StephenGoranson wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 4:13 am
The Persian Empire was relatively tolerant of local religions.
E.g., A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (U. Chicago Press, 1948) page 465.
Tolerance of local religions is one thing. The Pentateuch outlined something much more than a "local religion". It sets out a whole code of laws, serves as a constitution, establishes many markers that will separate the Jewish community from everyone else and essentially indicates that the Jews should not live in harmony with any other inhabitants of the region. It also indicates that the worship of all other gods should be forbidden in the region and that the Jews should not tolerate any other religions or other gods.
None of these things are conducive to peaceful coexistence within the Persian empire.
Numbers 33:
50 Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, 51 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from you, and destroy all their idolatrous sculptures, destroy all their cast metal images, and eliminate all their high places; 53 and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. 54 You shall maintain the land as an inheritance by lot according to your families; to the larger you shall give more inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to anyone, that shall be his. You shall pass on land as an inheritance according to the tribes of your fathers. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. 56 And just as I plan to do to them, I will do to you.’”
The Pentateuch establishes the border of a territory. What purpose would this serve for a subject people? This makes more sense as the aspirational goal of rising power. It would seem that the territory identified by Moses in the Pentateuch was that of the aspirational kingdom intended to be held by the Jews after the fall of the Persians.
Numbers 34:
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, that is, the land of Canaan according to its borders. 3 Your southern region shall extend from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern border shall extend from the end of the Salt Sea eastward. 4 Then your border shall change direction from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim and continue to Zin, and its termination shall be to the south of Kadesh-barnea; and it shall reach Hazaraddar and continue to Azmon. 5 Then the border shall change direction from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.
6 ‘As for the western border, you shall have the Great Sea, that is, its coastline; this shall be your western border.
7 ‘And this shall be your northern border: you shall draw your boundary from the Great Sea to Mount Hor. 8 You shall draw a boundary from Mount Hor to the Lebo-hamath, and the termination of the border shall be at Zedad; 9 and the border shall proceed to Ziphron, and its termination shall be at Hazar-enan. This shall be your northern border.
10 ‘For your eastern border you shall also draw a boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham, 11 and the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down and reach to the slope on the east side of the Sea of Chinnereth. 12 And the border shall go down to the Jordan, and its termination shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to its borders on all sides.’”
13 So Moses commanded the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the land that you are to possess by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine and a half tribes. 14 For the tribe of the sons of Reuben have received theirs according to their fathers’ households, and the tribe of the sons of Gad according to their fathers’ households, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their possession. 15 The two and a half tribes have received their possession across the Jordan opposite Jericho, eastward toward the sunrise.”
The wandering in the wilderness would seem to be allegory for the state that the Jews found themselves in after the fall of the Persians. We have the past being used as a guide for the present. The people are stateless, without a territory of their own. They need inspiration from the heroes of the past, who suffered through the same issues yet ultimately found success.
The writer(s) of the Pentateuch are using some fabricated history about Israel as inspiration for their own generation. Undoubtedly many people from Yehud, i.e. the land of Palestine under the Persians, were descendants of the Israelites, but much of their real history had been lost over the hundreds of years since that civilization's collapse. So here these myth makers were re-inventing an ancient Israel intended to inspire the people to the goals and objectives of the current leaders.
But such an inspiration makes no sense under Persian rule, it only makes sense after Persian rule, when they have an opportunity to build their own state and obtain their own independence.