It has been more than four years since I last wrote a post for this intermittent series, so I guess you might say I'm taking "intermittent" to an extreme.
Last month, a close friend typed the words "I always think of Esther and how there's a reason for everything" into a text conversation we were having. That registered in a brain cell of mine that had been intending to read Esther for some time, and the brain cell next to it immediately flashed with the thought I should use Esther to get this series going again. So here I am.
You may have heard that Esther is one of only two books in the Bible that does not mention God. That is not entirely true, however, for it depends on which edition of the Bible you're reading.
Most Christians are aware that "Protestant Bibles" contain 66 books and "Catholic Bibles" contain 73. Put succinctly, that's because Protestants after the Reformation eventually removed seven books from the canon. The purpose of today's post is not to re-litigate the reasons behind that decision. Do be aware, however, that Esther presents an added wrinkle by virtue of the fact its so-called "Catholic version" is longer than its so-called "Protestant version."
This wrinkle is not a result of dastardly Catholics sneaking additional passages in or dastardly Protestants sneaking passages out. Our modern biblical translations are generally derived from either of the following sets of manuscripts: 1] the Septuagint, which is the Greek-language Bible that existed in the days of Jesus and was in fact used by him and his disciples; or 2] the Mastoretic Text, which was written mostly in Hebrew (with a few parts in Aramaic) and is sometimes called "the Hebrew Bible" even though the compiling of it was not concluded until approximately 1000 A.D.
I must stress that there is no reason to get into a cat fight about whether it's better to use the Septuagint or the Masoretic, for they are virtually interchangeable and they track precisely the same theologically. Regardless, the Septuagint does have a longer version of Esther; and Catholic editions have long followed the Septuagint; and getting back on point, the long version of Esther, unlike the short version, does mentions God.
Because I think it will be easier, from here on out I'm going to refer to the long version as Catholic Esther and short version as Protestant Esther.
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In a nutshell, this eponymous biblical book tells the story of a young Jewish woman during the Babylon-imposed exile who caught the eye of the Persian king while living in the capital city of Susa (present day Sush, Iran). She became his wife without revealing her ethnicity, and eventually interceded to save her people from a genocidal plot hatched by one of his henchmen. Although she was a knowing and practicing Jew, her name was Persian (Esther means "star") which indicates she was born after the exile began.
Chapter One lays out the setting in the first three verses by saying the story opens "in the third year" of the rule of King Ahasuerus - aka Xerxes, for all you history buffs out there. Catholic Esther includes a prologue which introduces a Jew named Mordecai, who will later become a central figure in the book, and telling of a revelatory dream that made Mordecai aware spiritual warfare was being used to rally "every nation" against "the righteous."
But back to the main text: Chapters One and Two explain how Ahasuerus, "merry with wine" seven days into a bash he was throwing, becomes "enraged" by his wife, Queen Vashti, declining to come into his presence when he summoned her. After conferring with advisers, he decides to strip her of her title and to issue an irrevocable law decreeing "every man" to be "master in his own household" - all this, you see, to keep women from being inspired by Vashti's example to "look upon their husbands with contempt"
He also decides to find her replacement via a nationwide beauty contest of virgins that will last more than a year. During its course, Esther, who happens to be the much younger cousin of the aforementioned Mordecai, is brought before the king. Mordecai also happens to be the person who advises her to keep her ethnicity secret.
Upon seeing Esther, Ahasuerus becomes smitten and "set(s) the royal crown on her head." Thereby, unbeknownst to him, a young Jewess becomes queen of Persia.
Some time after Esther's coronation, Mordecai learns of an assassination plot against Ahasuerus and has her inform him of it. As a result, the conspirators are investigated, found guilty, and hanged.
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When we come to Chapter Three we learn that Haman the Agatite holds one of the highest positions in Ahasuerus' administration.
Agatite is one of those ancient words whose definition was known then but not now. Some say it meant anti-Semite, some say it meant descendant of the Amalekite King Agag, and both of those opinions could be wrong. What matters for us is that Haman was offended when Mordecai "did not bow down or pay homage" to him as he passed by - and over a subsequent period of time, he became "filled with fury" when it became evident Mordecai wasn't gonna change his ways.
Having learned Mordecai was Jewish, Haman becomes determined not only to ruin him but to "destroy all the Jews...throughout the whole kindgom of Ahasuerus." He tells Ahasuerus about "a certain people" who "do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them." He persuades Ahasuerus to have these people killed, and offers to personally "pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries."
Ahasuerus hands Haman his signet ring and agrees to let him write the order on his behalf, however he sees fit. What results is an edict instructing the people "to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder the goods." Although created by Hamar dictating to scribes, the order was of course "written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring," and a copy of it was sent to "every province," after which Ahasuerus and Haman "sat down to drink."
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This brings us to a spot where Catholic Esther is in my opinion better than Protestant Esther - for in addition to telling us the gist of the edict as laid out in the verses quoted above, Catholic Esther presents its full text in a stand-alone section, and I am here to tell you it's a masterpiece of propaganda so delicious it would make every tyrant and cultist you can think of drool.
According to the edict, Ahasuerus acts "with kindness" and in pursuit of "lasting tranquility" for his subjects... while his right hand man Haman "excels among us in good judgment and is distinguished for his unchanging good will"... but, damn it all, those wicked Jews "alone" prevent the king's utopia from flowering, so unfortunately they need to be exterminated and sent "down in violence to Hades and leave our government completely secure and untroubled hereafter."
Sound familiar?
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Chapters Four through Seven are a dramatic pendulum on which Esther and Mordecai endeavor to save their people while Haman gets drawn obliviously onto a tightrope that'll make him want to poop his pants.
Seeing a copy of the king's edict posted somewhere in Susa, Mordecai follows Jewish custom by tearing his clothes, donning sackcloth and ashes, and crying loudly in a public demonstration of mourning. When Esther hears about this she dispatches a messenger to find out why, and Mordecai sends the messenger back with a copy of the order and a plea for Esther to intercede. She answers with fear, explaining that nobody - including her, despite her title - is permitted to enter the king's presence without being summoned by him. The penalty is death, and she has not been summoned in a month.
Mordecai responds with the famous line immortalized in Esther 4:14, remarking "who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (On a side note, this might be one of Scripture's most frequently misquoted paraphrased passages, for Esther 4:14 always seems to get rendered on shirts and stickers as "perhaps you were made for times like these." Such a rendering is not bad, but it genericizes things by removing the specific reference to Esther's royal position in that specific kingdom, at that specific moment in history.)
She affirms she will fast for three days before approaching King Ahasuerus, and asks Mordecai to assemble the Jews in Susa and have them collectively fast for three days as well. He does as she requests.
At this particular juncture, Catholic Esther goes beyond Protestant Esther by saying Mordecai and Esther both prayed. It also tells us exactly what they said in their prayers (Protestant Esther not only contains no mention of God, but also no mention of prayer).
In any event, Ahasuerus receives Esther without penalty when she arrives in her royal robes following her three-day fast. He pledges to grant her whatever wish she may have, and thus we arrive at a classic "Bibley back and forth" in which she asks Ahasuerus to bring Haman to a feast she prepared... he agrees and brings Haman to said feast, where he repeats his offer to grant her whatever wish she may have... at which point she asks Ahasuerus and Haman to return the next day for another feast, at which she will announce her wish... to which the king agrees... and finally, Ahasuerus and Haman arrive for that final feast and stuff gets real.
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You see, on the night before that final feast Haman passes by Mordecai while on his way home and feels a sense of rage when the latter again neglects to bow or pay homage. After getting home and kvetching about it, his wife and friends say he should "let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it." He loves the idea. But that same night Ahasuerus has insomnia, decides to have "the book of memorable deeds" read to him, and it turns out one of the deeds recounted in the book was that episode where Mordecai had saved his life by informing him of the assassination plot.
Unfortunately for Haman, it dawns on Ahasuerus that Mordecai had not been properly rewarded. When Haman arrives at the palace in the morning, Ahasuerus asks him "what should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" Puffed up with pride and assuming he is the one Ahasuerus intends to honor, Haman suggests the man be clad in royal robes and led by "the king's most noble officials" through the city square upon the king's horse.
Haman then gets the shock of his life when Ahasuerus, enthusiastically endorsing the idea, tells him to do just that "to Mordecai the Jew" and "leave out nothing that you have mentioned." Haman does as ordered, then, having experiencing the indignity of being compelled to proclaim the honor of the very man he wanted dead, slinks home in despair, where his wife and friends don't exactly lift his spirits when they say "if Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall."
Before Haman can brood any further, an escort arrives to take him to the feast. Back at the palace, said feast overflows into a second day before Ahasuerus asks Esther to reveal what she wants, at which point she pleads "let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated." When Ahasuerus inquires who would do such a thing, she tells him it was Haman, who of course becomes "terrified."
The exasperated king heads to the garden to stew and Haman proceeds to "beg for his life from Queen Esther." As he is doing this on the couch next to her, Ahasuerus storms back in, takes one look, and declares: "Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?"
Hapless Haman is seized, hauled off, and hanged on the very gallows he intended for Mordecai.
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The drama doesn't end with Haman's death, however. The edict to kill all Jews come Adar the 13th remained distributed through all the empire's provinces, and as Esther 8:8 reminds us, "an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked."
At this point you might be expecting Esther to snap at Ahasuerus like Aoleon Joffer at Jaffe Joffer, but something else happens: Ahasuerus hands over his signet ring and permits Mordecai and Esther to "write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring." In another example of a "Bibley back and forth," they get over on the late Haman by crafting an edict permitting "the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them," as per Esther 8:11-12.
In another Septuagint versus Masoretic Text twist, Catholic Esther again gets over on Protestant Esther by presenting the edict's full text in a stand-alone section, and it's a banger. According to it, Ahasuerus has now discovered Haman was not only a bad faith manipulator but also "an alien to the Persian blood and quite devoid of our kindness," whereas "the Jews, who were consigned to annihilation by this thrice-accursed man, are not evil-doers but are governed by most righteous laws and are sons the Most High." In fact, not only are the Jews now permitted to defend themselves, but the subjects of Ahasuerus must "give them reinforcements" and every jurisdiction that doesn't "shall be destroyed in wrath by spear and fire."
Chapter Nine tells us that when Adar the 13th arrives the Jews "gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces" and "gained mastery over those who hated them...no one could stand against them." Notably, Scripture makes a point of saying that despite their decisive victory in combat, they did not blunder.
When the battle figures are reported to Ahasuerus that night, he grants Esther another wish and she says: "If it please the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day's edict. And let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows." Like they say: Hell hath no fury.
This triumph comes to be commemorated in the annual, two-day holiday of Purim, held each Adar 14th and 15th as "days of feasting and gladness, days of sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor."
Mordecai is made second in command to Ahasuerus and the account of his "high honor" is recorded for posterity "in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia," according to Esther 10:2.
Then, much as it opened with a prologue about Mordecai's dream, Catholic Esther closes with an epilogue in which Mordecai dictates a letter confirming that everything from his dream has come to fruition, that "God remembered his people," and that Purim is to be observed "before God, from generation to generation forever among his people Israel."
And finally, a copy of said letter is delivered to Egypt "in the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra" by a priest named Dositheus, who vouches for its authenticity and affirms it was translated by Lysimachus, as resident of Jerusalem.
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If you were expecting to find deep analysis in this post, perhaps I should apologize for providing nothing more than a prolonged synopsis shot through with some observations and historical asides I find interesting.
But hey, it's my blog and this is what I wanted to write, and if you read it all the way to the end, you must have been okay with it, so I guess I don't have anything to apologize for! Carry on and have a great day.
Part Six: Mystery, Universality
Part Seven: Reading versus Studying
