Reconsidering the Date and Provenance of the Book of Hosea: The Case for Persian-Period Yehud.

Abstract

Traditionally scholarship has viewed the book of Hosea as originating in eighth-century Israel before being taken to Judah, where it underwent one or more redactions in later centuries, making it applicable to a Judahite audience. However, several lines of evidence suggest instead that the book should be viewed as a Judahite text from the start, a book that was composed in the late sixth or early fifth century B.C.E. First, the anti-monarchical ideology of the book is highly unlikely for a writer in monarchic Israel. The post-monarchic period in Judah provides a more fitting context. Second, the polemic against Benjamin in the book is only explicable as a result of the tension between the governing Saulides resident in Mizpah and the Judahite elite who had recently immigrated to Jerusalem from Mesopotamia in the late sixth century and who sought to reestablish the preeminence of their city and its cult. Next, the dual theme of Exile and Return present in the book is consistent with the discourse found in other Judahite books dating to the sixth century. This dual theme is certainly more difficult to explain in the context of the historical events of the eighth century, especially when the Assyrian practice of assimilating deported population groups is considered. Finally, the book shows a broad familiarity with Judahite historiographic traditions, many of which are in all probability to be dated to the seventh century or later. Thus, the book of Hosea should be interpreted as a work produced in the late sixth or early fifth century B.C.E. by a Judahite scribe for a Judahite audience.