The Cited Documents of Ezra-Nehemiah: Does Their Authenticity Matter?
Determining the authenticity of Ezra-Nehemiah's sources was a central question among scholars more than a century ago and remains so today. In this article, I explore why posing questions of authenticity about the source documents endures as a mainstay of Ezra-Nehemiah scholarship and argue tha...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2019]
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| In: |
Biblical interpretation
Year: 2019, Volume: 27, Issue: 3, Pages: 372-389 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ezra
/ Nehemiah
/ Bible. Ezra 4
/ Authenticity
/ Source criticism
/ Literary criticism
/ Historical criticism
/ Torrey, Charles Cutler 1863-1956
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Authenticity
B C.C. Torrey B Literary Criticism B Ezra-Nehemiah B Historical Criticism B source documents |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Determining the authenticity of Ezra-Nehemiah's sources was a central question among scholars more than a century ago and remains so today. In this article, I explore why posing questions of authenticity about the source documents endures as a mainstay of Ezra-Nehemiah scholarship and argue that the implications of the authenticity question are frequently overstated. This overstatement reveals a prevailing scholarly instinct to separate "the real" from "the ideological," a dichotomy traceable since C.C. Torrey's Ezra Studies. Using Ezra 4 as an example, I argue that determining the authenticity of Ezra-Nehemiah's source documents is not a worthy litmus test of historical-critical scholarship. Instead, considering how Ezra 4 resembles a space of collection rather than a linear story collapses methodological boundaries, calling into question the usefulness of categories like authenticity and fabrication in our understanding of Ezra-Nehemiah and beyond. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5152 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical interpretation
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685152-00273P04 |
