Nebuchadnezzar and Narrative Repair in the Court Tales of Daniel
During the second half of the first millennium BCE, innovative portrayals of Nebuchadnezzar began to emerge within Jewish circles that reshaped and reimagined his role in their history. Such reconstruals were part and parcel of the lively negotiations among Babylonian and Hellenistic scribes over th...
| 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: |
Brill
2022
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| In: |
Vetus Testamentum
Year: 2022, Volume: 72, Issue: 3, Pages: 386-403 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Nebuchadnezzar II Babylonia, King -562 BC
/ Intertextuality
/ Memory
/ Bible. Daniel 2-6
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism HH Archaeology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | During the second half of the first millennium BCE, innovative portrayals of Nebuchadnezzar began to emerge within Jewish circles that reshaped and reimagined his role in their history. Such reconstruals were part and parcel of the lively negotiations among Babylonian and Hellenistic scribes over the representation of bygone Mesopotamian monarchs. In this essay, I examine the reimagination of Nebuchadnezzar in the court tales of Dan 2–6 as a unique example of how scribes sought to reshape the haunting memory of Nebuchadnezzar. By comparing Nebuchadnezzar’s narrative portrait with various texts from Jewish prophetic traditions, I argue that the redactor of the court tales constructed a counter-memory of Nebuchadnezzar in which the traumatic experience of Judah’s humiliation, deportation, and restoration was creatively mapped onto Nebuchadnezzar. In order to construct this counter-memory, the redactor drew upon and repurposed specific language, imagery, and motifs borrowed from these textual traditions. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5330 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Vetus Testamentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10064 |