in the history of the city after the Babylonian destruction in 586' (2006: 40). Lipschits described Jerusalem as a 'city' of 60 dunams, with a population of c. 1500 inhabitants (2006: 32; also 2003: 330-31; 2005: 212; see a different number, 3000 people, in 2005: 271).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Obviously, all the scholars who dealt with the nature of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period based their discussion on the biblical text, mainly on the description of the reconstruction of the city-wall in Nehemiah 3.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The Finds</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Intensive archaeological research in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the past forty years has shown that:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1. The southwestern hill was part of the fortified city in the Late Iron II and the Late Hellenistic periods (for the Iron II, see Geva 1979; 2003a: 505-18; 2003b; Avigad 1983: 31-60; Reich and Shukron 2003; for the Late Hellenistic period, see Geva 1983, 1994, 2003a: 526-34; Broshi and Gibson 1994; Chen, Margalit and Pixner 1994; Sivan and Solar 1994; Wightman 1993: 111-57).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 30.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2. The southwestern hill was not inhabited in the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods. This has been demonstrated by excavations in the Jewish Quarter (Avigad 1983: 61-63; Geva 2000: 24; 2003a: 524; 2003b: 208), the <st1:placename w:st="on">Armenian</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype> (Gibson 1987; Geva 2003 a: 524-25), the Citadel (Amiran and Eitan 1970) and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Zion</st1:placename></st1:place> (Broshi 1976: 82-83). Apart from a few possible isolated finds (Geva 2003a: 525), there is no evidence of any activity in any part of the southwestern hill between the early sixth century and the second century BCE. The Persian and Early Hellenistic settlement should therefore be sought on the southeastern ridge — the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 30.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, too, the evidence is fragmentary. Most finds from the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods were retrieved from the central part of the ridge, between Areas G and D of the <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> excavations (Shiloh 1984: 4). The Persian period is represented by Stratum 9, which fully appears, according to <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> (1984: 4, Table 2) in Areas D1 (Ariel, Hirschfeld and Savir 2000: 59-62), D2 and G (Shiloh 1984: 20), and which is partially represented in Area E1. According to De Groot (2001), the most significant finds were retrieved from Area E. But even in these areas the finds were meager and poor; most of them came from fills and quarrying refuse (see the difficulty of distinguishing the 'limestone chops layer' in Ariel, Hirschfeld and Savir 2000: 59). De Groot (2001) describes a possible reuse in one Late Iron II building in Area E. Persian-period sherds and a few seal impressions were found in Reich and Shukron's Areas A and B, located in the Kidron Valley and mid-slope respectively, c. 200-<st1:metricconverter productid="250 m" w:st="on">250 m</st1:metricconverter> south of the Gihon Spring; they seem to have originated in the settlement located on the ridge (Reich and Shukron 2007).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Stratum 8 stands for the Early Hellenistic period. It is fully represented only in Area E2, partially represented in Areas E1 and E3, and scarcely represented in Areas D1 and D2 (Shiloh 1984: 4, Table 2). In this case, too, the finds are meager. They are comprised of three columbaria (De Groot 2004) and a structure that yielded the only assemblage of Early Hellenistic pottery from <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> (in Area E1 — <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> 1984: 15).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">In the case of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, too, the negative evidence is as important as the positive. No Persian or Early Hellenistic finds were found in Area A on the southern tip of the ridge. It is significant to note that in Area A1 Early Roman remains were found over Iron II remains (De Groot, Cohen and Caspi 1992). In Kenyon's Site K, located on the southwestern side of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, c. <st1:metricconverter productid="50 m" w:st="on">50 m</st1:metricconverter> to the north of the Siloam Pool, Iron II sherds were found on bedrock, superimposed by Late Hellenistic finds (Kenyon 1966: 84).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">As for the northern part of the ridge, the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods were not represented in B. and E. Mazar's excavations to the south of the southern wall of the Temple Mount, which yielded Late Hellenistic and mainly Early Roman finds superimposed over Iron II buildings (E. Mazar and B. Mazar 1989: xv-xvi). It is also significant that Persian and Early Hellenistic finds were not reported from B. Mazar's excavations near the southwestern corner of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Mount</st1:placename></st1:place> (B. Mazar 1971). A few finds, but no architectural remains or in-situ assemblages of pottery, were retrieved by Crowfoot in the excavation of the 'Western Gate' (Crowfoot and Fitzgerald 1929) and by Macalister and Duncan (1926) in the excavation immediately to the west of <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place>'s Area G. The 8-<st1:metricconverter productid="10 m" w:st="on">10 m</st1:metricconverter> thick dump-debris removed by Reich and Shukron on the eastern slope of the City of David, near the Gihon Spring (Reich and Shukron 2007; also 2004), yielded ceramic material from the Iron II and 'late Second Temple period', but no Persian and Early Hellenistic pottery. Reich and Shukron interpret this as evidence that Area G, located upslope from their dig, was uninhabited at that time. Finally, it is noteworthy that sifting of debris from the Temple Mount recovered almost no Persian- period finds (compared to a significant number of finds from the Iron II and from the Hellenistic-Early Roman periods — Barkay and Zweig 2006).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Reich and Shukron (2007) also noted that 75 of the 85 Yehud seal impressions from the <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> excavations published by Ariel and Shoham (2000) originated from Areas B, D and E. They concluded that the settlement of the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods was restricted to the top of the ridge, to the south of Area G (see a somewhat similar view in Ariel and Shoham 2000: 138).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">All this seems to indicate that:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1. In the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods activity on the Temple Mount was not strong (compare the Iron II finds to the south of the southern wall of the Temple Mount to the negative evidence for the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods and see Barkay and Zweig 2006), and in any event did not include intensively inhabited areas.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2. The northern part of the ridge of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city> was uninhabited.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.25pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">3. The southern part of the ridge was probably uninhabited as well.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.25pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The Persian and Early Hellenistic settlement was confined to the central part of the ridge, between Shiloh's Area G (which seems to be located on the margin of the inhabited area) and <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place>'s Areas D and E. The settlement was located on the ridge, with the eastern slope outside the built-up area. Even in this restricted area, a century of excavations, by a number of archaeologists, failed to yield even a single(!) house or proper floor from the Persian period, and only one structure from the Early Hellenistic period was found. The idea that the settlement was eradicated because of later activity and erosion (e.g. De Groot 2004: 67) must be rejected in the light of the reasonable preservation of the Late Hellenistic and Iron II remains.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The maximal size of the Persian and Early Hellenistic settlement was therefore c. 240 (N-S) x 120 (E-W) m, that is, c. 20-25 dunams (contra to the idea of a 60-dunam settlement [excluding the Temple Mount] in Carter 1999: 200; Lipschits 2006: 32; and a 30-acre settlement [possibly including the Temple Mount] in Avigad 1993: 720). Calculating the population according to the broadly accepted density coefficient of 20 people per one built-up dunam (Finkelstein 1992 and bibliography) — a number which may be too high for what seems to have been a sparsely settled ridge (on this problem too see Finkelstein 1992) — one reaches an estimated population of 400-500 people, that is, c. 100 adult men. This stands in sharp contrast to previous, even minimal estimates of 1250, 1500 or 3000 inhabitants (Carter 1999: 288; Lipschits 2005: 271; 2006: 32; 'a few thousands' in Avigad 1993: 720), estimates which call for a large settlement of 75-150 dunams — more than the entire area of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>. These data fit well the situation in the immediate environs of Jerusalem, where the number of spots with archaeological remains dropped from <st1:metricconverter productid="140 in" w:st="on">140 in</st1:metricconverter> the Iron II to <st1:metricconverter productid="14 in" w:st="on">14 in</st1:metricconverter> the Persian period (Kloner 2001: 92; 2003: 28*; 2003: 30* for the Early Hellenistic period). They also fit the general demographic depletion in the entire area of the province of Yehud — a maximum of 20,000-30,000 people in the Persian period according to Carter (1999: 195-205) and Lipschits (2003: 364), c. 15,000 according to my own calculations—about a third or a fourth of the population of that area in the Late Iron II (Carter 1999: 247 based on Broshi and Finkelstein 1992; Ofer 1993).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Nehemiah's Wall</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Archaeologists have accepted the description of the reconstruction of the wall in Nehemiah 3 as an historical fact, and have been divided only about the course of the fortifications. The minimalists restricted them to the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, and the maximalists argued that the description included the southwestern hill (see the summary in Ussishkin 2006). Two finds in the field have been perceived as indications for the course of Nehemiah's city-wall: one on the crest above the eastern slope of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city> and the other on the western side of that ridge.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kenyon (1967: 111; 1974: 183-84) argued that because of the collapse of the Late Iron II city-wall and buildings on the eastern slope of the ridge as a result of the Babylonian destruction, the city-wall of Nehemiah was built higher up, at the top of the slope. In her Square A XVIII (adjacent to Shiloh's Area G), Kenyon identified a short segment in the city-wall that had first been uncovered by Macalister and Duncan (1926) — a wall that was later unanimously dated to the Late Hellenistic period (see the literature on the First Wall above) — as the city-wall built by Nehemiah. Her dating of this segment of the wall was based on pottery found in a layer dumped against its outer face; this pottery was dated by Kenyon (1974: 183) to the fifth-early third centuries BCE (the sixth-fifth centuries BCE in 1974: caption to Pl. 79). <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place>, too, argued —without any archaeological evidence — that the city wall was built 'on the bedrock at the top of the eastern slope' (1984: 29; also Avigad 1993: 720; De Groot 2001: 78). Stern (2001: 435) accepted Kenyon's identification and dating of this segment as Nehemiah's wall. Ussishkin (2006: 160), on the other hand, suggested that Nehemiah reconstructed the Iron II wall, which runs on the lower part of the eastern slope of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The only piece of information from the western side of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city> comes from Crowfoot's 1927 excavations. A massive structure that had been founded on bedrock, under thick layers of later occupations and debris, was identified as a Bronze Age gatehouse that continued to be in use until Roman times (Crowfoot and Fitzgerald 1929: 12-23). Albright (1930-31: 167) identified Crowfoot's 'gatehouse' with the Dung Gate of Neh. 3.13, while Alt (1928) proposed equating it with the Valley Gate of Neh. 3.13. Alt's proposal has been accepted by most authorities (e.g. Avi Yonah 1954: 244-45; Tzafrir 1977: 39; Williamson 1984; Eshel 2000: 333).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Yet, both finds — the wall uncovered by Kenyon and the structure unearthed by Crowfoot—cannot be dated to the Persian period.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Kenyon's identification of Nehemiah's wall was based on (yet unpublished) pottery found in a small sounding, in a fill or a dump thrown against the outer face of the wall (1974: Pl. 79). As rightly argued by De Groot (2001: 78), such a layer cannot be used for dating a city-wall. This material could have been taken from any dump on the slope and put there in order to support the wall (for the same situation in the Outer Wall of Gezer, see Finkelstein 1994: 278). <st1:place w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:place> re-examined this segment of the city wall and found Late Bronze material on the bedrock, close to its inner face; he therefore suggested that this part of the wall may have originated from a pre-Persian period (Cahill and Tarler 1994: 41). Excavations immediately to the west of this spot by Macalister and Duncan (1926) and E. Mazar (2007) did not unearth architectural remains of the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods, but they made clear that this segment is part of the Late Hellenistic city-wall, first uncovered by Macalister and Duncan (1926; see for details Finkelstein et al. 2007). Had it not been for Nehemiah 3, I doubt very much whether Kenyon would have dated a short segment in the well-preserved Late Hellenistic wall to the Persian period.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Ussishkin (2006) has recently dealt in detail with the structure excavated by Crowfoot and identified by him as a gatehouse. Ussishkin has cast doubt on the identification of the structure as a gate, and convincingly argued that it probably dates to the Late Hellenistic or Early Roman period (2006: 159; see also Kenyon 1964: 13).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">To sum up this issue, there is no archaeological evidence for the citywall of Nehemiah. The wall in the east dates to the Late Hellenistic period and the structure in the west — regardless of its function — also post-dates the Persian period. Had it not been for the Nehemiah 3 account, no scholar would have argued for a Persian-period city-wall in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. Three early city-walls are known in the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city>, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, the Late Iron II and the Late-Hellenistic period. All three have been easy to trace and have been found relatively well-preserved. No other city-wall has ever been found and I doubt if this situation will change as a result of future excavations.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">One could take a different course and argue, with Ussishkin (2006), that Nehemiah merely rebuilt the ruined Iron II wall. Yet, in the many sections of the Iron II wall that have been uncovered — on both the southwestern hill and the southeastern ridge — there is no clue whatsoever for a renovation or reconstruction in the Persian period. In the parts of the Late Iron II city wall uncovered on the southwestern hill, the first changes and additions date to the Late Hellenistic period (Avigad 1983: 65-72; Geva 2000: 24; 2003a: 529-32). No such reconstruction has been traced in the long line of the Iron II wall uncovered in several excavations along the eastern slope of the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">David</st1:place></st1:city> south of the Gihon Spring. Archaeologically, Nehemiah's wall is a mirage.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">This should come as no surprise, judging from what we do know about the Persian-period settlement systems in Yehud in particular and the entire country in general. To differ from the construction of the Iron II and Late-Hellenistic fortifications in Jerusalem—which represent a well-organized territorio-political entity with significant wealth and population, evidence for high-level bureaucracy and clear ideology of sovereignty — the small community of several hundred inhabitants of Persian-period Jerusalem (that is, not many more than 100 adult men), with a depleted hinterland and no economic base, could not have possibly engaged in the reconstruction of the c. <st1:metricconverter productid="3.5 km" w:st="on">3.5 km</st1:metricconverter> long(!) Iron II city-wall with many gates (accepting Ussishkin's 2006 reconstruction). And why should the Persian authorities allow the reconstruction of the old, ruined fortifications and make <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> the only fortified town in the hill country? The explanations of scholars who have dealt with this issue— that this was made possible because of the pressure of the Delian League on the Mediterranean coast, revolt in Egypt and so on (summaries in Hoglund 1992: 61-64, 127-28; Edelman 2005: 334-40; Lipschits 2006: 35-38) —seem far-fetched, given the location of Jerusalem, distant from Egypt, international roads, coastal ports or other strategic locations (Lipschits, ibid). Indeed, Persian-period fortifications are known only along the coastal plain (Stern 2001: 464-68).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The Reality Behind Nehemiah 3</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">So what is the historical reality behind the description of Nehemiah's rebuilding of the walls of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>?</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Scholars have noted the independent nature of the list in Nehemiah 3 as compared to the rest of the 'Nehemiah Memoir' (Torrey 1910: 225; Michaeli 1967: 318-19; Williamson 1985: 200; Blenkinsopp 1988: 231; Throntveit 1992: 74, 75; Grabbe 1998: 157), but are divided on the question of whether Nehemiah used an earlier or a contemporary source that was kept in the Temple archives (Michaeli 1967: 319; Kellermaan: 1967: 14-17; Williamson 1985: 201; Throntveit 1992: 75; Blenkinsopp 1988: 231), or whether a later editor inserted the text into the book of Nehemiah (e.g. Torrey 1896; 37-38; 1910: 249, who identified the editor with the Chronist; Mowinckel 1964: 109-16, who opted for a post-Chronist redactor). Taking into consideration the archaeological evidence presented in the present study, an existing source from the Persian period, which described a genuine construction effort at that time, is not a viable option. We are left, therefore, with the following possibilities:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">1. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">That the description in Nehemiah 3 is utopian; it was based on the geographical reality of the ruined Iron II city-wall but does not reflect actual work on the wall. The text may describe a symbolic act rather than an actual work, similar to symbolic acts connected to the founding of Etruscan and Roman cities. And it may correspond to an ascriptive, ideal-type of a city that ought to include a wall (cf. Odyssey 6.6-10).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">2. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">That a Persian-period author used an early source, which described the late eighth-century construction or a pre-586 renovation of the Iron II city-wall and incorporated it into the Nehemiah text.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 28.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">3. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">That the description was inspired by the construction of the Late Hellenistic, Hasmonean city-wall.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 29.25pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The first possibility is difficult to accept. The detailed description of the construction of the city-wall and the prominence of the story of the wall throughout the Nehemiah Memoirs (Neh. 1.3; 2.4, 8, 13, 17; 3.33, 38; 4.5, 9; 5.16; 6.1, 6, 15; 7.1; 12.27) renders it highly unlikely. Moreover, the description in Nehemiah 3—which includes reference to many gates, towers, pools and houses — seems to refer to a true reality of a big city; in the light of what has already been said, the Late Iron II and Hasmonean periods are the only options.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The second possibility should probably be put aside. First, there is no evidence — historical or archaeological — of major work on the Iron II city-wall in the late seventh or early sixth centuries, and it is doubtful if a source from the late eighth century would have survived until the fifth or fourth centuries without being mentioned in any late-monarchic biblical source. Second, most names of gates, towers and pools in the list do not correspond to the many such names in late-monarchic biblical texts.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The third option would put Nehemiah 3 with what scholars see as late redactions in Ezra and Nehemiah, which can be dated as late as the Hasmonean period (Williamson 1985: xxxv; Wright 2004, 2007). Bohler (1997: 382-97) explicitly put the rebuilding of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> story in Nehemiah on Hasmonean background. The usage of words such as the province Beyond the River (mm Neh. 3.7), pelekh and nns (Neh. 3.11) does not present difficulty for such a late dating, as they appear in late Jewish sources (for "IHDH see 1 Macc. 7.8 — Rappaport 2004: 281; for pelekh in the rabbinical literature [without entering the discussion on the meaning of the word —Demsky 1983; Weinfeld 2000; Edelman 2005: 213-14], see Kohut 1926: 346; Demsky 1983: 243; for nns, see Dan. 3.27).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Dating the insertion of this text to the Hasmonean period may correspond to the importance given to the figure of Nehemiah in the first two chapters of 2 Maccabees (as the builder of the Temple!), which Bergren (1997; also 1998) interpreted as an attempt to bolster the figure of Judas Maccabeus, the hero of 2 Maccabees, by comparing him to Nehemiah—a prominent figure in the restoration, a builder, a political leader, a zealot for the law and a paradigm of piety (1997: 261-62). Nehemiah could have been chosen as such a model for the Hasmoneans because he represented a non-Davidide, non-Zadokite leadership.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Clues that Nehemiah 3 does not reflect Persian-period realities may be found in the archaeology of two of the three well-identified and excavated (rather than surveyed) sites mentioned in the list — Beth-zur and <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place>.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The archaeology of Beth-zur (Neh. 3.16) in the Persian period has been debated. Funk (1993: 261), Paul and Nancy Lapp (1968: 70; P. Lapp 1968: 29) and Carter (1999: 157) argued that the site was very sparsely, in fact, insignificantly inhabited in the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods. Funk noted that the 'interpretation of the Persian-Hellenistic remains at Beth-zur is dependent in large measure on the extant literary references (1968: 9). Based on a single locus(!), Stern (2001: 437-38; see also 1982: 36) adhered to the notion of a significant activity at the site in the Persian period. Reich (1992) argued in the same line according to an architectural analysis. The published material from the excavations (Sellers 1933; Sellers et al. 1968) includes only a limited number of finds — sherds, vessels and coins — that can safely be dated to the Persian period (Stern 2001: 437), while most forms belonging to the Persian-period repertoire are missing altogether. Hence, though archaeology may have revealed traces of some Persian-period activity at the site, it is clear that it was an important place only in the Late Iron II and the Late Hellenistic periods. It should be noted that Beth-zur — supposedly the headquarters of half a district in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yehud</st1:placename></st1:place> — did not yield even a single Yehud seal impression (over 530 have so far been recorded — Lipschits and Vanderhooft 2007: 3).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Gibeon</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;"> (Neh. 3.7) did not yield unambiguous Persian-period finds either. Without going into the debate over the dating of the Gibeon winery and inscriptions—late monarchic or sixth century (see summaries in Stern 1982: 32-33; 2001: 433; Lipschits 1999: 287-91) — the mwsh seal impressions and wedge-shaped and reed impressed sherds found at the site (Pritchard 1964: Figs. 32.7, 48.17) attest to a certain activity in the Babylonian or Babylonian/early Persian period. Yet, typical Persian- period pottery and Yehud seal impressions were not found (for the latter, see Lipschits 2005: 180). Late Hellenistic pottery and coins are attested. According to Pritchard, there is 'only scant evidence of occupation from the end of the sixth century until the beginning of the first century BCE' at <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place> (1993: 513). Still, in an attempt to provide evidence for the Gibeon of Neh. 3.7, he argued that 'scattered and sporadic settlements' did exist there during the Persian and Hellenistic periods (Pritchard 1962: 163). Stern rightly interpreted the <st1:place w:st="on">Gibeon</st1:place> finds as evidence for only sixth- century and possibly early Persian-period activity at the site (1982: 32-33; 2001: 433; Lipschits 2005: 243-45 — sixth century).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Yet, there are several problems regarding the Hasmonean option for the background of Nehemiah 3. First, the toponyms in the description of the First Wall in Josephus's Wars 5.4.2 — especially the 'gate of the Essens' (as well as names of gates mentioned by Josephus elsewhere) — are different from the toponyms in Nehemiah 3. But the change may be assigned to post-Hasmonean, mainly Herodian times. A more severe problem is the prominence of the story on the construction of the city-wall throughout the Nehemiah Memoirs. Accepting a Hasmonean reality behind the city-wall account in Nehemiah would therefore call for a drastic new approach to the entire book of Nehemiah (on this see Bohler 1997).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">Conclusion</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The Persian-period finds in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> and the search for Nehemiah's wall are additional cases in which archaeologists have given up archaeology in favor of an uncritical reading of the biblical text. The dearth of archaeological finds and the lack of extra-biblical texts on Persian-period Yehud open the way to circular reasoning in reconstructing the history of this period.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">The finds indicate that in the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> was a small unfortified village that stretched over an area of c. 20 dunams, with a population of a few hundred people — that is, not much more than 100 adult men. This population — and the depleted population of the Jerusalem countryside in particular and the entire territory of Yehud in general — could not have supported a major reconstruction effort of the ruined Iron II fortifications of the city. In addition, there is no archaeological evidence whatsoever for any reconstruction or renovation of fortifications in the Persian period. Taking these data into consideration, there are three ways to explain Nehemiah 3: (1) that it is a utopian list; (2) that it preserves a memory of an Iron Age construction or renovation of the city-wall; (3) that the list is influenced by the construction of the First Wall in the Hasmonean period. All three options pose significant difficulties — the first two more than the third. In any event, the archaeology of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> in the Persian period — as presented above — must be the starting point for any future discussion.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial"; font-size: 10pt;">On a broader issue, the archaeological evidence from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> casts severe doubt on the notion that much of the biblical material was composed in the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods. But this crucial issue is beyond the scope of this study and will be discussed elsewhere.</span></div>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3325051138556730076.post-38179846967421288032011-07-13T15:50:00.017+03:002015-01-05T17:30:53.797+02:00LIBRARY<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ATLASES</span></div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOU2VlZl93MndrNEU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bible Atlas</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOdGZqaXNoYVdRM2s/edit" target="_blank">Oxford Bible Atlas</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOSjF2c0g4ZHJGeWc/edit" target="_blank">New Bible Atlas</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
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</div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BOOKS</span></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Biblical History:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZON1V5aWxYbmxzU1E/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Josephus "The Antiquities of the Jews"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOVEVNeWFiemJiM3M/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Walter Dietrich "The Early Monarchy in Israel. The Tenth Century B.C.E."</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOMEZLQjBuMUc1Q28/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mario Liverani "Israel's History and History of Israel"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmNTczODljNDAtNzQ3Mi00N2I0LWE2ZGYtYTMxNWEwZDAwYjM0&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ilana Pardes "The Biography of Ancient Israel. National Narratives in the Bible"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOVG9TM1lYejM3d1k/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahab Agonistes "The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOYTBlMDg1NzAtNWM5Zi00YjkwLTg4OGYtNjcwNDZlOTU2ZmE4&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clyde E.Fant & Mitchell G.Reddish "A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOOTdhM2VjYTAtZTM4ZS00MWQwLWJjZTMtMTMzNTdiNTc0Nzdh&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Martti Nissinen "Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwRNgbXyG_HmZDFjNGQ3Y2ItOTg3Mi00NTIxLWIwNWEtMjU5NmIzNzAwZTk5&hl=uk">Lawrence J. Mykytiuk "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200 - 539 B.C.E."</a> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOUXpZZlotcmNVeGs/edit" target="_blank">Lester L.Grabbe "A History of The Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwRNgbXyG_HmN2FiNDJkZDYtNTAzYS00OWNhLWFkZGItNzQ3ZmM4OTMzMTkz&hl=uk">Niels Peter Lemche "Historical Dictionary of Ancient Israel"</a></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOM19xTHNEaHNKb1U/edit" target="_blank">Lester L.Grabbe "An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism. History and Religion of the Jews in the time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/68918732/Myth-and-Politics-in-Ancient-Near-Eastern-Historiography">Mario Liverany "Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography"</a></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOU3lTcV9MaG1QV3c/edit" target="_blank">Niels Peter Lemche "The Israelites in History and Tradition"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZObEV1QWt3bmJqcGc/edit" target="_blank">Thomas L. Thompson "Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition"</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRNgbXyG_HmRGhhMVpjalhhakE/edit?pli=1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Shlomo Sand "The Invention of the Jewish People"</a> </li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Biblical Archaeology:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZObzF6VFUyZXhkSmM/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Richard Plant "A Numismatic Journey Through the Bible"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmZTg0OWJlNzEtNDFkZC00ZWVkLTliMTItNTc1MDcxZTM0ZDBj&export=download&hl=en"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amihai Mazar "Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan"</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1snd4S-fbVHtp8Jg7pjzMzl6-MbUVXwmE95eWXmXarHkjXFSrQNwPuPuyHibp&hl=uk">Israel Finkelstein & Amihai Mazar "The Quest for the Historical Israel. Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOOTJxc0FUMmE0bEE/edit" target="_blank">Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman "The Bible Unearthed. Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOWk9kaUdUdzg2YWM/edit" target="_blank">Israel Finkelstein, Neil Silberman "La Biblia Desenterrada</a>"</span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOb0kzdjhCR1dMVU0/edit" target="_blank">Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, "David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition"</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmNmRmOGQ0YjYtYmI1My00YjE1LWI0NTQtZDIyZDYxNWRkZWZi&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam Zertal "The Manasseh Hill Country Survey. The Eastern Valleys and the Fringes of the Desert"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOczZzMWRpV2NZWFU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eric H.Cline "Biblical Archaeology. A Very Short Introduction"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmYTllZTZjYmQtMzkxNS00ZTdjLWIxM2QtNjM1OWZkNDM3YzZk&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John R.Bartlett "Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOZjZiMTVkNGEtMDkyNS00OTgyLWFkNDYtZjEzNDAzY2YzYzdh&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Susan Pollock & Reinhard Bernbeck "Archaeologies of the Middle East"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B9Vt7Zse3YZONzYxYTZiZDItMTZkYy00NTE1LWI0Y2EtMjJhYzVmYjU4MjYx&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Milton C.Moreland "Between Text and Artifact. Integrating Archaeology in Biblical Studies Teaching"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOSHkxYTlkTGJqU28/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John C.H.Laughlin "Fifty Major Cities of the Bible"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmZTcwMDNlYjAtNWM2OC00MDc5LWJhZGQtNWIxNTYzMDFmZDQ5&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yitzhak Magen & Yuval Peleg "The Qumran Excavations 1993-2004. Preliminary Report"</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOMjM4ZDJiMTgtODgyYS00ODU2LTlmYjEtN2YwZTViZmY2YTQz&hl=uk">Beth Alpert Nakhai "Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZONjA1NTZmNjQtYTVkYy00NWZlLWFjNTktN2UwODBjMzkwNDVm&hl=uk">Archaeological Study Bible</a> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOYTA2MjJhYzMtMjIxYS00MGY4LWI2ZTgtYzBiZTQ2OTU0NDc1&hl=uk">Neil Asher Silberman & David Small "The Archaeology of Israel. Constructing the Past, Interpreting the Present"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOYzkzMmZlZjEtNjUzZC00YTEyLThmZjUtZDMxNWVmMzYzNTIw&hl=uk">Ian Shaw and Robert Jameson "A dictionary of archaeology"</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZONE13SEl4RFNnQkE/edit" target="_blank">William G. Dever "Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel</a>"</span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOQU1jVkJqcFIzbW8/edit" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme "</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance. A Comparative Analysis of the Aramaic Votive Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim</span></a></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History of Religions and Cults:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOY2UyYTUwZjgtZDdjZC00MGZkLWI2NmQtNWQ1ZjdlZjlhZWRm&export=download&hl=uk">Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions</a> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOWDB0QmxCT0RsOGM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sarah Iles Johnston "Ancient Religions"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZON005eWxqYXlHeW8/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frank Moore Cross "Canaanite Myth And Hebrew Epic. Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOY1JiaDk3b0lqT1U/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">J.C.L.Gibson "Canaanite Myths and Legends"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOTElDMlRwMDZxZGs/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eva Pocs and Gabor Klasiczay "Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOYWtvRnhBS2p5ZjA/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raphael Patai "The Hebrew Goddes"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmMTQ5YmE2YWUtNWFhMC00NmQxLWJkODctNzc3N2JjN2Q5YjNj&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bob Becking & Marjo C.A.Korpel "The Crisis of Israelite Religion. Transformation of Religious Tradition in Exilic & Post-Exilic Times"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOOWRlNzkzMjctN2JmOC00MmNjLTlmNDctYzUzNDU4NGNjYzYy&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahmed Osman "Christianity. An Ancient Egyptian Religion"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOT0NwZlo2d3l6ZmM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Karin Finsterbusch, Armin Lange and K.F.Diethard Romheld "Human Sacrifice in Jewish and Christian Tradition"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOQXVMZDBrUUVoQk0/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tilde Binger "Asherah. Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOb2ZHeFY0by1jN0k/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Etienne Nodet "A Search for the Origins of Judaism"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOVGRoajJhMXJZZEU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">J.Glen Taylor "Yahweh and the Sun. Biblical and Archaeological Evidence for Sun Worship in Ancient Israel"</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOMTFKTWZOdGt0dDA/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Elizabeth Bloch-Smith "Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead"</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOdjVNSHV6dHlrV0k/edit" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Magnar Kartveit "The Origin of the Samaritans"</a> </li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Biblical Criticism</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOLTZISXRIQUl5c0E/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P R O L E G O M E N A to the HISTORY OF ISRAEL. by JULIUS WELLHAUSEN</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmOWZjOGRiM2ItZTUyYy00NDViLTk3NzQtOTA5NjNhODg0NGZj&export=download&hl=en">Stanley E.Porter "Distionary of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation"</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOY1ZkZXlSaUlzNkU/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Giovanni Garbini "Myth and History in the Bible"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOel9XR0hTX21sOGs/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Richard Elliott Friedman "Who Wrote the Bible?"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOaDJYM09iZ05VWGs/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Richard Elliott Friedman "The Bible with Sources Revealed"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOVExhWVlfbEVWQ00/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ingrid Hjelm "The Samaritans and Early Judaism. A Literary Analysis"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOeFdwVmR5SDFvVEE/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Emanuel Tov "Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmZmY4M2EzZDItOTQ2YS00MjAwLThmOWMtOTk1YjIzMzNmZjQ2&export=download&hl=en"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Diana Edelman "The Origins of the Second Temple. Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOdVhTVWpYcjNicTQ/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Philip R.Davies "Whose Bible Is It Anyway?"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOUUpLSGJTMVo3UFU/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Philip R.Davies and David J. A.Clines "Among the Prophets. Language, Image and Structure in the Prophetic Writings"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZONDJjN2FhNzQtOWZmOS00YWFiLTk1OGEtMDJmOGM1OWM4N2E2&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gary Greenberg "101 Myths of the Bible. How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOY2hGNzdTUXplR0E/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leon Vaganay "An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOTUZSUmNrNG1TcWM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael Fishbane "Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZOZDJmNDhiYzgtZjBiYy00NmU0LTgyOGMtY2UxMzllY2VlYjEy&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gregory T.K.Wong "Compositional Strategy of the Book of Judges"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZONXBNOS1rcjlTbkU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Barry G.Webb "The Book of the Judges. An Integrated Reading"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOMmk1QzJwRmhiR0E/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kenneth C.Davis "Don't Know Much About the Bible. Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOUGdiRDNMemUxWmM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">William M.Schniedewind "How the Bible Became a Book"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOR1pHU21DN0ZpNDQ/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Steven L.McKenzie and M.Patrick Graham "The History of Israel's Traditions. The Heritage of Martin Noth"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOclJDTUY2UDBkUHM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rolf Rendtorff "The Problem of the Process of Transmission in the Pentateuch"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOaEEtd2JmSnY4aDA/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David T.Lamb "Righteous Jehu and His Evil Heirs. The Deuteronomist's Negative Perspective on Dynastic Succession"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOZTFNY3lqNlpBY3M/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Rutherford H.Platt, Jr. "The Order of All the Books of the Forgotten Books of Eden"</a> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOeXBMOVFxWVFPMW8/edit" target="_blank">Karen Armstrong "A History of God"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOSTFMTDNSUHBUenc/edit" target="_blank">Martin Noth "The Chronicler's History"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOMDJqUkxpN1ZmVnc/edit" target="_blank">R.N.Whybray "The Making of the Pentateuch. A Methodological Study"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/64364872/Wealth-and-Poverty-in-the-Book-of-Proverbs">R.N.Whybray "Wealth and Poverty in the Book of Proverbs"</a> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOczl3Wnd3Z3V4cjg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Richard D.Nelson "The Double Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOT2dWMUh6WWJhaDg/edit" target="_blank">The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible. The relationship Between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered. Ed. by Adrian Schenker</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZORjlucHV3LTl3OGs/edit" target="_blank">John Van Seters "Pentateuch: A Social Science Commentary"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOM19xTHNEaHNKb1U/edit" target="_blank">Lester L.Grabbe "Ezra-Nehemiah"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOcVNFTThhaFZqMXM/edit" target="_blank">Lester L.Grabbe "Did Moses Speak Attic? Jewish Historiography and Scripture in the Hellenistic Period"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOOVBwa1BDcGlqZFk/edit" target="_blank">Ingrid Hjelm "Jerusalem's Rise to Sovereignty. Zion and Gerizim in Competition"</a></span></li>
<li> <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOTFBoQjZyWFhLRmc/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas L. Thompson "The Origin </span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tradition</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of Ancient Israel. The Literary Formation of Genesis and Exodus 1-23"</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZORVhMWUFISnRockU/edit" target="_blank">David J.A. Clines "The Theme of the Pentateuch"</a> </span> </li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dead Sea Scrolls</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></b><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOZjhILW9nSGoxY3M/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James H.Charlesworth "The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Princeton Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmZTU4ZjM2NDMtMTgyNC00ZTJmLTg4MTEtYTVjODA2OGEzZTUw&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dead Sea Scrolls. The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Schoolarship</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmMmExNTFiYmEtMDFmOC00M2FhLWFjNmYtMGU5MGU0NzE2NTMw&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jonathan G.Campbell "Deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOTHdDLWFpdWZSRjQ/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Donald W.Parry & Emanuel Tov "Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. Texts Concerned with Religious Law"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZObGNjMkNzUjNjd00/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Donald W.Parry & Emanuel Tov "Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. Exegetical Texts"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOT211UERzS25GQW8/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Donald W.Parry & Emanuel Tov "Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. Calendrical and Sapiential Texts"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwRNgbXyG_HmODNmOGZkMjAtZWRjOC00ZmFkLTkzNzktZDQ4MTEyNjNhNWYw&export=download&hl=uk"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frederick H.Cryer & Thomas L.Thompson "Qumran Between the Old and New Testaments"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZONVhFdlQ2TGZaMUk/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hershel Shanks "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZObUxOTzVtMkh1eTg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C.D. Elledge "The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOX1MwQWtRdTF2QW8/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David L.Washburn "A Catalog of Biblical Passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOc1VaaWtYM3c4S1E/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hanan Eshel "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOeUVoSHl2R0NVSnc/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Emanuel Tov "Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran Collected Essays"</span></a></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOVHFKZFluWlJ6cEE/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dorothy M.Peters "Noah Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Conversations and Controversies of Antiquity"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOSkU2My1IemlDbkE/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Florentino García Martínez & Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar "The Dead Sea Scrolls. Study Edition"</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9Vt7Zse3YZONWQ3YWNhYTQtZTUzOS00YmI4LWExZmEtZTkwMmIwNzIzMTVh&hl=uk">Peter W.Flint "The Bible at Qumran. Text, Shape, and Interpretation"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOU1VucnRzc2tlUkk/edit" target="_blank">Philip R.Davies "The Damascus Covenant. An Interpretation of the Damascus Document"</a></span></li>
<li> <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Vt7Zse3YZOZTNyMUZWRzNzN0k/edit" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Florentino García Martínez "The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. The Qumran Texts in English"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></li>
</ul>
<img src="http://www.scribd.com/images/badges_v2/profile/btn_logo_small.png" style="vertical-align: text-bottom;" /><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"> is where my documents live!</span>Taras skeptichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11025119266014028048noreply@blogger.com0