History, Memory, Hebrew Scriptures

Ehud Ben Zvi is one of the foremost scholars in the field of Hebrew Bible today. He has had a global impact both as a researcher and as a teacher, and he continues to create cutting-edge research that is helping to shape the future of the field. This volume marks his upcoming retirement from the University of Alberta and honors him and his career as a scholar and educator. Thirty-one papers written by a select group of colleagues, including several former students and a former teacher, are presented under three sub-headings: History and Historiography; Prophecy and Prophetic Books; and Methods, Observations, (Re)Readings. These categories represent the wide-ranging interests of Ehud himself and include contributions on the Bible as social memory, for which he has been a leading advocate and theorist in the past decade.

Contributors include R. Albertz, Y. Amit, B. Becking, K. Berge, M. J. Boda, A. Brenner-Idan, P. R. Davies, D. V. Edelman, M. H. Floyd, S. Gilmayr-Bucher, L. L. Grabbe, P. Guillaume, L. Jonker, G. N. Knoppers, S. Kostamo, F. Landy, T. Langille, C. Levin, J. R. Linville, W. Morrow, C. Nihan, S. B. Noegel, J. Nogalski, R. Müller, N. Na?aman, R. Nelson, F. Polak, K. Ristau, P. J. Sabo, C. Walsh, and I. D. Wilson. Readers, regardless of their areas of specialization, will find many stimulating and thought-provoking contributions in the collection, which is fitting, given the boundary-pushing work of the honoree.

“The book serves as a useful reference and develops many of Ben Zvi’s earlier textual observations. It will undoubtedly find a well-deserved place on the library shelves of many students as well as biblical scholars.”—Jeffrey P. Hudon, Review of Biblical Literature

Part 1: History and Historiography

Shechem in Deuteronomy: A Seemingly Hidden Polemic Yairah Amit

Menachem’s Massacre of Tiphsah: At the Crossroads of Grammar and Memory (2 Kings 15:16) Bob Becking

Male Royals and Their Ethnically Foreign Mothers: The Implications for Textual Politics Athalya Brenner-Idan

Images of Tranquility in the Book of Judges Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher

When the Foreign Monarch Speaks about the Israelite Tabernacle Gary N. Knoppers

Putting the Neighbors in Their Place: Memory and Mindscape in Deuteronomy 2:10–12, 20–23 William Morrow

Righteous Kings, Evil Kings, and Israel’s Non-Monarchic Identity: Different Voices on the Failure of Israelite Kingship in the Book of Kings Reinhard Müller

A Request for Blessing and Prosperity in an Inscription from Samaria Nadav Naʾaman

Solomon’s Administrative Districts: A Scholarly Illusion Richard D. Nelson

Conceptions of the Past and Sociocultural Grounding in the Books of Samuel Frank H. Polak

“In the House of Judah, My Father’s House”: The Character of Joab in the Book of Chronicles Kenneth A. Ristau

Chronicles and Utopia: Likely Bedfellows? Ian Douglas Wilson

Part 2: Prophecy and Prophetic Books

When God’s Voice Breaks Through: Shifts in Revelatory Rhetoric in Zechariah 1–8 Mark J. Boda

The Chronological Limits of Reshaping Social Memory in the Presence of Written Sources: The Case of Ezekiel in Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Yehud Philippe Guillaume

Who’s Speaking? On Whose Behalf? The Book of Haggai from the Perspective of Identity Formation in the Persian Period Louis Jonker

Mind the Gap: Reading Isa 39:8–Isa 40:1 within Early Second Temple Judah Sonya K. Kostamo

The nāśîʾ and the Future of Royalty in Ezekiel Christophe Nihan

These Seventy Years: Intertextual Observations and Postulations on Jeremiah and the Twelve James Nogalski

The Metaprophetic God of Jonah Carey Walsh

Part 3: Methods, Observations, (Re)Readings

Some Sort of “Chronistic” Additions to the Torah? New Perspectives in the Formation of Exod 19–20 Rainer Albertz

Sites of Memory and the Presence of the Past in Ehud Ben Zvi’s “Social Memory” Kåre Berge

The Jerusalem Literary Circle Philip R. Davies

The Metaphor of Torah as a Life-Giving Well in the Book of Deuteronomy Diana V. Edelman

The Ritual of Reading and the Dissemination of Prophetic and Other Authoritative Texts in Second Temple Judaism Michael H. Floyd

History and the Nature of Cultural Memory: The Alamo and the “Masada Complex” Lester L. Grabbe

Between the Words I Write Francis Landy

Hybrids, Purification, and Multidirectional Memory in Ezra–Nehemiah Tim Langille

Is Ehud also among the Prophets? Prophecy in the Book of Judges Christoph Levin

Mythoprophetics: Some Thoughts James R. Linville

More Geminate Ballast and Clustering in Biblical Hebrew Scott B. Noegel

Blurred Boundaries in the Lot Story P. J. Sabo

Index of Authors

Index of Scripture

Index of Other Ancient Literature