Download or read book Disputed Temple written by John Robert Barker and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Robert Barker uses rhetorical criticism of Haggai to tease out the probable attitudes and anxieties among the Yehudite community that saw rebuilding as both undesirable and unfeasible. While some in the community accepted the prophet‘s claim that YHWH wanted the temple built, others feared that adverse agricultural and economic conditions, as well as the lack of a royal builder, were clear signs that YHWH did not approve or authorize the effort. Haggai‘s counterarguments are combined with his vilification of opponents as unclean and non-Israelite.