In other words, what it meant to be a Judean after the fall of Judah depended a great deal on which of the Judean communities you found yourself belonging to — including those in “exile,” those in the “homeland,” and those who found themselves in any number of other circumstances. This means that there is no single definition of Judean identity during this period, but rather a series of answers to the question of what it meant to be a Judean during this period.This sounds like a useful approach. I have made some similar general observations about applying a polythetic approach to the definition of Judaism.
By the way, it would have been helpful to include the title of this dissertation in the essay.
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