Post-exilic Period Research Articles

The Postexilic Exile in Third Isaiah: Isaiah 61:1-3 in Light of Second Temple Hermeneutics

Isaiah 61 is a text that has received an enormous amount of attention in the history of interpretation and in modern scholarly discourse. In Christian circles, this is no doubt due in large part to its use in Luke 4 to refer to the ministry of Jesus. Although the passage seems rather straightforward at first glance, further inspection shows it to be a complex text that articulates its message through a col lage of allusions to prior texts and traditions. In addition, developing an under standing of its present canonical function in the book of Isaiah is an arduous task and is open to a variety of interpretations.1 In this article, I will examine Isaiah 61 in its postexilic context, a context that is not just historical but also theological and hermeneutical. I will argue that Isaiah 61 provides one of the earliest attestation of the idea of a theological exile that extends beyond the temporal and geographical bounds of the Babylonian captiv ity. Furthermore, the subsequent appropriation of the text by later authors of the Trito-Isaianic corpus and its redaction into the canonical form of Third Isaiah and the book of Isaiah as a whole reveal a development of this concept of the ongoing exile that would flourish in later Second Temple writings. Thus, Isaiah 61 plays an important and pivotal role in the development of theological motifs and hermeneu tical methods during the postexilic period.

Vom Opfer zur Auslösung. Analyse ausgewählter Texte zum Thema Erstgeburt im Alten Testament

AbstractIn the present study the relevant texts in the Hebrew Bible concerning sacrifice or redemption of the first born of humans and animals are considered in detail. The most important findings are the following: 1. An Israelite could understand the instructions in Ex. xxii 28f. to mean that he should sacrifice his first-born child to JHWH. 2. Ez. xx 25f. describes such first-born sacrifices for JHWH as practised. Therefore it cannot be ruled out that in early Israel at a particular time such a sacrificial practice could indeed have occurred. 3. In the laws of the first-born in the Book of Covenant, in the Dodecalogue and in the original layer of Num. xviii 15-18 (P) the corresponding terms bekôr and peter rekhem refer to the male and female first-born of human and animal. The regulation in Deut. xv, to consecrate only the male first-born clean animals to JHWH and to consume them in JHWH's presence during the Feast, is connected with a clearly farmer-friendly tendency of the deuteronomic law-maker. Apart from that a limitation to the male first-born prevails only in the later post-exilic period. According to the note in Num. xviii 16, the redemption of the human first-born applies only to male children; according to the law of the first-born in Exod. xiii only the male first-born of human and animal (of female Israelites and animals) are affected.

The Recent Debate on Late Biblical Hebrew: Solid Data, Experts' Opinions, and Inconclusive Arguments

It is widely recognized that the sixth century B.C.E. marks a significant turning point in the history of Biblical Hebrew. The books written after this point reveal new linguistic features whose appearance reflects far-reaching modifications in the structure of the language. These neologisms , attested in grammar, lexicon, and syntax, are entirely lacking in Standard Biblical Hebrew, but are common in Post-Biblical Hebrew sources (Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben-Sira, Rabbinic Literature) and in the Aramaic dialects of the post-exilic period (Imperial Aramaic, Nabatean, etc.). Consequently, the dominant view prevailing among biblical philologists and Hebrew linguists specializing in the history of Biblical Hebrew is to classify them as post-classical features. In recent years, however, a dissenting thesis against this diachronic research has been voiced, minimizing—if not denying altogether—the existence of a chronological factor in the history of Biblical Hebrew. This paper seeks to examine the validity of the said non-diachronic approach.

In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar. Edited by John Day. Pp. xvi + 432. (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series, 406.) London: T&T Clark International, 2004. isbn 0 567 08196 6 (hardback), 0 567 08206 7 (paperback)

The time gap between the earliest witnesses to the text of the Old Testament in the second century bc and the periods of time which that text purports to portray will always present the interpreter with intractable historical issues. The ‘minimalist’ position, developed over the past two decades or so by such scholars as P. R. Davies, N. P. Lemche, and T. L. Thompson, holds that the Old Testament was composed near the time when the first textual witnesses are available and reflects above all the attitudes and interests of writers of that time. It is this ‘everything is late’ approach that the present volume seeks to counter. In the words of the editor, ‘We hope to show that though much of the editing of the Old Testament took place in the exilic and post-exilic periods, we do nevertheless have access to pre-exilic sources of information about ancient Israel greater than some recent scholars have allowed’.

The Distinction Between Classical and Late Biblical Hebrew as Reflected in Syntax

A strong tendency in recent historical-critical treatments of biblical literature is to date more and more books, including most of the Pentateuch, to the exilic or post-exilic periods. This development is problematic, not least for linguistic reasons. Hebraists widely agree in distinguishing Classical Biblical Hebrew from Late Biblical Hebrew, the former being roughly the language of Genesis-2 Kings, the latter being found most clearly in Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, and Esther. Classical Biblical Hebrew is usually associated with the pre-exilic period, Late Biblical Hebrew with the Persian period. The present paper contributes to the debate by showing, firstly, that the verbal system used in Late Biblical Hebrew is systematically different and typologically later than the Classical Biblical Hebrew system, and, secondly, that Classical Biblical Hebrew syntax is very close to the syntax found in pre-exilic Hebrew inscriptions. Although the attestation of early Hebrew is too scanty to attain certainty, the facts brought to light strongly indicate that a terminus ad quem of about 500 B.C.E. should be maintained for texts written in Classical Biblical Hebrew.

Biblical Texts Cannot be Dated Linguistically

Linguistic evidence alone is not able to date biblical texts. Among the arguments challenged in this paper are that the archaic linguistic forms of Archaic Biblical Hebrew poems such as the Song of Moses in Exodus 15 demonstrate the great antiquity of those texts; that Standard Biblical Hebrew, such as the prose of the book of Samuel, is a phenomenon restricted to the pre-exilic or monarchic period of Israelite history; and that biblical texts which share the features of Late Biblical Hebrew as it is exemplified in works such as the book of Chronicles could only have been written in the post-exilic period. Modern text critical research indicates that we cannot be certain that the linguistic profile of the text we have is that of the original author. Nor, even if it is original, is any aspect of linguistic evidence necessarily indicative of only one chronological period of the Hebrew language.

The Danite Campaign Northward (Judges xvii-xviii) and the Migration of the Phocaeans to Massalia (strabo iv 1,4)

AbstractThe article first examines in detail the story of Judges xvii-xviii, suggesting that it is a post-Dtr composition, written for an educated audience in the post-exilic period. It ridicules and criticizes not only the cult, priests and cult centres of the Northern Kingdom, but also their founder, Jeroboam I. Indeed, some of the characteristics of the story's main protagonist, Micah, were borrowed from the history of Jeroboam as related in the Book of Kings.Second, the article analyzes the similarity between the description of the Danite migration northward and a Greek story that describes the foundation of Massalia by the Phocaeans (Strabo, Geography IV 1,4). It is suggested that certain outlines of the story of Judges xviii might have been borrowed from a Greek legend that the author had heard and adapted to his purpose.

A Brief History of Ancient Israel

Grounded in the latest archeological developments, Victor Matthews's A Brief History of Ancient Israel presents a concise history of Israel covering the ancestral period, conquest and settlement, the monarchy, and both the exilic and postexilic periods. Using supplemental figures and insets, the author concentrates on providing a cogent and condensed discussion of events. He examines historical geography, archaeological data, and, where relevant, comparative cultural materials from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations. With an accessible yet high-quality introduction, A Brief History of Ancient Israel will be of immense value to both students of the Old Testament and the scholars who teach them.

Die boek Josua gelees teen ’n na-eksiliese agtergrond

Reading the book of Joshua against a post-exilic backgroundThis article argues that the book of Joshua portrays the idealistic views held by the post-exilic community on the history of Israel. The book displays remarkable similarities with Third Isaiah and with narratives from the post-exilic period. By reading the book of Joshua against a post-exilic background, it obtains theological significance, not as a historical account of the occupation of the land, but as a call for the acceptance of foreigners into the community of the people of YHWH, as well as for the decentralization of religious power. The book owes its final form to a marginalized group, who were in conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem. The book of Joshua functioned as a contra-narrative against the exclusive claims made by the returning exiles.

Wisdom Has Built Her House: Studies on the Figure of Sophia in the Bible

Has Built Her House: Studies on the Figure of Sophia in the Bible, by Silvia Schroer. Translated by Linda Maloney and William McDonough. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000. Pp. x + 175. $24.95. Has Built Her House is a collection of essays written by Sylvia Schroer over a period of ten years, which are all connected by, the theme of Divine Wisdom, (Hokrui or Sophia) as it appears in the different texts of both the First and Second Testaments and some apocryphal books. The author addresses a rarely treated topic (particularly in feminist circles)-the figure of Divine from a feminist perspective. She aims at showing that there have been moments in the Judeo-Christian tradition when God was appropriated as Female (cf. personified/depicted as a woman or clothed in female imagery), an exercise that, in her view, was not in any way regarded as a threat to Israelite monotheism. In this regard Schroer makes this important remark, which forms the basis of her arguments in the essays of the book: Personified Hokmah is no attack on the ancient Israelite conviction-never fundamentally questioned in the tradition-that YHWH is the God of Israel. Nor do we find any attack on the belief, explicitly formulated since the exile, that absolutely no other gods exist beside YHWH. The writers appear not to have regarded it as in any way necessary to defend a correct monotheistic idea of Hokmah. Personified is instead the completely non-polemical attempt to set a feminine image of God in place of and alongside a masculine image, linking the God of Israel to the experience and the lives especially of the women in Israel, the Most High God to the realm of household religion, and beyond that to the images and roles of the Ancient Near Eastern goddesses. (p. 30; italics added) The author thus explores this mysterious figure-a slippery figure indeed, as Personified is sometimes depicted as a companion of God, and at times is portrayed as God, and at still other times is portrayed as being subject to God (particularly in a misogynist text such as the book of Sirach)-to give us another picture of Israelite religion. Israelites, particularly in moments of crisis (e.g., the exilic and the postexilic eras), could view their God also in female terms and also freely borrowed metaphors from the neighboring religions (cf the similarities with the ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic goddesses) without any embarrassment. Schroer (borrowing from Claudia Camp in her ground-breaking publication and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs [Sheffield: Almond, 1985]) argues that the literary portrayal of the God of Israel in female terms cannot have arisen out of a vacuum, but is an indication of the status of the women of Israel at the time. As in many moments/periods of crisis, the exilic and postexilic periods in Israel witnessed the elevation in the status of women. As builders of houses, women took it upon their shoulders to join the males in the rebuilding of Yehud in the postexilic period. Schroer argues that it is no wonder that it was precisely in this era that the Priestly author portrays both male and female as being created in the image of God (Gen 1:26). It is in this postmonarchic era that the locus of divine revelation had shifted from the king as mediator of the covenant between the people of Israel and YHWH to the family or the household (the sphere of women). Women as managers of households (cf. the eset hayil of Prov 31:10-31), household builders, and meal preparers feature significantly in this period. It is therefore no wonder that it is in this same period that YHWH is personified as a woman-God in female imagery! In her attempt to achieve her main objective, Schroer addresses different topics. In Wisdom on the Path of Righteousness (Proverbs 8:20), she shows that the Israelite faith in the connection between action and consequence (cf. also the African mentality in this regard) is not uniquely Israelite, but ancient Near Eastern. …

Wort Gottes und Schuld Israels: Untersuchungen zu Motiven deuteronomistischer Theologie im Deuterojesajabuch mit einem Ausblick auf das Verhaltnis von Jes 40-55 zum Deuteronomismus

Wort Gottes and Schuld Israels: Untersuchungen zu Motiven deuteronomistischer Theologie im Deuterojesajabuch mit einem Ausblick auf das Verhaltnis von Jes 40-55 zum Deuteronomismus, by Antje Labahn. BWANT 143. Stuttgart/Berlin/Cologne: Kohlhammer, 1999. Pp. 320. C36.00. In this ambitious work Antje Labahn investigates the presence of Deuteronomistic motifs in Second Isaiah and from her literary-critical analysis draws larger conclusions regarding the relationship between the Deuteronomistic movement and Second Isaiah as a literary work and prophet. Whether her efforts are judged to be successful depends on readers sharing her confidence that we can parse texts as closely as she does. Likewise, one must also accept her conviction that Second Isaiah's compositional history can be traced with some precision. Labahn argues that Second Isaiah went through two intentional Deuteronomistic redactions in the postexilic period. The first entailed merging existing text with passages that evoke the Deuteronomistic theology of history. She theorizes that this expansion was intended to explain the people's abiding suffering even after their return to Judah under Persian rule: they endured continued difficulties in Judah because they still labored under the burden of God's judgment on earlier generations and their own disobedience. Labahn sees this theme in passages such as Isa 42:24-25; 43:24b, 27, 28b; 46:8, 12-13; 47:6-7; 48:ld, 4, 5b, 76, 8-9, 17-19; and 50:1-3. A second Deuteronomistic redaction of Second Isaiah added the notion that the Word of God expressed the Lord's will for Israel. Labahn finds this theme especially in Isa 40:5b, 6b-8, and 55:10-11, and she suggests that it was added to reassure postexilic Judeans of God's abiding interest in them and their fate. Both Deuteronomistic redactions, says Labahn, were thoroughly integrated with the existing portions of Second Isaiah. Beyond the evidence of these two redactional stages Labahn identifies other signs of quasi-Deuteronomistic material in Isa 40-55. These passages, however, were part of what Labahn suggests was a widespread, unconscious postexilic adaptation of common Deuteronomic rhetoric and motifs to existing texts and traditions. As such they did not result from formal Deuteronomistic redactions of Second Isaiah. Also at this stage Labahn sees the merger of motifs and rhetoric from Second Isaiah and the Deuteronomic tradition with others from the Psalms, David-Zion theology, the Priestly tradition, and still other existing theological trajectories. Labahn identifies exemplars of this fusion of traditions in many passages. For example, she asserts that Isa 54:7-10 combines Deuteronomic topoi with traditions from Second Isaiah, Zion theology, and the Priestly tradition. Likewise, Isa 55:2b-5 mixes the Deuteronomic notion of the promise to David with motifs from Second Isaiah. Other passages Labahn treats from this perspective include 41:8b-9; 43:3b-4; 49:18; 51:1, 7-8, 12-16; 55:07. Labahn's literary-critical analysis leads her to wonder what the relationship between the prophet responsible for Isa 40-55 and the Deuteronomistic movement was. Why did it take until the postexilic period for the two traditions to find common cause? She observes that while most agree that the Deuteronomistic tradition likely grew up in Judah and Second Isaiah first developed in Babylon, different social and geographical settings do not account entirely for the differences between them. …

Zemah and Zerubbabel: Messianic Expectations in the Early Postexilic Period

Zemah and Zerubbabel: Messianic Expectations in the Early Postexilic Period

"SHE IS NOT MY WIFE AND I AM NOT HER HUSBAND": A MATERIALIST ANALYSIS OF HOSEA 1–2

AbstractThis article is a materialist analysis of Hosea 1-2, involving an investigation of the eighth-century mode of production operative during Hosea's time (extrinsic analysis) and how this mode of production is ideologically embedded in Hosea's marriage metaphor for the God/Israelite relationship (intrinsic analysis). Hosea denounces a mode of production that involved a royal agribusiness and foreign policy, which exploited the peasantry, and was embodied in the public state veneration of the baals. Hosea directs his condemnation against the ruling élite, feminized in a metaphor of an adulterous wife who runs after her lovers (the foreign nations). Through this metaphor, Hosea theologically proclaims a polemical monolatry that places him in continuity with the YHWH-Alone movement that will become normative for Israel during the exilic and post-exilic periods.

A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40-66 (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 292 Reviews A PROPHET READS SCRIPTURE: ALLUSION IN ISAIAH 40-66. By B. D. Sommer. Contraversions. pp. xiii + 355. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. Cloth, $49.50. That Deutero-Isaiah (defmed broadly in this instance as comprising Isaiah 40-66 as well as Isaiah 35) is one of the most allusive of ancient Ismelite compositions is the fundamental thesis of this revised dissertation written at the University of Chicago under the direction of Michael Fishbane. Sommer's book proffers numerous examples of allusion in Deutero-Isaiah, describes the thematic and stylistic patterns that emerge from them, and concludes with a consideration of the significance of the bent toward allusion in relation to prophecy in the exilic and postexilic period. The argument for single authorship of Isaiah 40-66 and 35 is relegated to an appendix and is not central to Sommer's study of allusion in these chapters or to his conclusions. The introductory chapter (chapter 1) provides a useful discussion of pertinent literary categories. Sommer begins by distinguishing "allusion," an authorial reference to a text or texts, from "intertextuality," the participation of texts in broad linguistic and cultural contexts. He also breaks down the phmse "inner biblical exegesis" by separating "allusion," the use by an author of an earlier text to enrich his own articulation, from "exegesis," the attempt of a writer to explain an earlier text. Allusion, rather than intertextuality, is the focus of Sommer's study, and allusion, rather than exegesis, he argues, is the prevalent mode of textual reference in Deutero-Isaiah. The bulk of Deutero-Isaiah's allusions, Sommer claims, are to prophetic writings: to Jeremiah above all (a datum, he suggests, with implications for current scholarly interest in the integrity of the Isaian corpus); to Isaiah 1-39, and, occasionally, to the minor prophets. Chapters 2-3 describe five thematic types and four stylistic fonns of the prophetic allusions in Deutero-Isaiah. The thematic types include "reversal," in which a future restoration is portrayed in language that reverses earlier judgment oracles; "reprediction," in which the prophet recontextualizes former prophecies of restoration (or, less frequently, of judgment); "fulfIllment," in which allusions convey how earlier prophecies have been realized in the present; "typology ," in which figures and events featured in Deutero-Isaiah are presented as counterparts of those in an earlier text; and "echo," in which literary parallels simply connect Deutero-Isaiah to prophetic predecessors. In the discussion of these categories Sommer frequently demonstrates con- Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 293 Reviews vincingly how allusions are wielded in Deutero-Isaiah to intensify the force of its message. tI!msforming earlier texts into a different key while retaining their former resonance. Most characteristic of the four stylistic patterns in Deutero-Isaianic allusions . according to Sommer. and most significant for identifying allusions. is the "split up pattern" (pp. 68-69). This technique entails the expansion of a given phrase of Jeremiah. for example. by separating its elements and inserting words. phrases. and often several poetic lines in between. Sommer points to this technique as a deliberate playing with the language of a source that is indicative of allusion. as opposed to a coincidental parallel in language. He cites sound play and word playas similarly characteristic of Deutero-Isaiah and similarly a sign of conscious reworking of a particular text. Less frequent is the replication of shared vocabulary in the same order as in an earlier text. Sommer musters these stylistic traits as evidence of literary allusion in Deutero-Isaiah, but the question of how firm this evidence is, which he himself raises (pp. 32-35), should probably be underscored, at least with regard to the first three features. That these techniques are characteristic of Deutero-Isaiah need not imply that they are "a flag that points to the presence of an allusion or echo" with respect to a specific text (p. 71) rather than to a traditional phrase or word cluster. Perhaps the strongest argument for textual dependence is the presence of a notable cluster of words and phrases in a Deutero-Isaianic passage that is found in only one other text. Sommer suggests this when he links the likelihood of allusion to the...

Israel am Gottesberg: Eine Untersuchung zur Literargeschichte der vorderen Sinaiperkope Ex 19-24 und deren historischem Hintergrund

Israel am Gottesberg: Eine Untersuchung zur Literargeschichte der vorderen Sinaiperikope Ex 19-24 und deren historischem Hintergrund, by Wolfgang Oswald. OBO 159. Freiburg: Universitatsverlag; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998. Pp. x + 286. S.Fr. 89.00. The book is a dissertation written under Thomas Kruger for the University of Zurich. Oswald's aim is to reassess the literary-historical development of Exodus 19-24 and the social circumstances giving rise to the text. In chapter I Oswald eschews source criticism in favor of a supplemental or redaction approach. Current research (e.g., Blum, Dozeman, Renaud, Van Seters) from this perspective, however, has left important questions unresolved: the relationship of literary criticism and tradition history, the role of theology and theory in the interpretation of literature, and the need for clearer description of social setting to account for the formation of Exodus 19-24. These questions provide the central impetus for Oswald's study. Chapter 2 is a synchronic reading of Exodus 19-24 in the larger context of Exodus-Numbers. The itinerary structure of the exodus and the wilderness journey, the varieties of law codes (six), and the many trips by Moses up and down the mountain (nine) create degrees of literary incoherence. Close reading indicates points of tension with regard to textual topography (e.g., distinct names, locations, actions, and deitic elements surrounding Moses' trips to and from God on the mountain). Thus God lives permanently on the mountain, dwells in heaven, approaches in a cloud, and descends to the summit, while theophany also changes in location. Textual topographies provide a window into distinctive epistemologies (e.g., verbs of perception, knowledge, and communication), with the result that the content of theophany shifts between visual and auditory experiences. The synchronic study yields a variety of textual typologies in chapter 3 (YHWH-Yarad; YHWH-Mountain; YHWH-Approach; YHWH-Heaven; People-- Ascend; Visio-Dei). The process by which these typologies are interwoven and the social context out of which there were created are described in chapter 4. Oswald seeks to demonstrate in chapters 3 and 4 that incoherence in the present form of the text must be read in light of its formation, and that the process of growth must be grounded in concrete social and political contexts. The results can be summarized in three phases. Law is essential throughout the development of the literature. There is no theophany independent of law. First, a deuteronomistic perspective evolves through four stages (1) A Mountain of God Pericope (Exod 19:2b, 3a, loa-11a, 14a-15b, 16-17, 18b, 19a; 20:18b-d, 21be, 22a; 21:2-23:19; 24:3, 12-13 18be) is part of a larger narrative beginning with the exodus, the Exodus-Gottesberg-Narrative (EG). The Book of the Covenant is central to the EG, as the legal charter for an exilic community located at Mizpeh and led by Gedaliah. It indicates a break with the Davidic monarchy-the exodus and the premonarchical period become the paradigmatic time in history, law is from God independent of the king, and worship is modeled without priests. (2) Redactors, most likely from Mizpeh, add a democratizing element with the Decalogue (Exod 20:1, 2-17, 19, 21a)-Moses is now with the people in hearing the divine word. (3) The theme of covenant (Exod 19:3b-7a, 7c-8, 9f., 13f.; 20:22b-23; 21: 1; 24:48) is woven into the EG in the early postexilic (Persian) period as a result of conflicts between residents in the land and the Gola returnees from Babylon (i.e., land possession, urban vs. rural life, Mizpeh vs. Jerusalem as the religious and social center, the nature of political organization in relationship to Persia). The covenant texts emphasize an exclusive allegiance with YHWH to express opposition to Persian influence. (4) The role of the elders (Exod 24:13a-14), the messenger texts (Exod 23:20-33), and the command for Israel to ascend the mountain (Exod 19:13f. …

The Original Torah: The Political Intent of the Bible's Writers (review)

Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 292 Reviews texts with their parallels in Deuteronomy to try and discern the relative literary priority. However, in this discussion he fails to take account of the details of possible different levels of the Tetrateuchal text. for example within Numbers 13-14 when comparing it with the parallel in Deut 1:1946 . He simply takes the present Tetrateuchal text, and thus does not do justice to this comparative task. In addition, in concluding that it is impossible on the basis of the text to work out literary priority since there are no literary critical criteria to help decide this. he fails to take into account such criteria as. for example. the mtionale for change between one text and its parallel particularly in light of the stories as a whole. Consequently, his conclusion that the decision of priority is purely dependent on the model of formation with which the scholar starts, and therefore he will simply presuppose Van Seter's conclusions that the Tetrateuch is later than the Deuteronomistic History and therefore postexilic to support his thesis, lacks solidity. Overall, this book opens up a new perspective on the Tetrateuch, especially with regard to how it might have functioned in the Persian period. However, the lack of close attention to detailed literary critical analysis and the argumentation of scholars mther than simply their conclusions at some important points detmcts from the credibility of his position that goes beyond discussing the possible functioning of the Tetrateuchal materials in the post-exilic period to situating their production also at that time. Suzanne Boorer Murdoch University Murdoch, Australia boorer@socs.murdoch.edu.au THE ORIGINAL TORAH: THE POLITICAL INTENT OF THE BIBLE'S WRITERS. By S. David Sperling. Reappraisals in Jewish Social and Intellectual History. pp. xiv + 184. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Cloth, $42.50. This book fits well into the series in which it appears. It is the eleventh volume in the New York University Series "Reappmisals in Jewish Social and Intellectual History," edited by Robert Seltzer. for whose "personal direction " the author is particularly grateful. Furthermore, the Acknowledgments inform us. the book was written to answer the question of his daughter, who at the age of eight asked, "Since no one could have known what really happened, why were these stories made up?" A postscript Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 293 Reviews "About the Author" informs us that S. David Sperling was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and received his Ph.D. at Columbia. My training is identical, except that I was ordained in 1957 and received my doctorate in 1964. For us, the intellectual giants were Yehezkel Kaufmann, Ephraim A. Speiser, and William Foxwell Albright. One of the then bestsellers was Werner Keller's The Bible as History, translated from the German. But for Sperling, "the archaeology of the past three decades demonstrates that the Torah's fundamental claims appear to be unhistorical " (p. 7). There was no Sojourn. no Exodus. no Desert Wandering. and no Conquest. In fact. the author asserts, "Nowhere in the Torah, nor in the rest of the Hebrew Bible, is there a claim that the events related actually happened" (p. 14). As Wellhausen already maintained, "Pentateuchal narratives had value only for the period in which they were composed" (p. 17). Sperling maintains that the way to get at that period is to regard the Torah as historical and political allegory. Acknowledging his debt to ancient and medieval Christian and Jewish theological and philosophical allegoresis , he applies historical allegoresis to date the Eden story to the ninth to eighth centuries B.C.E. when Assyrian and Israelite monarchs were planting royal gardens and before rapacious, large landowners were driving small farmers off the soil, as attested by Amos and Isaiah. This method is further applied to a situation (servitude), an institution (covenant), and six personalities (Abraham, Jacob, Joseph. Aaron. Moses. and Jeroboam). The new authorities are Niels P. Lemche, Thomas L. Thompson. Morton Smith, Israel Finkelstein. George Mendenhall. and Norman Gottwald. The Terah-Ur tale was designed to demonstrate that the repatriates under Cyrus were enacting a divine plan put in place after the Flood. The Exodus traditions originated in...

Messianic Expectations in the Early Post-Exilic Period

Messianic Expectations in the Early Post-Exilic Period

Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism

Central to both biblical narrative and rabbinic commentary, circumcision has remained a defining rite of Jewish identity, a symbol so powerful that challenges to it have always been considered taboo. Lawrence Hoffman seeks to find out why circumcision holds such an important place in the Jewish psyche. He traces the symbolism of circumcision through Jewish history, examining its evolution as a symbol of the covenant in the post-exilic period of the Bible and its subsequent meaning in the formative era of Mishnah and Talmud. In the rabbinic system, Hoffman argues, circumcision was neither a birth ritual nor the beginning of the human cycle, but a rite of covenantal initiation into a male life line. Although the evolution of the rite was shaped by rabbinic debates with early Christianity, the Rabbis shared with the church a view of blood as providing salvation. Hoffman examines the particular significance of circumcision blood, which, in addition to its salvific role, contrasted with menstrual blood to symbolize the gender dichotomy within the rabbinic system. His analysis of the Rabbis' views of circumcision and menstrual blood sheds light on the marginalization of women in rabbinic law. Differentiating official mores about gender from actual practice, Hoffman surveys women's spirituality within rabbinic society and examines the roles mothers played in their sons' circumcisions until the medieval period, when they were finally excluded.

The Social Context of Law in the Second Temple Period

In this study, cultural expectation, situational expedience, and adaptation to new social norms will be the guide for the examination of legal statements. It will be determined that in the post-exilic period, legal pronouncement blended with political expediency and religious zeal to shape the social context. Concerns over defensive posture within disputed regions, maintenance of protocol and recognition of the rights of posted garrisons in conquered territories (as at Elephantine), and the general sense that people who can be defined as identifiable groups and set in fixed patterns are easier to control may have separately or together driven Persian policy. The reforms imposed by Nehemiah and Ezra suggest both imperial meddling as well as cultural incursion by the advocates of Diasporic Judaism and its more rigid concept of law and ethnic identity.

The Metonymical Curse as Propaganda in the Book of Jeremiah

Abstract In eight prose texts in Jeremiah, the curse serves a polemical function that justifies the existence of one particular socioreligious community (the Babylonian exiles), while marginalizing others (the remnant in Judah, Judeans who fled to Egypt, and foreign nations). This curse is not used as an invocation of misfortune but has a metonymical sense which describes the embodiment of that misfortune. Although specific curse terminology and order vary, the phrase "you will be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse" is directed against these three rivals to the Babylonian community and foreshadows the heterogenous constitution of the Judean communities in the Exilic, Postexilic, and Second Temple Periods.