The Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and its Historical Contexts

Published by De Gruyter 2010

The Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and its Historical Contexts

Edited by: Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin

Volume 404 in the series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110221787

Overview
Contents

About this book

In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts “the Exile” is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and economic disasters associated with them in terms that YHWH punished Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But YHWH is not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply intertwined with its discursive counterpart, the certain “Return”. As the Exile comes to be understood as a necessary purification or preparation for a renewal of YHWH’s proper relationship with Israel, the seemingly unpleasant Exilic conditions begin, discursively, to shape an image of YHWH as loving Israel and teaching it. Exile is dystopia, but one that carries in itself all the seeds of utopia. The concept of Exile continued to exercise an important influence in the discourses of Israel in the Second Temple period, and was eventually influential in the production of eschatological visions.

Author / Editor information

Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Christoph Levin, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.

Reviews

"Der Vf. hat eine interessante Textsammlung vorgelgt, die er methodisch reflektiert auswertet."
M. Bauks in: Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 123, 1/ 2011

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	VII
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	IX
Introduction Christoph Levin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Military Threat and the Concept of Exile in the Book of Amos Jan Christian Gertz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
The Exiled Gods of Babylon in Neo Assyrian Prophecy Martti Nissinen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
What Do Archaeological Remains Reveal of the Settlements in Judah during the Mid Sixth Century BCE? Kirsi Valkama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
The Empty Land in Kings Christoph Levin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
The Exile and the Exiles in the Ezra Tradition Juha Pakkala Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
The Concept of the Empty Land in Jeremiah 37-43 Hermann-Josef Stipp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Total Exile, Empty Land and the General Intellectual Discourse in Yehud Ehud Ben Zvi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
The Voice and Role of a Counterfactual Memory in the Construction of Exile and Return: Considering Jeremiah 40: 7–12 Ehud Ben Zvi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
The Un-Empty Land: The Concept of Exile and Land in P Jakob Wöhrle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
A Prophetic View of the Exile in the Holiness Code: Literary Growth and Tradition History in Leviticus 26 Reinhard Müller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Images of Exile in the Book of Judges Reinhard Müller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Exile in the Book of Isaiah Francis Landy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Reading, Writing, and Exile Francis Landy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Playing with Maps of Exile: Displacement, Utopia, and Disjunction James R. Linville Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Myth of the Exilic Return: Myth Theory and the Exile as an Eternal Reality in the Prophets James R. Linville Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Images of Exile: Representations of the “Exile” and “Empty Land” in Sixth to Fourth Century BCE Yehudite Literature John Kessler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 12
- Main content: 388
Keywords: Exile; Hebrew Bible; Israelite Tradition; Old Testament

eBook

Published: October 19, 2010
ISBN: 9783110221787

Hardcover

Published: September 17, 2010
ISBN: 9783110221770