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In recent years both OT and NT scholars have given a great deal of attention to the twin themes of exile and regathering. In the present volume these matters are taken up again with an eye towards how the emerging Christian church was able to see in itself the fulfillment of certain prophetic promises made long ago to the nation of Israel. It is particularly interested in the exegetical reasoning process that occurs within sectarian remnant communities that also believe they are the rightful representatives of the nation. In this, Christianity was not alone, sharing her salvation-historical outlook and hermeneutical creativity with other Jewish groups that had either come before or existed concurrently with her own arrival on the religious scene of the first century, societies of the "faithful" that like herself were vying for the distinction of "true Israel." Hence this study examines the NT's appropriation of the OT's exile and regathering motifs in light of an already established trajectory by the postexilic canonical writings as well as many of the works of Second Temple Judaism. It concludes that the authors of the NT understood their own fellowships as the eschatological people of God who were being formed in conjunction with the fulfillment of Israel's promised regathering that marked the "last days." Their escape from exile, however, did not initially manifest itself in terms of liberation from Roman rule. Instead, the "captivity" at issue was their bondage to sin, death, the devil, and, ironically, even the law. The entire discussion takes place in connection with the recent contributions of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, Craig Evans, Michael Knibb, James Scott, and a host of others, who have advocated the notion of a protracted exile in which many Israelites believed that the nation's historically incurred divine judgment made manifest in the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles was still very much a reality in their lives, and in need of an urgent eschatological solution.
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