R. Kletter, Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, Emanuel Pfoh
{"title":"Proto-Israelites: The Story of a Misleading Term","authors":"R. Kletter, Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, Emanuel Pfoh","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267879","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267879","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The prefix “proto”, originally from the Greek, carries several meanings, including first, earliest, original and primitive. A “prototype” is the first or original type, and “proto” may indicate something in the way of becoming. In this article we offer a critical review of the history and uses of the term “proto-Israelites” in biblical and archaeological studies since 1943. The prehistory of ‘early Israel’ has shrunk from the Early Bronze to the Iron Age, but the use of “proto-Israel” has grown since the 1990s, tied to issues of historicity and ethnicity. “Proto-Israelite” is a misleading term. It enables scholars to re-find a united, ethnic Israel, by projecting it onto the past in disguise, as “proto-Israel”. There are no “proto-people” that carry “proto-ethnicity”. The use of “proto-Israelites” serves modern ideologies. We suggest more neutral terms, which do not beg the question whether an Israelite ethnic community existed, or can be identified in material remains of the Iron Age I.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"59 1","pages":"187 - 209"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elephantine Revisited and Elephantine in Context: A Review Article","authors":"Kacper Ziemba","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267881","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Review article of Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors and Elephantine in Context: Studies on the History, Religion and Literature of the Judeans in Persian Period Egypt. The article reviews two recently published volumes on Elephantine in the Persian period. It presents their content, describes advances in studies and suggests how we can go further in research.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"11 1","pages":"230 - 237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Greece and Yehud in the Achaemenid Period: The Background of Cultural Transfer","authors":"Sławomir Poloczek, Kacper Ziemba","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267886","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper aims to analyze the circumstances of cultural transfer between the Southern Levant and Greece in the Achaemenid period in order to assess the plausibility of Greek influences on the Hebrew Bible. First, the article addresses the theoretical question of possible “contact zones” between Greek and Levantine cultures. Second, it presents evidence of Greek presence in the Ancient Near East in that epoch. Third, it tries to estimate the possible extent of Greek influence in the Southern Levant. The next question to discuss is the presence of Levantines in Mainland Greece and the meaning of this phenomenon for understanding the situation in Yehud. Finally, the paper deals with the question of the mobility of the inhabitants of Yehud. In conclusion, the authors wonder whether the collected data allow for the creation of a coherent model of intercultural exchange between Greece and Yehud, as postulated by some scholars.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"48 1","pages":"262 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Intertextual Analysis of Jehu’s Violence in Kings and Chronicles (2 Kgs 9-10 and 2 Chr 21-24)","authors":"Itzhak Amar","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267880","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Given his disregard of the Northern dynasty, the Chronicler's reference to the story of Jehu's coup is presented with extreme brevity: only three verses (2 Chr 22,7-9) as against seventy-three in Kings (2 Kgs 9-10). In this article, I will try to demonstrate that this dramatic abridgment does not keep him from adopting the violent terminology used in these accounts and other violent stories in Scripture, and from applying them to our case, the set of stories bracketed by Jehoram and Joash, which parallel the chronology of the House of Omri. He does so in two ways: expanding the accounts of these kings with stories peppered by acts of violence and reworking stories from the Book of Kings by taking the tenor and terminology of violence to a higher level. Thus, Jehu's uncompromising war on the House of Ahab and the culture of Baal recurs in Chronicles in the Chronicler's war against the Judahite kings who adopted the culture of the House of Ahab.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"31 1","pages":"210 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forty Years with SJOT","authors":"N. P. Lemche","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2266950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2266950","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"137 1","pages":"185 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Origins of Judaism: An Anthropological-Historical Reappraisal","authors":"N. P. Lemche","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267889","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"9 1","pages":"339 - 341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Water-Mills in Northwest Semitic, Rabbinica and Archaeology: Levantine and Babylonian Evidence","authors":"O. Wikander, Örjan Wikander","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267888","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims at assembling the available facts concerning the exploitation of water-power in ancient and Early Mediaeval Palestine (and partly Jewish Babylonia)—those to be found in written (that is, Rabbinic) sources as well as those deriving from archaeological finds. Both groups of materials are scant, and the conclusions remain tentative. But it can be stated almost with certainty that water-milling in the area goes back at least to the 2nd century CE and that both vertical and horizontal water-wheels were utilized. The most astonishing fact is the use of a more or less unique mill-type, with two pairs of “pseudo-Pompeian” millstones powered by a single, vertical wheel. In addition to this general survey and analysis of the material from a technical standpoint, we will discuss certain literary and exegetical roles of the milling motif—and water-milling specifically—in the relevant ancient literature, and explore how the motifs of water and milling tie together in the written sources, i.e., how they are used as a persistent literary motif in Northwest Semitic literature. In this context, the recurring literary motif of “the milling woman” is highlighted.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"91 1","pages":"299 - 338"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139364165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Josephus’ Views on the Medium of Endor","authors":"David J. Zucker","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267887","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267887","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Josephus presents a very sympathetic view of the Medium of Endor (1 Samuel 28). This contrasts with the consensus of scholarly thought that suggests Josephus borders on misogynism in his presentations of women in the Bible. Josephus’ treatment of the medium is contrasted with his remarks about the Wise Woman of Tekoa (2 Samuel 14). This is followed by an analysis of why Josephus favors the medium.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"59 1","pages":"290 - 298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139364314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Longing for Flowing Streams—Water as Metaphor and Mediator in Psalm 42","authors":"David P. Pettit","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267885","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Psalm 42 draws from the natural world in order to express something about the inner longing and anxiety the psalmist feels over separation and absence of God in terms of a thirsting hind. In this sense, water functions as a metaphor in Ps 42, expressing what is hard to say “straightforwardly” about vulnerability and longing for the divine, the life giving, and the life-preserving. This article argues that water functions in overlapping manners in the psalm, evoking desire, denoting God, expressing vulnerability, but also indicating one way that the psalmist might experience satisfaction: water. Water in Ps 42, like the temple, is an object of longing. Water functions both as metaphor for the divine and as mediator of the divine.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"48 1","pages":"251 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“And They Reap the Wheat Harvest”: An Intertextual Investigation into the Meaning of a Small Remark in the Story of the Return of the Ark (I Samuel 6,13)","authors":"Arjan P. Knop","doi":"10.1080/09018328.2023.2267884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2023.2267884","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The story of the return of the Ark of the Covenant in I Samuel 6 is one with many different events and changes in the storyline. A lot happens at the same time and that is maybe the reason why some information is often overlooked. When the Ark returns to Israel—after a long stay in hostile territory—the people from Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat, so verse 13 states. This remark is usually neglected or taken as a simple statement of time. There is however much more that can be said about the mentioning of the harvest. In this article we will therefore explore seven “lines of associations” that are connected with “harvest” and “wheat.” We will give an overview of this set of meanings which will lead us “outside” the story. By subsequently bringing these associations back into the story, our interpretation of the meaning of the Ark of YHWH returning to its homeland becomes more deepened and profound.","PeriodicalId":42456,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament","volume":"105 1","pages":"238 - 250"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}