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The Book of Esther is a book of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible ) and of the Old Testament . The ''Book of Esther'' or the '''Megillah''' is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim . Its full text is read aloud twice during the celebration. SETTING The Biblical ''Book of Esther'' is set in the third year of Ahasuerus , a king of Persia usually identified with Xerxes I , although other identifications have been suggested. It tells a story of palace intrigue and Genocide thwarted by a Jewish queen of Persia. PLOT SUMMARY , depicting Esther visiting the king to inform him of the plot]]In the story, Ahasuerus is married to gallows he had had built for Mordecai, and Mordecai becomes prime minister in Haman's place. However, Ahasuerus's edict decreeing the murder of the Jews cannot be rescinded, so he issues another edict allowing the Jews to take up arms and fight to kill their enemies, which they do. TIMELINE OF MAJOR EVENTS AUTHORSHIP AND DATE ''Esther'' is usually dated to the third or fourth century B.C Jewish tradition regards it as a redaction by the Great Assembly of an original text written by Mordecai Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Baba Bathra 15a. The Greek additions to Esther are dated to the 2nd century B.C. DEBATE OVER HISTORICITY The historical accuracy of the ''Book of Esther'' is disputed, largely by those who dispute the whole historicity of the Jewish Bible. As early as the Eighteenth Century , the lack of clear corroboration of any of the details of the story of the Book of Esther with what was known of Persian History from classical sources led some scholars to doubt that the book was historically accurate. It was argued that the form of the story seems closer to that of a romance than a work of history, and that many of the events depicted therein are implausible and unlikely. From the late nineteenth century onwards, several scholars explored the theory that the Book of Esther actually was a myth related to the spring festival of Purim which may have had a mixed West-Semitic/Akkadian/Canaanite origin. According to this interpretation the tale celebrates the triumph of the Babylonian deities Marduk and Ishtar over the deities of Elam or more likely the renewal of life in the spring and the casting out of the scapegoat of the old year. Although this view is not widely held by the religious scholars today, it remains well known. It is explored in depth in the works of Theodore Gaster . Traditionalists have fought back, arguing that Esther can be seen to derive from real history. For example, historians often give strong credence to the narrative based upon the traditions of a people. Thus, because the feast of Purim (which is a retelling of the book of Esther) is integral to Jewish history, there is strong reason to believe this story is indeed based upon a true, though obscure, historical event. Also, based on the derivation of "Ahasuerus" from "Xerxes", identification of Ahasuerus with Xerxes I is common and parallels between Herodotus' account of Xerxes and the events in ''Esther'' have been noted. Others have argued for different identifications, particularly noting traditions referring to Ahasuerus as "Artaxerxes" in Greek. In 1923, Dr. Jacob Hoschander wrote ''The Book of Esther in the Light of History'', in which he posited that the events of the book occurred during the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon, in the context of a struggle between adherents of the still more-or-less monotheistic Zoroastrianism and those who wanted to bring back the Magi an worship of Mithra and Anahita . For the last hundred and fifty years, critical scholars have seen the Book of Esther as a work of fiction, while traditionalists argue in favor of the story being historical. Some Christian readers have also tried to see the story as a Christian allegory, in the same vein as the Song Of Solomon . The various major readings are considered separately in the sections that follow: INTERPRETATION OF ESTHER AS A DERIVATIVE OF BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY The ''History of Religions'' school of thought, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, argued against the historicity of the Bible by drawing comparisons between Biblical narratives and pagan myths. The fact that the events of the Book of Esther give rise to the spring festival of Purim was a reason for scholars arguing that the story emerged from seasonal myth. As the 19th/early 20th century scholars did not have the benefit of the Ugaritic texts, they sought an origin in Akkadian tradition rather than the more local West Semitic cultures. In particular, these scholars drew comparisons between individuals in the ''Book of Esther'' and various real and alleged Babylonian and Elamite gods and goddesses:
These arguments were subsequently shown to be flawed:
HISTORICAL READING Those arguing in favour of an historical reading of Esther, most commonly identify Ahasuerus with Xerxes I (ruled 486 - 465 B.C.E. ) or occasionally with Artaxerxes II (ruled 405 - 359 B.C.E. ). The Hebrew ''Ahasuerus'' is most likely derived from Persian ''Khshayarsha'', the origin of the Greek ''Xerxes''. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Xerxes sought his Harem after being defeated in the Greco-Persian Wars . He makes no reference to individual members of the harem with the exception of a domineering Queen Consort Amestris , a daughter of one of his generals, Otanes. ( Ctesias however refers to a father-in-law and general of Xerxes named Onaphas). Amestris has often been identified with Vashti by those arguing the historical reading. The identification is problematic however - Amestris remained a powerful figure well into the reign of her son, Artaxerxes I while Vashti is portrayed as dismissed in the early part of Xerxes's reign. (Alternative attempts have been made to identify her with Esther , although Esther is an orphan whose father was a Jew named Abihail.) The name ''Marduka'' or ''Marduku'' (considered equivalent to ''Mordecai'') has been found as the name of officials in the Persian court in thirty texts from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals with the possibility that one of these is the Biblical Mordecai. The Septuagint version of Esther however translates the name Ahasuerus as ''Artaxerxes'' - a Greek name derived from the too relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks and the Midrash ic text, ''Esther Rabba'' also makes the identification. Bar-Hebraeus identified Ahasuerus explicitly as Artaxerxes II . (This is not to say that the names are equivalent: Hebrew has a form of the name ''Artaxerxes'' distinct from ''Ahasuerus'' and a direct Greek rendering of ''Ahasuerus'' is used by Josephus as well as in Septuagint occurrences of the name outside the Book of Esther.) Identification as Artaxerxes II has been more popular than with Artaxerxes I (ruled 465 - 424 B.C.E. ) however the latter had a Babylonian concubine, Kosmartydene , who was the mother of his son Darius II (ruled 424 - 405 B.C.E. ). Jewish tradition relates that Esther was the mother of a King Darius and so some try to identify Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes I and Esther with Kosmartydene. Based on the view that the with Jeconiah by Nebuchadnezzar , in 597 B.C.E . The view that it was Mordecai would be consistent with the identification of Ahasuerus with Cyaxares. Identifications with other Persian monarchs have also been suggested. Jacob Hoschander (''The Book of Esther in the Light of History'', Oxford University Press, 1923) has argued that evidence of the historicity of Haman and his father Hamedatha is seen in ''Omanus'' and ''Anadatus'' mentioned by Strabo as being honoured with Anahita in the city of Zela . Hoschander argues that these were not deities as Strabo supposed but garbled forms of "Haman" and "Hamedatha" who were being worshipped as martyrs. The names are indeed unattested in Persian texts as gods. (Attempts have been made to connect both "Omanus" and "Haman" with the Zoroastrian term Vohu Mana , however this denotes the principle of "Good Thoughts" and is not the name of a deity.) NARRATIVE READING Some modern scholars consider the Book of Esther a work of fiction. The name Ahasuerus is seen to be based on Xerxes and is an account of palace intrigue, attempted Genocide and a brave Jewish queen. Some have read the story as a Parable of quintessentially assimilated Jews who discover that they are targets of anti-Semitism, but are also in a position to save themselves and their fellow Jews. ALLEGORICAL READING There are many classical Jewish readings of allegories into the book of Esther, mostly from Hasidic sources. They say that the literal meaning is true, however there is hidden behind this historical account many allegories. Some Christian readers consider this story to contain an allegory, representing the interaction between the church as 'bride' and God . This reading is related to the allegorical reading of the Song Of Solomon and to the theme of the Bride of God, which in Jewish tradition manifests as the Shekinah . RELATION TO OTHER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE ''Esther'' is (in the Hebrew version) one of only two books of the Bible that do not directly mention God (the other is Song Of Songs ). It is the only book of the Tanakh that is not represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls . It has often been compared to the first half of the Book Of Daniel and to the Deuterocanonical Books of Tobit and Judith for its subject matter. ADDITIONS TO ''ESTHER'' An additional six chapters appear interspersed in ''Esther'' in the . By the time ''Esther'' was written, the foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to Judah was the Macedon ians of Alexander The Great , who defeated the Persian empire about 150 years after the time of the story of Esther; the Septuagint version noticeably calls Haman a Macedonian where the Hebrew text describes him as an Agagite. The canonicity of these Greek additions has been a subject of scholarly disagreement practically since their first appearance in the Septuagint –- Martin Luther , being perhaps the most vocal Reformation era critic of the work, considered even the original Hebrew version to be of very doubtful value. Luther's complaints against the book carried past the point of scholarly critique, and led in part to the complaint of Anti-Semitism frequently made against him. The Council Of Trent , the summation of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, declared the entire book, both Hebrew text and Greek additions, to be canonical. While modern Roman Catholic scholars openly recognize the Greek additions as clearly being additions to the text, the ''Book of Esther'' is used twice in commonly used sections of the Catholic Lectionary. In both cases, the text used is not only taken from a Greek addition, the readings also are the prayer of Mordecai , and nothing of Esther 's own words is ever used. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint version of ''Esther'', as it does for all of the Old Testament. The additions are specifically listed in the Thirty-Nine Articles , Article VI, of the Church Of England Article VI: OF THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR SALVATION : "The rest of the Book of Esther". Some scholars suggest that ''Additions to Esther'' is the work of an Egyptian Jew, writing around 170 BCE, who sought to give the book a more religious tone, and to suggest that the Jews were saved from destruction because of their piety. REINTERPRETATIONS OF THE STORY The 2006 film One Night With The King is loosely based on the Biblical story of Esther. The classic Hollywood film version of the story is the 1960 ''Esther and the King'' starring Joan Collins and Richard Egan and directed by Raoul Walsh . In 1992 a 30-minute, fully-animated video, twelfth in '' series, titled ''Queen Esther'' features the voices of Helen Slater as Queen Esther, Dean Jones as King Ahasuerus, Werner Klemperer as Haman, and Ron Rifkin as Mordecal. Hanna-Barbera's Greatest Adventure Series Videos - Queen Esther The Greatest Adventure Stories From The Bible There are several paintings depicting Esther, including one by Millais . . REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
Text and translations
Introduction and analysis Early 20th century views
Modern scholarship
COMMENTARIES AND OTHER BOOKS
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