The Economy of Ancient Judah in Its Historical Context

Marvin Lloyd Miller, Ehud Ben Zvi, Gary N. Knoppers

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781575064130
• eBook ISBN: 9781575064147
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The dynamics of ancient Judah's economy are among the most important, but also neglected and least understood, aspects of ancient Israel's history. The essays in this volume address this gap from a multidisciplinary perspective, involving archeology, biblical studies, economics, epigraphy, ancient history, Jewish studies, and theology. The essays focus on particular issues in the economy of ancient Judah and its neighbors during the late monarchy and the Neo-Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic periods. Some of them evaluate the theoretical models used to understand the inner workings of ancient agrarian economies, while others explore rural economies, the forces of regeneration and degeneration in particular regions, the settlement histories of different areas, and the exploitation of depopulated land in Judah and Idumea. Essays in the volume also address population growth, urbanization, the role of diverse temple towns (such as Babylon and Jerusalem) in regional market economies, the literary portrayal of patron–client relationships, symmetrical and asymmetrical relations in international trade, and the views of urban elites toward agrarian economic developments. Yet others discuss family economics—policies of reproduction, gender roles, family size, and household hierarchies—in Judah and ancient Persia. Many of the essays appearing in this volume were originally delivered as papers in special sessions devoted to these topics at annual meetings of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and the European Association of Biblical Studies. The scholars participating in this international project conduct their research at institutions in Canada, Germany, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: Cultivating Curiosity: Methods and Models for Understanding Ancient Economies
• Chapter 2: The “Successful, Wise, Worthy Wife” of Proverbs 31:10–31 as a Source for Reconstructing Aspects of Thought and Economy in the Late Persian / Early Hellenistic Period
• Chapter 3: More Than Friends? The Economic Relationship between Huram and Solomon Reconsidered
• Chapter 4: Agrarian Economy through City-Elites’ Eyes: Reflections of Late Persian Period Yehud Economy in the Genealogies of Chronicles
• Chapter 5: Ancient Comparisons, Modern Models, and Ezra–Nehemiah: Triangulating the Sources for Insights on the Economy of Persian Period Yehud
• Chapter 6: and the Seventh Year: Complementary Strategies for the Economic Recovery of Depopulated Yehud
• Chapter 7: Exploitation of Depopulated Land in Achaemenid Judah
• Chapter 8: The Achaemenid Policy of Reproduction
• Chapter 9: The Economy and Administration of Rural Idumea at the End of the Persian Period
• Chapter 10: Forces of Decline and Regeneration: A Socioeconomic Account of the Iron Age II Negev Desert
• Chapter 11: The Rural Economy of Judah during the Persian Period and the Settlement History of the District System