Related Papers
Hensel (2020) (ed.), Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: Tracing Perspectives of Group Identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in Biblical Traditions (Forschungen zum Alten Testament II 120), Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen 2020 (together with Nocquet, Dany and Adamczewski, Bartosz)
2020 •
Benedikt Hensel
The underlying perspective of the present volume contributes to the recent historical debate on Yahwistic diversity in the Persian and the Hellenistic periods. A broad variety of different Yahwistic (and not necessarily Jewish) groups existed inside and outside Judah during the sixth to first century BCE, e.g., in Egypt (Elephantine/Jeb and Alexandria), Babylonia (al-Yahudu), Samaria, and Idumea. The main objective of the volume lies in the literary-historical implications of this diversity: How did these groups or their interactions with one another influence the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as its complex textual transmission? This perspective has not been sufficiently pursued in the more religious and historically oriented research before. The volume comprises thirteen articles by renowned international specialists in the field, which aim at closing this gap in the scholarly discussion. Table of Contents: Benedikt Hensel: Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: State of the Field, Desiderata, and Research Perspectives in a Necessary Debate on the Formative Period of Judaism(s) Part I: Perspectives for and from Judah, Samaria, and Diaspora? The Debate within the Pentateuch and Hexateuch Reinhard Achenbach: Die Integration der heiligen Orte der Provinz Samaria in das Narrativ des Hexateuch – Konrad Schmid: The Diaspora as a Blessing for the Nations: The Case of Gen 28:14 – Dany Nocquet: The Question of Israel’s Kinship with the Arameans: Rachel and Laban in Gen 31:1 – 32:1: A Samaritan Contribution? – Julia Rhyder: Unity and Hierarchy: North and South in the Priestly Traditions – Raik Heckl: The Temple within the Book and Its Function: Considerations on the Cultic Conception of the Composition of the Torah Part II: Ongoing Debates – Historical Developments – Intensifying Polemics: Literary-Historical, Text-Historical, Theological, and Historical Aspects of the Formation Processes Jean Louis Ska: Why is the Chosen People Called Israel and Not Judah? –Hervé Gonzalez/Marc Mendoza: ‘What Have the Macedonians Ever Done for Us?’ A Reassessment of the Changes in Samaria by the Start of the Hellenistic Period – Stefan Schorch: Where is the Altar? Scribal Intervention in the Book of Joshua and Beyond – Detlef Jericke: Shiloh between Shechem and Jerusalem – Magnar Kartveit: The Tension between the Law and the Prophets as a Background to the Formation of the Samaritan Pentateuch – Veit Dinkelaker: Gen 2:2 Reconsidered: Marginal Notes on a Peculiar Variant in Samaritan, Greek, and other Manuscripts – Jonathan Miles Robker: Die Texttraditionen von 2. Könige 17 als Spiegel der Entwicklung des Verhältnisses von Juden und Samaritanern
Mohr Siebeck
Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: Tracing Perspectives of Group Identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in Biblical Traditions
2020 •
Benedikt Hensel, Bartosz Adamczewski
The underlying perspective of the present volume contributes to the recent historical debate on Yahwistic diversity in the Persian and the Hellenistic periods. A broad variety of different Yahwistic (and not necessarily Jewish) groups existed inside and outside Judah during the sixth to first century BCE, for example in Egypt (Elephantine/Jeb and Alexandria), Babylonia (al-Yahudu), Samaria, and Idumea. The main objective of the volume lies in the literary-historical implications of this diversity: How did these groups or their interactions with one another influence the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as its complex textual transmission? This perspective has not been sufficiently pursued in the more religious and historically oriented research before. The volume comprises thirteen articles by renowned international specialists in the field, which aim at closing this gap in the scholarly discussion.
Hensel, B. et al. (2023) (ed.), Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions. Identity Perspectives from Egypt, Transjordan, Mesopotamia, and Israel in the Second Temple Period (FAT 167), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2023.
2023 •
Benedikt Hensel
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 volume addresses the phenomenon of religious plurality by bringing together archaeological, (religious-)historical, and literary-critical approaches. The volume comprises thirteen articles by internationally renowned scholars and covers the panorama of currently known social groups of Yahwistic character and the impact of this phenomenon on the making of the Hebrew – from the Persian period down to the time of Qumran. Bibliography: Social Groups behind Biblical Traditions: Identity Perspectives from Egypt, Transjordan, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Israel in the Second Temple Period (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 167), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2023; hg. von Hensel, B., Nocquet, D und Adamczewski, B.
“All these are the Twelve Tribes of Israel”. The Biblical Expression and the Origins of Israel’s Kinship Identity, NEA 82 (2019) 24–31.
2019 •
Kristin Weingart
The Hebrew Bible presents Israel as a community of twelve tribes descending from one common ancestor. While Israel’s kinship identity does not represent a fact to be ascertained by biology or genetics, as an elementary social construction it nevertheless functions as the basic code for Israel’s collective identity. The article therefore discusses the nature and the origins of the Israelite tribal system. Like other primordial codes of collective identity, it applies features which are regarded within the relevant community as natural or essential and beyond the possibility of individual choice. Being an Israelite is a matter of descent, of being born into one of the Israelite tribes. The code is expressed by means of genealogies which structure the social world of the community and inform and orientate social interactions. If one asks for the historical origins of the tribal system it becomes easily apparent that it is hard to name any period within the history of Israel in which it would easily match social reality or the shape of any given political entity. This holds true for the post-exilic as well as the pre-exilic monarchic periods. Sources for earlier periods are elusive but the indications available allow for some cautious conclusions on the existence and shape of north-Israelite and Judahite kinship structures which in time developed into the system of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Hensel, B., 2020, Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: State of the Field, Desiderata and Research Perspectives in a Necessary Debate on the Formative Period of Judaism(s). In: Hensel et al. (eds.), Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible (FAT II/120), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2020, pp. 1-44.
2020 •
Benedikt Hensel
The following essay reviews and proposes new avenues in the historical analysis of early Judaism and its impact on identity-building processes in the southern Levant. Its crucial interest lies in demonstrating that the ideas responsible for the emergence of Judaism were developed in a context of Yahwistic diversity. The underlying perspective of this essay concerns the observation that a broad variety of different Yahwistic groups existed inside and outside Judah during the sixth to first century BCE. As recent scholarship has increasingly recognized, this period had a major impact on the theological and literary histories of early Judaism. This epoch also witnessed the shaping of other central identity markers, such as the institution of the central temple and the Torah. This leads to the main thesis of the essay: Contrary to the current majority view, the formation process of early Judaism takes place less as an inner-Judean development than as the complex and multilayered process of negotiation between diverse groups. The essay provides a critical discussion of the current paradigm of the emergence of Early Judaism (section 1), and a detailed, critical review of the recent critical objections against this theory from the perspective of exilic and postexilic diversity (section 2). Additionally, the essay presents the author’s cornerstones that result from this very debate and provides a perspective for future research in this matter that attempts a comprehensive description of the a) religious, b) sociological, and c) literary history of the phenomenon of diversification within ancient Yahwism (sections 3–5). The essay will conclude with an overview of the studies in this volume (section 6). This program results in the following detailed structure for the essay: 1. Judean Perspectives on Israel’s History: State of the Field 2. Towards a Paradigm Shift: Four Critical Objections from Recent Religious-Historical, Historical, and Exegetical Research 2.1 Plurality Rather Than a Monoculture 2.2 Contact and Interaction Rather Than Exclusivity 2.3 Judean Perspectives in the Hebrew Bible: The Concepts of Exilic Discontinuity, Golah-Judean Continuity, and Exclusivity 2.4 Samarian Involvement prior to the Exilic and Persian Period: Bringing “the First Exile” (722 BCE) into Discussion 3. “Binnen-israelitische Ausdifferenzierungsprozesse”: A Matrix for Future Research 3.1 The Nexus of Yahwistic Diversity and Formational Processes of Early Judaism 3.2 A Question of Terminology: Judaism(s) – Yahwism(s) – “Israel” 4. The Hebrew Bible as a Reflection of Exilic and Postexilic Yahwistic Diversity 4.1 Pentateuch, Hexateuch, and Deuteronomistic History: Traces of Judean-Samarian Relations 4.2 The Pentateuch as an Inclusive Foundational Document of Israel for Different Yahwistic Groups: A Modification of the Theory of the Common Pentateuch/Torah 4.3 Different Ideas of “Israel” within the Hebrew Bible 4.4 Textual Traditions and Yahwistic Variety 5. Conclusion and Perspectives for Future Research 6. Overview of This Volume
“Judean Identity in an Era of Empire: Archaeological Approaches from Iron II Tell en-Nasbeh.” Pp. 1-18 in Reading a Tendentious Bible, Essays in Honor of Robert B. Coote. Eds. M. L. Chaney, U. Y. Kim, and A. Schellenberg. Hebrew Bible Monographs 66. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014.
Aaron Brody
This study investigates aspects of the construction and maintenance of identity of the inhabitants of Tell en-Nasbeh in the time of the United and Divided Monarchies. The approach is archaeological, informed by texts in the Hebrew Bible.
In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi
A silent unheard voice in the Old Testament: The Cush*te woman whom Moses married in Numbers 12:1–10
David adamo
Most of the time, women’s names are not mentioned, words are not put in their mouths or they are not allowed to say a word, and their achievements are behind the scene in the narratives. Passages that mention the presence and contribution of African women in the Bible are especially neglected, perhaps because there are few African women biblical scholars and also deep prejudices against women. References to the African wife of Moses (Numbers 12) are so scanty in the Bible that very few critical biblical scholars noticed them. The purpose of this article is to discuss critically the narrative of the Cush*te woman whom Moses married and her marginalisation by the author of the story in Numbers 12:1-10. The narrator of the text did not only refuse to give her a name, there is no single word put in her mouth despite the dominant and significant role her presence played in the narrative. Why is she silent and what does her silence mean? The answers to these questions are discussed in thi...
READING NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE HEBREW BIBLE
David Alexander
Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel. Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives, ed. by Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart (AIL 40), Atlanta: SBL Press
The Israelite Tribal System: Literary Fiction or Social Reality?
2020 •
Erhard Blum
Self-Published
Reclaiming the African Roots of Biblical Israelite Identity: Rethinking "Origins" in the Black Hebrew Israelite Narrative
2023 •
La Wanda Knox
This paper examines claims by some Black Hebrew Israelites that the biblical Israelite nation originated in the Middle East, arguing this misrepresents the biblical accounts that established the nascent Israelite nation in Africa. It highlights how locating the origins of the Israelites in the modern Middle East severs ties to authentic pre-colonial African heritage. The paper begins by introducing the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and its objective to regain a sense of biblical and African legacies. It then highlights the flaws of asserting Middle Eastern origins for biblical patriarchs, Markowitz (1996). The problem with linking Israelite identity to modern Middle Eastern nations is that it bases identity on political entities rather than ancestral lineage, which opens the door for territorial claims to be critiqued. Simply substituting white faces for black faces fails to address the issue of Eurocentric dominance. By seeking to reconnect with their African lineage prior to colonization and the influence of Christianity, individuals can reject the modern concepts that have been imposed upon them and instead rediscover their authentic roots. This process revitalizes diverse customs and traditions, thereby strengthening identity and fostering a greater sense of belonging. Restoring African heritage challenges misconceptions and encourages a deeper appreciation. The conclusion suggests that Black Hebrew Israelites should prioritize emphasizing their African lineage in order to recapture the richness of the pre-colonial experience, detached from the complexities of modern geopolitics (Markowitz, 1996).
