The College of Liberal Arts congratulates Professor of Religion Mark Leuchter on receiving an R.B.Y. Scott Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies for his book An Empire Far and Wide: The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period.

The R.B.Y. Scott Award recognizes outstanding books in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East published in the current and previous two years. Judges wrote that Leuchter’s book is “provocative in the best way” in its “breadth of knowledge, its creativity, and its originality.”

Released in 2024, An Empire Far and Wide utilizes a carefully selected set of literary test cases to offer a more definitive approach to the position of the Persian period (539-332 BCE) within the study of Judaism. You can learn more about the book at its Oxford University Press homepage.