Times of Transition

Judea in the Early Hellenistic Period

Sylvie Honigman, Christophe Nihan, Oded Lipschits

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781646021147
• eBook ISBN: 9781646021451
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia antica

This multidisciplinary study takes a fresh look at Judean history and biblical literature in the late fourth and third centuries BCE. In a major reappraisal of this era, the contributions to this volume depict it as one in which critical changes took place.

Until recently, the period from Alexander's conquest in 332 BCE to the early years of Seleucid domination following Antiochus III's conquest in 198 BCE was reputed to be poorly documented in material evidence and textual production, buttressing the view that the era from late Persian to Hasmonean times was one of seamless continuity. Biblical scholars believed that no literary activity belonged to the Hellenistic age, and archaeologists were unable to refine their understanding because of a lack of secure chronological markers. However, recent studies are revealing this period as one of major social changes and intense literary activity. Historians have shed new light on the nature of the Hellenistic empires and the relationship between the central power and local entities in ancient imperial settings, and the redating of several biblical texts to the third century BCE challenges the traditional periodization of Judean history.

Bringing together Hellenistic history, the archaeology of Judea, and biblical studies, this volume appraises the early Hellenistic period anew as a time of great transition and change and situates Judea within its broader regional and transregional imperial contexts.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Ptolemaic Period: A Dark Age in Jewish History?
• Chapter 2: Numismatic Evidence and the Chronology of the Fifth Syrian War
• Chapter 3: The Representation of the Victorious King Comments on the Dedication of a Statue of Ptolemy IV in Jaffa (SEG 20.467 = CIIP 3.2172)
• Chapter 4: Aramaic, Paleo-Hebrew and “Jewish” Scripts in the Ptolemaic Period
• Chapter 5: Judah in the Early Hellenistic Period: An Archaeological Perspective
• Chapter 6: Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods
• Chapter 7: Coin Circulation in Judea during the Persian–Hellenistic Transition A View from the Elah Valley
• Chapter 8: Political Trends as Reflected in the Material Culture A New Look at the Transition between the Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods
• Chapter 9: The Harbor of Akko-Ptolemaïs: Dates and Functions
• Chapter 10: The Achaemenid–Ptolemaic Transition The View from Southern Phoenicia
• Chapter 11: Sanctuaries, Priest-Dynasts and the Seleukid Empire
• Chapter 12: Gods in the Gray Zone A Political History of Egyptian Temples from Artaxerxes IIIto the End of the Argeadai (342–ca. 305 BCE)
• Chapter 13: Sacred and Secular Activities in the Egyptian Temple Precincts (temenē) in the 3rd Century BCE
• Chapter 14: Searching for the Social Location of Literate Judean Elites in Early Hellenistic Times A Non-Linear History of the Temple and Royal Administrations in Judea
• Chapter 15: The Idealization of Ptolemaic Kingship in the Legend of the Origins of the Septuagint
• Chapter 16: The Production of Greek Books in Alexandrian Judaism
• Chapter 17: The Septuagint: Translating and Adapting the Torah to the 3rd Century BCE
• Chapter 18: Greek Historians on Jews and Judaism in the 3rd Century BCE
• Chapter 19: How to Identify a Ptolemaic Period Text in the Hebrew Bible
• Chapter 20: No Prophetic Texts from the Hellenistic Period? Methodological, Philological and Historical Observations on the Writing of Prophecy in Early Hellenistic Judea
• Chapter 21: The Social Setting and Purpose of Early Judean Apocalyptic Literature Between Resistance Literature and Literate Hermeneutics
• Chapter 22: “To be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated” (Esther 7:4) Historicity and Fictionality of Anti-Jewish Pogrom Stories before the Maccabean Crisis
• Index