EXCLUSIVE INCLUSIVITY: IDENTITY CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE EXILES AND THE PEOPLE WHO REMAINED (6TH–5TH CENTURIES BCE) 

(LHB/OTS 543), New York-London: T&T Clark, 2013, 320 pages

By Dalit Rom-Shiloni 

Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni 

The sixth and fifth centuries BCE were a time of constant re-identifications within Judean communities, both in exile and in the land; it was a time when Babylonian exilic ideologies captured a central position in Judean (Jewish) history and literature at the expense of silencing the voices of any other Judean communities. 

Proceeding from the later biblical evidence to the earlier, from the Persian period sources (Ezra–Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Deutero-Isaiah) to the Neo-Babylonian prophecy of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, Exclusive Inclusivity explores the ideological transformations within these writings using the sociological rubric of exclusivity. Social psychology categories of ethnicity and group identity provide the analytical framework to clarify that Ezekiel, the prophet of the Jehoiachin Exiles, was the earliest constructor of these exclusive ideologies.

Thus, already from the Neo-Babylonian period, definitions of otherness were being set to shape the self-understanding of each of the post-586 communities, in Judah (Yehud) and in the Babylonian Diaspora, as the exclusive People of God. As each community re-identified itself as the in-group, arguments of otherness were adduced to disregard and delegitimize the sister community. The polemics against “foreigners” in the Persian period literature are the ideological successors to the earlier ideological conflict.

CONTENTS                                                                                                                        

Preface                                                                                                                                    

Chapter 1:  INTRODUCTION                                                                                               

1. Literature, Ideology, and Identity: “Babylonian Exilic Ideologies”                             

2. Methodology: Sociological and Psychological Paradigms                                               

3. Definitions of Group Identity: Communal Beliefs and “Otherness”                             

4. Exclusivity: The Consequence of “Otherness”                                                                 

5. Plan of the Current Study                                                                                                   

Part I: PERSIAN-PERIOD IDEOLOGIES OF EXCLUSIVITY (POST-538 TO FIFTH CENTURY B.C.E.)

Chapter 2:  EZRA–NEHEMIAH                                                                                            

1. In-group Self-Definition: Arguments for Inclusivity Between the Babylonian Exiles

     and the Repatriates                                                                                                             

2. Defining the Out-group: The Strategy of Amalgamation                                               

3. Ezra 6:19–21: Incorporation―An Implicit Exclusionary Strategy                                

Chapter 3:  ZECHARIAH (1–8) AND HAGGAI: THE RESTORATION PROPHETS   

1. Zechariah Son of Berechyahu Son of Iddo (Zechariah 1–8)                                             

2. Haggai                                                                                                                                    

Chapter 4: העם הנשאר ,כל שארית העם ,עם הארץ RELATIVE DESIGNATIONS OF EXCLUSIVITY―

CORE AND PERIPHERY                                                                                                       

1. Conceptions of a Remnant: Relative Perspectives of Core and Periphery                       

עם הארץ .2 vs. עמי הארצות: Further Differences Between the Prophetic Literature and the  

     Historiography                                                                                                                     

Chapter 5: DEUTERO-ISAIAH: FROM BABYLON TO JERUSALEM (ISAIAH 40–48, 49–66)                                                   

1. “My city and My exiled people” (Isaiah 45:13): Arguments of Exclusivity in Isaiah 40–66 104

2. Other Groups in Deutero-Isaiah’s Jerusalem Chapters: Out-group Designations         

3. Conclusions                                                                                                                            

Part II       NEO-BABYLONIAN EXCLUSIONARY STRATEGIES  (EARLY SIXTH CENTURY TO CA. 520 B.C.E.)

Chapter 6: EZEKIEL AND HIS BOOK: HOMOGENEITY OF EXILIC PERSPECTIVES 139

1. Ezekiel’s Restricted Exclusivity: The Jehoiachin Exiles                                                   

2. Editorial Strands in Ezekiel: Inclusive Outlooks within Exclusive Substrata                

3. Conclusions                                                                                                                          

Chapter 7: JEREMIAH AND HIS BOOK: TWO ANTAGONISTIC PERSPECTIVES  

1. Jeremiah: Between Jerusalem and Babylon                                                                       

2. Prophecies of Consolation in Judean and Babylonian Contexts: Jeremianic Prophecies, Secondary Layers, and Transforming Perspectives                                                             

3. Conclusions                                                                                                                             

Chapter 8:  SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS                                                                  

1. From External Separation to Intergroup Division                                                            

2. Continuity and Transformation within Babylonian Exilic Ideologies                             

3. Inclusive Interests: Detecting Voices within the In-group                                                

4. Universalism and Exclusivity                                                                                                

5. Conclusions: Traits of Continuity, Traits of Change