‘‘‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who are we?’ are the existential, foundational questions in our lives. In our modern world, there is no construct more influential than ‘identity’ – whether as individuals or as groups. The concept of group identity is the focal point of a research group named “A Question of Identity” at the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The papers collected in this volume represent the proceedings of a January 2017 conference organized by the research group which dealt with identity formation in six contextual settings: Ethno-religious identities in light of the archaeological record; Second Temple period textual records on Diaspora Judaism; Jews and Christians in Sasanian Persia; minorities in the Persian achaemenid period; Inter-ethnic dialogue in pre-1948 Palestine; and redefinitions of Christian Identity in the Early Modern period.

• Preface 6
• Contents 8
• A question of identity: Introduction 12
• Part I: Ancient Mesopotamia and Further East 34
• 1. In His Majesty’s Service 34
• 2. Judean Identity during the Exile 54
• 3. Issues in the Historical Geography and the Ethno-Linguistic Character of the Zagros and Adjacent Regions 82
• 4. Going West 122
• 5. Jewish Identity in Babylonia in the Period of the Incantation Bowls 142
• 6. The Quest of the Historical Metatron: Enoch or Jesus 164
• 7. Priests in Exile 176
• Part II: The Hellenistic and Roman World 176
• 8. Iron Wall or Common Feast? 194
• 9. Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the Letter of Aristeas §§1–27 212
• 10. Literary Genres and Identity in the Letter of Aristeas 234