Nehemiah's Table, Persian-Style Feasting, and Local Elites in the Achaemenid Empire

Abstract

Nehemiah 5:17–18 mentioning the governor’s table has been interpreted as an instance of Persian-style feasting in the province of Yehud influenced by the sumptuous feasts organized by the Great Kings. This article discusses the two other occurrences of Persian dining, in Lydia and Egypt, comparing them with the biblical narrative and archaeological sources from the province of Yehud. It also applies Michael Dietler’s theory of commensal politics to assess how the local elites in the Achaemenid Empire could have used Persian-style dining as a tool for social distinction. It concludes that Persian-style dining was a social phenomenon that could have functioned to bind the vast territories and diverse populations of the empire through a kind of patron–client relationship.