View Chapters

Book: A History of Biblical Israel

Chapter: 8. From Artaxerxes I to Ptolemy I: The Second “Second Temple” and Torah

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.22639

Blurb:

The difficulties encountered by the Achaemenids in Egypt spur the construction of a Persian fortress at Jerusalem with an adjacent sanctuary (the second ‘Second Temple), as well as the destruction of Bethel and the construction of a cultic centre at Mount Gerizim. Such renewed imperial interest in the Levant set the stage for the formation of the Torah and the rise of a common identity based on Biblical Israel operative across the empire.

Chapter Contributors