Jerusalem's Survival, Sennacherib's Departure, and the Kushite Role in 701 BCE: An Examination of Henry Aubin's Rescue of Jerusalem (32)

In 2002 Henry T. Aubin published The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC. Aubin, an award win­ning Canadian journalist, explores Jerusalem's survival in 701 BCE in the face of an Assyrian invasion of the Levant. It is unusual for a book in biblical studies to be reconsidered fifteen to twenty years later. The rationale for a book-length collection devoted to Aubin's The Rescue of Jerusalem is, first of all, the importance of the issues it raises for the academy and beyond. This volume brings together excellent scholars from several fields to consider certain issues that are raised by The Rescue of Jerusalem. This volume is important for another reason. Not only does The Rescue of Jerusalem raise issues regarding what may have hap­pened in 701 BCE; it also probes the causes of changes in West­ern biblical scholarly attitudes regarding the Twenty-fifth Dyn­asty's involvement in those events. Aubin's approach raises important concerns about scholarly attitudes, not only from the past, but also about the ways in which past attitudes have a way of continuing to color later academic discourse when they are not challenged.