A History of Biblical Israel - The Fate of the Tribes and Kingdoms from Merenptah to Bar Kochba - Ernst Axel Knauf
8. From Artaxerxes I to Ptolemy I: The Second “Second Temple” and Torah
A History of Biblical Israel - The Fate of the Tribes and Kingdoms from Merenptah to Bar Kochba - Ernst Axel Knauf
Ernst Axel Knauf [+]
University of Berne
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Ernst Axel Knauf is Associate Professor of the Old Testament and Biblical Studies at the University of Berne.
Philippe Guillaume [+]
University of Berne
Philippe Guillaume is Lecturer at the University of Berne. His latest publications are A History of Biblical Israel co-authored with Ernst Axel Knauf (Equinox, 2016) and Deuteronomy in the Making, Studies in the Production of Debarim, edited with Diana Edelman, Benedetta Rossi and Kåre Berge (De Gruyter, 2021).
Description
The difficulties encountered by the Achaemenids in Egypt spur the construction of a Persian fortress at Jerusalem with an adjacent sanctuary (the second ‘Second Temple), as well as the destruction of Bethel and the construction of a cultic centre at Mount Gerizim. Such renewed imperial interest in the Levant set the stage for the formation of the Torah and the rise of a common identity based on Biblical Israel operative across the empire.