Abstract
ABSTRACT This article examines the last contributions that Gary Knoppers made to the study of Ezra-Nehemiah. In his last book, which was published posthumously, he examined the 'conspicious' disappearance of Zerubbabel from Ezra-Nehemiah (and from other prophetic literatures) as well as the surprising down-playing of the places Mizpah and Ramat Rahel that were - according to the archaeological record - important places during the post-exilic period. In his assessment, he shows a more prominent ideological-critical line of scholarship that had not been so overt in his very well-known work on Chronicles. This article engages in further debate with Knoppers regarding these contributions to the study of Ezra-Nehemiah. Keywords: Ezra-nehemiah, Community Leadership, Diaspora, Gary Knoppers, Ideological-critical Approach
Highlights
This article examines the last contributions that Gary Knoppers made to the study of Ezra-Nehemiah
My last scholarly conversation with him at Notre Dame University in November 2017 was about Ezra-Nehemiah and the Diaspora communities, while he was preparing for his paper at the SBL Annual Meeting in Boston later that month.[5]
I choose to follow up on those discussions in this article, dwelling on his views about community leadership and the relationship between Yehud and the Eastern Diaspora during the Achaemenid period. This discussion of his last publication aims at advancing his work even further in the (South) African context as well as engaging critically with some later trends in his scholarship that can be observed in his last postuum publication
Summary
That in Ezra-Nehemiah (as well as in the other prophetic sources) “Zerubbabel seems to vanish from the very source that charts his service and lauds his efforts.”[8] Knoppers indicates that the matter is further complicated by the peculiar fact that the completion of the temple and its public dedication are not mentioned in Haggai and Zechariah It is at this point that Knoppers moves beyond his mere historiographic interest in the disappearance of Zerubbabel to some deliberations about the theo-political perspectives reflected in Ezra-Nehemiah. The prominence of foreign benefactors for the rebuilding efforts such as Cyrus, who is called “king” from Ezra 1 throughout, is emphasised This enables Knoppers come to the following conclusion: “If Judean society in the Second Commonwealth is a theocratic monarchy, the monarchy is Persian in nature.”[14]. The ideological-critical approach of Knoppers emerges clearly – maybe even more clearly than in any of his earlier work
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