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Diana Edelman

University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology, Faculty Member

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Currently an independent scholar, in the current 2014-2015 academic year I am in Oslo at the Centre for Advanced Studies as part of a grant team working on the project, "Local Dynamics of Ancient Globalization," headed by Terje Stordalen. 1 July, 2015, I begin as professor of Hebrew Bible in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo.

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KU Leuven

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The University of Texas at Austin

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University of Groningen

University of Amsterdam

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Universiteit Utrecht

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Papers by Diana Edelman

Gardens in Biblical Memory

The City in Biblical Memory, Nov 2014

Cisterns and Wells in Biblical Memory, co-authored with Hadi Ghantous

The City as a Site of Memory in the Bible , Nov 2014

In the TANAKH, cisterns and wells serve as backdrops in many biblical stories;

YHWH’s Othering of Israel

Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period , Oct 2014

'Othering' is a psychological strategy for establishing and reinforcing individual or group ident... more 'Othering' is a psychological strategy for establishing and reinforcing individual or group identity through separation and the establishment of boundaries of difference. 1 It is part of human nature to want to feel unique or special in some way, and 'othering' is a necessary process to use to set oneself or one's group apart from the rest of humanity so that the individual or the group can be assigned one or more unique characteristics. It is a strategy widely used in the Hebrew Bible to establish the traits that set the religious community of Israel apart from surrounding nations and groups in the larger ancient Near East. It is also used, however, to argue that YHWH will reject or has rejected or 'othered' Israel, his otherwise treasured, selected people, making them an outside group rather than an inside one. The subject of this essay are strategies used by various biblical writers to depict or threaten YHWH's 'othering' of 1 For an interdisciplinary study that includes 'othering' as understood in the social sciences and in theology, see Lisa Isherwood and David Harris, Radical Otherness:

The Nile in Biblical Memory

Thinking of Water , 2014

The ‘Seeing God’ Motif and Yahweh as a God of Justice

Loi et Justice dans l’Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologiques et éthiques , 2013

To be published in: Loi et Justice dans l'Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologique... more To be published in: Loi et Justice dans l'Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologiques et éthiques (ed. O. Artus; forthcoming, mid-2013) Addressing the deity Shamash, Tukulti-Ninurta says, You are the hero, the valiant one, who from of old Was inexorable judge of our fathers, And you are the god who sets aright, who sees now our loyalty. Why has the king of the Kassites from of old invalidated your plan and your ordinance? He has no fear of your oath; he transgressed your command, he schemed an act of malice. He has made his crimes enormous before you. Judge me, O Shamash! 9 Enuma Elish I. 95; for the text, see Talon, Enu<->ma Elis<v>, 37.; cited under entry on i<->nu in CAD 7, 154. 10 KAR 423 I 42 in standard Babylonian; cited under entry on i<->nu in CAD 7, 155. 11 Foster, Before the Muses, 603 for cited ll. 39-55; 599-605 for the entire hymn; Stephens, Prayer of Lamentation, 384 for cited ll.; 383-385 for entire prayer. 12 Foster, Before the Muses, 689 for cited ll.; pp. 688-89 for entire hymn. 13 Stephens, Hymn to the Moon God, p. 386. 14 Foster, Before the Muses, 302 for cited ll.; pp. 299-317 for the entire composition. 15 Foster, Before he Muses, 304 for cited ll.

Court Prophets during the Monarchy and Literary Prophets in the So-called Deuteronomistic History

Israelite Prophecy and the Deuteronomistic History , 2013

Genesis: A Composition for Construing a Homeland of the Imagination for Scribal Circles or for Educating the Illiterate?

Writing the Bible: Scribes, Scribalism and Script , Aug 2013

David in Biblical Memory

Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian & Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination

Apples and Oranges: Textual and Archaeological Evidence for Reconstructing the History of the Persian Period

Congress Volume Helsinki 2010 , 2012

Earthquakes in the Ancient Southern Levant: A Literary Topos and a Problem Requiring Architectural Solutions

Disaster and Relief Management , 2012

Exodus and Pesah-Massot as Evolving Social Memory

Remembering (and Forgetting) in Judah’s Early Second Temple Period , 2012

Hidden Ancestor Polemics in the Book of Genesis?

Words, Ideas, World: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit, pp. 35–56, 2012

Were Zerubbabel and Nehemiah the Same Person?

Far From Minimal: Celebrating the Work and Influence of Philip R. Davies, 2012

What Can We Know about the Persian-Era Temple at Jerusalem?

Temple Building and Temple Cult: Architecture and Cultic Paraphernialia of Temples in Levant (2.–1. Mill. B.C.E.) , 2012

The Chronicler and the Atthidographers

What Was Authoritative for Chronicles? , 2011

The Location and Function of the Towers of Hananel and the Hundred in Persian-Era Jerusalem

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 127/1, pp. 49–74 , 2011

Saul as a Young Hero

Le jeune héros: Recherches sur la formation et la diffusion d'un thème littéraire au Proche-Orient ancien , 2011

Of Priests and Prophets: The Egyptian Hm-Ntr and Hry-Hbt and the Judahite nabi’

The Historian and the Bible: Essays in Honour of Lester L. Grabbe , 2010

Cultic Sites and Complexes beyond Jerusalem

Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel , 2009

Ezra 1-6 as Idealized Past

A Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Ideology, Stylistics and Language Relating to Persian Israel , 2009

Gardens in Biblical Memory

The City in Biblical Memory, Nov 2014

Cisterns and Wells in Biblical Memory, co-authored with Hadi Ghantous

The City as a Site of Memory in the Bible , Nov 2014

In the TANAKH, cisterns and wells serve as backdrops in many biblical stories;

YHWH’s Othering of Israel

Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period , Oct 2014

'Othering' is a psychological strategy for establishing and reinforcing individual or group ident... more 'Othering' is a psychological strategy for establishing and reinforcing individual or group identity through separation and the establishment of boundaries of difference. 1 It is part of human nature to want to feel unique or special in some way, and 'othering' is a necessary process to use to set oneself or one's group apart from the rest of humanity so that the individual or the group can be assigned one or more unique characteristics. It is a strategy widely used in the Hebrew Bible to establish the traits that set the religious community of Israel apart from surrounding nations and groups in the larger ancient Near East. It is also used, however, to argue that YHWH will reject or has rejected or 'othered' Israel, his otherwise treasured, selected people, making them an outside group rather than an inside one. The subject of this essay are strategies used by various biblical writers to depict or threaten YHWH's 'othering' of 1 For an interdisciplinary study that includes 'othering' as understood in the social sciences and in theology, see Lisa Isherwood and David Harris, Radical Otherness:

The Nile in Biblical Memory

Thinking of Water , 2014

The ‘Seeing God’ Motif and Yahweh as a God of Justice

Loi et Justice dans l’Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologiques et éthiques , 2013

To be published in: Loi et Justice dans l'Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologique... more To be published in: Loi et Justice dans l'Orient ancien: Questions socio-historiques, idéologiques et éthiques (ed. O. Artus; forthcoming, mid-2013) Addressing the deity Shamash, Tukulti-Ninurta says, You are the hero, the valiant one, who from of old Was inexorable judge of our fathers, And you are the god who sets aright, who sees now our loyalty. Why has the king of the Kassites from of old invalidated your plan and your ordinance? He has no fear of your oath; he transgressed your command, he schemed an act of malice. He has made his crimes enormous before you. Judge me, O Shamash! 9 Enuma Elish I. 95; for the text, see Talon, Enu<->ma Elis<v>, 37.; cited under entry on i<->nu in CAD 7, 154. 10 KAR 423 I 42 in standard Babylonian; cited under entry on i<->nu in CAD 7, 155. 11 Foster, Before the Muses, 603 for cited ll. 39-55; 599-605 for the entire hymn; Stephens, Prayer of Lamentation, 384 for cited ll.; 383-385 for entire prayer. 12 Foster, Before the Muses, 689 for cited ll.; pp. 688-89 for entire hymn. 13 Stephens, Hymn to the Moon God, p. 386. 14 Foster, Before the Muses, 302 for cited ll.; pp. 299-317 for the entire composition. 15 Foster, Before he Muses, 304 for cited ll.

Court Prophets during the Monarchy and Literary Prophets in the So-called Deuteronomistic History

Israelite Prophecy and the Deuteronomistic History , 2013

Genesis: A Composition for Construing a Homeland of the Imagination for Scribal Circles or for Educating the Illiterate?

Writing the Bible: Scribes, Scribalism and Script , Aug 2013

David in Biblical Memory

Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian & Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination

Apples and Oranges: Textual and Archaeological Evidence for Reconstructing the History of the Persian Period

Congress Volume Helsinki 2010 , 2012

Earthquakes in the Ancient Southern Levant: A Literary Topos and a Problem Requiring Architectural Solutions

Disaster and Relief Management , 2012

Exodus and Pesah-Massot as Evolving Social Memory

Remembering (and Forgetting) in Judah’s Early Second Temple Period , 2012

Hidden Ancestor Polemics in the Book of Genesis?

Words, Ideas, World: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit, pp. 35–56, 2012

Were Zerubbabel and Nehemiah the Same Person?

Far From Minimal: Celebrating the Work and Influence of Philip R. Davies, 2012

What Can We Know about the Persian-Era Temple at Jerusalem?

Temple Building and Temple Cult: Architecture and Cultic Paraphernialia of Temples in Levant (2.–1. Mill. B.C.E.) , 2012

The Chronicler and the Atthidographers

What Was Authoritative for Chronicles? , 2011

The Location and Function of the Towers of Hananel and the Hundred in Persian-Era Jerusalem

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 127/1, pp. 49–74 , 2011

Saul as a Young Hero

Le jeune héros: Recherches sur la formation et la diffusion d'un thème littéraire au Proche-Orient ancien , 2011

Of Priests and Prophets: The Egyptian Hm-Ntr and Hry-Hbt and the Judahite nabi’

The Historian and the Bible: Essays in Honour of Lester L. Grabbe , 2010

Cultic Sites and Complexes beyond Jerusalem

Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel , 2009

Ezra 1-6 as Idealized Past

A Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Ideology, Stylistics and Language Relating to Persian Israel , 2009

"The Destruction of Jerusalem and Exile by the Neo-Babylonian Imperial Regime: Framing and Reframing Local Mental Templates in Biblical Social Memory"

"Neo-Babylonian Policy in Judah"

"Making a Case for the Origin of the First Edition of Deuteronomy in the Persian Period"

"Living with Ancestral Spirits in Judah in the Iron Age and Persian Period"

"The Economy and Administration of Rural Idumea at the End of the Persian Period"

"Divine Sight, Divine Justice, and Eye-Stones in the Archaeological Record and in the Hebrew Bible”

“Patterning the Past”

“Historical Methodology Past and Present in Biblical Studies"

“Remembering David"

“The boqer/mebaqqer as a Cultic Specialist in Monarchic-era Judah and Israel?”

“The Nile in Biblical Memory"

“The Nuts and Bolts of Getting a Job in Academia"

“Kabod Theology and Fire in Old Persian and Zoroastrian Tradition: Possible Intersections"

“The Hebrew Bible and Emerging Monotheism"

“Exodus and Pesah-Massot as Evolving Social Memory"

“The ‘Seeing God’ Motif and Yahweh as a God of Justice"

"'Excavating’ the Persian-Era Temple in Jerusalem in Biblical Texts”

"Court Prophets during the Monarchy and Literary Prophets in the so-called  'Deuteronomistic History'"

“Yahweh’s Kabod and the Mesopotamian  muluhhu’"

“Earthquakes in the Ancient Southern Levant: A Literary Topos and a Problem Requiring Architectural Solutions"

Deuteronomy-Kings: A Conversation

Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian & Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination

The Books of Moses: Opening the Books

What Was Authoritative for Chronicles?

The Historian and the Bible: Essays in Honour of Lester L. Grabbe

A Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Ideology, Stylistics and Language Relating to Persian Israel

The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud

The Origins of the ’Second’ Temple: Persian Imperial Policies and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem

God, Meaning and Morality

The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms

You Shall Not Abhor an Edomite for He is Your Brother: Edom and Seir in History and Tradition

The Fabric of History: Text, Artifact, and Israel's Past

King Saul in the Historiography of Judah

Iconography on Double-Shekel Sidonian Coinage in the Persian Period: Is It a God or a King in the Chariot?

Religion in the Persian Period: Emerging Judaisms and Other Trends, 2015

Intertextual Allusion Using the Root G-N-N in Zechariah 9:13-15

Poets, Prophets, Lovers, and Beauty, 2015

Living with Ancestral Spirits in Judah in the Iron Age and Persian Period

Entre dieux et hommes: ange, démons et autres...

What is Persian About Genesis?

Assessing Biblical and Classical Sources for the Reconstruction of Persian Influence, History and Culture