HUMAN DIGNITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Abstract
The status of Israel changed dramatically as a result of the Babylonian exile and its aftermath during the Persian era. Whereas the self-understanding of the people was closely linked to the Davidic monarchy during the pre-exilic time, the post-exilic community had to face the reality of their provincial existence under Persian imperial rule. The sociopolitical and socio-cultural environment changed dramatically because of these events, resulting in renewed processes of identity negotiation in Israel. We witness different attempts at verbalizing these processes in the biblical writings. The impact of the Persian imperial context on the self-understanding of the community in Jerusalem will be investigated with special reference to the Books of Chronicles. In these books � different to from e.g. Ezra-Nehemiah � a tendency towards inclusivism can be detected in the process of identity negotiation. This paper will show how this tendency relates to the qualified tolerance that was characteristic of the Persian (Achaemenid) era.Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
