Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions

Is the Hebrew Bible purely a product of Jerusalem or were there various social groups who each played a role in its development during the Second Temple period? This is the guiding question of the present volume, which fills a crucial gap in recent research by combining current literary-historical, redactional and text-historical analysis of the Hebrew Bible with the latest results pertaining to the pluriform social and religious shape of early Judaism. For the first time, the thirteen articles in this volume address the phenomenon of religious plurality by bringing together archaeological, (religious-) historical, and literary-critical approaches. The articles by internationally renowned scholars cover the panorama of currently known social groups of Yahwistic character and the impact of this phenomenon on the making of the Hebrew Bible – from the Persian period to the time of Qumran.Benedikt Hensel : Introduction to the Volume Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions

Part I: Emerging Judaism, Yahwistic Plurality, and the Making of the Hebrew Bible: A Classification of the Phenomena in the Overall Context of Hebrew Bible Studies
Benedikt Hensel : Who Wrote the Bible? Understanding Redactors and Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions in the Context of Plurality within Emerging Judaism

Part II: »Inside the Land of Israel«: Different Perspectives in Handling Diversity Inside Judah and Samaria
Yigal Levin : What Did Ezra and Nehemiah Have against Mixed Marriages? − Charlotte Hempel : Yahwistic Diversity in the Land of Israel: The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls − Dalit Regev/Uzi Greenfeld : The Persian Pottery from Salvage Excavations at Har Gerizim (2019–2021): Preliminary Findings − Dany Nocquet : 1 Kgs 20 and 22, a Writing by a Prophetic Narrator? A Reconsideration − Magnar Kartveit : The Attitude towards the Northerners in the Book of Chronicles − Bartosz Adamczewski : Othniel and the Unfaithful Concubine: Two Images of the Judean Yahwism from a Northern Perspective − Wolfgang Schütte : The »Scroll of David« – a Samaritan Name of the Book of Samuel? 2 Sam 24 and the Text History of the Jewish Books of Samuel and Kings

Part III: »Diaspora Perspectives«: Biblical Reflections on Historical Realities in Egypt, Transjordan, Babylon, and Persia
Ann-Kristin Wigand : The Judean Group of Elephantine: Reading Aramaic Literature in the Service of Achaemenid Rule − Stephen Germany : Gilead in 2 Samuel and the Discourse on Diaspora during the Persian Period – C. L. Crouch : Involuntary Migration, Strategies of Identity Construction, and Religious Diversity after 586 BCE − Kishiya Hidaka : Leviticus 26 and the Pro-Babylonian-Golah and Pro-Diaspora Redactions in the Context of Identity Formation and Conflict of Yahwistic Groups in the Persian Period − Vjatscheslav Dreier : The Theological Profile of the Masoretic Book of Esther in the Context of Diverse Yhwh Communities