Identity in Persian Egypt : : The Fate of the Yehudite Community of Elephantine / / Bob Becking.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Becking, Bob,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- List of Abbreviations -- Chapter 1. How Persian Power Entered Egypt -- Chapter 2. Yehudites at Elephantine: Provenance, Identity, and Religion -- Chapter 3. Multiethnic Elephantine: Some Remarks on Different Minor Ethnicities in a Persian Border Garrison -- Chapter 4. Pax Persica: Cooperation, Cohabitation, and Acceptance -- Chapter 5. Control Through Education, Law, and Military Power -- Chapter 6. Disruptions of the Interethnic Solidarity -- Chapter 7. “Khnum Is Against Us Since Hananiah Has Been in Egypt”: On Two Historical Movements in the Fifth Century BCE -- Chapter 8. Beyond the Final Curtain: The Aftermath of Elephantine -- Bibliography -- Index of Authors -- Index of Ancient Sources