Judean Identity Research Articles

The Sabbath in Judean Communities during the Mid-fifth Century BCE

Abstract The importance and observance of the Sabbath within the Judean exilic communities has often been the subject of debate. Recent studies have argued that the exiles in Elephantine, Egypt, observed the Sabbath but the exilic Judean communities in Babylonia did not. New evidence – in the form of names derived from “Sabbath” among the exiles during the Achaemenid period – seems to reflect a shift in the importance of the Sabbath within Judean identity. In this article we review the occurrences of the name Shabbataya (Šabbatāya) in extrabiblical material and explore possible parallel phenomena in Elephantine and biblical texts, ultimately drawing a picture of an Achaemenid-era evolution in the attribution of significance to the Sabbath. This transformation is evident in Ezra-Nehemiah and corroborated by new evidence; extrabiblical and biblical sources demonstrate that names relating to the Sabbath began to appear at the time.

Decentering Exile

Abstract I argue that the Levitical Prayer offered in Neh 9:5–37 (LP) offers a version of Judean history that does not include the Babylonian exile. Instead, it narrates an unbroken chain of possession of Judean territory that spans from the conquest and settlement of Canaan to the post-monarchic context of the prayer’s composition. Drawing insights from the study of cultural trauma, I make the case that the interpretive importance of such a catastrophic event cannot be assumed for subsequent Judean communities who sought to form a sense of cultural identity through the retelling of a shared past. Potentially traumatic events like the Babylonian exile are not actualized naturally; communal trauma is instead the product of social processes in the present that serve the needs of present and future communities. An elision of the Babylonian exile from a piece of post-monarchic period literature like the LP does not, therefore, require the interpretative conclusion that the prayer was written by the descendants of Judeans who avoided exile and remained in Judea during the sixth century ʙᴄᴇ. Importantly, neither does it exclude the possibility that the LP was produced by a community whose ancestors were displaced and resettled in Babylonia during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. Through this analysis I invite scholars to explore a broader range of interpretative possibilities in their study of Ezra-Nehemiah as a composition and the understanding of the defining elements of Judean identity in the post- monarchic period.

Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity by Laura Carlson Hasler (review)

Reviewed by: Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity by Laura Carlson Hasler Eric X. Jarrard Laura Carlson Hasler. Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. xiii + 216 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000143 Laura Carlson Hasler's Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity examines how the diverse array of texts found within Ezra-Nehemiah and Esther seeks to imitate ancient Near Eastern archival spaces. The book is part of a larger constellation of research examining how biblical texts function mimetically to enshrine the vast range of imperial tools, objects, and sites—often as means of resistance, legitimation, and (in a postexilic context) restoration. Carlson Hasler's unique contribution to this conversation, which she clearly articulates in her introduction, is that the form of Ezra-Nehemiah eschews narrative continuity in favor of mirroring an archival space. She proposes the term "archival history" for this mode of composition, in which cited documents, such as lists, decrees, and letters, are inserted into an otherwise coherent narrative, as one might collect documents in a physical archive. She ultimately suggests that archival history is "a hybrid mode of history writing that blurs the line between story and space" (110), particularly within the context of imperial resistance. Chapter 1 explores the characteristics and contents of Mesopotamian imperial archives from the first millennium BCE Mesopotamian empires. Carlson Hasler establishes a profile of common archival practices, drawing on a range of material evidence and archaeological records from across the ancient Mediterranean, including Nineveh, Sippar, and Persepolis. The second chapter narrows its focus to articulate how the qualities of Mesopotamian physical archives are reflected in Ezra-Nehemiah. The evidence she uses to support this proposal includes not only references to documents being stored in archives (Ezra 4–6), but also archives of artifacts other than documents (e.g., temple vessels) and documents without reference to their storage in facilities (e.g., genealogies). The heart of Carlson Hasler's argument occurs in the third chapter, which examines various archival texts embedded within Ezra-Nehemiah. She contends that the decrees, letters, and lists within Ezra-Nehemiah disrupt the "narrative coherence" (52) of the text. She maintains that the inclusion of these citations is part of a concerted effort to rebuild a community with a purely textual—not architectural—archive at its center. Scholars whose critical inquiries are buttressed by the presumption or pursuit of narrative coherence elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, for example, pentateuchal criticism, will likely appreciate this argument. Chapter 4 discusses the notion of archive in the MT and Greek versions of Esther. Here Carlson Hasler proposes that the various editions of Esther are similar to the archival historiographic efforts found in Ezra-Nehemiah, for instance, in their presentation of imperial reliance on the archive as a cognitive prosthesis for Persian kings. Still, the archival function in Esther diverges in its concern for promulgating "textual counterclaim[s]" (95) rather than accumulating archival documents as in Ezra-Nehemiah. This distinction is all the more conspicuous in the Old Greek of Esther, which appends various documents only mentioned in the MT. Carlson Hasler presents their inclusion as a survival strategy to resist "threats of erasure" (96) by ensuring documents—letters, edicts, etc.—are [End Page 436] significant enough to maintain, but also perpetually available to the community's constituent members. The final chapter explores the effects and function of archival historiography in Ezra-Nehemiah. Carlson Hasler argues that archival historiography "facilitates the recovery of Judean identity in the shadow of empire" (110). Of course, an argument concerning recovery necessitates a discussion of loss, which the bulk of the chapter investigates. The short epilogue expands on the suggestion that this collection of texts functions in lieu of spaces. It ends by briefly gesturing toward other biblical and Jewish texts (Exodus, Chronicles, Maccabees, and Josephus) that may perform a similar function. Carlson Hasler's suggestion that Ezra-Nehemiah is intentionally mimicking the archival space is intriguing and provocative, leaving room for development in a number of promising ways. One might, for instance, press this point by asking how archival histories would potentially interact with archival spaces. That is to say, at some point these archival histories and/or their component parts existed...

εἰ δή τις … συκοφαντοίη: Impiety and the fiscus Iudaicus in Josephus, War 1.11

Abstract The article discusses the meaning of εἰ δή τις … συκοφαντοίη (“If any critic carps,” or “recklessly impugns”) in Josephus, War 1.11. The overarching problem comprises the accusation the author imagines he may face and his nuanced response to it. The way Josephus and comparable authors use συκοφαντέω is the initial issue. The larger one is if the author might be saying something about the fiscus Iudaicus and its potential maladministration. The proposal is that Josephus denounces the stereotyping of Judean identity in terms of cultic impiety, a stereotype that allowed the funnelling of maiestas accusations through the tax treasury. Josephus’ cynicism toward the Iudaea capta discourse, not least the Flavians’ looting the temple and hijacking its tax, darkens his expression of piety in War’s prologue with irony and vitriole.

Women and Exilic Identity in the Hebrew Bible

Women and Exilic Identity in the Hebrew Bible

Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles—New Insights into the Early History of Samari(t)an–Jewish Relations

This article addresses the way the book of Ezra-Nehemiah on one hand and Chronicles on the other reflect the relationship between Samaria and Judah in the postexilic period. With regard to Ezra-Nehemiah, the focus is placed on Ezra 4:1–5, 6–23, 24, which evokes a particular image of the nature of the relationship between Samaria and Judah within the report of the construction of the temple in Ezra 1–6 that can function paradigmatically for the book as a whole. With regard to Chronicles, the focus lies on the theme of cult centralization, which became established in a particular manner through the reception of earlier tradition. The article concludes that both works, each in its own way, call forth critique of Samaria and the Samaritans in order to establish a separate Judean or Jewish group identity. The critique of the two works is dated to the late fourth or early third centuries BCE. As such, both are reckoned among the first witnesses heralding a shift in the perception of Samaria in biblical literature, namely toward a polemical and unequivocally negative perspective attested later in, for example, Josephus.

The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul by John J. Collins (review)

Reviewed by: The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul by John J. Collins David Arthur Lambert John J. Collins. The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul. The Taubman Lectures in Jewish Studies 7. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. 319 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009418000545 The Invention of Judaism is really a book about the status of the Torah in ancient Judaism, and its complexities, that also considers how its varying construal impacted questions of Jewish or Judean identity. In this capacity, Collins successfully problematizes our understanding of the place of the Pentateuch as authoritative Scripture in the Second Temple period by highlighting its surprising absences. His work points to a real need for further theorizing concerning the nature and use of the Torah. As such, The Invention of Judaism represents an important advance over standard accounts of the formation of the canon. These histories have tended to focus on a canonical series of core texts, such as the prologue to Ben Sira and 2 Maccabees, to determine whether they reflect a closed canon or one that remains open. Such a procedure presumes a relatively uniform concept of authority and, invariably, a process of linear development. Instead, Collins considers the more fundamental question of how directly various groups of Judeans even related to the Torah. In the process, he succinctly reviews many key debates in the field, making characteristically judicious choices among them. Collins's evenhandedness and clarity makes the book quite useful and highly readable for students and scholars alike. "Introduction: Jews, Judeans, and the Maccabean Crisis" reviews current thinking about the nature of ioudaios as a form of identity. Collins seems to side with the view that "religion" was embedded in a wider web of ethnic identity, but that "Judaism" did not exist in an "unembedded" form. For Collins, much of the question hinges on the place assigned to the Judeans' "ancestral law," a concept that helpfully identifies how issues of practice and identity intersect. As [End Page 443] such, Antiochus IV Ephiphanes's attack on Torah observances, which provoked the Maccabean crisis, could be seen as a form of political repression, deprivation of the right to follow one's ancestral customs, rather than an implausible direct assault on religion. In "Deuteronomy and the Invention of the Torah," following several recent scholars, Collins makes the case for the Deuteronomic Code never constituting a comprehensive, prescriptive source of authoritative law, but serving instead an educational or propagandistic purpose. "Torah in the Persian Period" notes the striking absence of Torah in early restoration texts as well as in the records preserved from the Jewish community at Elephantine. That picture fits the sense of novelty around the Torah's position in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. There too there are questions about the version of the Torah in use, as well as the vagueness of references to it, but it is clear from the frequent use of the formula, kakathub, "as it is written," that there is in view some concern for actual adherence to a textual authority. Despite the clear emergence of the Pentateuch from the Persian period on, "The Persistence of Non-Mosaic Judaism" questions whether according primary importance to the Torah was basic to Judean identity in the Hellenistic period. Indeed, its acknowledgment is surprisingly absent from entire corpora of literature—the wisdom tradition prior to Ben Sira, Enochic literature, and diasporic tales such as Esther and Daniel 1–6. As noted in "Torah as Narrative and Wisdom," even so-called "Rewritten Bible" texts, so clearly dependent on the Torah, fail to relate to it explicitly as works of exegesis. Ben Sira recognizes the authority of the "Law of Moses," but associates it with a broader sense of wisdom and refrains from explicit citation; Tobit references the "Law of Moses," but only in general terms of piety, and even attributes to it laws not found there. "Torah as Law" looks at how observance of ancestral law, an important focus after the Maccabean revolt, could be a basis for a common Judaism, but also lead to a heightened scrutiny of Torah as religious law, evident in such texts...

The Other Synagogues

This article scrutinizes the synagogue category and explores what value might be gained if it were to become inclusive of polytheistic occupational guilds comprising of Judeans and members from other ethnicities. It is argued that the traditional, narrow, understanding of ancient synagogues as ethnic-based groups functions to preserve the notion of a fixed and bounded practice of Judaism in antiquity, housed in synagogues. If this synagogue concept is allowed to persist, the insights gained from critical theory for understanding the fluidity and heterogeneity of Judean identity, ethnicity, and cult practice will be counteracted. The thirty other synagogues analyzed in this study are craft guilds that are often neglected in scholarship or classified as something other than synagogues. The act of excluding these guilds from the synagogue category falls outside of ancient linguistic practices and is at odds with the increasing insistence that synagogues from antiquity should be classified under the association genus.

The Construction of Judean Diasporic Identity in Ezra–Nehemiah

This essay explores how Ezra–Nehemiah partially inverts the traditional paradigm of exile found in other biblical writings. When one community is formed at some distance from another in antiquity, the derivative community normally appears as a dependent community (or colony). Yet, in Ezra–Nehemiah the homeland repeatedly experiences renewal through initiatives undertaken by diaspora Judeans. Particular attention is given to how the vertical alliances forged within the Achaemenid administration by two diaspora leaders—Ezra and Nehemiah—are deployed to benefit Yehud. The commendation of Ezra and Nehemiah raises fascinating issues about developing notions of Judean ethnicity and identity in a world dominated by imperial interests.

Trito-Isaiah, penitential prayer and apocalypticism

An analysis of the research on the compositional development of Isaiah 56�66 indicates that theredefinition of Judean identity played a major role in the formation of these chapters. Scholarsvery often refer to the penitential prayer in Isaiah 63:7�64:11 to indicate this redefinitionof identity. A study of the background of these chapters shows that Hanson�s theory of adeveloping apocalypticism is usually upheld, whilst his identification of a Zadokite oppositionis either rejected or replaced by an acknowledgement that it is not possible to identify theseopponents. The suggestion of this article is that the term �qualified inclusivism� can be used asthe mark of those responsible for this section of the book of Isaiah.

Review Article: Ancient Galilee and the realities of the Roman Empire

This review article summarises and delivers comment on Religion, ethnicity and identity in Ancient Galilee: A region in transition, edited by Jürgen Zangenberg, Harold W. Attridge and Dale B. Martin and published by Mohr Siebeck in 2007. The majority of the articles in this volume testify of a ‘Jewish’ or rather Judean Galilee in the 1st century. It was a region that had cultural, economic, social, political and religious contact with surrounding areas and was thoroughly integrated into the realities of the Roman Empire. Whilst interregional contact and trade occurred freely, resistance and conflict occurred due to the proximity of ‘the Other’ that threatened the cultural and religio-political sensitivities of the Galileans. The Galileans also had strong attachments to aspects of their Judean identity, as evidenced by their enhanced musical culture, conservative epigraphic habit, participation in the revolt and the following of cultural practices also found in Judea. Based on this collection of articles, there are a few areas that need further investigation: how and when did the region fall under Hasmonean control and what was the exact nature of the local population at that time? At the time of Antipas, were Galilean peasants generally experiencing harsh economic conditions, or did his rule allow for economic participation to flourish? The exact context of Jesus’ ministry, therefore, is still a matter to be decided and invites further investigation.

Religion and covenantal praxis in first century Judeanism

This article indicates how the two cultural features of religion and covenantal praxis helped foster or shape Judean ethnic identity in the first century CE. It focuses on socialization into the three social domains of the Temple, the synagogue and the home. In these domains, Judean ethnic identity was dominated by the requirements of the Torah. At the same time the presence of Romans, the Herodians and the Gentiles within the ancestral land helped shape Judean identity as well.

A socio-cultural model of Judean ethnicity: A proposal

This article focuses on the matter of Judean (“Jewish”) ethnic identity during the first century CE. New Testament scholarship lacks an overall interpretive framework by which Judean identity can be understood. Appreciation of what informed the entire process of Judean ethnic identity formation in the first century, or at any period for that matter, is lacking. This lack of interpretive framework is rather acute in scholarship on the historical Jesus, where the issue of Judeanness (“Jewishness”) is most strongly debated. A Socio-Cultural Model of Judean Ethnicity is developed, as being a synthesis of (1) Sanders’ notion of covenantal nomism, but reappropriated to serve as an ethnic descriptor, (2) Berger and Luckmann’s theories on the sociology of knowledge, (3) Dunn’s “four pillars of Second Temple ‘Judaism’” and his “new perspec-tive” on Paul, (4) cultural anthropology in the form of modern ethnicity theory, and lastly, (5) Duling’s Socio-Cultural Model of Ethnicity. The proposed model is termed covenantal nomism. It is a pictorial representation of the Judean “symbolic universe” which, as an ethnic identity, is proposed to be essentially primordialist.

Apostle to the Gentiles: Constructions of Paul's Identity

AbstractIn Galatians 2:7–9, Paul lays out the parameters for the spread of the gospel for himself and his Judiean colleagues: all agreed that ?We should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised? (Gal 2:9). This division of labor is crucial for understanding Paul: his task involves an intentional crossing of ethnic boundaries. Ethnicity determined the organization of the mission and Paul was responsible for the ethnic and religious "other."Here I explore Paul's construction of his identity as a Judean teacher of gentiles. Drawing on recent work in anthropology and critical race theory, I propose an approach which understands identity as flexible and multiplicative. Two principles operate within this dynamic model: 1) people shift identities according to specific circumstances and 2) people prioritize their various identities, ranking some higher than others.This model helps us understand Paul, who describes himself in a variety of ways: Judean by birth, born of the tribe of Benjamin, seed of Abraham, apostle to the gentiles, in Christ. These multiple identities as Paul shifts among them and sometimes ranks one over others serve his argument in strategic ways. He is willing, for example, to forego certain practices of the law (an important part of his Judean identity) in order to interact with gentiles (and he rebukes his colleagues for refusing to do so [Gal 2:11–14]). Yet other aspects of his identity are more important and also less flexible: his "in-Christness" (which he shares with gentiles) and his birth as a Judean (which he does not share with gentiles). In closing, I consider the implications this reading has for the identities of the members of his audience, who are simultaneously gentiles, in Christ, and adopted sons of God.

DIASPORA: HOMELAND RELATIONS IN EZRA-NEHEMIAH

AbstractEzra-Nehemiah is widely recognized as stressing the separation of Judeans repatriated from Babylonian exile from those they found living in and around Judah at their return. A related theme has received little attention, namely, the on-going relationship between the repatriates and their parent community in the Babylonian-Elamite diaspora. The present article highlights features of this relationship, noting that as a colony of the Babylonian exiles, the community of repatriates remained dependent on the diaspora for leadership and for instruction in religious culture and practice. It is suggested that in tandem with the emphasis on separatism, this view of diaspora-homeland relations reflects a concern current in the mid- to late-fourth century Judah to articulate a Judean identity that reinforced the connection of the Babylonian diaspora to the homeland. In its view of diaspora-homeland relations, Ezra-Nehemiah displays certain features in common with other late-Persian and Hellenistic biblical texts such as Esther and Daniel i-vi.