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What was the status of the Kingdom of Israel after its annexation by Assyria in 732 BCE? Who conquered Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom? When did it happen?Leading scholars from different fields of research discuss these questions and thus shed light on this crucial period, which possibly triggered the birth of "new Israel" in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and eventually led to the formation of the Hebrew Bible and its underlying theology.

This compendium examines the origins of the God Yahweh, his place in the Syrian-Palestinian and Northern Arabian pantheon during the bronze and iron ages, and the beginnings of the cultic veneration of Yahweh.

This volume contains innovative studies related to the functions of psalms and prayers in the Second Temple period.

The volume presents 20 articles of renowned European scholars on human leadership in the Hebrew Bible. Concepts like ¿priest¿, ¿prophet¿, ¿judge¿ and ¿king¿ are examined in a literary, historical, and theological perspective with special emphasis on conceptual changes and developments. It contributes to biblical theology as well as to the complex interplay between history of ancient Israel and literary history of the Hebrew Bible.

This book presents a fresh analysis of Joshua 24 and related texts as a test case for refining our knowledge of how ancient scribes edited texts. Joshua 24 is envisioned as a gradually growing Persian-period text, whose editorial history can be reconstructed with the help of documented evidence preserved in the MT, LXX, and other ancient sources.

The book explores the literary and ideological development of God¿s threats to destroy the people of Israel. The idea that God could harm Israel exists in the biblical belief alongside the perception that the people are chosen. The book employs a diachronic method to explore the ways in which the tradition was formed and developed, tracing the authors¿ exegetical purposes and ploys, and the historical realities of their time.

The volume contains eight original studies, each of which focuses on a different chapter or central passage in Daniel and offers a new interpretation or reading of the passage in question. The studies span the Danielic tales and apocalypses, offering innovative analyses that often challenge the scholarly consensus regarding the exegesis of this book. The eight chapters relate to Daniel 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, Susanna, and the conception of angelology in Daniel. The studies are all based on careful textual analysis, including comparison between the Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek versions (especially regarding Daniel 4-6), and, in each case, the larger arguments are built upon solid philological foundations. Many of the insights proposed in this volume are based upon the realization that the authors of Daniel were frequently interpreters of earlier biblical books, and that the identification of these intertextual clues can be the key to unlocking the meaning of these texts. In this sense, Daniel is similar to other contemporaneous works, such as Jubilees and Qumran literature, but the extent of this phenomenon has not been fully appreciated by scholars of the book. This volume therefore contributes to the appreciation of Daniel as both the latest book in the Hebrew Bible, and a significant work in the landscape of Second Temple Judaism.

The central theme of the book is the relationship between a hero or cultural icon and the cultures in which he or she is venerated. On one hand, a hero cannot remain a static character if he or she is to appeal to diverse and dynamic communities. On the other hand, a traditional icon should retain some basic features in order to remain recognizable. Joshua son of Nun is an iconic figure of Israelite cultural memory described at length in the Hebrew Bible and venerated in numerous religious traditions. This book uses Joshua as a test case. It tackles reception and redaction history, focusing on the use and development of Joshua's character and the deployment of his various images in the narratives and texts of several religious traditions. I look for continuities and discontinuities between traditions, as well as cross-pollination and polemic. The first two chapters look at Joshua's portrayal in biblical literature, using both synchronic (literary analysis) as well as diachronic (Uberlieferungsgeschichte and redaction/source criticism) methodologies. The other four chapters focus on the reception history of Joshua in Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish literature, in the medieval (Arabic) Samaritan Book of Joshua, in the New Testament and Church Fathers, and in Rabbinic literature.

This study offers a reconstruction of Sennacherib's campaign against Judah and Jerusalem in 701 BC. It contrasts and compares various, partly contradictious readings of this event and challenges established narratives. By giving equal weight to a great variety of different sources, whether literary or archaeological, the author comes to a new and profound understanding of this complex military conflict.

What was Judaean religion in the Persian period like? Is it necessary to use the Bible to give an answer to the question? Among other things the study argues that * the religion practiced in the 5th c. BCE Elephantine community and which is reflected in the so-called Elephantine documents represent a well-attested manifestation of lived Persian period Yahwism,* as religio-historical sources, the Elephantine documents reveal more about the actual religious practice of the Elephantine Judaeans than what the highly edited and canonised texts of the Bible reveal about the religious practice of the contemporary Yahwistic coreligionists in Judah, and* the image of the Elephantine Judaism emerging from the Elephantine documents can revise the canonised image of Judaean religion in the Persian period (cf. A. Assmann). The Elephantine Yahwism should not be interpreted within a framework dependent upon theological, conceptual and spatial concepts alien to it, such as biblical ones. The study proposes an alternative framework by approaching the Elephantine documents on the basis of N. Smart's multidimensional model of religion. Elephantine should not be exotified but brought to the very centre of any discussion of the history of Judaism.

The story of Massah-Meribah is a pluriform tradition within the Hebrew Bible. Part One of this book uses redaction analysis to assess diachronically the six reminiscences of this tradition within Deuteronomy (Deut 6:16; 8:15; 9:22; 32:13, 52; 33:8). The relative chronological relationship of these texts, and the tradition components they preserve, reveals a framework of five formative stages of this story's tradition-history from the perspective of the tradents responsible for the production of Deuteronomy. Part Two is a redactional study of the tradition's narratives in Exod 17:1-7 and Num 20:1-13. Special attention is devoted to the texts that anchor the Massah-Meribah narratives into the Pentateuch. In the end, Part Two not only corroborates the framework detected in Deuteronomy for the formative stages of the Massah-Meribah tradition, but it also carries broad implications for the formation of the Pentateuch in general and the Wilderness Narrative in particular.

The essays deal with developments during the period from the liquidation of the Judean state to the conquests of Alexander the Great. This was a critical time in the Near East and the Mediterranean world in general. It marked the end of the great Semitic empires until the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D.,decisive changes in religion, with appeal to a creator-deity in Deutero-Isaiah, Babylonian Marduk cult, and Zoroastrianism.For the survivors of the Babylonian conquest in a post-collapse society the issue of continuity, with different groups claiming continuity with the past and possession of the traditions, there developed a situation favourable to the emergence of sects. The most pressing question, however, was what to do faced with the overwhelming power of empire, first Babylonian, then Persian. Finally, with the extinction of the native dynasty and the entire apparatus of a nation-state, the temple became the focus and emblem of group identity.

Psalms 146-150, sometimes called "e;Final Hallel"e; or "e;Minor Hallel"e;, are often argued to have been written as a literary end of the Psalter. However, if sources other than the Hebrew Masoretic Text are taken into account, such an original unit of Psalms 146-150 has to be questioned. "e;The End of the Psalter"e; presents new interpretations of Psalms 146-150 based on the oldest extant evidence: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Greek Septuagint. Each Psalm is analysed separately in all three sources, complete with a translation and detailed comments on form, intertextuality, content, genre, and date. Comparisons of the individual Psalms and their intertextual references in the ancient sources highlight substantial differences between the transmitted texts. The book concludes that Psalms 146-150 were at first separate texts which only in the Masoretic Text form the end of the Psalter. It thus stresses the importance of Psalms Exegesis before Psalter Exegesis, and argues for the inclusion of ancient sources beyond to the Masoretic Text to further our understanding of the Psalms.

Der vorliegende Band enthalt Beitrage des renommierten Marburger Alttestamentlers Otto Kaiser zur Theologie, Anthropologie und Ethik des Buches Kohelet sowie zur Weisheit des Jesus Sirach und seines geistes- und theologiegeschichtlichen Hintergrundes. Daruber hinaus beschaftigen sich je ein Aufsatz mit den aktuellen Problemen der Heilsgeschichte und des Glaubens an das ewige Leben.

Seit langem wird vermutet, dass Jahwe, der Gott des Alten Testaments, ursprunglich ein Wettergott vom Typ des syrischen Baal gewesen ist. Die vorliegende Studie liefert die exegetische Grundlage: Sie zeigt, dass sich in den Psalmen 18, 24, 29, 36, 48, 65, 77, 93, 97, 98 und 104 alte Kultlieder erhalten haben, die den Anfangen der Jahweverehrung nahe stehen. Poetologische sowie form- und motivgeschichtliche Argumente offenbaren das von diesen Texten gezeichnete Bild als zweistufig: Auf der altesten Ebene wird Jahwe als gewaltiger Kampfer besungen, der im Gewitter erscheint, seine mythischen Feinde besiegt und der Erde Regen und Fruchtbarkeit spendet. Auf einer etwas jungeren Ebene wird dieser Wettergott als Konig der Gotter gepriesen, der durch seine Herrschaft die Weltordnung vor den Machten des Chaos schutzt. Motivparallelen in syrischen und mesopotamischen Wettergottuberlieferungen zeigen, dass sich die althebraische Gottesvorstellung auf beiden Ebenen nicht grundsatzlich von ihrer Umgebung unterschieden hat. Erst nach dem Ende des Konigtums hat die entstehende judische Religionsgemeinde die alten Hymnen auf den koniglichen Wettergott tiefgreifend umgedeutet, wie sich an verschiedenen Bearbeitungen der Psalmen ablesen lasst.