The Concept of Exile in Late Second Temple Judaism: A Review of Recent Scholarship

Abstract

Before Wright published the first two volumes of his Christian Origins and the Question of God series (1992; 1996) the discussion concerning late Second Temple Jewish concepts of exile was a quiet one. Since then, however, more and more scholars have begun to weigh in. Champions of the theory contend that Second Temple texts convey a matrix of concerns that together demonstrate a Jewish consciousness of being in a state of ongoing exile, notwithstanding the residency in the land of a significant population and a functioning temple. Dissenters argue that these scholars are illegitimately privileging one motif within a highly complex ancient religion, and assigning it a metanarrative role it never truly had. Others contend that 'ongoing' exile is too narrow of a description to account for the diversity of attitudes across several sects. Only recently, though, have major works been produced that thoroughly examine the primary texts in question. In the process, a growing chorus of voices is supporting, with various levels of enthusiasm, the thesis that a significant number of late Second Temple Jewish groups indeed understood themselves to be languishing in some form of exile: ongoing exile since the sixth century bce, in the throes of recurring cycles of exile, or a set of historic realities characterized with exilic metaphors.

The Temple Motif in the Book of Haggai: A Call for Theocentric Perspective and Priorities in the Post Modern and Technological World

“…This prevailing belief of the remoteness from God had been carried over by the returning Jews after the captivity. (Piotrowski, 2017). The messages of the post exilic prophets particular Haggai addressed the issue of God's presence that called for the rebuilding of God's temple.…”