Building an Altar Despite Animosity: A Literary Defense of the Concessive Reading of Ezra 3:3a
A common scholarly understanding is that the first group of returnees in Ezra 3:3a built an altar "because they were in dread of the neighboring peoples." I find such a reading to be unlikely for three reasons. First, a study of Ezra 3:3a reveals that accepting the common understanding gen...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Catholic Biblical Association of America
2020
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| In: |
The catholic biblical quarterly
Year: 2020, Volume: 82, Issue: 1, Pages: 38-47 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Ezra 3,3
/ Altars
B Nehemiah / Ex-prisoners of war |
| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
returnees
B Altars in the Bible B BIBLE; History of Biblical events B Bible. Nehemiah B Bible. Ezra B Ezra-Nehemiah B altar building B BIBLE. Old Testament; Criticism, interpretation, etc |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | A common scholarly understanding is that the first group of returnees in Ezra 3:3a built an altar "because they were in dread of the neighboring peoples." I find such a reading to be unlikely for three reasons. First, a study of Ezra 3:3a reveals that accepting the common understanding generates an awkward reading. Second, the returnees are never characterized as a group building in response to external threats. Third, the motive behind altar building elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible is strictly for sacrifices. I suggest that a more compelling reading of Ezra 3:3a is, "They set up the altar on its foundation, although they were in dread of the neighboring peoples." |
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| ISSN: | 2163-2529 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The catholic biblical quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/cbq.2020.0002 |