Judah and the Judeans in the Achaemenid Period: Negotiating Identity in an International Context.

• Author: Jigoulov, Vadim
• Position: Book review

Judah and the Judeans in the Achaemenid Period: Negotiating Identity in an International Context.

Edited by ODED LIPSCHITS; GARY N. KNOPPERS; and MANFRED OEMING. Winona Lake, Ind.:

EISENBRAUNS, 2011. Pp. xvi + 600, illus. $64.50.

The essays in this volume were presented at an international conference at the University of Heidelberg in 2008. The last decade has seen heightened interest in all things concerning the Achaemenid Empire, and this compilation echoes another volume edited by Lipschits and Oeming, Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period (2006), with a few changes of contributors. The focus of the present volume is less on Judah as an isolated entity within the empire than on the international context. Issues of identity, whether self- or externally constructed, are highlighted. Contributions range from linguistic and theological analyses of Persian-period literature, including biblical texts, to essays on historiography and archaeology.

The volume consists of two major parts, one dealing with biblical evidence touching upon identity and the second with factors contributing to the issue of identity. Schmid opens the volume, arguing for Ishmael's inclusion in the covenant between Yahweh and Abraham in Gen. 17. For Schmid, Ishmael and Isaac are "equal with regard to fertility and land holdings . . . within the greater region of 'the whole [sic] land of Canaan" (p. 25). The post-exilic redactors of P argued (through the story of Abraham) for the promise of land and descendants to Judeans, Israelites, Edomites, and Arabs alike, a striking position compared to earlier, less "ecumenical" views of biblical writers and redactors.

Noting the degrees of strictness about whether foreigners could join the people of Israel by acknowl edging the Jewish God, Shaper continues the theme of inclusivity, proposing that stricter standards (as found in Ezra 10:2-3) were engendered by the acceptance of existing writings as the Torah. The more lenient texts (e.g., Isa. 56: 3,6-7) reveal writers not entirely sold on the divine and prescriptive status of the writings aspiring to be scripture. In the following essay, Hagedorn explores the invisible presence of the Persian cultural milieu in some biblical texts. After analyzing Gen. 20:1-18, he concludes that the Persian period serves as its backdrop even if the reader is unaware of this. Hagedom's explanation is that the text's provenance precludes the writer(s) from going beyond rethinking the importance of the Persian period; instead, the passage concentrates on maintaining a distinct ethnic identity through ritual purity. In contrast, the book of Esther, although permeated with "Persiatmess" as a historical setting, looks on the Persian period retrospectively and is more concerned with...