The Legacy Of Iranian Imperialism And The Individual

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen (1917–2002) was a Finnish Septuagint scholar and the father of the translation-technical method in studying the nature of translations. The present volume upholds his work with studies related to the syntax of the Septuagint. It is impossible to describe the syntax of the Septuagint without researching the translation technique employed by the translators of the different biblical books; the characteristics of both the Hebrew and Greek languages need to be taken into consideration. The topics in this volume include translation-technical methodology; case studies concerning the use of the definite article, preverbs, segmentation, the middle voice, and the translations of Hebrew stems in the Pentateuch; selected syntactical features in Isaiah and Jeremiah; the connection between the study of syntax and textual criticism, especially in Judges; and lexical distinction between near-synonymous words. The volume concludes with six articles by Soisalon-Soininen, originally written in German and translated into English. These studies pertain to the use of the genitive absolute, renderings of the Hebrew construct state and the personal pronoun, interchangeability of prepositions, segmentation, and Hebraisms. These articles have lasting value as analyses of significant translation-syntactic phenomena and, together with Soisalon-Soininen's monographs, they crystallize his translation-technical method. The volume paves way to a description of the syntax of the Septuagint that does justice to its nature as a translation.

Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fluid boundaries of pre-modern identity in history and literature as well as the shaping of Iranian national identity in the 20th century.

A renewed study of Iranian influence on apocalyptic traditions, arguing for a methodology which takes into account Iranian studies, oral theory, and the Achaemenid context.

Jason Silverman presents a timely and necessary study, advancing the understanding of Achaemenid ideology and Persian Period Judaism. While the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550–330 BCE) dwarfed all previous empires of the Ancient Near East in both size and longevity, the royal system that forged and preserved this civilisation remains only rudimentarily understood, as is the imperial and religious legacy bequeathed to future generations. In response to this deficit, Silverman provides a critically sophisticated and interdisciplinary model for comparative studies. While the Achaemenids rebuilt the Jerusalem temple, Judaean literature of the period reflects tensions over its Persian re-establishment, demonstrating colliding religious perspectives. Although both First Zechariah (1–8) and Second Isaiah (40–55) are controversial, the greater imperial context is rarely dealt with in depth; both books deal directly with the temple's legitimacy, and this ties them intimately to kings' engagements with cults. Silverman explores how the Achaemenid kings portrayed their rule to subject minorities, the ways in which minority elites reshaped this ideology, and how long this impact lasted, as revealed through the Judaean reactions to the restoration of the Jerusalem temple.

Esther is the most visual book of the Hebrew Bible and largely crafted in the Fourth Century BCE by an author who was clearly au fait with the rarefied world of the Achaemenid court. It therefore provides an unusual melange of information which can enlighten scholars of Ancient Iranian Studies whilst offering Biblical scholars access into the Persian world from which the text emerged. In this book, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones unlocks the text of Esther by reading it against the rich iconographic world of ancient Persia and of the Near East. Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther is a cultural and iconographic exploration of an important, but often undervalued, biblical book, and Llewellyn-Jones presents the book of Esther as a rich source for the study of life and thought in the Persian Empire. The author reveals answers to important questions, such as the role of the King's courtiers in influencing policy, the way concubines at court were recruited, the structure of the harem in shifting the power of royal women, the function of feasting and drinking in the articulation of courtly power, and the meaning of gift-giving and patronage at the Achaemenid court.

This book explores the representation of Persian monarchy and the court of the Achaemenid Great Kings from the point of view of the ancient Iranians themselves and through the sometimes distorted prism of Classical authors.