Dr. Roger S. Nam, Dean of the Seminary and Professor of Biblical Studies at George Fox University/Portland Seminary, will offer a lecture on "The Economics of Diaspora in Ezra-Nehemiah"
The repatriation of Judeans during the Persian period transformed the economy of the southern Levant. Instead of a kinship based structure with multivalent forms of exchange, the economy of Judah became highly centralized. The political aims of the Persian empire required a complex taxation system for Judah for exploitation and extraction. The book of Ezra-Nehemiah assumes, acknowledges, and subverted this system.