Approaching Yehud

by Berquist, Jon L.

• ISBN13: 9789004130784
• ISBN10: 9004130780
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-30
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

The long-held view that the Persian period in Israel (known as Yehud) was a historically derivative era that engendered little theological or literary innovation has been replaced in recent decades by an appreciation for the importance of the Persian period for understanding Israel s literature, religion, and sense of identity. A new image of Yehud is emerging that has shifted the focus from viewing the postexilic period as a staging ground for early Judaism or Christianity to dealing with Yehud on its own terms, as a Persian colony with a diverse population. Taken together, the thirteen chapters in this volume represent a range of studies that touch on a variety of textual and historical problems to advance the conversation about the significance of the Persian period and especially its formative influence on biblical literature. Contributors include Richard Bautch, Jon L. Berquist, Zipporah G. Glass, Alice W. Hunt, David Janzen, John Kessler, Melody D. Knowles, Jennifer L. Koosed, Herbert R. Marbury, Christine Mitchell, Julia M. O Brien, Donald C. Polaski, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Brent A. Strawn, and Christine Roy Yoder.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. vii
Approaching Yehud	p. 1
Essays
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Persian Period	p. 7
Intertextuality in the Persian Period	p. 25
What Mean These Stones? Inscriptions, Textuality and Power in Persia and Yehud	p. 37
Scholars, Witches, Ideologues, and What the Text Said: Ezra 9-10 and Its Interpretation	p. 49
"How Lonely Sits the City": Identity and the Creation of History	p. 71
"A World under Control": Isaiah 60 and the Apadana Reliefs from Persepolis	p. 85
An Exile's Baggage: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of Ezekiel	p. 117
Diaspora and Homeland in the Early Achaemenid Period: Community, Geography and Demography in Zechariah 1-8	p. 137
The Strange Woman in Persian Yehud: A Reading of Proverbs 7	p. 167
Qoheleth in Love and Trouble	p. 183
Psalms, Postcolonialism, and the Construction of the Self	p. 195
Responses
In the Beginning-Again	p. 203
From Exile to Empire: A Response	p. 209
Bibliography	p. 215
Contributors	p. 247
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