TY - BOOK

T1 - Myths of Exile

T2 - History and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible

A2 - Gudme, Anne Katrine de Hemmer

A2 - Hjelm, Ingrid

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - The Babylonian exile in 587–539 BCE is frequently presented as the mainexplanatory factor for the religious and literary developments found in theHebrew Bible. The sheer number of both ‘historical’ and narrative exilesconfirms that the theme of exile is of great importance in the Hebrew Bible.However, one does not do justice to the topic by restricting it to the exile inBabylon after 587 BCE. In recent years, it has become clear that there areseveral discrepancies between biblical and extra-biblical sources on invasionand deportation in Palestine in the 1st millennium BCE. Such discrepancyconfirms that the theme of exile in the Hebrew Bible should not be viewed asan echo of a single traumatic historical event, but rather as a literary motifthat is repeatedly reworked by biblical authors.Myths of Exile challenges the traditional understanding of ‘the Exile’ as amonolithic historical reality and instead provides a critical and comparativeassessment of motifs of estrangement and belonging in the Hebrew Bible andrelated literature. Using selected texts as case-studies, this book demonstrateshow tales of exile and return can be described as a common formative narrativein the literature of the ancient Near East, a narrative that has been interpretedand used in various ways depending on the needs and cultural contextsof the interpreting community. Myths of Exile is a critical study which formsthe basis for a fresh understanding of these exile myths as identity-buildingliterary phenomena.

AB - The Babylonian exile in 587–539 BCE is frequently presented as the mainexplanatory factor for the religious and literary developments found in theHebrew Bible. The sheer number of both ‘historical’ and narrative exilesconfirms that the theme of exile is of great importance in the Hebrew Bible.However, one does not do justice to the topic by restricting it to the exile inBabylon after 587 BCE. In recent years, it has become clear that there areseveral discrepancies between biblical and extra-biblical sources on invasionand deportation in Palestine in the 1st millennium BCE. Such discrepancyconfirms that the theme of exile in the Hebrew Bible should not be viewed asan echo of a single traumatic historical event, but rather as a literary motifthat is repeatedly reworked by biblical authors.Myths of Exile challenges the traditional understanding of ‘the Exile’ as amonolithic historical reality and instead provides a critical and comparativeassessment of motifs of estrangement and belonging in the Hebrew Bible andrelated literature. Using selected texts as case-studies, this book demonstrateshow tales of exile and return can be described as a common formative narrativein the literature of the ancient Near East, a narrative that has been interpretedand used in various ways depending on the needs and cultural contextsof the interpreting community. Myths of Exile is a critical study which formsthe basis for a fresh understanding of these exile myths as identity-buildingliterary phenomena.

M3 - Book

SN - 978-1-138-88689-6

BT - Myths of Exile

PB - Routledge

CY - London and New York

ER -