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b-hebrew - Re: The Origins of the United Monarchy

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  • From: "Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>
  • To: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The Origins of the United Monarchy
  • Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 08:51:20 +0200


Ian Hutchesson wrote:


>The Samaritan problem is one of the principal issues that needs to be
>resolved in order to have a hope of a clearer view of Hebrew history.
To
>Ben Sira, writing at the beginning of the second century BCE, sees the
>Samaritans as "the foolish people that live in Shechem" (50:26b), yet
to
>Jason of Cyrene, the writer whose work was epitomized in 2 Maccabees,
the
>temple on Gerizim was a Jewish temple, spoken of in the same clause as
that
>in Jerusalem (6:1-2). The relationship between the two centres is long
and

I would like to point out in this context that the Jewish inhabitants of
Elephantine at the end of the 5th century had no problem asking the
Jerusalemite priests for help in rebuilding their temple after it had
been destroyed in a local pogrom, and this over 200 years after Josiah's
centralization of the cult, and in spite of the fact that the
Elephantine Jews also worshipped, in addition to YHWH, Anath-Bethel and
Ashima-Bethel. (we don't know if they got an answer/)
Also, wasn't it Onias IV, who, after losing out in a power struggle,
built a temple to YHWH somewhere in Egypt.
This would seem to indicate either that the Deuteronomistic Reform, not
to speak of monotheism, either was still unknown or non-normative for
many Jews, or that it hadn't been invented yet. And this you hear from a
conservative scholar.
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel





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