The Temple in Post-Exilic Prophetic Tradition: Ideology and Reality in Building Contextual Theology

The main question of this paper is concerned with the understanding of the temple in the prophetic tradition of Israelite religion. Specifically, it focuses on the prophetic literatures from the second temple period. Is there any change of the concept of the temple in the restoration times? What kind of roles of the temple do the prophets delineate? In what circumstances have the Persian period prophets viewed the temple? How does the temple ideology of the prophets reflect the lives in the colony of Yehud, the post-exilic community of Judah? This paper aims at finding principles of contextual theology Scholars have discussed the continuity and discontinuity of Israelite religion after the exile. through transformed ideas of the post-exilic prophets on the temple. By contextual theology, I mean local theology that takes the starting point of doing theology from the very ground on which the theologians stand. Contextual theology is commonly introduced as cardinal method for Minjung theology in Korea, liberation theology in Latin America, Black theology in North America, feminist theology and various local theologies in Asia: Yim Taesoo, Minjung Theology towards a Second Reformation (Seoul: Christian Conference of Asia, 2006) 85, 88. 2 Joseph Blenkinsopp, Judaism The First Phase: The Place of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Origins of Judaism (Grand Rapids, Michigan: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009) 33. However, we generally recognize a transformation of the religion during the second temple period. Among those changes, the shift of the temple role is significant. This paper maintains that the Persian period prophets understand the temple, on the one hand, as a symbol of restoration of the community and on the other hand, as an eschatological symbol. We will find how ambivalent outlooks of the prophets played transformative role in shaping the faith of the Yehud community.