Yahwistic Identity in the Achaemenid period

Abstract

Double-Identity: the DataThe Elephantine Yahwists possessed a complex double identity, both components of which were used for practical and administrative purposes1.As far as they were concerned, each member was truly Yhwdy2 and truly 'rmy ("Aramean") -even though they were not entirely interchangeable.The following table lists cases where the same person was tagged as Yhwdy in some documents and 'rmy (or Swnḫn) in others: Multiple IdentitiesTable Date (BCE) Document Scribe Identified as … Detachment Mḥsyh br Ydnyh 471 B2.1: 2-3 Plṭyh br 'Aḥyw 'rmy of Syene Varyazata 464 B2.2: 3-4 Itu br Abh Yhwdy of Elephantine the fortress Varyazata 1 For the most recent monographs devoted to this question see Karel van der Toorn, Becoming Diaspora Jews (New Haven, 2019), and Bob Becking, Identity in Persian Egypt: the fate of the Yehudite community of Elephantine (University Park, 2020). 2 This article uses the Aramaic gentilic Yhwdy or, on a cultic level, the adjectives »Yahwistic« or »Yahwist« rather than »Jewish«, to refer to members of the Elephantine community of believers in the deity Yhw and their customs.

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