The Edomite Involvement in the Destruction of the First Temple: A Case of Stab-in-the-Back Tradition?

Abstract

This article investigates the biblical tradition of the Edomite intervention in the fall and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BCE. Close re-reading of the relevant biblical passages stripped of the ethnic prejudice against the Edomites demonstrates that the texts reproaching the Edomite behavior are not contemporary to the events they purport to describe, lacking important factual details and being full of theatrical imagery that is a product of their negative attitude towards Edom. I would suggest that the belief of the Edomites’ guilt represents an ancient case of ‘stab-in-the-back’ tradition, so typical of modern defeated societies. Contrary to traditional studies that failed to recognize that nations and national ideas were common in pre-modern times, a ‘perennialist’ perspective demonstrates that the 586 BCE catastrophe represented a major incentive for the burst of cultural nationalism and cultural creativity, but also of feelings of humiliation and embarrassment, xenophobia, ‘lost cause’ legends, ‘divine punishment’ themes and ‘stabin-the-back’ myths, that arose during the exilic and post-exilic periods.