ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we focused on texts that were produced during the Second Temple period in order to reflect on Israel's past in the light of a theology of a group that strove for a resurgence of national religion. The emergence of Hellenism as an imperial ideology further threatened the national identity and, with it, the religion of diminutive states in the ancient Near East. From the time of Alexander the Great, Israel would constantly struggle to maintain its distinctive identity amongst the waves of domination that flowed and ebbed over its borders and that challenged its diasporic communities. Over the next few centuries Ptolemies, Seleucids and, eventually, the Romans would all offer alternative paradigms of omnipotence. This period produced the sacred texts, or canons, of both emergent Judaism and Christianity.
