The Difficulties in “Building” an Empire: Imperial Tensions in the Literature of the Hebrew Bible during the Achaemenid Period
Abstract
This presentation centers on the impact of an Achaemenid imperial logic and the visible tensions therein as reflected in the literary record of texts that came to be a part of the Hebrew Bible. Drawing on social and political theory, this paper traces the logic of “building” motifs in relevant Hebrew and Aramaic literature in effort to reflect on the tensions inherent to the construction of an imperial logic (e.g., cosmic vs. local; center vs. periphery; vertical vs. horizontal). The discourse of “building,” therefore, can function as a meaningful site of interchange where Achaemenid ideology and Judean responses thereto intersect.
Citation
Bledsoe, Seth. "The Difficulties in “Building” an Empire: Imperial Tensions in the Literature of the Hebrew Bible during the Achaemenid Period," Achaemenid Workshop 3 (February 21, 2025).
About the Speaker
Seth Bledsoe
Radboud University, Nijmegen
Seth Bledsoe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Textual, Historical, and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity at Radboud University. He has previously held research and teaching positions in the U.S., Hungary, and Germany. In 2015 he earned his PhD in Religion from Florida State University.
His research examines the literary and socio-historical character of ancient Jewish and Christian literature, with particular attention to wisdom and narrative traditions. He has published several articles and a monograph on the Book of Ahiqar, an early Aramaic text that shares many themes and stylistic features with biblical literature, especially Proverbs. His current research investigates how ancient authors construct identity through discursive means. With a specific focus on diaspora communities in Egypt during the Persian and Hellenistic periods in comparison with contemporaneous biblical texts such as Ezra-Nehemiah and Daniel, he seeks to understand how communities negotiate boundaries between insiders and outsiders and reinscribe cultural norms and values.