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Introduction to Esther

                             

Summary of the Book of Esther

This summary of the book of Esther provides information about the title author(s) date of writing chronology theme theology outline a brief overview and the chapters of the Book of Esther.

Author and Date

Although we do not know who wrote the book of Esther from internal evidence it is possible to make some inferences about the author and the date of composition. It is clear that the author was a Jew both from his emphasis on the origin of a Jewish festival and from the Jewish nationalism that permeates the story. The author's knowledge of Persian customs the setting of the story in the city of Susa and the absence of any reference to conditions or circumstances in the land of Judah suggest that he was a resident of a Persian city. The earliest date for the book would be shortly after the events narrated i.e. c. 460 b.c. (before Ezra's return to Jerusalem; see note on 8:12). Internal evidence also suggests that the festival of Purim had been observed for some time prior to the actual writing of the book (9:19) and that Xerxes had already died (see 10:2 and note). Several scholars have dated the book later than 330 b.c.; the absence of Greek words and the style of the author's Hebrew dialect however suggest that the book must have been written before the Persian empire fell to Greece in 331.

Purpose Themes and Literary Features

The author's central purpose was to record the institution of the annual festival of Purim and to keep alive for later generations the memory of the great deliverance of the Jewish people during the reign of Xerxes. The book accounts for both the initiation of that observance and the obligation for its perpetual commemoration (see 3:7; 9:26-32; see also chart pp. 234-235).

Throughout much of the story the author calls to mind the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Amalekites (see notes on 2:5; 3:1-6; 9:5-10) a conflict that began during the exodus (Ex 17:8-16; Dt 25:17-19) and continued through Israel's history (1Sa 15; 1Ch 4:43; and of course Esther). As the first to attack Israel after their deliverance from Egypt the Amalekites were viewed -- and the author of Esther views them -- as the epitome of all the powers of the world arrayed against God's people (see Nu 24:20; 1Sa 15:2-3; 28:18). Now that Israel has been released from captivity Haman's edict is the final major effort in the OT period to destroy them.

Closely associated with the conflict with the Amalekites is the rest that is promised to the people of God (see Dt 25:19). With Haman's defeat the Jews enjoy rest from their enemies (9:16 22).

The author also draws upon the remnant motif that recurs throughout the Bible (natural disasters disease warfare or other calamities threaten God's people; those who survive constitute a remnant). Events in the Persian city of Susa threatened the continuity of God's purposes in redemptive history. The future existence of God's chosen people and ultimately the appearance of the Redeemer-Messiah were jeopardized by Haman's edict to destroy the Jews. The author of Esther patterned much of his material on the events of the Joseph story (see notes on 2:3-4 9 21-23; 3:4; 4:14; 6:1 8 14; 8:6) in which the remnant motif is also central to the narrative (see Ge 45:7 and note).

Feasting is another prominent theme in Esther as shown in the outline below. Banquets provide the setting for important plot developments. There are ten banquets: (1) 1:3-4 (2) 1:5-8 (3) 1:9 (4) 2:18 (5) 3:15 (6) 5:5-6 (7) 7:1-10 (8) 8:17 (9) 9:17 (10) 9:18. The three pairs of banquets that mark the beginning middle and end of the story are particularly prominent: the two banquets given by Xerxes the two prepared by Esther and the double celebration of Purim.

Recording duplications appears to be one of the favorite compositional techniques of the writer. In addition to the three groups of banquets that come in pairs there are two lists of the king's servants (1:10 14) two reports that Esther concealed her identity (2:10 20) two gatherings of women (2:8 19) two fasts (4:3 16) two consultations of Haman with his wife and friends (5:14; 6:13) two unscheduled appearances of Esther before the king (5:2; 8:3) two investitures for Mordecai (6:10-11; 8:15) two coverings of Haman's face (6:12; 7:8) two royal edicts (3:12-15; 8:1-14) two references to the subsiding of the king's anger (2:1; 7:10) two references to the irrevocability of the Persian laws (1:19; 8:8) two days for the Jews to take vengeance (9:5-12 13-15) and two letters instituting the commemoration of Purim (9:20-28 29-32).

An outstanding feature of this book -- one that has given rise to considerable discussion -- is the complete absence of any explicit reference to God worship prayer or sacrifice. This "secularity" has produced many detractors who have judged the book to be of little religious value. However it appears that the author has deliberately refrained from mentioning God or any religious activity as a literary device to heighten the fact that it is God who controls and directs all the seemingly insignificant coincidences (see e.g. note on 6:1) that make up the plot and issue in deliverance for the Jews. God's sovereign rule is assumed at every point (see note on 4:12-16) an assumption made all the more effective by the total absence of reference to him. It becomes clear to the careful reader that Israel's Great King exercises his providential and sovereign control over all the vicissitudes of his beleagured covenant people.

Outline

I.           The Feasts of Xerxes (1:1;2:18)

A.   Vashti Deposed (ch. 1)

                    II.        The Feasts of Esther (2:19;7:10)

III.        The Feasts of Purim (chs. 8-10)

¢w¢w¡mNew International Version¡n

 

Introduction to Esther

We find in this book that even those Jews who were scattered in the province of the heathen were taken care of and were wonderfully preserved when threatened with destruction. Though the name of God be not in this book the finger of God is shown by minute events for the bringing about his people's deliverance. This history comes in between Ezr 6; 7.

¢w¢w Matthew Henry¡mConcise Commentary on Esther¡n

 

00 Overview

 

ESTHER

INTRODUCTION

Characteristic features of the book

In considering the characteristic features of this work it is necessary first to decide upon its date lest we should get this book confused with the Chronicles Ezra and Nehemiah which immediately precede it in our Canon. Their historical range does not reach later than about 420 b.c. Ezra and Nehemiah both lived in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Dean Stanley dates Ezra 459 b.c. and Nehemiah 445 b.c. But the story of Esther belongs to an earlier period and to the reign of Xerxes who was the king before Longimanus. Dean Stanley dates the story of Esther 485 b.c. It has therefore nothing to do with the restored Jews who had at the time settled in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel but is wholly concerned with those scattered Jews who remained behind in the various provinces of the Persian Empire.

The date of the composition of this work and its author cannot possibly be known. It is but an effort to get out of a difficulty to affirm the authorship of Mordecai. It is quite possible--as we find historical records were preserved at the Persian Court of a previous attempt on the life of the sovereign--that official records were made of the incidents which led to the death of Haman and the preservation of the Jews from the scheme laid for their destruction and that some Jewish officer cup-bearer or other found these records and transcribed them.

Modern critics think the book was written as early as the third century 300-200 b.c. In their view it is not an authentic historical writing. It is a question whether it contains a nucleus of facts or is simply a romantic tale. In any case its object is simply to commend the observation of the Feast of Purim.

The Book of Esther is distinctly Persian and it must surely have been written in Persia. Its place is properly outside the characteristic Jewish literature. It classifies rather with the works that now form the Apocrypha. There is no feature more strongly marked in the whole Jewish literature than the association of God with every person and every event every prophecy and every word. In this Book of Esther the very name of God is wanting and the relativity of God to events is never indicated or suggested. ¡§It is the one example in the sacred volume of a story of which the whole scenery and imagery breathes the atmosphere of an Oriental Court as completely and almost as exclusively as the ¡¥Arabian Nights.¡¦ . . . Even the names which most closely connect the story with the history of Israel are not Hebrew but Chaldaean or Persian. ¡¥Mordecai¡¦ is ¡¥the worshipper of Merodach the war-god of Babylon.¡¦ ¡¥Esther¡¦ is the ¡¥star of the planet Venus.¡¦ The ¡¥Purim ¡¦ from which the Festival of Deliverance took its name is the Persian word for ¡¥lot ¡¦ and has even been supposed to be the name for an ancient Persian solemnity.¡¨

Ahasuerus has with some confidence been identified as Xerxes whose other name Achashverosh sounds very similar to Ahasuerus; and whose character as known in history is in precise keeping with his conduct as described in this work. In his time Egypt revolted from the Persian rule and was re-conquered; and some five years later occurred the battles of Thermopylae Artemis and Salamis. It may help to fix the period in our minds if we remember that 477 b.c. is given as the death of Confucius and 476 as the death of Gautama the Buddha. At this time Rome was quite a second-rate Italian commonwealth.


Verification of the story

It must be admitted that we have no verification of the story of Esther from any independent sources whatever. Neither such Persian annals as have been found nor any Jewish memorials contain any records of such a peril and deliverance of the scattered Jews in the Persian provinces as is narrated in this book.

But the fact remains that the Festival of Purim began to be observed about this time and that tradition associated some remarkable deliverance with it of which it was treated as a perpetual memorial. Probably the genesis of this festival needs some further research. It is quite possible that it really bears relation to the deliverances of the Maccabaean period and the love of making mysterious origins for things led to the invention of a tale associated with earlier times. In the Second Book of Maccabees the festival is spoken of as the ¡§day of Mordecai ¡¨ and Josephus also refers to it. In favour of its historical genuineness mention may be made of the appeal of the writer to the ¡§Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia¡¨ (Esther 10:2) which certainly indicates that the author regarded his work as verifiable.


Purim

The Jews appear to have given the name Purim or Lots to this festival because Haman had thrown lots to ascertain what day would be suspicious for him to carry into effect the bloody decree which the king had issued at his instance. But the uncertainty of the origin or even date of beginning of this festival have led to a variety of conjectures in connection with it. Ewald in support of his theory that there was in patriarchal times a religious festival at every new and full moon conjectures that Purim was originally the full moon feast of the month Adar. Kepler identified the ¡§feast of the Jews¡¨ in John 5:1 with the Feast of Purim and in this he is supported by Alford and Ellicott. The Festival lasted for two days and was regularly observed on the 14th and 15th of Adar. It was not a Divine institution and there was no obligation to keep it at Jerusalem.

The contents of the book of Esther are so familiar to Bible readers thai they need not be even outlined. On the whole it may be safe to decide that the main facts of the story are genuinely historical and that such a peril for the scattered Jews and such a deliverance did actually scour in the reign of Xerxes; but it may also be admitted that some later author of the period of the Apocryphal books has worked up the materials at his command into the elaborate and descriptive story which we now have in our hands..


 

ESTHER

INTRODUCTION

Characteristic features of the book

In considering the characteristic features of this work it is necessary first to decide upon its date lest we should get this book confused with the Chronicles Ezra and Nehemiah which immediately precede it in our Canon. Their historical range does not reach later than about 420 b.c. Ezra and Nehemiah both lived in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Dean Stanley dates Ezra 459 b.c. and Nehemiah 445 b.c. But the story of Esther belongs to an earlier period and to the reign of Xerxes who was the king before Longimanus. Dean Stanley dates the story of Esther 485 b.c. It has therefore nothing to do with the restored Jews who had at the time settled in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel but is wholly concerned with those scattered Jews who remained behind in the various provinces of the Persian Empire.

The date of the composition of this work and its author cannot possibly be known. It is but an effort to get out of a difficulty to affirm the authorship of Mordecai. It is quite possible--as we find historical records were preserved at the Persian Court of a previous attempt on the life of the sovereign--that official records were made of the incidents which led to the death of Haman and the preservation of the Jews from the scheme laid for their destruction and that some Jewish officer cup-bearer or other found these records and transcribed them.

Modern critics think the book was written as early as the third century 300-200 b.c. In their view it is not an authentic historical writing. It is a question whether it contains a nucleus of facts or is simply a romantic tale. In any case its object is simply to commend the observation of the Feast of Purim.

The Book of Esther is distinctly Persian and it must surely have been written in Persia. Its place is properly outside the characteristic Jewish literature. It classifies rather with the works that now form the Apocrypha. There is no feature more strongly marked in the whole Jewish literature than the association of God with every person and every event every prophecy and every word. In this Book of Esther the very name of God is wanting and the relativity of God to events is never indicated or suggested. ¡§It is the one example in the sacred volume of a story of which the whole scenery and imagery breathes the atmosphere of an Oriental Court as completely and almost as exclusively as the ¡¥Arabian Nights.¡¦ . . . Even the names which most closely connect the story with the history of Israel are not Hebrew but Chaldaean or Persian. ¡¥Mordecai¡¦ is ¡¥the worshipper of Merodach the war-god of Babylon.¡¦ ¡¥Esther¡¦ is the ¡¥star of the planet Venus.¡¦ The ¡¥Purim ¡¦ from which the Festival of Deliverance took its name is the Persian word for ¡¥lot ¡¦ and has even been supposed to be the name for an ancient Persian solemnity.¡¨

Ahasuerus has with some confidence been identified as Xerxes whose other name Achashverosh sounds very similar to Ahasuerus; and whose character as known in history is in precise keeping with his conduct as described in this work. In his time Egypt revolted from the Persian rule and was re-conquered; and some five years later occurred the battles of Thermopylae Artemis and Salamis. It may help to fix the period in our minds if we remember that 477 b.c. is given as the death of Confucius and 476 as the death of Gautama the Buddha. At this time Rome was quite a second-rate Italian commonwealth.


Verification of the story

It must be admitted that we have no verification of the story of Esther from any independent sources whatever. Neither such Persian annals as have been found nor any Jewish memorials contain any records of such a peril and deliverance of the scattered Jews in the Persian provinces as is narrated in this book.

But the fact remains that the Festival of Purim began to be observed about this time and that tradition associated some remarkable deliverance with it of which it was treated as a perpetual memorial. Probably the genesis of this festival needs some further research. It is quite possible that it really bears relation to the deliverances of the Maccabaean period and the love of making mysterious origins for things led to the invention of a tale associated with earlier times. In the Second Book of Maccabees the festival is spoken of as the ¡§day of Mordecai ¡¨ and Josephus also refers to it. In favour of its historical genuineness mention may be made of the appeal of the writer to the ¡§Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia¡¨ (Esther 10:2) which certainly indicates that the author regarded his work as verifiable.


Purim

The Jews appear to have given the name Purim or Lots to this festival because Haman had thrown lots to ascertain what day would be suspicious for him to carry into effect the bloody decree which the king had issued at his instance. But the uncertainty of the origin or even date of beginning of this festival have led to a variety of conjectures in connection with it. Ewald in support of his theory that there was in patriarchal times a religious festival at every new and full moon conjectures that Purim was originally the full moon feast of the month Adar. Kepler identified the ¡§feast of the Jews¡¨ in John 5:1 with the Feast of Purim and in this he is supported by Alford and Ellicott. The Festival lasted for two days and was regularly observed on the 14th and 15th of Adar. It was not a Divine institution and there was no obligation to keep it at Jerusalem.

The contents of the book of Esther are so familiar to Bible readers thai they need not be even outlined. On the whole it may be safe to decide that the main facts of the story are genuinely historical and that such a peril for the scattered Jews and such a deliverance did actually scour in the reign of Xerxes; but it may also be admitted that some later author of the period of the Apocryphal books has worked up the materials at his command into the elaborate and descriptive story which we now have in our hands..

¢w¢w¡mThe Biblical Illustrator¡n