Resumen de ‘Our court shall be a little academe’: Judaean elites and the Persian Great King in the early Persian Empire
It has become trendy to describe Judaean literature as ‘resisting empire’. This essay challenges this trope with three theses: 1) local elite cultural production can be understood as one mechanism for interacting with imperialism in a way that is acceptable for both parties, emphasising elite agency in the production of legitimacy; 2) the Teispid and early Achaemenid kings had a policy of encouraging elite cultural production in service to the empire; 3) two Hebrew texts, Second Isaiah and First Zechariah, can be understood as local Judaean elite reflexes of these phenomena: the former shapes the cult of YHWH into something suitable for imperial service; the latter sees Darius as beneficial for a reconstructed temple and a new elite in Jerusalem, while both approve of social changes effected by the new political context. Therefore, at least some ancient Judaean elites supported the Persian Empire.
