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- Title
- Jewish monotheism : the exclusivity of Yahweh in Persian period Yehud (539-333 BCE)
- Contributor
- Abel Sitali (author), Kent Clarke (thesis supervisor), Dirk Buchner (second reader), Trinity Western University SGS (Degree granting institution)
- Discipline/Stream
- Biblical Studies
- Abstract
- Studies about the origin of monotheism—the belief in one god while denying the existence of all others, have continued to be a matter of debate among Hebrew Bible scholars. The debate has often fallen into two contrasting categories. On the one hand, there are those who argue for an early origin in which it is posited that monotheism must have begun somewhere between the time of Moses and the monarchical period. On the other hand, others have argued for a late date which stretches from the exilic period to the Persian period. In spite of the different explanations given by the proponents of early monotheism, this thesis builds on the hypothesis that exclusive monotheism was only realized during the Persian period. The monotheistic rhetoric that characterized the message of Deutero-Isaiah, only came to be put into practice by the confessional community of faith among the returning exiles in Yehud.
- Publication Year
- 2014
- Title
- Reading Genesis 1-35 in Persian Yehud
- Contributor
- Scott A. Bailey (author), Jim Scott (thesis supervisor), Craig Broyles (second reader), Trinity Western University SGS (Degree granting institution)
- Discipline/Stream
- Biblical Studies
- Abstract
- Using a multi-dimensional historical-critical and literary method this thesis examines Genesis in a fixed socio-historical location, Achaemenid Persian period, and compares the polemic and function of the myths in Genesis to contemporaneous literature and competing ideology. The purpose of analyzing Genesis in such a fashion is to determine how the normative myths recontextualized in the text would have functioned polemically for the Yehud elite who had returned to a land with which they had ethnic ties, and who were empowered by the Persian Empire to govern. Ultimately, it is argued that while no history can be found in these myths, the paradigmatic actions of the patriarchs in Genesis communicate the ideology of the authors, and a great deal of the textual data can be explained through the historical setting of Persian Yehud, and the social, ethnic, religious, and political concerns of the Yehud elite.
- Publication Year
- 2013