Exile as Forced Migrations

Exile as Forced Migrations injects cutting edge studies on forced migrations (DIDPS, IDPs, Refugee studies), displacement and resettlement, and generational issues that mark the exilic period (6th century B.C.E.). Founder and co-chair of the “Exile/Forced Migrations in Biblical Literature” (Society of Biblical Literature) and a member of the American Sociological Association (International Migration Section), Ahn furnishes biblical scholars with up-to-date sociological information to examine critically, the exile as forced migrations in the cadre of economics of migrations. Biblically speaking, Ahn isolates the three varying views on the exile. The 70 years in Babylon is cast as three and a half generations, with each Judeo-Babylonian generation (first-“1.5”-second-third) responding to its own set of issues and concerns (Ps 137, Jer 29, Isa 43, Num 32). This definitive work reframes the approach to study of the exilic period, as “generation-units”, sociologically, from the first forced migration in 597 B.C.E. to the first return migrations in 538 B.C.E. Exile as Forced Migrations goes beyond traditional emphasis on an important edifice and its institution. It rightfully returns to peoples in flight and plight.

John J. Ahn, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, TX, USA.

"Une bibliographie et deux index de textes de référence et de matières complètent ce livre qui est encore plus actuel en 2016 qu’à l’époque où il a été conçu!"
R. Hunziker-Rodewald in: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 96.4 (2016), 440-441

"A.'s sociological anatomy establishes a major foundation for biblical scholarship on exile. Each of the four chapters on the biblical texts provides frontier scholarship. I excitedly anticipate how this astute methodology can be applied to the pertinent issues in Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, and other books written in the Persian period and beyond."
Hyun Chul Paul Kim in: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 74, 2012