Christoph Levin

Ehud Ben Zvi

Revised versions of papers from a workshop held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich from June 27 to July 1, 2011.

Remembering and Forgetting in Early Second Temple Judah

The exile is a central turning point in Israel’s construction of the past as it is recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The latter’s concept/s of exile are involved, among others, in constructions of patriarchal narratives, the Egyptian sojourn and slavery that led to the Exodus, and the motif of “the empty land” during the Babylonian period. Moreover, ancient Israelite concepts of exile have exerted much influence in later Christian and Jews discourses. This volume gathers papers presented at two workshops organized by the University of Munich and the University of Alberta.

The Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and its Historical Contexts

Water is a vital resource and is widely acknowledged as such. Thus it often serves as an ideological and linguistic symbol that stands for and evokes concepts central within a community. This volume explores ‘thinking of water’ and concepts expressed through references to water within the symbolic system of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period and as it does so it sheds light on the social mindscape of the early Second Temple community.

Thinking of Water in the Early Second Temple Period

The exile is a central turning point in Israel s construction of the past as it is recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The latter s concept/s of exile are involved, among others, in constructions of patriarchal narratives, the Egyptian sojourn and slavery that led to the Exodus, and the motif of the empty land during the Babylonian period. Moreover, ancient Israelite concepts of exile have exerted much influence in later Christian and Jews discourses. This volume gathers papers presented at two workshops organized by the University of Munich and the University of Alberta. "

The Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and Its Historical Contexts

Björn Quiring

Andreas Höfele

Reinhard Müller

Chaos is a perennial source of fear and fascination. The original "formless void" (tohu-wa-bohu) mentioned in the book of Genesis, chaos precedes the created world: a state of anarchy before the establishment of cosmic order. But chaos has frequently also been conceived of as a force that persists in the cosmos and in society and threatens to undo them both. From the cultures of the ancient Near East and the Old Testament to early modernity, notions of the divine have included the power to check and contain as well as to unleash chaos as a sanction for the violation of social and ethical norms. Yet chaos has also been construed as a necessary supplement to order, a region of pure potentiality at the base of reality that provides the raw material of creation or even constitutes a kind of alternative order itself. As such, it generates its own peculiar 'formations of the formless'. Focusing on the connection between the cosmic and the political, this volume traces the continuities and re-conceptualizations of chaos from the ancient Near East to early modern Europe across a variety of cultures, discourses and texts. One of the questions it poses is how these pre-modern 'chaos theories' have survived into and reverberate in our own time.

Formations of the Formless

Chaos from the Ancient World to Early Modernity

Karen Radner

Shuichi Hasegawa

Despite considerable scholarly efforts for many years, the last two decades of the Kingdom of Israel are still beneath the veil of history. What was the status of the Kingdom after its annexation by Assyria in 732 BCE? Who conquered Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom? When did it happen? One of the primary reasons for this situation lies in the discrepancies found in the historical sources, namely the Hebrew Bible and the Assyrian texts. Since biblical studies and Assyriology are two distinct disciplines, the gaps in the sources are not easy to bridge. Moreover, recent great progress in the archaeological research in the Southern Levant provides now crucial new data, independent of these textual sources. This volume, a collection of papers by leading scholars from different fields of research, aims to bring together, for the first time, all the available data and to discuss these conundrums from various perspectives in order to reach a better and deeper understanding of this crucial period, which possibly triggered in the following decades the birth of "new Israel" in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and eventually led to the formation of the Hebrew Bible and its underlying theology.

The Last Days of the Kingdom of Israel

A current and concise introduction to the largest component of the Bible examines the origins, history, and development of the Old Testament, along with the editorial history underlying its various parts, providing incisive commentary on the diverse books, including the five books of Moses, the prophetic books, the Psalms, and such shorter texts as the books of Job, Ruth, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.

Christoph Levin

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