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...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Byun, Paul (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
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Veröffentlicht: 2020
In: The catholic biblical quarterly
Jahr: 2020, Band: 82, Heft: 1, Seiten: 38-47
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B Bibel. Esra 3,3 / Altar
B Bibel. Nehemia / Heimkehrer
IxTheo Notationen:HB Altes Testament
weitere Schlagwörter: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
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung: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."
ISSN:2163-2529
Enthält:Enthalten in: The catholic biblical quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/cbq.2020.0002