[Bible] Episode 295: Pete Enns - Pete Ruins Esther
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete takes a closer look at the Book of Esther, tracing its twists and turns while reflecting on its unique place in the biblical canon. He explores how the story functions, what makes it stand out, and what it might have meant to its original audience. Join him as he explores the following questions:
What is the Book of Esther about?
Why is God never mentioned explicitly in the Book of Esther?
How does the story of Esther fit into the larger biblical narrative?
What literary techniques are used in the Book of Esther?
Who are the main characters in Esther and what roles do they play?
What is the significance of the feasts and banquets in the book?
How does the Book of Esther portray power and politics?
What role does coincidence or “luck” play in the narrative?
Why might the story have been written or edited the way it was?
What is the festival of Purim and how does it relate to Esther?
How should we interpret the violence in the book?
What makes Esther different from other biblical books?
How might ancient readers have understood the story differently from modern readers?
Quotables
Pithy, shareable, sometimes-less-than-280-character statements from the episode you can share.
“Esther is a story set in the Persian empire. And it concerns the deliverance of the Jews from the threat of annihilation at the hands of the wicked and hate-filled Persian Haman.” — Pete Enns
“Esther is routinely considered by academics to be a story. A novella, a little novel, not a historical account.” — Pete Enns
“Esther is fictional, but also a powerful and encouraging story of the triumph of the Jews against seemingly insurmountable odds through the actions of a woman—and an orphan woman at that—named Esther.” — Pete Enns
“As with the books of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, the author of Esther is unknown, nor is it known exactly when in the Persian period it was written.” — Pete Enns
“Esther the book is an example of something we see within the Hebrew Bible and in the centuries that followed. Pious Jews see themselves and their circumstances through the lens of their sacred tradition, and they tell stories to get that point across.” — Pete Enns
Mentioned in This Episode
Class: April class “Jesus and the Culture Wars” with AJ Levine
Books: God's Stories as told by God's Children by the Bible for Normal People
Join: The Society of Normal People community
Support: www.thebiblefornormalpeople.com/give
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Pete: You're listening to the Bible for normal people, the only God ordained podcast on the internet. I'm Pete Enns. And I'm Jared Byas.
Hey folks. We've been working on our children's Bible for over a year and it's a project we are extremely proud of, and guess what? It's finally here. God's Stories as told by God's Children, is out now and ready for you and your curious kids to read together.
Jared: Yes, it's informed by Biblical scholarship, of course, with the Bible for normal people, it's inclusive, deeply respectful of children's imagination and intelligence. God's stories, as told by God's children, is the storybook Bible you'll wish you had when you were a kid, and
Pete: it contains stories from over 50 contributors, including biblical scholars, theologians, and practitioners representing diverse religious traditions.
Locations and lived experiences mirroring the many voices we find in the Bible.
Jared: God's Stories as told by God's children allows parents to introduce children to their own beliefs and traditions in conversation with the stories found inside the Bible. You can order your copyright now at the Bible for normal people.com front slash God's stories.
Pete: It's time to tell you about our April class. Jesus and the culture wars, the gospels as guides taught by none other than Amy, Jill Levine,
Jared: This live class will cover how stories told by and about Jesus help us ask the right questions about the issues fracturing society today, including healthcare, economics, ethnicity, slavery's, legacy, and family values.
Jared: by locating Jesus in the world of first century Jewish life, AJ will demonstrate how we can prevent the antisemitism that frequently accompanies Christian teaching and how Jesus offers nourishing guidance rather than pie in the sky promises.
Pete: Join AJ Levine for the live class on April 24th from 8 to 9:30 PM Eastern Time. Followed by an extended q and a session for members of our online community, the Society of Normal People.
Jared: Head to www.thebiblefornormalpeople.com/culturewars to sign up, it's pay what you can until the class ends, and then it'll cost $25 to access the recording.
Pete: Hey everybody.
Welcome back to the Pete Ruin series. And you know, I've been trying to go systematically and in order through the books of the Hebrew Bible for about three to four years now. And after we covered Ezra and Nehemiah, I realized I hadn't done an episode on Genesis. And I've commented on Genesis a lot on many other podcasts, but I never did a standalone episode, which seemed really, really silly and dumb.
So I did an about-face and took care of that little oversight. Well, that episode turned into five, and I've only done a multi-episode series on one other book, Exodus, and here's why. Those two are great introductions to most of the issues that modern scholars talk about. Things like history, archeology, authorship, the setting of the books.
There were literary features, the composition of the books, myth, folklore, and so forth. So if you engage those books with that sort of academic approach in mind, you are well set up for academic discussions of the remaining books. So I felt justified in expanding those episodes into a series, but now we're back to one book per episode and picking up where we left off, It's now time to ruin the Book of Esther.
[Music plays over clip of Pete speaking]
“Rather than being a recollection of a historical event, it is a literary creation. Esther, in my opinion, was written to encourage post-exilic Persian-era Jews who, if not persecuted, might have felt abandoned by God. The encouragement comes not only from the absolute uncompromising victory of the Jews, but also by echoing stories from Israel's past.”
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So in a nutshell, Esther is a story set in the Persian empire. And it concerns the deliverance of the Jews from the threat of annihilation at the hands of the wicked and hate-filled Persian Haman. Hmm. Now Esther's beauty lands her a gig as the wife of the King of Persia, thus making her the Queen of Persia, obviously.
Duh. All this is done under the wise oversight of her Uncle Mordecai. Haman's attempt is thwarted and he's executed, and other enemies of the Jews are put to the sword under Mordecai's command. Thus, Esther and Mordecai save the Jews. So that's the gist. Now let's lay out a few academic preliminaries before diving into the story itself.
First of all, Esther is routinely considered by academics to be a story. A novella, a little novel, not a historical account. One big reason is that the notion of a Persian king holding an empire-wide beauty contest to find a replacement for his queen seems unrealistic. In addition to historical difficulties, like Esther does not appear in any Persian records.
The book also has some internal inconsistencies. The symmetry of the book structure seems contrived, and there's a lot of quoted dialogue, detailed quoted dialogue by people who weren't there. And then you also have the exaggeration of numbers. For example, the killing of 75,000 enemies by a small Jewish force at the end of the book.
So this is the overwhelming academic consensus that Esther is not a historical record, nor was it intended to be. The story is set in the Persian Empire, which is also where the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are set. And you may recall that the southern nation of Judah was taken captive by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
That's the famous Babylonian exile, and their temple was razed to the ground and Judah's 400 plus year legacy of kings, which began with none other than David was brought to an end. In 539 BC the Persian Empire led by King Cyrus, well, he subdued the Babylonians, and at its height, the Persian Empire was absolutely huge, much bigger than anything that came before.
It's stretched from Macedonia, which is right next to Greece and also Northern Africa, and that's in the west, and it moves east all the way to roughly the borders of India. Part of the land that was swallowed up was of course, the tiny little ancestral home of the Israelites in 539 with the Persian conquest, the once captive Judahites, who, who now should be called Judeans.
Well, they were given permission to return to their homeland and rebuild, and so they did. And that's largely the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Persian Empire would eventually meet its own demise, as all empires do, at the hands of Alexander the Great and his Greek forces in 332 BCE. So all of this is the historical backdrop for the story of Esther.
But here's the thing. That doesn't mean Esther is a historical book. Les Mis is set in the 19th century in Paris, but it's still fictional. But still has a feel of like, well, these events could happen. Esther is fictional, but also a powerful and encouraging story of the triumph of the Jews against seemingly insurmountable odds through the actions of a woman—and an orphan woman at that—named Esther.
That's her Persian name, and it means star. Her Hebrew name is also given Hadassah, which means myrtle. This book is still read each year at the Feast of Purim, which commemorates this victory and which is mentioned in the closing chapters of the book. Now, as with the books of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, the author of Esther is unknown, nor is it known exactly when in the Persian period it was written.
The king mentioned in the very first verse of the book is Ahasuerus. Many think that this is the king better known to us as Xerxes I, and he ruled from 486 to 465 BCE. So that would be the earliest date for this book. But the problem there is that Xerxes’s wife is known and her name is Amestris, and in the book of Esther the King's wife is Vashti, and then later the whole point of the book it becomes Esther, neither of whom are known to us from external sources. So maybe Ahasuerus isn't Xerxes I. On the other hand, the fact that the wrong name for his wife is given in the book of Esther might simply mean that the writer either got it wrong or just wanted to change things up to be more creative.
Who knows, but still, others throughout history have suggested that Ahasuerus should be identified not as Xerxes the first, but either Artaxerxes the first who is Xerxes successor, and he ruled from 465 to 424. Or another guy with a confusingly similar name Artaxerxes the second. He ruled from 404 and takes us into the fourth century. He stopped ruling in 358. You know, here's the tricky thing, and this is, this is always the case when you try to date the authorship of biblical books. Even identifying the name of the king will not help us much in landing on a date of authorship. Probably the best we can say in terms of when this book was written is sometime during the Persian period, quite possibly in the fourth century, BCE. But we don't really know, and it doesn't help that there are no solid historical clues in the book that might help narrow things down. Another issue that's talked about a lot is the absence of God in this story. The rescue of Jews from annihilation is due to Esther's beauty and cunning under the oversight of her uncle Mordecai.
Similar stories are found in the Hebrew Bible, for example, with Joseph and Daniel, both of whom are Hebrews in the court of a foreign king. But in both of those cases, God's role in maneuvering the affairs of state is clear. Even if in the story of Joseph, that divine role is made clear, only toward the end of the story when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and he says that God orchestrated the whole thing.
In Esther, the divine role is either absent or at least not overt. Now, some have argued that chapter four, verses 13 to 14, hint at an act of God. Mordecai here in this passage is convincing Esther to play her role in the deliverance of the Jews, to exploit her position of power as queen. And he says, do not think that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this.
If you're looking for God's involvement in this story, this might be your best bet, but it is a slim thread to hold onto. There may be other hints, which I'll mention throughout this podcast, but the point is that God's absence does seem to have been a problem for ancient Jews.
It's likely one of the reasons why no copies of Esther were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Every other book of the Hebrew Bible is there, plus many others that eventually did not make it in, not Esther. And it doesn't help matters that a good bit of the action in the book does not align with Jewish piety.
For example, Esther's marriage to a non-Jew. Namely, Esther aligns herself with the Persian court, whereas Daniel a later second century Greek era text—while Daniel resists that. Also Mordecai and the Jews mourn and fast, but they're not set to pray. So to address this problem of orthodoxy, enter the Greek version of Esther.
Yeah. There's another version of Esther written in Greek, uh, late second, first century, BCE. And, and this is not obscure. This is found in the apocrypha, which I'm sure many of you have in your Bibles. I know I do. And in this Greek version, 150 verses are added to the Book of Esther to bring it into alignment with Jewish piety.
Namely by mentioning explicitly several times that the deliverance is God's doing, but it is the Hebrew version, not the Greek that became part of Jewish scriptures and therefore part of the Protestant Bible. And so there we have it.
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Okay with that, let's walk through the book and pause here and there on some points of interest. So I mean, the book's 10 chapters long and the first two chapters are about how Esther becomes queen of all Persia. King Ahasuerus is on his throne in Susa and he throws a 180-day party to show off his wealth.
After that, he gave a second banquet. You know why not? In the garden court that lasted another seven days. People were getting quite hammered, and in the meantime, queen Vashti was giving her own banquet for the women, which seems to have been a Persian custom for women to do their own thing once the men got out of hand.
So on the seventh day, Ahasuerus summons Vashti to appear before him in her Royal arraignment in order to show off her beauty, but she refused to come. Why? We are not told, but I frankly can't say I blame her, but this act of resistance cost her. The drunken royal husband was angered and embarrassed, and he had to restore his honor.
So after consulting with his sages and experts in the law, it was decided that Vashti should be banished from the king’s sight forever, and another woman be found to take her place. I think this is a beautiful opening in terms of the broad plot line of the book itself. Vashti opposes a royal command and is banished for it.
So what will happen to his second queen, a Jew, if she were to oppose him too? Well, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, just to drive the point home. One of Ahasuerus’s advisors suggests that letters be sent to all the royal provinces declaring that every man should be the master of his house. Hmm. And there you have it.
And that is how chapter one ends. So if you're following along here, Vashti is an unintended hero. It is her refusal to be treated like an object that set off a series of events that eventually led to the deliverance of the Jews. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves a bit. Speaking of banquets, those banquets, they actually form the structure of the book.
The book seems to be built around 10 banquets or feasts that carry the action forward. And we've seen two banquets already by Ahasuerus and, and a third one by Vashti. That's three just in chapter one. And the other seven are going to be found in chapters 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and then two more in chapter nine, which incidentally parallel the two feasts given by Ahasuerus here in chapter one.
That's just nice to know. The action of the book is shaped around banquets. A banquet means something's about to go down, something pivotal is happening. So anyway, this brings us to chapter two, where we are introduced to Esther and her Uncle Mordecai. The scene is set where Ahasuerus’s advisors advise him to have a beauty contest of virgin women, the most beautiful of which will get to be the new queen.
This is far more than a mere beauty contest. The women were prepared for the big show by a 12 month beauty treatment. Each woman would spend one night with the king, and whoever pleased him most would win. And Esther won and the banquet was thrown in her honor. Now apparently, you know, Ahasuerus fell head over heels for Esther, which is not for nothing.
This would give her the leverage later to use her privileged position to help deliver the Jews from a plot to annihilate them. She kept her Jewish identity quiet, understandably so, you know, would the Persian King knowingly marry a Jew? There is, as we pick up both subtly and directly in the story, there's a strong anti-Jewish sentiment among the Persians.
So one cannot fault Esther for resorting to trickery, as did the midwives of the Exodus story. You may remember Shifra and Puah who protected the infant Hebrew children whom Pharaoh wanted killed by lying to him when interrogated.
Okay, a word or two about Mordecai. His lineage is given and he's from the tribe of Benjamin. His grandfather was Shimei, also pronounced Shimmy, S-H-I-M-E-I. And his great-grandfather was Kish. That's the great-grandfather of Mordecai. So if you remember the story of David, Shimei was the guy who cursed David and then fled Jerusalem. This is in 2 Samuel chapter 16, and Kish is also Saul's father. The point here is that Mordecai's lineage is traced to the house of Saul, and suggests among other things that this writer may be favorably disposed towards Saul.
It's been suggested that a parallel is being drawn here between Saul and his defeated enemy, Agag, and we find this in 1 Samuel chapter 15. Agag is the king of the Amalekites. And Mordecai, who will soon defeat the treachery of Haman, the Agagite.
Now the fact that Saul is called out in one Samuel 15 for disobeying Samuel's command and sparing Agag and the best of the flock, well that doesn't seem to bother this writer. The death of Haman, not to mention the 75,000 in chapter nine, seems to be an explicit contrast to Saul's failure to kill Agag. So Mordecai is in the line of Saul, but is a more exalted figure, and Saul is represented with at least some sympathy.
Speaking of Mordecai, while Esther's banquet was happening, he overhears a plot on the part of two of Ahasuerus’s eunuchs to assassinate the king. So Mordecai let Esther know that the plot was foiled and that's awesome. All's well that ends well, I suppose. But this story is just getting started and this brings us to chapter three. So here in chapter three, we meet Haman, the Agagite, and I just mentioned the importance of this identification, right? Mordecai, the great-grandson of Kish versus Haman the Agagite is parallel to Saul, the son of Kish versus the Agagites. And the scene is now five years after Mordecai foiled the plans to assassinate Ahasuerus.
And Haman has a surreal hatred for all things Jewish, which stems from his earlier promotion by Ahasuerus, and Mordecai's refusal to bow down before him, which is against the King's orders. So interestingly enough, we already have two people who have defied the king.
This prompted Haman, this the refusal of Mordecai to bow down to him. This prompted Haman to plot the annihilation of all Jews throughout the empire, which seems a bit extreme, but I think we should read this more as a pretext to do what he had been wanting to do anyway. And the timing of the massacre was determined by casting a lot.
A pur originally, an Acadian word that made its way into Hebrew. And the plural is Purim or Purim, which is where the Jewish Festival of Purim derives its name. So Haman sends a slanderous letter throughout the provinces and even offers the king the prospect of gaining financially through all this to the tune of 10,000 talents or the rough equivalent of an entire year's tribute to the king.
That's interesting. What's that all about? Well, this may have been a necessary component to Haman's plot, seeing that killing all the Jews would've ended a revenue stream for the empire. Moving to chapter four, Mordecai learns of this plot and he tears his clothes and he dresses in sackcloth, which is an expression of a ritual mourning.
Esther found out by her maids and eunuchs and tried to get Mordecai to change his clothes into something less obvious, but he refused. But Mordecai, communicating through one of the king's eunuchs, made it known to Esther what was happening and what was at stake, and he urges her to use her privilege to convince the king not to do this.
But Esther hesitates, since a queen can only come into the king's presence when summoned. When the king holds out the golden scepter, as the story puts it. See, she can't just waltz in disrespectfully just because she's the queen. Remember what happened to the other queen, queen Vashti, when she abandoned royal protocol?
And it's at this point that Mordecai reminds Esther that you know, Esther, you're Jewish and you're gonna suffer the same fate. So he helps her connect the dots that her position of power might actually be “for such a time as this,” right? And this is, as I mentioned just above. This is a possible oblique reference to God's involvement behind the scenes.
She responds by telling Mordecai, okay, listen. Gather together all the Jews of Susa to fast for her for three days. Then she will approach the king knowing that her own life might be forfeit for doing so. So this is an act of piety and bravery. And that brings us to chapter five and the pivotal meeting between Esther and Ahasuerus. Only, she has a trick up her sleeve. She appears before Ahasuerus in the inner court of the palace, which is something like walking into the Oval Office. Well, as soon as he sees her, he held out the golden scepter. Remember, he is smitten by her. One crisis is averted, Esther is not going to die. So she makes her request, which, which is a bit cunning.
She invites him, Ahasuerus, and Haman to a banquet she has prepared while they are drinking. Ahasuerus asks her to make her request. So she asks that he and Haman come to a second banquet the next day where she will make her request. So this could get interesting. So Haman, okay. He leaves that first banquet quite full of himself, having just had a private banquet with the king, but then his mood sours.
See, he sees that wretch Mordecai, who refuses to bow, and so Haman is fuming. He goes home and discusses the matter with his friends and his wife, Zaresh, along with bragging to everyone about how powerful and wealthy he is. Little does he know he's gonna lose it all. He mentions how pumped he is that he's going to the second banquet the next day, but he also confesses, alas, how distraught he is that Mordecai refuses to tremble before him.
How dare he? So they advise him to build a gallows 50 cubits high, a cubit's about a foot and a half. So that's a 75 foot high gallows. And have Mordecai hanged the next day. By the way, gallows, if you want to know, gallows could be used either for hanging or impaling. Either way, you're gonna die. Haman's response is, that's a great idea. And what could possibly go wrong? Well, that's covered in chapter six. Here we find Ahasuerus having a sleepless night. So for some reason he orders that the book of records be read to him. Is this so he can doze off? I don't know. Or is his sleepless night induced by God to get him to read the book of records?
I'm thinking here of Pharaoh's dream in the Joseph story that sets things in motion. So I have to say, this may be, lemme suggest this could be a second oblique reference to God, even though once again God is not mentioned. But lo and behold, what do they stumble upon in the book of records, but the record of Mordecai having thwarted the assassination plot at the end of chapter two.
So, Ahasuerus asks, what's been done to honor this man? Well, well, nothing. That's what. At, at this very point. See, just think of the timing here. At that very point, Haman shows up. He shows up to ask the King's permission to hang Mordecai, and the timing couldn't be worse or, or the timing couldn't be better depending on your perspective.
Haman had not heard the conversation up to that point, so when Ahasuerus asks Haman, what should be done for a man whom the king honors, he thinks he's talking about him. Haman goes on to try to take advantage of the situation about, well, how this person should be dressed in the robes the king has worn.
He should be given a horse that the king has ridden and have a royal crown put on his head. Frankly, even for the king's right hand man, this is a bit of a stretch. He seems to be asking for a royal status equal to that of the king, but haha. The irony, of course, is that Haman is unknowingly honoring that thorn in his side, Mordecai.
So the king agrees to what Haman says, and then he drops the bomb that the Jew Mordecai, as if to drive the point home, should be the one so honored. What's interesting here is that up to this point, it's not clear that Ahasuerus knows that Mordecai is Jewish. But here the point is made explicitly in Haman's presence who hates Jews.
You have to wonder what Haman was thinking. Right? Already having been given permission by the king to kill the Jews. Anyway, Haman is not the one to be honored and said he is told to bring all these things to Mordecai. He is to honor him, not kill him. From Oasis to desert and like 0.7 seconds, a major reversal of fortunes, which this book is full of.
So afterwards. Haman. He hurried to his house, told his wife what happened, and she broke the news to him. Your downfall has begun, and we read about that downfall in the next chapter, chapter seven. Actually, not to be too pedantic here, but the next scene actually begins in the very last verse of chapter six.
So amid all this chaos, Haman still has that second banquet to go to and he can't just not show. So as they are drinking, the king asks what Esther's request is, and now we're finally getting to it. So she tells Ahasuerus of the plot. Let me read chapter seven verses three through six.
“If I have won your favor, oh king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me. That is my petition, and the lives of my people, that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king. Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he and where is he? Who has presumed to do this?’ Esther said, ‘A foe and enemy. This wicked Haman.’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.”
So, you know, just, just the buildup here, the pacing of this speech is tremendous. Save my people. We've been sold out. If we were merely being made slaves, I'd keep my mouth shut. But this, this is too much. This would be damage to the King, perhaps again, a reference to the financial loss of tax revenue by wiping out so many taxpayers. And when Ahasuerus asks, who is this? Where is he? Dude, he's right in front of you, sitting there drinking and basking in his high position.
So when she had finished her speech, Ahasuerus gets up and he leaves the feast, and he goes into the garden palace thinking who knows what. Maybe he's pondering what to do or steeling himself to execute his right hand man, Haman, or maybe just dealing with the embarrassment of having been so blind and, and so complicit in Haman's plot, look again at chapter three, verses eight to 11. He even gave Haman his royal signet ring to give him royal authority to carry out the decree.
I think we should remember this. Haman's plot is by a royal decree, right? He's only doing what he can do because Ahasuerusa gave him the power to do it. He should have nixed it at the beginning, had he bothered to inquire as to the name of the person that saved him from getting assassinated. So anyway, Ahasuerus is out taking a walk, I guess, and, and Haman remains behind, throws himself on the couch where Esther is reclining in a typical banquet pose and he begs for his life.
But just at that moment, then Ahasuerus walks back and then sees him and he interprets the moment, right? He's trying to move in on my wife. Well, that was all she wrote. Mordecai had Haman taken outside and hung on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. The quick reversals of fortune for Haman can make your head spin.
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The final three chapters, 8 through 10. They resolve further the matter of the threat to the Jews and they bring at least one other great reversal of fortune. So after Haman is hanged, Esther gets his house. Okay, pretty cool. And Mordecai, he gets the signet ring Ahasuerus had given Haman, so he's now the top guy along with Esther, underneath Ahasuerus.
But there is still one important piece of business that needs to be addressed. The King's written order to annihilate the Jews is still in effect. Those letters are still out there, so Esther pleads with him and Ahasuerus leaves it to both of them how they want to handle it, right? Not unlike how he allowed Haman to enact his plot.
So letters were sent to all the provinces. And this is how it's described in chapter eight, verses 11 to 14. I think this is worth reading.
“By these letters the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, with their children and women, and to plunder their goods on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus on the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar. A copy of the writ was to be issued as a decree in every province and published to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take revenge on their enemies. So the couriers mounted on their swift royal steeds hurried out, urged by the king's command. The decree was issued in the citadel of Susa”.
Now that last bit, the decree was issued that little line that repeats what was said of Haman's decree in chapter three. Again, the story has come full circle and in reverse, and now there was a festival and a holiday celebrated in all the provinces as they heard the news.
As chapter eight, verse 16 puts it, “for the Jews, there was light and gladness, joy, and honor.” Whereas in chapter three, Haman's edict resulted in the city of Susa falling into complete confusion. This turn of events brings the joy and gladness. In fact, many in the empire professed to be Jews because of the fear of the Jews had fallen on them. That's in verse 17. Talk about a reversal of fortunes and you know, the hunter has become the hunted.
So now it's no longer the Jews who fear, but those who plotted to kill them. Now incidentally, it's, it's not clear whether the Persians who “professed to be Jews” refers to a true conversion or just trying to save their own lives. And my money's on the latter, but I can't say I blame them. As Jews might have been tempted to renounce their heritage in the face of Haman's edict, now it is time for Persians to scramble to survive. For what it's worth, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word mi yəhadim “professed” as “were circumcised”. So we read there, many were circumcised because of fear of the Jews, which could suggest a more heartfelt conversion.
But I would suggest even there, it might not be heartfelt, it might be a desperate move to survive. In any event, in chapter nine, the new edict goes out and under the powerful command of Mordecai, all those who sought the destruction of the Jews were found and killed. In Susa we read that 500 were killed, though that is likely a rhetorical exaggeration, which is entirely understandable given how numbers are used throughout the Hebrew Bible.
So anyway, in this portion of chapter nine verses one through 17, three times we read that in all of these military maneuvers, the plunder was not touched, so they killed their enemies, but they didn't take their stuff. This suggests, what I think the author is doing here, this suggests that these killings are seen as Holy War.
The kinds we see in several places in the Hebrew Bible where the Israelites are instructed to kill, but not take any of the plunder for themselves. See, it's, it's fascinating to me how this story is intentionally tied to moments of Israel's past. The Holy War annihilation of Israel's enemies in the past is revisited here in the Persian period.
The God of Old is still with them. And the Holy War theme here is perhaps another subtle way of seeing God's presence in this story, if only in the background. So after the first day of killing in Souza, which resulted in 500 dead, Ahasuerus asks Esther what else she feels needs to be done. So she asks him for a second day of killing, that the 10 sons of Haman would be hung on the very gallows that Haman had built.
Thus bringing his lineage to an end. And with that Haman's downfall is complete. This second day of slaughter can be understood as a way of reflecting the two day festival of Purim. In other words, it seems that the author is crafting this story to give an explanation for why Purim lasts two days. At least that is how many commentators see it.
And the fancy word for this kind of an explanation is an etiology, which we find in many other places in the Hebrew Bible beginning already in Genesis. You know, Genesis is a story that explains why people die. It explains why in the meantime, having children and working the fields is so difficult and painful.
Well, then finally, after all the killings in Susa, we read that 75,000 of the enemies of the Jews were killed. That number is, again, a rhetorical exaggeration. The writer is portraying a massive, widespread hatred of Jews and their neutralization. So after all this killing is done, the Jews in Susa gathered together on the 13th and 14th days of the month of Adar, which is the 12th month of the Jewish religious calendar, and corresponds roughly to February, March of the Gregorian calendar. And then they rested on the 15th day. This is the first Purim celebration.
Let me read these verses in chapter nine, verses 18 to 23. “But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the 13th day and on the 14th and rested on the 15th day, making it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the village who live in the open towns hold the 14th day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday in which they send gifts of food to one another. Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, adjoining them that they should keep the 14th day of the month of Adar, and also the 15th day of the same month, year by year as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies. And as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday. That they should make them days of feasting and gladness days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. So the Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun to do as Mordecai had written to them.”
First, it seems to me to be a bit of an elaborate holiday. Uh, too elaborate perhaps to be worked out almost on the spot. This feels something like the story of the invention of baseball, if you may allow me this analogy. The lore has it that Abner Doubleday, while sitting under a shady tree, watched some guys playing a rather disjointed and chaotic game, and on the spot as if by divine revelation, he penned the rules and voila, baseball.
Well, the origins and evolution of baseball are far more complex, and I would imagine the same could be said for the holiday of Purim. Also to return to a topic we've glimpsed already, it's worth noting that this celebration sounds a bit, I don't know, non-religious, secular, if you will, feasting, gladness, giving gifts.
Missing are things you might expect of a religious holiday, like prayer, hymns of praise, maybe sacrifices of thanksgiving. The absence of religious ceremony is one of the things that troubled readers from very early on. From the days of the Septuagint as we saw earlier. Now, one last comment on this section. We have here two feasts on the 14th and 15 days of Adar, and those two feasts remind us of the two feasts thrown by Ahasuerus in chapter one. Once again, things have come full circle.
So the last portion of the book, this begins in chapter nine verse 24 and just goes a few verses to chapter 10 verse three. They are a summary of Esther chapters 1 through 8 with some details differing. This section seems to be a later addition to the story and clearly was written after Purim had been established and to explain the origins of the festival.
Let me read just three verses, chapter nine, verses 26 to 28. “Therefore, these days are called Purim from the word pur. Thus, because of all that was written in this letter and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews established and accepted as a custom for themselves and their descendants and all who joined them, that without fail, they would continue to observe these two days every year as it is written and at the time appointed. These days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation in every family, province, and city. And these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among the descendants. See, these verses have, at least, I think they have, a retrospective feel to them reflecting the present time of the author after some considerable time had transpired.
So the three verses of Chapter 10. Yes, chapter 10 is just three verses long. They are praise concerning both Ahasuerus and Mordecai. And let me read this short bit with a comment or two after each line. So it begins King Ahasuerus laid tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea. And that's an idiom referring to the entire inhabited world, which means it's really an exaggeration because you know, no one has a kingdom that big. But that's, that's how you talk about great kings. You exaggerate.
Alright, next, all the activist power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai to which the king advanced him. Are they not written in the annals of the kings of media and Persia? Well, I mean, are they? I don't know. Mordecai is not known to us from Persian sources, but I think there's more happening here than just a historical error or something like that.
Mordecai's career is summed up in the manner of the Israelite and Judahite kings of old. See, after the narrative of a king and, and let's, I say 1 and 2 Kings, we read something like, “As for the other acts of this king, are they not written in the annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah?” See, once again, the writer is recalling the days of old, thus putting the story of Jews in the Persian era on, let's say, the same level as Israel's ancient stories. Which is essentially to make Mordecai a king himself. Okay?
Last line here. “For Mordecai, the Jew was next and ranked to King Ahasuerus, and he was powerful among the Jews and popular with his many kindred. For he sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all his descendants.”
That's how the book ends. So all is well and Mordecai's actions secured a lasting legacy for his people. It seems that he is the hero of the story, at least for the author of this last section. You know, one might rightly wonder what happened to Esther here, does she get no credit? Well, you know, to be fair she obviously played a pivotal part, but it was Mordecai who had to convince her to use her influence with Ahasuerus at the very beginning of the book. You know, he was the mastermind.
On the other hand, you know, Esther did act in a manner that could have gotten her killed by approaching Ahasuerus without being summoned. So, you know, neither is she simply Mordecai’s puppet. But all I can say is this is how the book ends and at least the version we have and it is what it is. So as we wind down, Esther is a story of Jewish triumph against the designs of those who meant them harm. Rather than being a recollection of a historical event. It is a literary creation, and this is not to say of course, that Jews under the Persian empire didn't experience hardships, even persecution.
Esther, in my opinion, was written to encourage post-exilic Persian-era Jews who, if not persecuted, might have felt abandoned by God. The encouragement comes not only from the absolute uncompromising victory of the Jews, but also by echoing stories from Israel's past, such as Mordecai and Haman being Saul and Agag revisited. Or presenting their struggle against their enemies as a Holy War where no plunder is taken.
The writer seems intent to elicit memories of the days of old, where their God was active and present, implying, I think, that God still is. So in that sense, it seems to me that God is lurking not too far beneath the surface of the Book of Esther, only not explicitly. And this seems to have been the problem for the Dead Sea Scroll community where Esther is not found. And a problem also for at least some learned Jews who sought out to address God's absence by making God's influence explicit as in the additions to Esther in the Greek version.
But either way, Esther the book is an example of something we see within the Hebrew Bible and in the centuries that followed. Pious Jews see themselves and their circumstances through the lens of their sacred tradition, and they tell stories to get that point across. Right folks. Thank you for listening once again, I appreciate it. Don't take it for granted. I hope it's helpful and, and, uh, a good time of learning for you and I always appreciate your comments on social media and whatnot. So thanks again and we'll see you next time.
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