This volume highlights and advances new developments in the study of Edom and Idumea in eighteen essays written by researchers from different disciplines (History, Archaeology, Assyriology, Epigraphy, Memory Studies, and Hebrew Bible studies). The topics examined include the emergence of Idumea, the evolution of Edomite/Idumean identity, the impact of the Arabian trade on the region, comparative and regional studies of Idumea and Judah, studies of specific sites, artifacts, epigraphic and literary sources, and a section on literary and ideological constructions and memories of Edom reflected in the Hebrew Bible. This volume is a go-to place for all who are interested in the current state of research about these matters.

This study explores the literary phenomenon that, at crucial crossroads, the line of promise of Israel is continued through the younger brother instead of the firstborn son, which is so important otherwise. This motif ofsubversion is limited to the book of Genesis, where it is used not less than twelve times. The analysis of forms, contexts and functions of this motif reveals a strictly constructed narrative concept. This construction enables an attribution of identity to Israel which justifies Israel s special role among other peoples, legitimizes it and shapes its profile theologically."

Is the Hebrew Bible purely a product of Jerusalem or were there various social groups who each played a role in its development during the Second Temple period? This is the guiding question of the present volume, which fills a crucial gap in recent research by combining current literary-historical, redactional and text-historical analysis of the Hebrew Bible with the latest results pertaining to the pluriform social and religious shape of early Judaism. For the first time, the thirteen articles in this volume address the phenomenon of religious plurality by bringing together archaeological, (religious-) historical, and literary-critical approaches. The articles by internationally renowned scholars cover the panorama of currently known social groups of Yahwistic character and the impact of this phenomenon on the making of the Hebrew Bible - from the Persian period to the time of Qumran.