The Babylonian exile in 587-539 BCE is frequently presented as the
main explanatory factor for the religious and literary developments
found in the Hebrew Bible. The sheer number of both 'historical'
and narrative exiles confirms that the theme of exile is of great
importance in the Hebrew Bible. However, one does not do justice to
the topic by restricting it to the exile in Babylon after 587 BCE.
In recent years, it has become clear that there are several
discrepancies between biblical and extra-biblical sources on
invasion and deportation in Palestine in the 1st millennium BCE.
Such discrepancy confirms that the theme of exile in the Hebrew
Bible should not be viewed as an echo of a single traumatic
historical event, but rather as a literary motif that is repeatedly
reworked by biblical authors. Myths of Exile challenges the
traditional understanding of 'the Exile' as a monolithic historical
reality and instead provides a critical and comparative assessment
of motifs of estrangement and belonging in the Hebrew Bible and
related literature. Using selected texts as case studies, this book
demonstrates how tales of exile and return can be described as a
common formative narrative in the literature of the ancient Near
East, a narrative that has been interpreted and used in various
ways depending on the needs and cultural contexts of the
interpreting community. Myths of Exile is a critical study which
forms the basis for a fresh understanding of these exile myths as
identity-building literary phenomena.
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