The letter from a King Artaxerxes to Ezra recounted in Ezra 7 is interpreted against the background of royal Hellenistic foundations and gifts. The euergetism rooted in the Hellenistic kingly ideology cannot be shown for the Persian royal ideology. Thus, Ezra 7 probably belongs into (early) Hellenistic times. This has consequences firstly for the understanding of the letter as an historical document, but then also for those historical models which seek to explain the genesis of the Torah principally from Ezra 7.

Habilitationsschrift, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 2003.