The Troubles Of Templeless Judah

The time of the Babylonian captivity is of seminal importance for the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as for the religious development of Judaism. Jill Middlemas challenges conventional notions surrounding this period, arguing that too much importance has been placed on the perspective of the Golah community.

The time of the Babylonian capitivity (c.587-539 BCE) is of seminal importance for the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as for the religious development of Judaism. Previous studies of this era have usually privileged the perspective of the community of captives (the Golah), and the period is known as the `Exilic Age'. Jill Middlemas challenges this consensus, arguing that the Golah community represents only one viewpoint, and that the experiences and contributions of the majority of the Judaean population, those who remained in Judah, need to be more fully appreciated.

The time of the Babylonian captivity is of seminal importance for the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as for the religious development of Judaism. Jill Middlemas challenges conventional notions surrounding this period, arguing that too much importance has been placed on the perspective of the Golah community.

The last kings of Juda led God’s people directly into exile and thus in the catastrophe of the destruction of the First temple. How did that happen? Who was responsible? What kind of role did God play in this drama? These questions will be addressed by Benedikt Josef Collinet. Unlike the narrative suggests, the kings were not the protagonists of the drama but the antagonists to God instead. God used the neighbouring peoples and Babel as tools of punishment. The reason for these punishments was the systemic covenant break of God’s people. The consequences of these punishments can be read in Deuteronomy 28. The story is a composed deconstruction of divine salvation promises. The salvation gifts were withdrawn but the promises still remained. The people needed a new beginning that with reference to the exodus could only be indicated or prepared by pardoning Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25:27–30).

The collection of essays in this book represents more than twenty years of research on the history and archeology of Judah, as well as the study of the Biblical literature written in and about the period that might be called the “Age of Empires”. This 600-year-long period, when Judah was a vassal Assyrian, Egyptian and Babylonian kingdom and then a province under the consecutive rule of the Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires, was the longest and the most influential in Judean history and historiography. The administration that was shaped and developed during this period, the rural economy, the settlement pattern and the place of Jerusalem as a small temple, surrounded by a small settlement of (mainly) priests, Levites and other temple servants, characterize Judah during most of its history. This is the formative period when most of the Hebrew Bible was written and edited, when the main features of Judaism were shaped and when Judean cult and theology were created and developed. The 36 papers contained in this book present a broad picture of the Hebrew Bible against the background of the Biblical history and the archeology of Judah throughout the six centuries of the “Age of Empires”.

Exile as Forced Migrations examines contemporary peoples in flight and plight to help reconstruct the exilic experience of Judeo-Babylonians in the 6th century B.C.E. Framing this monograph are economics of migration and its impact on each respective generation, recent sociological studies on forced migration theories, displacement and resettlement issues, historical, literary and theological views on the first generation's "laments", the in-between generation's "hope", "new creation" in the second generation, and finally, "home" for the third and subsequent generations.

This work assembles some of the finest scholars who have contributed to study and examination of the impact of the exile in biblical literature. Past, present, and future scholars examining the 6th century B.C.E. through historical and archeological (including paleoclimatology), literary, and the social sciences have been assembled. Approximately twelve papers from among the twenty papers presented over the four sessions (parallel to a sizable conference on the exile) will be represented in this volume. The book will be organized in a traditional history of scholarship manner, i.e., moving from historical to sociological. It should be noted that within each subcategory, there is a forward progressive movement from a traditional starting point (Klein, Olson, Wilson) ending at the progressive or cutting edge (Beck, Ahn). Jill Middlemas will open the volume with and introductory essay. John Ahn will close off the volume by pointing to the field of "forced migration studies" as a way to help better define and demarcate the import of 597, 587, and 582.