‘We All Returned as One!’:Critical Notes on the Myth of the Mass Return Bob Becking

Achaemenid Imperial Policy, Settlement Processes in Palestine, and the Status of Jerusalem in the Middle of the Fifth Century B.C.E. Oded Lipschits

Constructions of Identity in Postcolonial Yehud Jon L. Berquist

Remapping Yehud: The Borders of Yehud and the Genealogies of Chronicles John W. Wright

Persia’s Loyal Yahwists: Power Identity and Ethnicity in Achaemenid Yehud John Kessler

The ‘am ha’arets in Ezra 4:4 and Persian Imperial Administration Lisbeth S. Fried

The Borders and De Facto Size of Jerusalem in the Persian Period David Ussishkin

Redating Lachish Level I: Identifying Achaemenid Imperial Policy at the Southern Frontier of the Fifth Satrapy Alexander Fantalkin and Oren Tal

The Religious Revolution in Persian-Period Judah Ephraim Stern

Tyrian Trade in Yehud under Artaxerxes I: Real or Fictional? Independent or Crown Endorsed? Diana Edelman

The Second Temple of Jeb and of Jerusalem Reinhard G. Kratz

Revisiting the Samarian Question in the Persian Period Gary N. Knoppers

Bethel: The Israelite Impact on Judean Language and Literature Ernst Axel Knauf

Cyrus II, Liberator or Conqueror? Ancient Historiography concerning Cyrus in Babylon David Vanderhooft

Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid State Administration in Mesopotamia M. A. Dandamayev

New Evidence for Judeans in Babylonia Laurie E. Pearce

New Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea and Their Historical Interpretation André Lemaire

Social Economic and Onomastic Issues in the Aramaic Ostraca of the Fourth Century BCE Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni

Periodization between History and Ideology II: Chronology and Ideology in Ezra-Nehemiah Sara Japhet

The Missions of Ezra and Nehemiah Tamara Cohn Eskenazi

The ‘Persian Documents’ in the Book of Ezra: Are They Authentic? Lester L. Grabbe

‘See, We Are Serving Today’ (Nehemiah 9:36): Nehemiah 9 as a Theological Interpretation of the Persian Period Manfred Oeming

Sociolinguistics and the Judean Speech Community in the Achaemenid Empire Frank H. Polak

Benjamin Traditions Read in the Early Persian Period J. Blenkinsopp

The Saul Polemic in the Persian Period Yairah Amit

The Imaginary Sanctuary: The Priestly Code as an Example of Fictional Literature in the Hebrew Bible Hanna Liss

Index of Authors

Index of Scripture

Index of Sites and Place-Names