Tag: Esther

The Bible in a Year – 27 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Introductory notes to Esther

The book of Esther in the ‘standard’ Bible, i.e. the one generally read by the Protestant church, consists of ten chapters.  It is in fact an abridged version of the full story as found in the Greek (Septuagint) Bible still used by the Catholic Church and which consists of 16 chapters. However scholarship has shown that these are out of order.

 I am commenting on the fuller text as set out in the Revised Standard Version Common Bible (Collins edition, 1973), which sets these 16 chapters out in a sequence that tells the story of Esther in its natural order. This is why the chapter numbers may appear in my comments to be out of order.  I hope that makes sense.  In this version, the name of the King is Ahasuerus.  In other translations this Babylonian name is rendered Xerxes (don’t ask me why!)

27 August. Esther chapters 7 to 10

The third and final part of the book turns the fear of disaster among the Jews into salvation and celebration. In chapters 7 and 8 Esther explains Haman’s plot to the king; Haman’s attempt to plead to Esther for mercy is misinterpreted by the king as an assault on her, and he is hung immediately without trial. Esther and Mordecai are then allowed to write the text of a second royal edict, not only cancelling the first one and saving the Jews from ethnic cleansing, but permitting them to slay all their enemies without reprisal on the day when they were intended to have been the victims.

Again, the full text (in chapter 16) gives the text of this edict, which is more of a diatribe against Haman than a diplomatically worded legal text. Verse 7 seems very pertinent today with the very undemocratic actions of Presidents Putin and Trump: “What has been wickedly accomplished through the pestilent behaviour of those who exercise authority unworthily, can be seen not so much from the ancient records which we hand on, as from investigation of matters close at hand” (RSV).

The last two chapters explain how these incidents are the reason for the Jewish feast of Purim. The additional text in chapters 10 explains how God provided ‘purim’ (chances, opportunities), ‘one for the people of God and one for all the nations’ (10:10). That ties in with the later Christian idea of the Gospel of salvation through Jesus being given ‘first for the Jews and then for the gentiles’.

Esther may only be a story, rather than having any historical basis, but it reminds us of the ever-present danger of ethnic hatred and persecutions. We have seen such hatred flaring up in recent years in places such as Rwanda, Syria and parts of the former Soviet Union, as well an in Nazi Germany. In these situations, people of different religious or ethnic groups who used to live together peacefully find themselves fighting against each other, often stirred up in the first instance by a very small number of extremists.  But such events seem to have an unstoppable momentum, unless someone who is there ‘for such a time as this’ is courageous enough to step in and bring peace and justice.  For what time and purpose has God put you were you are?

The Bible in a Year – 26 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Introductory notes to Esther

The book of Esther in the ‘standard’ Bible, i.e. the one generally read by the Protestant church, consists of ten chapters.  It is in fact an abridged version of the full story as found in the Greek (Septuagint) Bible still used by the Catholic Church and which consists of 16 chapters. However scholarship has shown that these are out of order.

 I am commenting on the fuller text as set out in the Revised Standard Version Common Bible (Collins edition, 1973), which sets these 16 chapters out in a sequence that tells the story of Esther in its natural order. This is why the chapter numbers may appear in my comments to be out of order.  I hope that makes sense.  In this version, the name of the King is Ahasuerus.  In other translations this Babylonian name is rendered Xerxes (don’t ask me why!)

26 August. Esther chapters 4-6

The story of Esther, Mordecai and Haman continues to unfold. Yesterday’s cliff-hanger left us fearing for the future of the Jewish people who were about to be exterminated throughout the Babylonian empire.  Now, Mordecai whose refusal to bow to Haman was the cause of the plot turns to fasting and prayer, and persuades Esther to do the same.

The additional chapters 13 and 14 in the full text give us the words of their prayers to God.  Chapter 15 then elaborates on the meeting between Esther and her husband King Ahasuerus in chapter 5 of the abridged version.

These additional chapters show Esther’s true character. She, the queen, is not only willing to fast for the sake of her people, but goes beyond the usual sackcloth and ashes by covering her head in dung (of which animal is not specified). She claims that wearing a royal crown is so awful that she considers it ‘like a menstrual rag’.  She also shows remarkable cunning in the way she approaches the king: she pretends to faint in fear to win his sympathy, and does not tell him at once about Haman’s plot, but invites the king and Haman to banquets on two successive nights.

In between the two banquets, Haman’s pride sets him up for a fall as he has a gallows built for Mordecai to be hung from. But before the second night, the king discovers Mordecai’s previous act of courage in foiling a plot against the king, and decides to honour Mordecai even above Haman, who then has to bear the humiliation of leading Mordecai round the city and praising him.

What is to be learnt from this? One phrase from this book that is often quoted to show the way God works through individuals is this: “who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14) – in other words, God plants people in particular places or roles at particular times so that their experience and gifts may be used for the benefit of others.

Also, chapters 13 and 14 are model forms of intercession: praising God, remembering his mercies in past times, bringing the current need before him, calling on God to act, and finally explaining the benefits not only to the intercessor but the God himself if the prayer is answered. Anglican collects (public prayers for the day or for a particular circumstance) still follow the same sort of pattern, in abbreviated form.

The Bible in a Year – 25 August.

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Introductory notes to Esther

The book of Esther in the ‘standard’ Bible, i.e. the one generally read by the Protestant church, consists of ten chapters.  It is in fact an abridged version of the full story as found in the Greek (Septuagint) Bible still used by the Catholic Church and which consists of 16 chapters. However scholarship has shown that these are out of order.

 I am commenting on the fuller text as set out in the Revised Standard Version Common Bible (Collins edition, 1973), which sets these 16 chapters out in a sequence that tells the story of Esther in its natural order. This is why the chapter numbers may appear in my comments to be out of order.  I hope that makes sense.  In this version, the name of the King is Ahasuerus.  In other translations this Babylonian name is rendered Xerxes (don’t ask me why!)

 25 August. Esther chapters 1-3

The book of Esther is notable for two things: firstly it is not a historical story.  Maybe some very conservative Christians think it must be, but it is generally accepted to be an early example of the novel genre, set in the time of the Babylonian captivity.  This is clear from the exaggerated way much of the story is told – it is a fairy tale, not a historical novel in the modern sense where authenticity is everything.  The English translation should really start “Once upon a time…”

Secondly, there is in the abridged version (see introductory notes above) no mention of the name of God.  You could read this book, taken out of its Biblical context and knowing nothing about Judaism, without realising that the Jews are people defined by belief in God, although they are clearly identified as an ethnic group facing persecution.

The complete text, however, does mention God, and in chapter 11 (a ‘prologue’ to the abridged text) Mordecai is given a dream in which a great river, and light, arise to save God’s people from persecution.  The identity of this water and light will become clear.  Chapter 12 which follows, summarises the plot of the book in a few lines. Presumably it was removed from the abridged version as  a “spoiler”!

Chapters 1 to 3 can be summarised as follows (though it is difficult to summarise such an action-packed story). The king gives a 7-day banquet, at the end of which his queen refuses the order of her drunken husband to come to him.  The king’s advisers, fearful that if this becomes known among the common people, other women could refuse to obey their husbands (what a horror in a patriarchal society!), command that she should be deposed and a new queen sought.  So the king organises a beauty contest in which he sleeps with each young woman in his harem once, to choose the new queen.  And guess what, Esther (who is in the harem, but keeping her Jewish identity secret) wins it!  A second great banquet follows. No sooner was that completed than two men plot to kill the King.  Mordecai (Esther’s cousin and guardian) hears of it, gets her to betray them to the king, and the plotters are hung. Haman then becomes the king’s chief adviser, and everyone is expected to kowtow to him. But Mordecai does not.  As a Jew he refuses to bow down to anyone but God. Haman then decides to use his power not only to kill Mordecai but to persecute all the Jews. The king is persuaded to sign a decree that they should be ‘ethnically cleansed’ as we would now say. Chapter 13 give the full text of the order, to be sent to all parts of the empire, that all Jews were to be murdered on one day, the 14th of Adar, on the charge of living in a way prejudicial to peace and tranquillity.

Now pause for breath!  Even allowing for this being a fairy tale, with the heroes and villains, the wicked deeds and heroic actions, that such stories demand, it should make us think.  Could it ever happen that all the Jews could be destroyed?  It had already nearly happened at the time of the Exile, before this story was written.  It nearly happened again when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70.  It nearly happened again under the fascists in Europe within living memory. The lies and exaggerations that the Nazis told to the German people about the Jews persuaded the majority of them to be complicit in the Holocaust, just as the decree of Ahasuerus was about to be carried out across his empire.  So, sadly, the premise of this story is no fantasy.  Praise God that he does always rescue a remnant of his people to keep his promise to them, even in the face of the wickedness of dictators. And watch out for the rise of such people in our day.