The Story Retold: Second-Temple Literature

Chapter TWO LIKE BIRDS HOVERING OVERHEAD:
THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL
(ii) The Continuous Story
(c) The Story Retold: Second-Temple Literature

Similar retellings of the story of Israel, from various angles depending on the particular interest, are found across different strands of second-Temple literature. In the book of Judith, the Ammonite leader Achior tells the pagan king Holofernes the long story of the patriarchs, of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, and of Israel’s repeated sin, defeat and exile but also restoration under God’s protection.182 Ben-Sirach lists the heroes of old, starting with Enoch and Noah and highlighting Abraham and the covenant promises of Genesis 12 and 15.183 The list then moves on to Moses and Aaron, and to Phinehas, stressing the covenant made with the latter and its apparent parallel to the covenant with David (in other words, emphasizing the priestly strand in parallel to the kingly).184 The Davidic covenant is re-emphasized when David himself comes up in the list of heroes, which continues through the other good kings, noting that most kings were in fact bad and that because of them the city and sanctuary were destroyed. Zerubbabel and the post-exilic high priest Joshua are celebrated as the ones who rebuilt the Temple after the exile, but the climax of this particular narrative is of course the high priest of the day, Simon son of Onias. Israel’s long story appears to have reached its appointed goal...