Reconstructing the Temple: The Royal Rhetoric of Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Israel

Description

This book examines temple renovation as a rhetorical topic within royal literature of the ancient Near East. Unlike newly founded temples, which were celebrated for their novelty, temple renovations were oriented toward the past. Kings took the opportunity to rehearse a selective history of the temple, evoking certain past traditions and omitting others. In this way, temple renovations were a kind of historiography. Andrew R. Davis demonstrates a pattern in the rhetoric of temple renovation texts: that kings in ancient Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria and Persia used temple renovation to correct, or at least distance themselves from, some turmoil of recent history and to associate their reigns with an earlier and more illustrious past. Davis draws on the royal literature of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE for main evidence of this rhetoric. Furthermore, he argues for reading the story of Jeroboam I's placement of calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:25-33) as an eighth-century BCE account of temple renovation with a similar rhetoric. Concluding with further examples in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Reconstructing the Temple demonstrates that the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding topic in the ancient Near East. Cover Reconstructing the Temple Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction to Temple Renovation in the Ancient Near East and Beyond 2. Temple Renovation in Neo-​Assyrian Records and the Book of Kings Esarhaddon’s Reports of Temple Renovation The Renovation of Ešarra The Renovation of Esagil Temple Renovation and Priests’ Letters Accounts of Temple Renovation in 2 Kings Jehoash’s Renovation (2 Kgs 12:5–​17) Ahaz’s Renovation (2 Kgs 16:10–​18) Josiah’s Renovation (2 Kgs 22–​23) 3. Persian Temple Renovations and the Rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple Temple Renovations by Cyrus II The New Capital at Pasargadae Restoration of Babylonian Temples Temple Renovations under Cambyses II Temple Renovations under Darius I The Renovation of Susa Temple Renovation in the Bisitun Inscription Temple Renovations in Egypt The Second Temple in Light of Persian Temple Renovations 4. The Renovations of Dan and Bethel 1 Kings 12:25–​33 as a Renovation Text The Eighth Century bce as the Background of 1 Kings 12:25–​33 Joash, Jeroboam II, and the Rhetoric of Renovation Comparison to the Panamuwa and Bar-​Rakib Inscriptions 5. Temple Renovation in Later Periods Selected Bibliography Index of Biblical Texts Index of Other Ancient Texts Subject Index