Elephantine in Context: Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt

by Reinhard Gregor Kratz (Editor), Bernd U Schipper (Editor)

Overview

The Persian period has long been considered a "dark era" in Israel's history. For this reason, research has mainly focused on how it is depicted in the Hebrew Bible. A spectacular discovery of archaeological relics and epigraphic sources was hence hardly noticed: the military colony located on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, on the border between Egypt and present-day Sudan. The basic approach of this volume, which documents a three-year Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft project, is to break with a research tradition focusing on the Judeans (Jews) mentioned in the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine and instead investigate the military colony in a broader historical context also documented by Demotic and Egyptian-hieratic evidence found at Elephantine. The studies presented focus on three main subject areas: society and administration, religion, and literature. They show that historically the island of Elephantine hosted a multicultural society with several interactions between the Egyptians and the other inhabitants, and that it was also an important administrative centre for the Persian authorities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783161609961
Publisher:	Mohr Siebeck
Publication date:	02/16/2022
Series:	Forschungen zum Alten Testament , #155
Pages:	385
Product dimensions:	9.09(w) x 6.06(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Reinhard G. Kratz/Bernd U. Schipper: Introduction 1. Society and Administration Giulia Francesca Grassi: "Do We Know the Arameans?" (SAA 17,176). The Use of Ethnonyms in the Aramaic Documents from Egypt Holger Gzella: The Scribal Habit of Achaemenid Administrators, Its Educational Underpinnings, and Its Reception in the Hebrew Bible Alexander Schutze: The Legal Context of the Aramaic Legal Tradition on Elephantine Reconsidered Sylvie Honigman: Serving the Kings, Building Temples, and Paying the "Jewish Tax". Aramaic-Speaking Judeans and Their Descendants in Upper Egypt from Persian to Early Imperial Times 2. Religion Alexandra von Lieven: Spatagyptische Religion in und um Elephantine Collin Cornell/Brent A. Strawn: Is Judean Religion at Elephantine a Pidgin? Reassessing Its Relationship to Its Antecedents and Congeners Bob Becking: "That Evil Act". A Thick Description of the Crisis around the Demolition of the Temple of Yaho at Elephantine Bernd U. Schipper: The Judeans/Arameans of Elephantine and Their Religion. An Egyptological Perspective 3. Literature James D. Moore: "Ahikariana" at Elephantine. New Readings of Berlin P. 13446 and Developments in Ahiqar Research Joachim Friedrich Quack: Die demotischen Fragmente der Erzahlung und der Spruche des Achiqar Reinhard G. Kratz: Ahiqar and Bisitun. The Literature of the Judeans at Elephantine Tawny L. Holm: Papyrus Amherst 63 and the Arameans of Egypt. A Landscape of Cultural Nostalgia Karel van der Toorn: The Background of the Elephantine Jews in Light of Papyrus Amherst 63