The Heifetz Revision

of the Medo-Persian Period

The Heifetz Revision is the work of Dr. Chaim S. Heifetz of Jerusalem.

It has long been known that the Jewish traditional accounts of the Persian period are at significant variance with the commonly accepted history of this time, as derived from the Greco-Roman accounts.

Until Dr. Heifetz's work, there were only three methods of dealing with this problem:

Assume that the Greek version is correct and that the Jewish version is ideological rather than historical.
Assume that the Jewish version is correct and that the Greek version is wrong.
Assume that the Greek version is correct historically, but that the Jewish version is also correct in some symbolic way.

This last was the method adopted by traditional Jews who did not feel themselves equal to standing against the weight of establishment historians.

Dr. Heifetz has shown that the framework and sparse details which were preserved in Jewish sources are accurate depictions of history as it unfolded, but that the various stories which were preserved by the Greeks provide the historical details lacking in the Jewish sources.

I am currently working on a book expanding on Dr. Heifetz's revision, but there are two books ahead of it that I really need to get to, so if you're interested in more details on his work, you can e-mail me at lisa@starways.net.

Return to Lisa's World