Myths of Exile

The Babylonian exile in 587-539 BCE is often presented as a key factor for the religious and literary developments found in the Hebrew Bible. However, the theme of exile should not be viewed as an echo of a single traumatic historical event, but rather as a literary motif that is repeatedly reworked by biblical authors. _x005F_x000D_ Myths of Exile provides a critical and comparative assessment of motifs of estrangement and belonging in the Hebrew Bible and related literature. Demonstrating that such tales are a common formative narrative in the literature of the ancient Near-East, this book forms the basis for a fresh understanding of these exile myths as identity-building literary phenomena.