Book contents
- Why the Bible Began
- Why the Bible Began
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Part I The Rise and Fall
- Part II Admitting Defeat
- 9 Daughter Zion
- 10 The Creator
- 11 Haggai the Prophet
- 12 Nehemiah the Builder
- 13 Ezra the Educator
- 14 Hoshayahu the Soldier
- Part III A New Narrative
- Part IV A People of Protest
- Subject Index
- Scholars Cited
- Biblical References
- References
13 - Ezra the Educator
Forming a People of the Book
from Part II - Admitting Defeat
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2023
Book contents
- Why the Bible Began
- Why the Bible Began
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Part I The Rise and Fall
- Part II Admitting Defeat
- 9 Daughter Zion
- 10 The Creator
- 11 Haggai the Prophet
- 12 Nehemiah the Builder
- 13 Ezra the Educator
- 14 Hoshayahu the Soldier
- Part III A New Narrative
- Part IV A People of Protest
- Subject Index
- Scholars Cited
- Biblical References
- References
Summary
The year is 444 bce. Athens is now busy establishing an empire, and its leader Pericles has sponsored a building plan to refortify its main ports and the Long Walls that provided the city with a secure access to the sea. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the inhabitants of Judah have just finished rebuilding the municipal fortifications of Jerusalem. Both its walls and temple had long languished in the rubble to which Babylonian armies had consigned them, but now they are standing again.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Why the Bible BeganAn Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins, pp. 204 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Further Reading
Becking, Bob, Identity in Persian Egypt: The Fate of the Yehudite Community of Elephantine, Penn State University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Eskenazi, Tamara Cohn, In an Age of Prose: A Literary Approach to Ezra-Nehemiah, SBL Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Folmer, Margaretha (ed.), Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors, Eisenbrauns, 2022.Google Scholar
Fried, Lisbeth S., Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition, University of South Carolina Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Hasler, Laura Carlson, Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity, Oxford University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Himmelfarb, Martha, A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and Merit in Ancient Judaism, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Christopher M., “Embedded Written Documents as Colonial Mimicry in Ezra-Nehemiah,” Biblical Interpretation 25 (2018): 158–181.Google Scholar
Kratz, Reinhard G. and Schipper, Bernd U. (eds.), Elephantine in Context: Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt, Mohr Siebeck, 2022.Google Scholar
Polaski, Donald C., “‘What Mean These Stones?’: Inscriptions, Textuality and Authority in Persia and Yehud,” in Berquist, Jon L. (ed.) Approaching Yehud: New Approaches to the Study of the Persian Period, SBL Press, 2007.Google Scholar
van der Toorn, Karel, Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine, Yale University Press, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Jacob L., “Seeking, Finding, and Writing in Ezra-Nehemiah,” in Boda, Mark J. and Reddit, Paul L. (eds.), Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah, Continuum, 2007.Google Scholar