Résumés
Abstract
The portrayal of Nehemiah’s relationship with the Achaemenid Empire shifts significantly across four key Second Temple period texts: Nehemiah, 1 Esdras, 2 Maccabees, and Sirach. In the book of Nehemiah, the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes is depicted as a central and supportive figure, empowering Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild Jerusalem. Later texts, however, present this relationship in more restrained or ambiguous terms. These variations mark a broader transformation in how Jewish authors of the Hellenistic period remembered and represented foreign imperial authority. As Nehemiah’s connection to the Achaemenids becomes increasingly subdued, his role in the restoration of Jerusalem also undergoes redefinition. A comparative reading of these texts reveals a dynamic memory of Achaemenid rule, shaped by changing historical and cultural contexts.
Keywords:
- Nehemiah,
- Achaemenid Monarchy,
- Artaxerxes,
- Second Temple period
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Becking, Bob. Ezra-Nehemiah. Historical Commentary on the Old Testament. Leuven ; Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2018.
- Beentjes, Pancratius Cornelis. The Book of Ben Sira in Hebrew: A Text Edition of All Extant Hebrew Manuscripts and a Synopsis of All Parallel Hebrew Ben Sira Texts. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006.
- Ben Zvi, Ehud, and Sylvie Honigman. “Remembering Three Nehemiahs in Late Second Temple Times: Patterns and Trajectories in Memory Shaping.” JHS 18 (2018). https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2018.v18.a10, https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/29392.
- Bergren, Theodore A. “Nehemiah in 2 Maccabees 1:10-2:18.” Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 28.3 (1997): 249–70.
- Bird, Michael. 1 Esdras: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Vaticanus. SCS. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
- Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Ezra-Nehemiah: A Commentary. 1st publ. Old Testament Library. London: SCM Press, 1989.
- Boda, Mark J., and Paul L. Redditt, eds. Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric and Reader. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2008.
- Boer, Roland. “Thus I Cleansed Them from Everything Foreign: The Search for Subjectivity in Ezra-Nehemiah.” Pages 221–38 in Postcolonialism and the Hebrew Bible: The Next Step. Edited by Roland Boer. Semeia Studies. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1b7x69m, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt1b7x69m.
- Böhler, Dieter. 1 Esdras. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. IECOT. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2016.
- Böhler, Dieter. Die heilige Stadt in Esdras α und Esra-Nehemia: Zwei Konzeptionen der Wiederherstellung Israels. OBO 158. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1997.
- Burt, Sean. The Courtier and the Governor: Transformations of Genre in the Nehemiah Memoir. JSJSup 17. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014.
- Carr, David M. The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: A New Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Dandamaev, Muhammad A. “Assyrian Traditions during Achaemenid Times.” Pages 41-48 in Assyria 1995 (Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary of the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 7-11 September, 1995). Edited by Simon Parpola and Robert M Whiting. Helsinki: The Neo Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1995.
- Davis, Andrew R. Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
- De Troyer, Kristin. “1 Esdras: Structure, Composition, and Significance.” Pages 367–78 in The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Brad E. Kelle and Brent A Strawn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
- De Troyer, Kristin. “‘A Man Leaves His Own Father’: On Relationships in 1 Esdras.” BN 164 Biblische Notizen (2015): 35–50.
- Doran, Robert. 2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012.
- Duguid, I.M. “Nehemiah, the Best King Judah Never Had.” Pages 261–72 in Let Us Go Up to Zion: Essays in Honour of H.G.M. Williamson on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Edited by Ian W. Provan and Mark J. Boda. Vetus Testamentum Supplements 153. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
- Eddy, Samuel K. The King Is Dead: Studies in Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334-331 B.C. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
- Edelman, Diana Vikander. The Origins of the “Second” Temple: Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem. BibleWorld. London: Equinox, 2005.
- Edelman, Diana Vikander, and Ehud Ben Zvi, eds. Leadership, Social Memory, and Judean Discourse in the Fifth-Second Centuries BCE. Worlds of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2016.
- Eskenazi, Tamara. Ezra: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. 1st ed. Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries 14a. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.
- Fitzpatrick-McKinley, Anne. Empire, Power and Indigenous Elites: A Case Study of the Nehemiah Memoir. Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series 169. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
- Fried, Lisbeth S. Ezra: A Commentary. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd, 2015.
- Fried, Lisbeth S. and Society of Biblical Literature, eds. Was 1 Esdras First? An Investigation into the Priority and Nature of 1 Esdras. SBLAIL 7. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011.
- Frisch, Alexandria. The Danielic Discourse on Empire in Second Temple Literature. Supplements to the “Journal for the Study of Judaism” volume 176. Leiden Boston (Mass.): Brill, 2016.
- Fulton, Deirdre N. Reconsidering Nehemiah’s Judah: The Case of MT and LXX Nehemia 11–12. FAT 80. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015.
- Gafney, Wil. “A Prophet-Terrorist(a) and an Imperial Sympathizer: An Empire-Critical, Postcolonial Reading of the No’adyah/Nechemyah Conflict.” Black Theology: An International Journal 9 (2011): 161–76.
- Gluska, Eran, and Oded Lipschits. “In Nehemiah’s Footsteps? Uzziah at the Service of the Chronicler’s Ideology.” JHS 23 (2024): 1–37. https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs29627.
- Goldstein, Jonathan. II Maccabees: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Ab 41A. New York: Doubleday, 1983.
- Grabbe, Lester L. Ezra-Nehemiah. OTR. London: Routledge, 1998.
- Hagedorn, Anselm C. “Local Law in an Imperial Context: The Role of Torah in the (Imagined) Persian Period.” Pages 57–76 in The Pentateuch as Torah: New Models for Understanding Its Promulgation and Acceptance. Edited by Gary N. Knoppers and Bernard M. Levinson. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2007.
- Hoglund, Kenneth G. Achaemenid Imperial Administration in Syria-Palestine and the Missions of Ezra and Nehemiah. SBLDS 125. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.
- Honigman, Sylvie. “Antiochus III’s Decree for Jerusalem and the Persian Decrees in Ezra-Nehemiah and LXX 1 Esdras.” J. Study Jud. 52.3 (2020): 303–29. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700631-BJA10017.
- Honigman, Sylvie. Tales of High Priests and Taxes: The Books of the Maccabees and the Judean Rebellion Against Antiochos IV. Hellenistic Culture and Society 56. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
- Janzen, David. “A Colonized People: Persian Hegemony, Hybridity, and Community Identity in Ezra-Nehemiah.” BibInt 24 (2016): 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00241P03.
- Jones, Christopher. “Embedded Written Documents as Colonial Mimicry in Ezra-Nehemiah.” Biblical Interpretation 26 (2018): 158–81. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00262P02.
- Kellermann, Ulrich. Nehemia: Quellen, Überlieferung und Geschichte. BZAW 102. Berlin: Töpelmann, 1967.
- Koch, Klaus. “Weltordnung Und Reichsidee Im Alten Iran.” Pages 45–116 in Reichsidee Und Reichsorganisation Im Perserreich. Edited by Peter Frei and Klaus Koch. Göttigen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984.
- Lipschits, Oded. “Achaemenid Imperial Policy, Settlement Processes in Palestine, and the Status of Jerusalem in the Middle of the Fifth Century b.c.e.” Pages 19–52 in Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period. Edited by Oded Lipschits and Manfred Oeming. Penn State University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065618-004, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781575065618-004/html.
- Lipschits, Oded. “Persian-Period Judah: A New Perspective.” Pages 187–211 in Texts, Contexts and Readings in Postexilic Literature: Explorations into Historiography and Identity Negotiation in Hebrew Bible and Related Texts. Edited by Louis C. Jonker. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011.
- Myers, Jacob M. Ezra, Nehemiah. AB 14. New York: Doubleday, 1987.
- Schippmann, Klaus. Die Iranischen Feuerheiligtümer: Berlin: De Gruyter, 1971. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110828283.
- Schwartz, Daniel R. 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature (CEJL). Berlin ; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
- Skehan, Patrick William, and Alexander A. Di Lella. The Wisdom of Ben Sira. AB 39. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987.
- Smith, H. Clay. “Reconsidering the Composition of Ezra-Nehemiah in Light of 2 Maccabees 1:10–2:18.” Journal of Biblical Literature 141.2 (2022): 257–76. https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.4.
- Smith-Christopher, Daniel L. “The Mixed Marriage Crisis in Ezra 9–10 and Nehemiah 13: A Study of the Sociology of Post-Exilic Judaean Community.” Pages 243–65 in Second Temple Studies 2: Temple Community in the Persian Period. Edited by Kent H. Richards and Tamara C. Eskenazi. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994.
- Talshir, Zipora. 1 Esdras: From Origins to Translation. Septuagint and Cognate Studies 47. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999.
- Torrey, Charles C. Ezra Studies. Reprinted from 1910. New York: Ktav, 1970.
- Williamson, H. G. M. Ezra, Nehemiah. Word Biblical Commentary 16. Waco, TX: Word, 1985.
- Wilson, Ian D. Kingship and Memory in Ancient Judah. New York (N.Y.): Oxford University press, 2017.
- Wright, Jacob L. Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah-Memoir and Its Earliest Readers. BZAW 348. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004.
- Yoo, Philip Young. Ezra and the Second Wilderness. First edition. Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University press, 2017.