(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formula omitted.) (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Der Bericht Nehemias: Zur literarischen Eigenart, traditionsgeschichtlichen Pragung und innerbiblischen Rezeption des Ich-Berichts Nehemias, by Titus Reinmuth. OBO 183. Freiburg: Universitatsverlag; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. Pp. xiii + 383. euro62.00 Reinmuth begins his study by noting that, despite other positive developments in the field of Persian-period studies, Nehemiah has not attracted much attention in recent years: Um Nehemia ist es still geworden (p. 1). To some extent, this apparent neglect can be explained on the basis of more general hermeneutical shifts within Second Temple studies away from concerns with individuals and their achievements toward social structures or constitutive elements in the religious and political infrastructure of Persian Yehud. Perhaps especially the perils of autobiography associated with the first-person narrative of Nehemiah have elicited caution rather than confidence with respect to our ability to reconstruct information about specific historical persons and the texts associated with them. Thus, Reinmuth's book is virtually the first comprehensive study of the Nehemiah narrative since U. Kellermann's Nehemia: Quellen, Uberlieferung und Geschichte (BZAW 102; Berlin: Topelmann, 1967), and indeed Kellermann represents an important conversation partner for Reinmuth throughout his book. As such, Reinmuth is to be commended for addressing a topic that has been dormant for over thirty years. On the other hand, one may perhaps wonder why such a study is conducted now and how it is situated among the more recent approaches to biblical literature from the Persian period. The goal of this book is twofold: a definition of the extent, form, and content of the Nehemia narrative itself and an analysis of its reception within the larger history of tradition (p. 2). Central to this project is Reinmuth's thesis, following H. G. M. Williamson's proposal of a two-stage composition of the Nehemiah source (Ezra, Nehemiah [WBC; Waco: Word, 1985], xxiv-xxviii), that the first-person narrative associated with Nehemiah consists of two distinct literary sources. Specifically, Reinmuth suggests a narrative about the construction of the wall (Mauerbau-Erzahlung-wall-building narrative; Neh 1:1-4:17; 6:1-7:5; 12:27-43) and a memorial composition (Nehemia-Denkschrift-Nehemiah-memorial; Neh 5:1-19; 13:4-31). Both compositions share the use of the first person narrative voice, as well as a few key terms or themes such as ... (reproach; 1:3; 2:17; 3:36; 4:13; cf. 5:9; 6:13) or the installing (...) of reforms (4:3, 7; 7:3; 13:11, 19), but differ more substantially in style, grammar, vocabulary, and orientation. The wall-building narrative exhibits a greater degree of literary coherence, while the texts of the Nehemiah-memorial, characterized by the repeated use of the verb ... (remember) relate events that are not necessarily thematically connected. Reinmuth posits that the wall-building narrative is the older of the two sources, composed during the governorship of Nehemiah (i.e., contemporary to the events it narrates), while the memorial was written after his activity during the last decades of the fifth century (p. 336). Furthermore, the two compositions are said to reflect different sociohistorical settings. The wall-building narrative relates a collaborative effort involving the aristocratic and political leadership of Jerusalem as well as the temple priests and the people, while the Nehemiah-memorial reflects a conflict between Nehemiah, the peasant population, and the lower priestly and Levitical groups on the one hand and the aristocracy and political leaders on the other (pp. 335-36). Regarding a traditio-historical evaluation of the texts at hand0, Reinmuth points to several themes that emerge from an analysis of the wall-building narrative and that connect it thematically to other parts of the Bible. …