Who Constitutes Society? Yehud's Self-Understanding in the Late Persian Era As Reflected in the Books of Chronicles‪.‬

I. LITERATURE AND SELF-UNDERSTANDING Many studies have already been devoted to a description of Jewish society in the Persian province of Yehud. It has been rightly pointed out that one cannot merely use biblical records such as Chronicles to "read off" what this flesh-and-blood society looked like. It has been emphasized equally, however, that historical books such as Chronicles reflect something of the self-understanding of this community. Although this self-understanding does not necessarily coincide with the flesh-and-blood society of that time, it nevertheless gives us a good impression of the processes of self-identification within the Yehudite community.