Elephantine Trespasses

This article identifies two examples of constructive theological argumentation in recent religion-historical research: specifically, research on the Yahwism of a Persian-period island called Elephantine. These examples are significant because the task of history of religions is to offer critical (re)description of the contents of religion and not to make positive recommendations for current-day god-talk or ethics. In addition to setting out these disciplinary stakes, the article suggests that the location of these trespasses is also of interest: the historical subdiscipline that studies Elephantine, by virtue of its propinquity to the Bible proper, draws theological cachet from the Bible, while its smaller infrastructure relative to academic biblical studies makes room for more editorializing. Lastly, the article answers each theological proposal in kind, with brief theological counterarguments made, not obliquely and paracanonically, but directly from canonical biblical texts. In this way, the article advocates for maintaining the integrity of each discipline: descriptive history of religions and constructive theologizing.

The Socioeconomic World of Deuteronomy

The question of the social location(s) of the book of Deuteronomy remains critical to the academic discussion of the book. The thesis of this chapter is that the economic features embedded in the book have much to contribute to the discussion. Toward this end, this chapter surveys the archaeologically reconstructed economies of Israel in the Iron Age and the Persian period, identifying diagnostic features of each in rural and urban areas, and juxtaposes those features to the contents of Urdeuteronomium (defined as Deut 4:44–27:26). There is particular attention to issues involving currency. The objective is to further refine the Sitz im Leben from which the book emerges.

Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch

This diachronic study of Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch begins in the seventh century and extends to the fourth century, or the late Persian period. It explores four distinct phases of textualization, during which existing blocks of Deuteronomic tradition were developed further and integrated with other materials. The inflection point came when Deuteronomic and Priestly texts were merged, first as a Hexateuch and shortly thereafter as a literary collection of five books with a distinctive theology as well as claims to authority. Scholars describe this final stage of textualization as the Pentateuchal Redaction, with its focus the last chapter of Deuteronomy.

Psalm 120 and the question of authorship of the songs of Ascents

As the first of the songs of Ascents, Psalm 120 might be seen as key to understanding the whole corpus, but its content remains poorly understood. This study suggests that its author was a smith-poet committed to the Edomite/Qenite traditional worship of YHWH, here complaining about participating, through the fabrication of iron weapons, in the demise of Edom (553 BCE). On this reading, the poem becomes a lament on the irremediable demise of traditional (metallurgical) Yahwism after the rise of iron metallurgy and its transformation of war. Introducing the Ascents, this song might express the search for an alternative form of Yahwism emancipated from the original metallurgical dimension. Expressed in Israel, this alternative Yahwism becomes praised in the other songs of Ascents. This interpretation corroborates the rise of a group of Edomite poets (Ezrahites) in Jerusalem in the early Persian period and its integration within the temple staff.

Understanding the Complexity of Identity in Yehud and the Classroom

This paper focuses on the lesson plan for discussing Ezra-Nehemiah and Persian Period Yehud. Class readings provide a helpful framework for looking at the complex identities within the classroom and learning about the diversity of identity and thought in Yehud. Primary and secondary sources illustrate that multiple forces shape identity A class activity allows students to recognize and address the complexity of identity and the power relations that undergird identity formation. Students then engage the biblical text and discuss not only the complexities of identity in Yehud but also the dynamic processes of imperialization and decolonization. Specifically, students begin to see how the text reflects multiple groups, interests and perspectives, sometimes in competition. Students also consider the issue of intermarriage in both Ezra and Nehemiah. Students often return to discussions of their own experiences of bilingualism, ethnic differences, race, and their mothers’ and grandmothers’ influences on their own education.

The Pentateuch as (/and) Social Memory of “Israel” in the Late Persian Period

This essay explores the heuristic potential of Social Memory approach for the study of the Pentateuch. It focus on eight different “windows” that each sheds light on what an approach informed by memory studies may contribute to current discussions on the Pentateuch as a collection and the types of issues, questions or “angles” within existing questions that such an approach may raise. These windows focus on matters such as the Pentateuch as shared foundational memory of not one but two distinctive ‘groups’, beginnings and endings, main sites of memory, villains, multiplicity of voices, and intertwining of laws and narratives.

The Pentateuch in Second Temple Judaism

This essay reviews the basic contents of the Pentateuch and the labels assigned to it, both ancient and modern. It then turns to the question of pentateuchal origins in the Persian period and its earliest interpretation in that era. It then turns to the Hellenistic and early Roman periods and the reception and social roles of the Pentateuch in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

Linguistic Dating of the Book of Qohelet: A New Angle

This paper proposes a new linguistic method for dating the Book of Qohelet. While linguistic methods employed in previous studies of Qohelet led to the conclusion that it is a post-exilic book, they could not yield a more accurate dating. The methodology proposed here identifies calques in Qohelet that reflect Aramaic phrases of uneven distribution—i.e., phrases that occur only in the Aramaic dialects of a specific period. Two Aramaic calques serve as test cases: בשל אשר and כצל אשר. Tracing the inner-Aramaic development and distribution of their Aramaic equivalents, I conclude that these phrases evolved in Aramaic in the Hellenistic period, thus excluding a Persian-period dating of the relevant calques. The paper then briefly refers to the implications of these findings for the contextualization and interpretation of the Book of Qohelet.