Programme
There is an increasing awareness among biblical scholars in various specialisation fields of the fact that the late Achaemenid-Persian and early Hellenistic periods were constitutive for the formation (origin, finalisation, redaction, etc.) of a significant part of the Hebrew Bible. Various scholars have therefore started investigating the broader discourses of these time periods in order to come to a better understanding of the interaction and cross-influence of different scribal groups of the time, and resultant literature formations. However, there is still not much collaboration between and correlation of results in the various fields of expertise. This 5-year research unit will therefore bring together scholars from various relevant sub-fields for the purpose of investigating the practices and cross-influences of scribal activities in the late Achaemenid-Persian and early Hellenistic periods in Jerusalem in Yehud/Judea. The aim will be to establish how scribal groups with different ideological (and theological) agendas participated in the political-theological discourses of their time, and how they contributed to the biblical literature formation processes of the time period.
Keywords:
Scribalism; Early Second Temple Biblical Literature; Literature Formation; Levitical Scribal Activity