Priester und Leviten im achämenidischen Juda: Studien zur Kult- und Sozialgeschichte Israels in persischer Zeit (review)

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCIII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2003) 609-611 Joachim Schaper. Priester und Leviten im achämenidischen Juda: Studien zur Kult- und Sozialgeschichte Israels in persischer Zeit. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 31. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000. Pp. 352. Schaper's Habilitationsschrift attempts a comprehensive history of the priesthood from the time of Josiah to the end of the Persian period. This is a detailed and careful work that deserves to be widely read and debated by those with an interest in Judah and Judaism during the Persian period. Schaper's reconstruction of the priesthood through this period can be outlined as follows. At the time of Josiah, the Zadokite priesthood was in charge of the Jerusalem temple. Although the Deuteronomic law attempted to reform the system by giving the priests of the local Yhwh shrines ("the Lévites") equal rights with the Zadokites, it did not succeed, and the Lévites acquired only second-class status. When the Zadokites returned from exile at the beginning of the Persian period, they reasserted their traditional rights over the altar but were countered by the country Lévites (the main critics) who had set up a cult in the ruins of the temple during the exile, the Abiatharites of Anathoth, and perhaps also the Aaronites of Bethel, who seem to have stepped into the breach during the exile and served as priests to those left in the land. They all argued that the Zadokites' time out of Judah had made them impure. Zech 3:1-10 is the Zadokite response, attempting to convince the people that the newly defined office of high priest was held by a worthy individual with divine approval. While the Persian government supported the Zadokite priests, the Lévites and others cooperated in the rebuilding of the temple because it was in their interests. It was during the time of Nehemiah (who came in 445 bce) and Ezra (dated to 398 bce) that the Lévites were able to gain status. Nehemiah trusted neither the high priest nor the upper echelon of Zadokites but found the Lévites his allies, making them into guards at the city gates. The priests retaliated by not providing the necessary support to the Lévites from the temple tithes and offerings, forcing many of them to turn to farming for their livelihood (Neh 13:10-13). However, Nehemiah reversed this on his return, establishing a committee of both Lévites and priests to oversee the collection and distribution of the temple dues. Ezra continued to favor the Lévites, giving them new status and confidence, and the singers, gatekeepers , and Natinim, who had been separate from the Lévites until the time of Ezra, merged with them toward the end of the Achemenid period. Any history of this sort requires making judgments at every stage. Although one might either criticize Schaper for the judgments he makes, or point out the alternative ones he could have made, the fact is that every historian is in the same boat: one makes the decisions that seem best and 610THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW justifies them to the reader—that's all anyone can do. Much of Schaper's thesis is plausible, and some aspects will be widely accepted; it would be invidious of me to quibble by rehearsing alternative interpretations of which Schaper is aware. Nevertheless, some essential parts of Schaper's reconstruction depend on a particular understanding of a very few passages. There is only enough space in this review to consider two of these, but they illustrate how much depends on individual interpretations. The first example is Schaper's argument of deep divisions between the priests and Lévites in Nehemiah's day, when the priests allegedly kept back the temple revenue from the Lévites. I have argued elsewhere that Nehemiah does indeed seem to have mistrusted the established leadership in Jerusalem, much as Schaper does. However, the only passage suggesting that the role of the Lévites was extended is found in Neh 13:19-22 in which they are set to guard the gates of Jerusalem to enforce the Sabbath. There is no indication, however, of a...