Centrality Practiced: Jerusalem in the Religious Practice of Yehud and the Diaspora in the Persian Period.

• Author: Fried, Lisbeth S.
• Position: Book review

Centrality Practiced: Jerusalem in the Religious Practice of Yehud and the Diaspora in the Persian Period. By MELODY D. KNOWLES. Archaeology and Biblical Studies vol. 16. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, 2006. Pp. vii + 181. $24.95 (paper).

When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and YHWH's temple, they tampered with YHWH's link to the city (p. 1). Did Yahwists of the Persian period believe that YHWH had again chosen Judah and Jerusalem? Was Jerusalem central to their worship, or did they believe that YHWH could be worshipped equally well anywhere? To answer these questions, Knowles examines Persian-period biblical texts and compares them to the archaeological residue of Yahwists both in Yehud and outside of it.

Knowles addresses first the issue of animal sacrifice. Persian-period biblical texts interpret the Jerusalem temple as the place for animal sacrifice, and Trito-Isaiah condemns sacrifice elsewhere. Knowles explores archaeological evidence for animal sacrifice in Yahwistic worship outside of the Jerusalem temple. There is of course the well-known evidence for animal sacrifice at Elephantine, but it was not continued in the rebuilt temple. It is possible to connect its cessation to the prohibition of animal sacrifice outside of Jerusalem that is found in the biblical books (p. 43). There is also the less well-known fourth-century reference to the "house of YHW," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], on an Idumean ostracon probably from Khirbet el Kom/Makkedah, about halfway between Lachish and Hebron. This may refer to a temple to YHWH in Idumea that may have employed animal sacrifice.

There was also a cult place at Persian-period Lachish where animal sacrifices seem to have occurred (the so-called "Solar Shrine"), but it is not known what god was worshipped there. Knowles places the cities of Bethel and Tell en-Nasbeh (biblical Mizpeh) within Yehud. but finds no evidence of animal sacrifice in either Persian-period city. Animal sacrifice within Yehud is thus confined to Jerusalem, although some Yahwists continued to worship in this way outside of Yehud (e.g., at Khirbet el Kom, Mt. Gerizim, and Elephantine). The presence of these rival cults may have added to the impulse in the biblical texts to promote Jerusalem as the only legitimate site of sacrifice (p. 53).

Knowles next considers the use of incense in the worship of YHWH. Small incense burners have been found in cult sites throughout the non-Yehud Levant (pp. 57-59), and...