06_Biblica_AN_Leuchter_269_279 15/07/14 12:22 Pagina 272 272 MARK LEUCHTER 272 not sharing in the gola discourses, common Levitical ideology and mythology from the pre-exilic period must have become a matter of de- bate in the face of how the gola group had appropriated them. III. The Levitical Origin of Nehemiah 9 The prayer in Nehemiah 9 is suggestive of this tension. Though schol- arship has proffered different possibilities for the compositional origins of this work 15, there are compelling reasons to view the prayer as com- posed during the exilic period (as argued by Williamson) or the earliest decades of the Persian period (as argued by Boda) specifically by home- land Levites 16. Several scholars have pointed to the late addition of this prayer to the developing Ezra-Nehemiah corpus; this is very likely the case, since it appears in a unit that seems to address the needs of an audi- ence in the late Persian or even early Hellenistic period, as Wright and others have suggested (on which see further below) 17. However, this by no means precludes its origins as a composition preserved and transmitted independently of the evolving Ezra and Nehemiah accounts before its in- troduction into its current setting. One finds, for example, a similar situ- ation in Daniel 9. Most commentators view Daniel’s penitential prayer (vv. 4-19) as deriving from a considerably earlier period than the sur- rounding chapter; the 2nd century BCE author of Daniel 9 inherited an earlier (and probably well-known) liturgical work with a decidedly Priestly emphasis, incorporating it into his narrative in order to intertwine an old and venerated Priestly pietistic theology with the more specific rhetorical aims of the chapter 18. The same may be said about the process of incorporation of the prayer in Nehemiah 9 into its current setting: a late redactor bolsters the rhetorical 15 For a convenient overview of scholarly positions regarding the prayer’s provenance, see TIEMEYER, “Abraham”, 61-63. 16 M.J. BODA, Praying the Tradition. The Origin and Use of Tradition in Nehemiah 9 (BZAW 277; Berlin – New York 1999) 190. So also the implications of Tiemeyer’s discussion (“Abraham”, 63). 17 J.L. WRIGHT, “A New Model for the Composition of Ezra-Nehemiah”, Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E. (eds. O. LIPSCHITS – G.N. KNOPPERS – R. ALBERTZ) (Winona Lake, IN 2007) 345-346. See also D.M. CARR, The Formation of the Hebrew Bible. A New Reconstruction (Oxford 2011) 207-209; K. SCHMID, Genesis and the Moses Story. Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible (Winona Lake, IN 2010) 282-286. 18 M. LEUCHTER, “From Levite to Máskîl in the Persian and Hellenistic Eras”, Levites and Priests in Biblical History and Tradition (eds. M. LEUCHTER – J.M. HUTTON) (Atlanta, GA 2011) 227 n. 50.