Fundamental Problems with the Persian Period Origin of the Hebrew Bible

If we did not have the biblical narratives describing returns of Judeans to Judea during the Persian period along with allusions to the rebuilding of a temple in that time, but instead relied solely on archaeological evidence, I suggest we would have no reason to ever propose that the Hebrew Bible witnessed any significant development in the period of Persian rule.

There was a Persian period Jewish/Judean temple built at Elephantine and from the finds there we learn that “Yahweh” was accompanied with other deities — including Yahweh’s wife — in the same temple. See:

• • Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’
  • Judah and Samaria in Persian Times — the Evidence (and a way out of a quandary)
  • Comparing Samaria and Judah/Yehud – and their religion – in Persian Times

Add Adler Yonatan’s observations that there is no evidence in Judea or Samaria of any knowledge of distinctively Pentateuchal laws prior to the Hellenistic era:

• The “Late” Origins of Judaism – The Archaeological Evidence
• Archaeological Support for Gmirkin’s Thesis on Plato and the Hebrew Bible

Compare also the “religious” culture of Samaria in the Persian period:

• Samaria in the Persian Period

And not forgetting that Yahweh worship was widespread throughout the Levant and should not be quickly equated with anything resembling “biblical Judaism”:

• When Yahweh was at Peace with Other Gods
• Before “Biblical Israel” there was Yahweh

And keeping in mind a relatively long period of demise in both Samaria and Yehud in the early part of the Hellenistic period (Samaria had suffered the consequences of rebellion) . . . .

And bearing in mind the material existence for the biblical literature well into the Hellenistic era — and the evidence that this time also witnessed the earliest material evidence for living by Pentateuchal laws (Adler) — . . . .

And recalling Israel Finkelstein’s suggestion that we look outside Palestine for the origins of the biblical literature, including Egypt (though Finkelstein himself relies on biblical narratives to propose Babylonia and earlier Iron Age Judah as likely settings for the event) . . . .

And given the various studies pointing to distinctive structural and intertextual echoes of Greek literature in the Hebrew Bible . . . .

Nor forgetting the indications that a book like Nehemiah actually describes building activity that is known to have happened in Hellenistic (not Persian) times . . . .

It may be quite reasonable to propose Egypt, specifically Alexandria, in the early Hellenistic period as the setting for the creation of much of the biblical literature — as per Russell Gmirkin’s thesis.