Full Description
The redactional history of the book of Nehemiah is a hotly debated topic
within scholarship. While a general consensus both attributes Neh.
1:1-2:20; 4:1-7:5; and 13:4-31 to the Nehemiah Memoir and postulates the
influence of ancient Near Eastern royal inscriptions, previous
scholarship lacks a systematic examination of Persian-period royal
inscriptions in discussing the redactional history of Nehemiah. This
present book examines Persian-period inscriptions from Judah's
neighbors, Babylonia and Egypt, and identifies a propaganda model in
which Persian kings are supported by the local deities and are heirs to
the local dynasties. This propaganda model resembles depictions of
Artaxerxes in sections of Nehemiah often attributed to the Memoir.
Challenging a recent trend attributing religious references to
Hellenistic redactions, this study finds that references in Nehemiah to
divine authorization of Artaxerxes akin to the royal propaganda model in
Persian-period texts from Babylon and Egypt most likely date to the
Persian-period Nehemiah Memoir due to a shared literary context.
