Elephantine in Context

Elephantine in Context
Author: Reinhard Gregor Kratz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9783161609978

The Persian period has long been considered a "dark era" in Israel's history. For this reason, research has mainly focused on how it is depicted in the Hebrew Bible. A spectacular discovery of archaeological relics and epigraphic sources was hence hardly noticed: the military colony located on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, on the border between Egypt and present-day Sudan. The basic approach of this volume, which documents a three-year Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft project, is to break with a research tradition focusing on the Judeans (Jews) mentioned in the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine and instead investigate the military colony in a broader historical context also documented by Demotic and Egyptian-hieratic evidence found at Elephantine. The studies presented focus on three main subject areas: society and administration, religion, and literature. They show that historically the island of Elephantine hosted a multicultural society with several interactions between the Egyptians and the other inhabitants, and that it was also an important administrative centre for the Persian authorities.

Elephantine Revisited

Elephantine Revisited
Author: Margaretha Folmer
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2022-03-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646022084

The Judean community at Elephantine has long fascinated historians of the Persian period. This book, with its stellar assemblage of important scholarly voices, provides substantive new insights and approaches that will advance the study of this well-known but not entirely understood community from fifth-century BCE Egypt. Since Bezalel Porten’s pioneering Archives from Elephantine, published in 1968, the discourse on the subject of the community of Elephantine during the Persian period has changed considerably, due to new data from excavations, the discovery and publication of previously unknown texts, and original scholarly insights and avenues of inquiry. Running the gamut from archaeological to linguistic investigations and encompassing legal, literary, religious, and other aspects of life in this Judean community, this volume stands at a crossroads of research that extends from Hebrew Bible studies to the history of early Jewish communities. It also features fourteen new Aramaic ostraca from Aswan. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, as well as to a wider audience of Egyptologists, Semitists, and specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Annalisa Azzoni, Bob Becking, Alejandro F. Botta, Lester L. Grabbe, Ingo Kottsieper, Reinhard G. Kratz, André Lemaire, Hélène Nutkowicz, Beatrice von Pilgrim, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, and Ran Zadok. Moreover, a video recording of an interview conducted with Porten on his long career in Elephantine studies accompanies the book through a link on the Eisenbrauns website.

Identity in Persian Egypt

Identity in Persian Egypt
Author: Bob Becking
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 164602074X

In this book, Bob Becking provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the origins, lives, and eventual fate of the Yehudites, or Judeans, at Elephantine, framed within the greater history of the rise and fall of the Persian Empire. The Yehudites were among those mercenaries recruited by the Persians to defend the southwestern border of the empire in the fifth century BCE. Becking argues that this group, whom some label as the first “Jews,” lived on the island of Elephantine in relative peace with other ethnic groups under the aegis of the pax persica. Drawing on Aramaic and Demotic texts discovered during excavations on the island and at Syene on the adjacent shore of the Nile, Becking finds evidence of intermarriage, trade cooperation, and even a limited acceptance of one another’s gods between the various ethnic groups at Elephantine. His analysis of the Elephantine Yehudites’ unorthodox form of Yahwism provides valuable insight into the group’s religious beliefs and practices. An important contribution to the study of Yehudite life in the diaspora, this accessibly written and sweeping history enhances our understanding of the varieties of early Jewish life and how these contributed to the construction of Judaism.

New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin

New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin
Author: James D. Moore
Publisher: Studies on Elephantine
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2022
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004505575

"The famous German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some of the most important Aramaic sources for understanding the history of Judeans and Arameans living in 5th century BCE Egypt under Persian occupation. Unknown to the world, many papyri fragments from those excavations remained uncatalogued in the Berlin Museum. In New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin James D. Moore edits the remaining legible Aramaic fragments, which belong to letters, contracts, and administrative texts"--

The Elephantine Papyri in English

The Elephantine Papyri in English
Author: Bezalel Porten
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 664
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004101975

175 documents, spanning more than 3,000 years, from the ancient mounds on the island of Elephantine are translated into English here for the first time. A massive collection of papyri and ostraca, written in many scripts and tongues - including hieratic, demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic. Each entry, arranged thematically, includes information on date, size, parties, objects, content and significance, as well as general comments and cross-references. An important source, previously scattered among various museums and institutions, brought together here for the first time.

Yahwism Under the Achaemenid Empire

Yahwism Under the Achaemenid Empire
Author: Gad Barnea
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 604
Release: 2024-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111018636

The Achaemenid period (550-330 BCE) is rightly seen as one of the most formative periods in Judaism. It is the period in which large portions of the Bible were edited and redacted and others were authored--yet no dedicated interdisciplinary study has been undertaken to present a consistent picture of this decisive time period. This book is dedicated to the study of the touchpoints between Yahwistic communities throughout the Achaemenid empire and the Iranian attributes of the empire that ruled over them for about two centuries. Its approach is fundamentally interdisciplinary. It brings together scholars of Achaemenid history, literature and religion, Iranian linguistics, historians of the Ancient Near East, archeologists, biblical scholars and Semiticists. The goal is to better understand the interchange of ideas, expressions and concepts as well as the experience of historical events between Yahwists and the empire that ruled over them for over two centuries. The book will open up a holisitic perspective on this important era to scholars of a wide variety of fields in the study of Judaism in the Ancient Near East.

Semitic Papyrology in Context

Semitic Papyrology in Context
Author: Lawrence H. Schiffman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789004128859

This volume brings together studies which relate to the interpenetration of Semitic and Greco-Roman traditions of papyrus writing in the antique Middle East.

Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C.

Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C.
Author: A. E. Cowley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2005-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1597523631

The Aramaic papyri found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt (ancient Yeb, opposite Syene) come from the fifth century BC. They include letters, personal archives, public archives, the 'Words of Ahikar,' the Behistun inscription, accounts, and lists. Cowley provides here the Aramaic transcriptions and English translations for all the texts available to him. In this edition, an updated bibliography is provided.

Community and Identity in Ancient Egypt

Community and Identity in Ancient Egypt
Author: Deborah Vischak
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2014-10-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1107027608

This book examines an elite Old Kingdom cemetery at the southern boundary of ancient Egypt, where the local community developed a unique visual expression of texts, images, and architecture in their tombs. Deborah Vischak argues that localized communities are an important source of identity in ancient Egypt.

The Quest for Context and Meaning

The Quest for Context and Meaning
Author: Craig Alan Evans
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 728
Release: 1997
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004108356

This collection of studies is in honor of Professor James A. Sanders, a leading scholar in the fields of canon of Scripture, textual criticism, and intertextuality. Contributors include leading scholars in these and related fields of study.