Jews and Samaritans

Community Leadership, Diaspora, and Ezra-Nehemiah: Continuing the Conversation with Gary Knoppers

“…The expression of the power relations on the last-mentioned levels were always subjugated to the imperial level. Knoppers' recent studies, 27 and of some other scholars, 28 should lead to the revision of this four-tiered description of Yehud under Achaemenid power. The Diaspora existence, which is probably not as prominent in Chronicles as in Ezra-Nehemiah, should certainly be included to appreciate the power dynamics reflected in the latter.…”

The Characterization of Rehoboam and Jeroboam as a Reflection of the Chronicler's View of the Schism

“…As Knoppers comments, this assumes that the people of the north are familiar with the laws of Deuteronomy (Deut 16:1-8), which states that Passover must be celebrated in "the place where the Lord has chosen." 89 I believe that this dichotomy-between the current situation in Yehud and the utopian hopes for the future-is also evident in the description of the Passover celebrations during Josiah and Hezekiah's reign. The description of Hezekiah's Passover celebration (2 Chr 30) is not paralleled in Kings, while the description of Josiah's Passover celebration in Chronicles (2 Chr 35:1-19) is sixteen verses longer than the account in Kings (2 Kgs 23:21-23).…”

On the relationship of Judah and Samaria in post-exilic times: A farewell to the conflict paradigm

“…This goes some way to explaining why the Samaritans have returned to a position of focal interest in Old Testament research in recent years. Current studies at the monograph level into the Samaritans of antiquity include Kartveit (2009 31 ), Dušek (2012 32 ), Knoppers (2013 33 ), Pummer (2016 34 ) und Hensel (2016 35 ). Building on these most recent studies, the relations between Judah and Samaria in the time after exile will be reconstructed from these different sources.…”