On Dating Biblical Texts to the Persian Period

In the last two decades, increasing numbers of texts have been suggested as coming from or edited during the Persian period, but these discussions do not always reflect extensively on the assumptions used in making these claims or the implications on a broader scale. Earlier generations of scholars found it sufficient to categorize material in the biblical books simply as »late« or »postexilic« without adequately trying to determine when, by whom, and why the material was incorporated into the text at a fixed point in the Persian period. By grappling with these questions, the essays in this volume evince a greater degree of precision vis-à-vis dating and historical context. The authors introduce the designations early Persian, middle Persian, and late Persian in their textual analysis, and collectively they take significant steps toward developing criteria for locating a biblical text within the Persian period.David M. Carr: Criteria and Periodization in Dating Biblical Texts to Parts of the Persian Period - Joseph Blenkinsopp: The Earliest Persian Period Prophetic Texts - Dalit Rom-Shiloni: What is »Persian« in Late Sixth Century B.C.E. Prophetic Literature? Case Studies and Criteria - Georg Fischer SJ: Jeremiah's Relations with the »Minor Prophets«: A Window into the Formation of the Book of the Twelve - Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer: Dating Zechariah 1-8: The Evidence in Favour of and Against Understanding Zechariah 3 and 4 as Sixth Century Texts - Yigal Levin: Why Did Zerubbabel's Adversaries Emphasize Their Foreign Origins? - Reinhard Achenbach: The 'ămānāh of Nehemiah 10 between Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code - Konrad Schmid: How to Identify a Persian Period Text in the Pentateuch - Raik Heckl: The Aaronic Blessing (Numbers 6): Its Intention and Place in the Concept of the Pentateuch - Richard J. Bautch: Dating Texts to the Persian Period: The Case of Isaiah 63:7-64:11 - Jill Middlemas: Dating Esther: Historicity and the Provenance of Masoretic Esther