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Article: Persia and the Bible.
- Article from:
- The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Article date:
- July 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 American Oriental Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The purpose of this book is stated implicitly in the preface: "... to inform readers of the Bible about [the] important Persian background" of "the exilic and postexilic Old Testament books ..." (p. 11), so "that readers of such books as Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah may better appreciate their historical and cultural backgrounds" (p. 12).
As I shall be criticizing numerous details below, I would like to say first that I am impressed by the clarity of the exposition and the breadth of the author's knowledge of the sources and secondary literature. The book is also well illustrated. It is difficult for Iranian scholars to command the whole field covered in this ...