1. Law, Religion and Theology

This collection of eight essays is selected from papers originally discussed at an SBL seminar. In her introduction, M. outlines the historical context and the imperial Achaemenid ideology of king and temple with its potential to illuminate these same themes in the province of Yehud. The four essays on conceptions of the king and kingship are L. Jonker, ‘Is the book of Chronicles Yehud’s equivalent of Bisitun?’; B. Gosse, ‘David and Moses in Postexilic Times’; W.D. Tucker, ‘Creation, Kingship, and the Reframing of the Monarchy in the Psalter’; and D.N. Fulton, ‘Examining King Josiah’s Early Reforms in 2 Chronicles 34 in Light of Persian Period Kingship’. Those on concep - tions of the temple are J.M. Silverman, ‘Imperial Chapels or Oratories of Resistance? Differential Integration of Temples in the Persian Empire’; D. Bodi, ‘The Temple in Persian Times as a Viable Economic Entity’; S. Moleli ‘Cultic worship with a ירכנ according to 1 Kings 8.41-43’; and G. Granerød ‘What were the Elephantine Judaeans’s Conceptions of YHWH?’. Perhaps inevitably the second group are more immediately illuminating, especially the comparative studies by Silverman and Bodi, those on kingship being either tenuous in their comparative connections or less relevant to the main topic. Nevertheless, theological libraries will need this collection for the fresh insights in several of the essays.