With this chapter, we arrive at five final books in our Old Testament collection. They have been brought together in the Jewish canon as the “five scrolls,” related to each other by their use in the Jewish liturgical calendar.

Our survey will begin with the Song of Songs, a collection of Israel’s love poetry. We have numerous ancient parallels, but we will note in these the particular imagery drawn from everyday life in Syria–Palestine. Second, Ruth is an exquisite narrative about ordinary Israelites. Their uncommonness is on display in their exemplary characters and their genealogical connection to Israel’s beloved King David. A third book, Lamentations, is a collection of five poems presented in acrostic form. Recounting the tragedies incurred in Jerusalem’s destruction, the poetry nevertheless exhibits some of the Old Testament’s most glorious expressions of Yahweh’s mercy. Ecclesiastes, another unique poetry collection with ancient Near Eastern parallels, offers reflections on the human experience. Finally, we will examine Esther. God is never mentioned in the book of Esther, yet this story merited inclusion in the canon, and we will note its subtle but important contribution to Old Testament theology.

In this chapter we turn from the Primary and Chronistic Histories to the books that make up roughly the second half of the Old Testament. We will observe a dramatic shift in content from historical narrative to largely poetry. Furthermore, these books are much less linked editorially to one another. Rather, we will discover that superscriptions and content help us to group them literarily and, in most cases, to relate them chronologically to one another and to the Primary History.

Because of the preponderance of poetry, we will spend time in this chapter on the nature and characteristics of ancient Hebrew poetry. There are certain aspects that we do not know, such as original pronunciation or meter. However, we will readily observe one major feature – that of parallelism. This “symmetry of thought” is recognizable in three primary types: synonymous, antithetical, and synthesizing parallelisms. We will explore plenty of examples and discover along the way that ancient Hebrew poetry is rich in content and artistic skill.

The Ptolemaic ’oil monopoly’ shows extensive control of local economic processes over at least a century and a half. The so-called Revenue Laws lay out strict state control of cultivation, production and distribution, which is confirmed by many other Greek and Demotic papyri. The entire harvest of oil crops had to be sold to the state, oil was produced exclusively in state workshops, and retail was subject to exclusive local concessions. Import restrictions and severe penalties were introduced to safeguard the revenues from this system, which were leased out to private contractors. Although it contributed to the monetisation of the countryside, the ‘oil monopoly’ was a rather inefficient form of organisation. The parallel bureaucracy of officials and contractors created red tape, the confiscation of capital eroded trust, oil crop cultivation proved unpopular, and the resulting shortages in concert with high fixed oil prices led to considerable black market activity, which further disrupted the official circuit. Evidence from the Late Period and the reign of Ptolemy I shows that the ‘oil monopoly’ was a creation of Ptolemy II, representing a remarkable experiment in fiscal policy.

The last decades witnessed important developments in our understanding of Ptolemaic Egypt. Traditionally seen as a highly centralised state exercising close control over the economy, it is now clear that the king was part of a broader coalition with the primary aim of raising stable revenues. Recent work on land tenure and taxation furthermore challenges the idea of a ‘royal economy’. This book tackles the other major pillar of this model: the so-called state monopolies in industry and trade. Ill-defined and anachronistic, it has been a problematic concept from its inception in the early twentieth century, yet it remains in wide use. Inspired by the famous ‘Revenue Laws’ papyrus, it evokes a centrally planned state economy. The book offers a deconstruction of these ideas and provides the first full assessment of the actual organisation of the sectors involved. The institutions are analysed within the framework of New Institutional Economics, including an analysis of their effect on economic performance. The study takes full account of both the Greek and the Demotic Egyptian sources. The Ptolemaic institutions are, moreover, contextualised within Greek and Egyptian fiscal history.

The Old Testament book of Daniel will be the focus of our attention in this chapter, and thus we will consider the literary genre of apocalyptic writing. In general, there are two subcategories of apocalyptic writing: historical and otherworldly. The latter is characterized by the transcendence of space and a celestial setting.

We have many apocalyptic compositions dating from the mid second century bcethrough the second century ce. As we examine the style and characteristics of this unique form of communication, we will observe that the concept of apocalyptic writing manifests a marked distinction between the spiritual and the physical worlds. Reading such literature appropriately, we will observe its primary purpose of encouraging the reader in faithful endurance and patience, assured that God will ultimately triumph and care for his righteous followers. Although monotheism is not explicitly stated in Daniel’s apocalypse, we will note that his God is the sole deity of the universe.

In this final chapter, we will summarize the Old Testament and explore its lasting contributions to world history, society in general, and the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Specifically, we will explore four particular aspects of the Old Testament and examine how each functions to create a cohesive and living whole.

This overview in turn will remind us that the Old Testament’s central message communicates, in a host of ways, what it perceives as Israel’s life in covenant relationship with God, obeying God’s Torah, and living morally and ethically in right relationship with other human beings. Within this overarching concern of the Old Testament, we have already observed the continual thread of a monotheistic worldview in process. The development toward the Old Testament’s conviction of the singularity of God is indeed among the most enduring contributions to human history.

Similarly, the Old Testament’s contribution to civil society cannot be underestimated. Thus, in conclusion, we will explore three core values in particular that are rooted, not in secularization as often is assumed, but in the rich and enduring legacy of the Old Testament.

The significance of the Old Testament for human history and culture is undeniable. Whatever our personal convictions regarding its content, the Old Testament contains the origins of nearly everything we think about God. Variously labeled as the Hebrew Bible, the Tanak, the First Testament, and the Old Testament, among others, this library of texts from ancient Israel has been preserved for more than two thousand years.

Emerging from the polytheistic context of the ancient world, the enduring significance of the Old Testament is to be found in the concept of monotheism. Indeed, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share in this unique religious legacy. We will discover in this chapter what lies behind the terminology we use when we speak of monotheism, and how the Old Testament perceives and develops the understanding of a singular God. Known to ancient Israel as Yahweh, Israel’s God came to be understood as Creator, source of all, and sovereign over all. Only in time would Israel come to believe that Yahweh was not only its God, and the God Israelites were called to worship, but the one and only God.

The Ptolemaic state did not pursue a policy of ‘state monopolies’ in industry and trade. Although state intervention was extensive in some sectors, markets played an important role in others. Fiscal contracts leased out to entrepreneurs shared certain procedures and terminology, but the reality of state control was different in every industry, determined by strategic concerns and practical considerations. Together, these institutions show a pragmatic state concerned primarily with securing revenues from economic activities. While the papyri also highlight the limits of state control and the possibilities to evade regulations, they do not show a general decline of state capacity in the second century. The impact of the regulations on economic performance varied. While the ‘oil monopoly’ caused significant inefficiencies, the same was not necessarily true in other sectors. The regulations stimulated the circulation of coinage, leading to increased market performance, to an extent supported also by state enforcement of agreements and property rights. Finally, the analysis underscores the significant fiscal and economic role of temples and professional associations.

At this point, the discussion turns to the calendar’s role in regulating the internal operations of the polity. The year was an essential administrative and legal unit. From the end of the fourth century, one can detect a persistent tendency to subordinate crucial operations to the calendar itself, which often had a shifting relationship to the solar cycle and the cycle of the seasons, and to construct cycles of years which were to operate with great regularity. The chapter examines in greatest detail the consular year, the census, and the saeculum or century. The same tension between ideal and practice can also be detected here. The third and early-second centuries represented the high point of this effort, although it would long remain an ideal.

In this chapter, we will explore Israel’s book of worship – Psalms. These “songs,” collected over hundreds of years, nevertheless convey timeless expressions of Israel’s faith. This Old Testament collection has been organized into five books, and many of the individual psalms have titles, musical notations, or historical details.

Scholarship in the discipline of form criticism has furthered our understanding of how the original materials (sources behind the present texts) may have functioned in Israel’s life situations (German, Sitz im Leben). In general, we can identify larger categories of praise and lament, and of individual and corporate psalms. Specific forms include hymns, communal and individual laments, thanksgiving songs, and royal psalms. Thus, for example, the form of lament corresponds to a crisis situation; a royal psalm form is situated in events surrounding the king. These forms, preserved and presented as the collected psalms, represent an overview of Israel’s religious worldview. We will not necessarily observe statements of strict monotheism, but we will hear Israel “sing” of Yahweh, who alone is worthy of praise.

The nundinal and intercalary cycles were probably intended to operate with great regularity, and scholars often assume that they did so. Ancient calendars, however, were often managed calendars, and officials often intervened in their operations for a variety of purposes. There is virtually no evidence for the nundinal cycle, but the pontiffs, who were in charge of the calendar, intercalated with some irregularity. One can also find traces of criticism of pontifical practice, which was often conducted in terms of speculation about ideal political orders and the gods. In this way, it reveals a long-term tension between ideals and the actual conduct of public and cultic activity.

This chapter examines the essential links between antiquarianism, the writing of histories, and jurisprudence, for all were concerned in varying degrees with clarifying the essential nature of institutions and with ordering the rules associated with them. Roman writers produced a history of the calendar which they tied to other crucial institutions and to the lunar and solar cycles. Close examination reveals that they knew only of the calendar that governed the republic’s last centuries and that they wrote of its links to celestial phenomena through the lens of Caesar’s reform and the resulting Julian calendar. In this way, core features of the structure of the republican calendar, such as its intercalary and nundinal cycles, remain unaddressed.

First and Second Kings continue the stories of monarchic rule. Textual sources from the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires aid us considerably in the historical reconstruction of these centuries, but we will quickly observe that a religious agenda is central. First, the narrative accounts are connected by a recurring literary formula that evaluates each king – not primarily on political and military achievements but on the basis of that king’s faithfulness to Yahweh. Insertions of the so-called Elijah and Elisha cycles further demonstrate a concern to emphasize prophetic authority, which demands exclusive loyalty to Yahweh.

Second, content bears out the overriding religious motivation. For example, Solomon is associated with the great wisdom tradition in Israel. Nevertheless, for these biblical authors success is measured by obedience to Yahweh, and Solomon’s devotion to Yahweh is compromised because of his many wives and religious unfaithfulness. His downfall is also Israel’s – the United Monarchy is divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Religious unfaithfulness, exhibited by most of the kings, accounts for the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 bceand of Jerusalem (Judah) to the Babylonians in 586 bce.

In Rome, as elsewhere in the ancient world, formal timekeeping practices were deeply embedded in views about the proper relationship between political orders, the surrounding world, and the powers that governed them. Ancient polities were cultic communities, and central practices within them were aimed at securing the favor of gods who were linked in various ways to events in the visible world. Rites were the chief instruments for securing this favor, but they rested on rules, either written or oral, that were intended to ensure their proper performance. At a more fundamental level, however, were ideas and assumptions, some more coherent and explicit than others, about the ways that the world worked. Here, it was widely assumed that polities should function in some form of alignment with rhythms that were revealed in the heavens.