Community Identity in Judean Historiography: Biblical and Comparative Perspectives

Published by Penn State University Press 2009

Community Identity in Judean Historiography

Biblical and Comparative Perspectives

Edited by: Gary N. Knoppers and Kenneth A. Ristau

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575066110

Overview
Contents

About this book

Most of the essays in this volume stem from the special sessions of the Historiography Seminar of the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies, held in the late spring of 2007 (University of Saskatchewan). The papers in these focused sessions dealt with issues of self-identification, community identity, and ethnicity in Judahite and Yehudite historiography. The scholars present addressed a range of issues, such as the understanding, presentation, and delimitation of “Israel” in various biblical texts, the relationship of Israelites to Judahites in Judean historical writings, the definition of Israel over against other peoples, and the possible reasons why the ethnoreligious community (“Israel”) was the focus of Judahite/Yehudite historiography. Papers approached these matters from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary vantage points. For example, some pursued an inner-biblical perspective (pentateuchal sources/writings, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah), while others pursued a cross-cultural comparative perspective (ancient Near Eastern, ancient Greek and Hellenistic historiographies, Western and non-Western historiographic traditions). Still others attempted to relate the material remains to the question of community identity in northern Israel, monarchic Judah, and postmonarchic Yehud.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Contributors to Community Identity in Judean Historiography Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Israel and the Nomads of Ancient Palestine Kenton L. Sparks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
David: Messianic King or Mercenary Ruler? John Van Seters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
A Comparative Study of the Exilic Gap in Ancient Israelite, Messenian, and Zionist Collective Memory Katherine M. Stott Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Are There Any Bridges Out There? How Wide Was the Conceptual Gap between the Deuteronomistic History and Chronicles? Ehud Ben Zvi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Characters in Stone: Royal Ideology and Yehudite Identity in the Behistun Inscription and the Book of Haggai James Bowick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
The Diaspora in Zechariah 1–8 and Ezra–Nehemiah: The Role of History, Social Location, and Tradition in the Formulation of Identity John Kessler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Ethnicity, Genealogy, Geography, and Change: The Judean Communities of Babylon and Jerusalem in the Story of Ezra Gary N. Knoppers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Ezra’s Mission and the Levites of Casiphia Mark Leuchter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Textual Identities in the Books of Chronicles: The Case of Jehoram’s History Louis Jonker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Reading and Rereading Josiah: The Chronicler’s Representation of Josiah for the Postexilic Community Kenneth A. Ristau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Identity and Empire, Reality and Hope in the Chronicler’s Perspective Mark J. Boda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Index of Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 296

eBook

Published: June 23, 2009
ISBN: 9781575066110