Ancient Israelite Identity: Religion, Ethnicity, and the Land of Israel by Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez

Author:Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: Yaron Publishing
Published: 2018-12-30T23:00:00+00:00

The return of exiles under Zerubbabel approved by decree of Cyrus, and the partial rebuilding of the Temple was later augmented by the return under Ezra and Nehemiah under Artaxerxes. Berquist points out that

“Cyrus’ interest in the movement of population and the return of religious artifacts reflected the larger tendencies of the empire to expand its borders. A preparatory step toward such conquest would be the strengthening of the borders and neighboring areas, such as Jerusalem…. Cyrus intended that the support of Jerusalem and other similar areas would assist his policies of imperial expansion.”[78]

These returns inaugurated the partial reconstitution of the Commonwealth of Israel after the tragic destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the loss of Judahite sovereignty. They also served to engender a spiritual revitalization mainly attributable to a sense of authority associated with ancient Israelite sacred texts and new emerging and competing identities.[79] Ezra’s reforms served to redefine the nature of previous Israelite distinctiveness and to create a sense of Jewish identity and history invariably connected to Toraitic legislation.

Consequently, a metamorphosis from a people-nationhood self-understanding to that of a confessional community has been argued. This argument is linked to the Judean abandonment in the early post-exilic period of political independence and its redirected focus on the rebuilding of the Temple as a cornerstone of is religious identity.[80] However, the process was not as simple as this statement might suggest or casual reading of the biblical text might seem to imply. The return of the exiles Judahite affected conflict between the Judahite groups that had not been carried off to Babylon. Also, hostility is reported to have existed between elements of the former Northern Kingdom and the returnees under Ezra and Nehemiah. This post-exilic period lasted for more than a century.

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