Texts, Contexts and Readings Postexilic Literature

Periods of socio-historical change often prompt renewed interest in history-writing. Interest in the past is then driven by processes of identity negotiation which facilitate a new orientation in changed circumstances. The Hebrew Bible is an excellent example, containing historiographical writings from different socio-historical periods. Dramatic socio-political and socio-religious changes took place from the sixth to the fourth centuries B.C.E. in Ancient Israel. These changes prompted different processes of identity negotiation through historiographical literature. The authors of the essays collected here explore historiographical and related texts and their contexts in these tumultuous times in order to come to a better understanding of the dynamic relationship between ancient historiography and identity negotiation. They also investigate how this literature could be interpreted in contemporary contexts of socio-historical change. Contributors: Johann Cook, Izak Cornelius, Louis Jonker, Gary Knoppers, Oded Lipschits, Gerrie Snyman, Robert Vosloo, Josef Wieshöfer, Ehud Ben Zvi

Auteur
Born 1962; BA, HonsBA, MA, BTh, LicTheol and DTh from University of Stellenbosch; since 2010 Professor in Old Testament at the University of Stellenbosch; Congress Secretary of the 2016 meeting of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT).