Katharina Pyschny and Sarah Schulz (eds.), Transforming Authority. Concepts of Leadership in Prophetic and Chronistic Literature (BZAW 518; Berlin: de Gruyter, pages 185-200., 2021
The memories of past Israel evoked by reading Chronicles among the literati of the period could n... more The memories of past Israel evoked by reading Chronicles among the literati of the period could not but raise, in one way or another, issues of leadership, especially (but not necessarily limited to) the central leadership of Israel. Although Chronicles was, in the main, about Israel and YHWH, it was still generally structured around human kings and their deeds, and thus directly and indirectly addressed matters of leadership. 1 Conversely, much of the exploration of matters of central leadership among the readers of Chronicles in the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was carried out through narratives about the past and the memories evoked by them (cf. Edelman and Ben Zvi 2016). The literati reading Chronicles were by no means unique in this regard. Obviously, the access to these narratives and the world of memories they construed required a primary group, namely the literati who read and reread the book. This simple and self-evident fact raises three crucial sets of considerations, which will serve as guideposts in the present study.
This article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of... more This article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of Judah (/Israel) in three different corpora (the Deuteronomistic Historical Collection, the Prophetic Book Collection, and Chronicles). It draws attention to the interdependence between memories of kings and other characters populating the world of memory evoked by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed, and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group
Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology, 2017
This written version of the 2016 Mowinckel Lecture draws attention to and characterizes in broad ... more This written version of the 2016 Mowinckel Lecture draws attention to and characterizes in broad strokes a particular approach that is strongly influenced by Social Memory studies and then, through several examples, demonstrates its potential use for addressing questions about Chronicles, as read among the literati of the late Persian or Early Hellenistic Yehud/Judah, including the basic question of why would two “national” histories emerge and continue to co-exist with each other. The paper, as a whole, addresses the contribution that Chronicles made to the social memory of the literati of the time.
The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at... more The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at times and under certain conditions, has shaped socially shared worlds of imagination among subordinate groups within imperial or hierarchically asymmetric structures of power, especially among “retainer” groups who saw themselves as a “cultural elite” of the subordinate group. I am referring to a generative pattern that in a significant number of such groups, across time and space, has led to constructions of worlds of imagination, and vicarious participation in them through readings or other social acts of imagination that involved “bracketing the empire out.” The article focuses on the world of the literati of late Persian Yehud/Judah, and especially the bracketing out of Ramat Rahel, the most obvious and monumental, explicit, imperial site in the province, but a number of various examples from diverse historical and geographical contexts are also brought to bear to make a point that ...
Guido Benzi, Elena Di Pede, and Donatella Scaiola (eds.) Profeti Maggiori e Minori a confronto - Major and Minor Prophets Compared (Rome: Libreria Ateneo Salesiano, 2019), 2019
The Hunt for Ancient Israel - Essays in Honour of Diana V. Edelman, 2022
As the contributions in this volume celebrating Diana illustrate, she has always been the kind of... more As the contributions in this volume celebrating Diana illustrate, she has always been the kind of teacher, mentor, colleague, scholar, and friend who makes a difference. Diana is, as we all know, unconventional, constantly thinking and rethinking outside the box, and challenging established consensus and developing further scholarship... We have endeavoured to bring together contributions that interact in various ways with Diana’s interests, and the work she had done herself and encouraged others to carry out. In what follows, we will entice you—the reader—to explore and dwell in the pardes honouring Diana that we have all made possible. May you enjoy the various trees, flowers, fruits, and perhaps here and there the presence of a ‘snake’ in this garden of Diana
Pp. 429-439 in Benedikt Hensel, Ehud Ben Zvi, Diana V. Edelman (eds.) About Edom and Idumea in the Persian Period Recent Research and Approaches from Archaeology, Hebrew Bible Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (London: Equinox) , 2022
The essay explores the contribution that reading Chronicles made to the memory argument about the... more The essay explores the contribution that reading Chronicles made to the memory argument about the memory of the Edom of old that existed among the literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period. It shows that reading Chronicles supported some positions, undermined others, but most importantly, shaped its own unique contributions to the existing memory argument, and by doing so, further explored matters directly associated with their own understanding of themselves and of some of their core concepts.
Pp. 321-37 in B. Hensel, E. Ben Zvi, D.V. Edelman (eds.) About Edom and Idumea in the Persian Period Recent Research and Approaches from Archaeology, Hebrew Bible Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (London: Equinox), 2022
The chapter explores the matter of Edom as a site of memory with somewhat peculiar features withi... more The chapter explores the matter of Edom as a site of memory with somewhat peculiar features within the memoryscape of the literati of the late Persian period. It focuses on Edom’s role(s) within the world of memory of the Jerusalem-centred literati of the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods and draws attention to the cross-cultural role of the ‘proximate other’.
Pp. 119-47 in Stéphanie Anthonioz and Sebastian Fink (eds.), Representing the Wise. A Gendered Approach. Proceedings of the 1st Melammu Workshop, Lille, 4–5 April 2016 (Münster: Zaphon, 2019), 2019
Full title:
"Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Conside... more Full title: "Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Considerations Informed by Social Memory and Current Cross- and Trans-disciplinary Trends in the Study of Wisdom"
“The Prophetic Book: A Key Form of Prophetic Literature,” Marvin A. Sweeney and Ehud Ben Zvi (eds.) The Changing Face of Form Criticism for the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003) 276-97., 2003
This article explores the workings of a set of memory-shaping patterns that were influential in t... more This article explores the workings of a set of memory-shaping patterns that were influential in the construction of Nehemiah as an evolving site of memory during the late Second Temple period. Its main focus is on the three Nehemiahs of memory evoked in and encountered by readers of the three main sources that shaped memories of the Nehemiah: Ezra-Neh, Sirach, and 2 Macc. The article’s focus is on the generative pattern that scripted expectations about how good kings should behave, and which played an important role in the way memories of Nehemiah were constructed and communicated by these texts.
Katharina Pyschny and Sarah Schulz (eds.), Transforming Authority. Concepts of Leadership in Prophetic and Chronistic Literature (BZAW 518; Berlin: de Gruyter, pages 185-200., 2021
The memories of past Israel evoked by reading Chronicles among the literati of the period could n... more The memories of past Israel evoked by reading Chronicles among the literati of the period could not but raise, in one way or another, issues of leadership, especially (but not necessarily limited to) the central leadership of Israel. Although Chronicles was, in the main, about Israel and YHWH, it was still generally structured around human kings and their deeds, and thus directly and indirectly addressed matters of leadership. 1 Conversely, much of the exploration of matters of central leadership among the readers of Chronicles in the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was carried out through narratives about the past and the memories evoked by them (cf. Edelman and Ben Zvi 2016). The literati reading Chronicles were by no means unique in this regard. Obviously, the access to these narratives and the world of memories they construed required a primary group, namely the literati who read and reread the book. This simple and self-evident fact raises three crucial sets of considerations, which will serve as guideposts in the present study.
This article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of... more This article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of Judah (/Israel) in three different corpora (the Deuteronomistic Historical Collection, the Prophetic Book Collection, and Chronicles). It draws attention to the interdependence between memories of kings and other characters populating the world of memory evoked by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed, and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group
Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology, 2017
This written version of the 2016 Mowinckel Lecture draws attention to and characterizes in broad ... more This written version of the 2016 Mowinckel Lecture draws attention to and characterizes in broad strokes a particular approach that is strongly influenced by Social Memory studies and then, through several examples, demonstrates its potential use for addressing questions about Chronicles, as read among the literati of the late Persian or Early Hellenistic Yehud/Judah, including the basic question of why would two “national” histories emerge and continue to co-exist with each other. The paper, as a whole, addresses the contribution that Chronicles made to the social memory of the literati of the time.
The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at... more The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at times and under certain conditions, has shaped socially shared worlds of imagination among subordinate groups within imperial or hierarchically asymmetric structures of power, especially among “retainer” groups who saw themselves as a “cultural elite” of the subordinate group. I am referring to a generative pattern that in a significant number of such groups, across time and space, has led to constructions of worlds of imagination, and vicarious participation in them through readings or other social acts of imagination that involved “bracketing the empire out.” The article focuses on the world of the literati of late Persian Yehud/Judah, and especially the bracketing out of Ramat Rahel, the most obvious and monumental, explicit, imperial site in the province, but a number of various examples from diverse historical and geographical contexts are also brought to bear to make a point that ...
Guido Benzi, Elena Di Pede, and Donatella Scaiola (eds.) Profeti Maggiori e Minori a confronto - Major and Minor Prophets Compared (Rome: Libreria Ateneo Salesiano, 2019), 2019
The Hunt for Ancient Israel - Essays in Honour of Diana V. Edelman, 2022
As the contributions in this volume celebrating Diana illustrate, she has always been the kind of... more As the contributions in this volume celebrating Diana illustrate, she has always been the kind of teacher, mentor, colleague, scholar, and friend who makes a difference. Diana is, as we all know, unconventional, constantly thinking and rethinking outside the box, and challenging established consensus and developing further scholarship... We have endeavoured to bring together contributions that interact in various ways with Diana’s interests, and the work she had done herself and encouraged others to carry out. In what follows, we will entice you—the reader—to explore and dwell in the pardes honouring Diana that we have all made possible. May you enjoy the various trees, flowers, fruits, and perhaps here and there the presence of a ‘snake’ in this garden of Diana
Pp. 429-439 in Benedikt Hensel, Ehud Ben Zvi, Diana V. Edelman (eds.) About Edom and Idumea in the Persian Period Recent Research and Approaches from Archaeology, Hebrew Bible Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (London: Equinox) , 2022
The essay explores the contribution that reading Chronicles made to the memory argument about the... more The essay explores the contribution that reading Chronicles made to the memory argument about the memory of the Edom of old that existed among the literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period. It shows that reading Chronicles supported some positions, undermined others, but most importantly, shaped its own unique contributions to the existing memory argument, and by doing so, further explored matters directly associated with their own understanding of themselves and of some of their core concepts.
Pp. 321-37 in B. Hensel, E. Ben Zvi, D.V. Edelman (eds.) About Edom and Idumea in the Persian Period Recent Research and Approaches from Archaeology, Hebrew Bible Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (London: Equinox), 2022
The chapter explores the matter of Edom as a site of memory with somewhat peculiar features withi... more The chapter explores the matter of Edom as a site of memory with somewhat peculiar features within the memoryscape of the literati of the late Persian period. It focuses on Edom’s role(s) within the world of memory of the Jerusalem-centred literati of the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods and draws attention to the cross-cultural role of the ‘proximate other’.
Pp. 119-47 in Stéphanie Anthonioz and Sebastian Fink (eds.), Representing the Wise. A Gendered Approach. Proceedings of the 1st Melammu Workshop, Lille, 4–5 April 2016 (Münster: Zaphon, 2019), 2019
Full title:
"Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Conside... more Full title: "Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Considerations Informed by Social Memory and Current Cross- and Trans-disciplinary Trends in the Study of Wisdom"
“The Prophetic Book: A Key Form of Prophetic Literature,” Marvin A. Sweeney and Ehud Ben Zvi (eds.) The Changing Face of Form Criticism for the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003) 276-97., 2003
This article explores the workings of a set of memory-shaping patterns that were influential in t... more This article explores the workings of a set of memory-shaping patterns that were influential in the construction of Nehemiah as an evolving site of memory during the late Second Temple period. Its main focus is on the three Nehemiahs of memory evoked in and encountered by readers of the three main sources that shaped memories of the Nehemiah: Ezra-Neh, Sirach, and 2 Macc. The article’s focus is on the generative pattern that scripted expectations about how good kings should behave, and which played an important role in the way memories of Nehemiah were constructed and communicated by these texts.
A newly found fragment of a cuneiform text found very recently in a private collection in Kuopio ... more A newly found fragment of a cuneiform text found very recently in a private collection in Kuopio was recently joined with a fragment (K.4209) from the Kouyunjik collection at the British museum. It is now clear that the text is not, as previously thought a short god list, but instead contains an oracle from Queen Mulissu to an unknown individual, Martû-Inurta (“rod of Ninurta”). It is the aim of this brief textual note to present this newly joined text and to discuss a number of surprising and unique expressions found in it. Only further research will show the impact of this tablet on our understanding of Neo-Assyrian prophecy, metaphors in the Hebrew Bible, as well as cross-cultural communication in the ancient world.
Flyer of a recently published book
The book includes an introduction that addresses the general t... more Flyer of a recently published book The book includes an introduction that addresses the general topic of Social Memory in Ancient Israel, and thirty-one essays on the topic, Although the collection comprises, for the most part, essays already published during the last nine years in a variety of academic venues, mainly various collected essay volumes., it does include six essays that are published for the first time. Due to the importance of case studies, provided that they incorporate some explicit reference to and acknowledgment of the methodological approach underlying them, the majority of essays focus on either a diverse set of significant characters of memory remembered by these literati (e.g., Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ahaz, Zedekiah, the successful, wise, worthy wife of Prov 31:10 –31) or central topics, that were often explored through the memories of them that were shared by the literati. These topics include matters such as exile, boundaries around Israel and crossing them or establishing in-between areas, divine promises, ideological responses to life under the Persian Empire and related issues involving hybridity and mimicry, and the limits of human knowledge. This volume includes also two essays that deal explicitly, though from different angles, with the Jerusalem of the literati’s mind and memory. Although considerations about the methodological approach guiding these essays are explicitly included in all these essays, two of them focus especially on potential intersections and complementarities between approaches informed by Social Memory studies and those informed by other social-anthropological approaches and which raise interesting methodological issues of relevance to all historians of ancient societies.
The exile is a central turning point in Israel's construction of the past as it ... more 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 ...
... its primary readership and over the course of many centuries in changing sociohistorical cont... more ... its primary readership and over the course of many centuries in changing sociohistorical contexts.12 The interrelationship be-tween synchronic literary structure and diachronic models of redactional composition is a fundamental concern in the work of Marvin Sweeney on both ...
As I was preparing this monograph on the Book of Obadiah I encountered two main types of objectio... more As I was preparing this monograph on the Book of Obadiah I encountered two main types of objections or reservations about my work. The first kind can be summarized by the somewhat sarcastic question," how many pages do you plan to write for each verse in ...
... Series. BS410.Z5 vol. 198 [BS1645.3] 221.6 s-dc20 [224'.9607] 91-24722 C1P Die D... more ... Series. BS410.Z5 vol. 198 [BS1645.3] 221.6 s-dc20 [224'.9607] 91-24722 C1P Die Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging in Publication Data Ben Zvi, Ehud: A historical-critical study of the book of Zephaniah / Ehud Ben Zvi. ... Page 9. To my wife, Perla M6nica Page 10. Page 11. ...
... pp. 41-46; AJ Band, 'Swallow-ing Jonah: The Eclipse of Parody', Pro... more ... pp. 41-46; AJ Band, 'Swallow-ing Jonah: The Eclipse of Parody', Prooftexts 10(1990), pp. ... Within a sea of multivocality, the few 'islands' of univocality are salient. This study points out some of these areas as they appear in Jonah (see, for instance, Chapters 2 and 7) It has ...
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Papers by Ehud Benzvi
by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of
memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed, and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group
memory of the literati of the time.
We have endeavoured to bring together contributions that interact in various ways with Diana’s interests, and the work she had done herself and encouraged others to carry out. In what follows, we will entice you—the reader—to explore and dwell in the pardes honouring Diana that we have all made possible. May you enjoy the various trees, flowers, fruits, and perhaps here and there the presence of a ‘snake’ in this garden of Diana
"Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Considerations Informed by Social Memory and Current Cross- and Trans-disciplinary Trends in the Study of Wisdom"
by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of
memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed, and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group
memory of the literati of the time.
We have endeavoured to bring together contributions that interact in various ways with Diana’s interests, and the work she had done herself and encouraged others to carry out. In what follows, we will entice you—the reader—to explore and dwell in the pardes honouring Diana that we have all made possible. May you enjoy the various trees, flowers, fruits, and perhaps here and there the presence of a ‘snake’ in this garden of Diana
"Memories of Female (and Male) Sages in Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud: Considerations Informed by Social Memory and Current Cross- and Trans-disciplinary Trends in the Study of Wisdom"
The book includes an introduction that addresses the general topic of Social Memory in Ancient Israel, and thirty-one essays on the topic, Although the collection comprises, for the most part, essays already published during the last nine years in a variety of academic venues, mainly various collected essay volumes., it does include six essays that are published for the first time.
Due to the importance of case studies, provided that they incorporate some explicit reference to and acknowledgment of the methodological approach underlying them, the majority of essays focus on either a diverse set of significant characters of memory remembered by these literati (e.g., Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ahaz, Zedekiah, the successful, wise, worthy wife of Prov 31:10 –31) or central topics, that were often explored through the memories of them that were shared by the literati. These topics include matters such as exile, boundaries around Israel and crossing them or establishing in-between areas, divine promises, ideological responses to life under the Persian Empire and related issues involving hybridity and mimicry, and the limits of human knowledge. This volume includes also two essays that deal explicitly, though from different angles, with the Jerusalem of the literati’s mind and memory.
Although considerations about the methodological approach guiding these essays are explicitly included in all these essays, two of them focus especially on potential intersections and complementarities between approaches informed by Social Memory studies and those informed by other social-anthropological approaches and which raise interesting methodological issues of relevance to all historians of ancient societies.