Volume 25, numéro special, 2025 Special Issue: Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia Sous la direction de Kristin Joachimsen et Jason S. Mokhtarian

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This essay explores how the book of Daniel articulates a contrast between Babylonian and Persian media. While Daniel 1–5 imagines Babylonian power as linked to monumentality, Daniel 9–12, set in the reigns of Darius and Cyrus, emphasizes circulatable writing as crucial to order and truth. This contrast is mobilized by the book’s authors to depict the Seleucids as akin to the Neo-Babylonians and in contrast to the Persians. This contrast is achieved via the book’s language of written “truth” (אמת).

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In this paper, the Story of the Three Bodyguards in 1 Esdras 3–4 is related to Persian royal power and rule as imagined in this Hellenistic-period rewriting. First, the presentation of the court is evaluated regarding Hellenistic and Persian elements. The speeches by the first two bodyguards on wine and the king are then read in the context of the book. All three speeches are shown as reflecting the complexities and ambiguities of imperial power and kingship and Judean positions towards it.

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The portrayal of Nehemiah’s relationship with the Achaemenid Empire shifts significantly across four key Second Temple period texts: Nehemiah, 1 Esdras, 2 Maccabees, and Sirach. In the book of Nehemiah, the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes is depicted as a central and supportive figure, empowering Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild Jerusalem. Later texts, however, present this relationship in more restrained or ambiguous terms. These variations mark a broader transformation in how Jewish authors of the Hellenistic period remembered and represented foreign imperial authority. As Nehemiah’s connection to the Achaemenids becomes increasingly subdued, his role in the restoration of Jerusalem also undergoes redefinition. A comparative reading of these texts reveals a dynamic memory of Achaemenid rule, shaped by changing historical and cultural contexts.

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Location matters, and this article explores the depiction and significance of the Esther/Mordecai (Purim) panel's placement next to the Torah niche in the Dura Europos Synagogue. It aims to answer questions such as what the visual representation may have conveyed and which memories the panel might have evoked by its presence in that particular place. To address these questions, the article probes the historical, visual, and ideological context of the panel within the Jewish synagogue in the mid-third century CE. It shows how the local Jewish population engaged with the depiction of Esther and Mordecai, not only as Diaspora heroes, but also as figures linked to Jewish memory, identity, and resistance in a Roman-Persian borderland. In doing so, it showcases how visual media in antiquity served Jewish communities in constructing sacred memory, connecting past and future hopes, and asserting their cultural identity in imperial contexts. In addition, it presents a fresh analysis of the legacy of the by then long-defunct Achaemenid Empire and its enduring presence in the memories, imagination, and minds of Jews living at the crossroads of the Parthian and Roman Empires.

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This study examines the Judean community under Achaemenid Persian rule through a comparative reading of biblical texts and cuneiform sources. While cuneiform records document administrative and economic realities, biblical texts reflect theological interpretation and communal tensions. Together, they illuminate Judean interaction with Persian authority, temple practice, taxation, landholding, and the negotiation of identity within the imperial framework.