It has long been recognized that the Persian period is crucial to the history of the formation of the biblical corpora. The essays presented in this volume explore this critically important era, reconstructing the socio-economic shifts that took place as well as the religio-theological environment of the Judean community and its neighbours. The topics of this volume, sociological, archaeological and theological, include: ethnicities and administration in Persian-era Palestine (Yigal); the historical origin of the concept of the piety of the poor at Qumran (Ro); the development of the theological concept of Yhwh's punitive justice (Ro); social, cultural and demographic transformations in Persian-period Judah (Faust); changes in Judah and its neighbouring provinces in the fourth century BCE (Fantalkin and Tal); some Greek views of the Persian empire (Sano). The papers collected in this volume were presented at an international conference held at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, February 17-19, 2011, a testimony to the fruitfulness of this unusual Asian-Israeli scholarly dialogue.

"Collective memory" has attracted the attention and discussion of scholars internationally across academic disciplines over the past 40 50 years in particular. It and "collective identity" have become important issues within Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies; the role collective memory plays in shaping collective identity links the two organically. Research to date on memory within biblical studies broadly falls under four approaches: 1) lexical studies; 2) discussions of biblical historiography in which memory is considered a contributing element; 3) topical explorations for which memory is an organizing concept; and 4) memory and transmission studies. The sixteen contributors to this volume provide detailed investigations of the contours of collective memory and collective identity that have crystallized in Martin Noth's "Deuteronomistic History" (Deut-2 Kgs). Together, they yield diverse profiles of collective memory and collective identity that draw comparatively on biblical, ancient Near eastern, and classical Greek material, employing one of more of the four common approaches. This is the first volume devoted to applying memory studies to the "Deuteronomistic History."

Der Band untersucht die Thematisierung von "Armut" in Qumran, im Psalter sowie in prophetischen Texten (Jes, Jer und Zef) und die sich darin abzeichnenden religioesen Konfliktlagen. Dabei wird die in neueren Arbeiten verstarkt vertretene These uberpruft, dass fur die sogenannte "Armenfroemmigkeit" eine Art Armenbewegung in ausgebeuteten, voellig verarmten und verelendeten Unterschichtskreisen zu veranschlagen sei. Die vorliegende Veroeffentlichung kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass das "Armsein" eine religioes fundierte Existenzweise ist. Die Defizite, uber die geklagt wird, sind nicht materieller Art. Da mehrfach theologische Positionen und Oppositionen der Armenfroemmigkeit an die Qumran-Essener erinnern, ist es keineswegs abwegig, dort geradezu eine Strukturparallele zur Armenfroemmigkeit wahrzunehmen und geistes- bzw. theologiegeschichtliche Zusammenhange herzustellen.

It has long been recognized that the Persian period is crucial to the history of the formation of the biblical corpora. The essays presented in this volume explore this critically important era, reconstructing the socio-economic shifts that took place as well as the religio-theological environment of the Judean community and its neighbours. The topics of this volume, sociological, archaeological and theological, include: ethnicities and administration in Persian-era Palestine (Yigal); the historical origin of the concept of the piety of the poor at Qumran (Ro); the development of the theological concept of Yhwh's punitive justice (Ro); social, cultural and demographic transformations in Persian-period Judah (Faust); changes in Judah and its neighbouring provinces in the fourth century BCE (Fantalkin and Tal); some Greek views of the Persian empire (Sano). The papers collected in this volume were presented at an international conference held at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, February 17-19, 2011, a testimony to the fruitfulness of this unusual Asian-Israeli scholarly dialogue.