Reconstructing the Temple

Marvin A. Sweeney, Biblische Notizen very perceptive and innovative study

Peter Dubovsk, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, Review of Biblical Literature Davis's monograph represents an important step in the scholarly investigation of the temple renovation accounts and casts a new light on biblical texts. Davis is to be congratulated for his erudition, clarity, and breadth of knowledge

Nathan MacDonald, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament an engaging and thoughtful study that offers a number of worthwhile insights.

Peter Machinist, Hancock Research Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University The renovation of temples and palaces was an important public activity of rulers in the ancient Near East including Israel. But it was also, as Davis shows in this substantial study, an important theme in the official literature of these rulers, with a particular rhetorical style. To make his case, Davis compares a range of texts from the Hebrew Bible and elsewhere in the ancient Near East. And he subjects these texts to exemplary close readings, revealing their sophisticated language and their capacity to proclaim in multiple ways royal power and legitimacy.

Dr. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Assistant Professor,College of the Holy Cross Reconstructing the Temple probes the links between past and present, continuity and discontinuity, memory, imagination, and historiography. In this thoughtful and important inquiry, Andrew Davis takes us on a careful journey through ancient Near Eastern and biblical sources to demonstrate how the rhetoric of temple renovation was a distinct and longstanding literary topos that used preservation as a means of present illumination and legitimation. Original, compelling, insightful.

Mark S. Smith, Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary Reconstructing the Temple by Andrew Davis shows how accounts of temple renovation drew on memories of the past to serve royal purposes, asserting continuity with the past as well as the new achievements of royal renovators. Drawing on extensive textual and archaeological evidence, the result is a fresh, brilliant understanding of temple renovation as a form of royal historiography. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Jerusalem Temple or in ancient literature about temples more broadly.

Andrew R. Davis is associate professor of Old Testament at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. His first book, which was a revision of the dissertation he wrote at Johns Hopkins University, compared the temple complex at Tel Dan to biblical descriptions of worship in the Northern Kingdom. Davis's other main research interest involves literary approaches to biblical texts, which he has explored in articles on the books of Genesis, Ruth, and Job, and is pursing in a new project on the book of Amos.

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 Esarra 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) 1 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 226 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