When the end is the beginning

Abstract

Older theologies and histories of the OT relegate the Persian/post‐exilic age to places of minor importance, a curious practice given the fact that the significance these same works give to the exile can only be realized after 539. More recent attempts to write a history of ancient Israel point to the Persian period as the earliest in which the biblical traditions could have been written down. An examination of biblical references in indisputably post‐exilic historical material which treats of the return shows that in the late Persian‐early Hellenistic period very little of the OT has reached the form in which it is known today. This absence implies the necessity of viewing the late 6th‐late 4th centuries as the period of the collection of traditions that only later will be arranged into the various collections/ editions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, MT). The Persian period ought not be understand as the time of the final editing or writing of the OT; this process belongs rather to the Hellenistic period.

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