Lucas WrightOT500: The Writings as Introduction to OTMarch 7, 2011Content and Context

Chapters 7 and 8 from the Hebrew book of Esther, contain essential narrative events with

regard to the overarching narrative of the book it its entirety. Before the events in these two

chapters occur, King Ahasuerus has declared Esther queen (2:17); Mordecai had discovered the

plot of two of the King’s eunuchs to do harm to the King (2:21), which then led to the promotion

of Haman (3:1). The progression of the story to this moment is especially interesting with regard

to the theme of fate, being in this particular case both good and bad. It was by chance that

Mordecai discovered the plot against the King, which may be read as positive but also, as a result

of this discovery that Haman comes into a position by which he can enact genocide upon the

Jewish populace, which is negative (3:8-11).

Chapter 7 of the book of Esther is the continuation of the plan for salvation from the

impending destruction of Jewish population in the Persian Empire as initiated by Mordecai,

through Esther, in chapter 4 (4:12-17). Chapter 7 portrays the second banquet Esther organizes in

which the plot of Haman to destroy the Jewish people will be exposed to the King (7:5-6).

Interestingly, the King had given royal approval to Haman’s plot previously (3:11) but seems to

have forgotten this fact, or is merely confused as to who the people Esther claims as her own are

and thus, fails to initially make the connection between her request and Haman’s genocidal

decree.

Upon hearing of this impending genocide of Esther’s people, King Ahasuerus is outraged

(7:7). He orders Haman hanged to death upon the gallows Haman had constructed for the death

of Mordecai (7:10). After this, chapter 8 illustrates Esther again requesting the revocation of

Haman’s genocidal decree (8:5). King Ahasuerus not only gives permission for the decree to be

revoked but moreover, permission is given to Mordecai to write in the name of the King

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whatever he wishes to be done with regard to the revocation (8:8-14). The Jewish people have

permission to defend their lives (8:11-12).

Concerns of Esther 7 and 8

The argument will be that despite the uncertainty of the text’s exact sociopolitical

context, concerns presented in Esther in general terms are sufficient for understanding how

chapters 7 and 8 function properly insofar as they indicate the general features of context

surrounding the composition. Such concerns include current sociopolitical structures imposed

upon the Jewish people, outside the text, which threaten to undermine Jewish existence and

identity, as well a correlate concern for the Jewish realization of the necessity to challenge such

imperially sanctioned structures. Chapters 7 and 8 are especially important to these themes as

they are the turning points of the overarching narrative and serve as the events, which are

celebrated, in the newly instituted holiday of Purim.

A. General Concerns

The general concerns discussed here include debate over the historical context of Esther’s

composition and how such a context shapes an interpretation of the themes of resistance against

imperial violence, as well as the need for the survival of Jewish identity in the book as a whole.

Chapter 7 functions as a paradigmatic narrative by which Jews are empowered to move beyond

the constraints of proper etiquette in attempts to survive amidst a hostile foreign culture.

Similarly, chapter 8 provides the basis for an armed defense of Jewish identity. These are

primarily theopolitical and societal concerns that are relative to the particular context in which

they arose.

As with any critical analysis of a text, understanding the context in which the book of

Esther is situated is important for comprehending the text’s meaning and concerns. This analysis

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focuses upon some of the differing arguments in contemporary scholarship, namely, the

argument in which Esther’s historicity is something of a general local concern in a Hellenized

context, which then evolves into the canonized story, up against an interpretation that situates the

authorship during the historical Jewish exile within the period of Persian hegemony. After

illustrating these two differing perspectives, the former will be taken up as the interpretive

context by which to engage the symbolic nature of the text’s concerns; i.e. the issues of empire

and Jewish identity in a Hellenized Palestine along with the parallels drawn from the story of

Joshua in Genesis.

The latter interpretation of Esther’s context, here labeled the “correspondence”

interpretation of historicity, posits the historical context of Esther as found within the Persian

Empire’s rule of Palestine. William Dumbrell notes two primary features of the Esther text that

give evidence for such an interpretation; these factors being the linguistic evidence in the book

and the detailed accounting of the Persian court with respective sociopolitical etiquette. Both are

important for understanding how a direct historical correspondence is applicable to the book as a

whole, as well as for how such an interpretation will affect the specific interpretation of chapters

7 and 8.

With regard to the linguistic evidence for a correspondence reading of the historicity of

the text, Dumbrell notes, “the number of Persian words in Esther and its numerous Aramaisms

suggest the story’s composition during a period not far removed from the event it describes”.1 In

accordance with this linguistic evidence, the association of the text with a particular Jewish

group, specifically the group of Eastern Jews left in Persia, of the diaspora lends itself as the

most credible people of which Esther may be attributed if a correspondence reading is applied.2

1 William J. Dumbrell, The Faith of Israel. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic , 2002. 298. 2 Beale, Timothy K. “Esther.” Page xiv in: Ruth and Esther. Vol. 7 of BERIT OLAM: Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry. Edited by David W. Cotter. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

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The attribution of the Esther text as a whole to this specific group of Jews living within the

context of the diaspora, after the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., is important to this

correspondence argument insofar as it establishes a viable purpose for Jewish authorship, in

conjunction with specifically Aramaic linguistic use. This purpose being some event that

threatened Jewish identity within the Persian Empire Regarding Dumbrell’s second element, the

argument of correspondence historicity based upon detailed knowledge of the Persian court and

the respective procedures, Dumbrell accepts the accounts of Esther 1 as factual and to be

associated with the court of Xerxes I.3

However, the appeal to the court descriptions found in Esther are susceptible to critique

on the grounds of the lack of keeping of traditional court proceedings in the book (5:1-7), as well

as the absence of documented Jewish persecution during the period of Persian rule from 550-331

B.C.E.4 Regarding the absence of persecution, Klara Butting notes, “rather, events such as

happened under Hellenistic rule (about 332-141 BCE) are reflected in the book”.5 This is

consistent with the first aforementioned perspective upon the context of Esther.

Such a perspective reflects a position which posits the sociopolitical of context of the

events in Esther, not in the time of Persian hegemony, but within the context of an already

heavily Hellenized Palestine.6 This context, if taken as the real world behind the text, leads one

to reinterpret the events in light of a Jewish people immersed in the sensuous Greek culture,

which would have chaffed against common Jewish identity and wisdom. This identity crisis,

3 William J. Dumbrell, The Faith of Israel, 298. 4 Butting, Klara. “Esther: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story in the Fight against Anti-Semitism and Sexism”. Page 240 in: Ruth and Esther. Vol. 3 of A Feminist Companion to the Bible (Second Series). Edited by Athalya Brenner. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999. 5 Ibid. 240. 6 Lawrence Broadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. 496.

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along with the real existential crisis of survival during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV,

yielded literary responses in varied forms from the Jews in Palestine.7

According to Lawrence Broadt, Esther is one such response and has as a characteristic of

this designation, the kind of short novel structure that utilizes narrative with polemical

intentions.8 Thus, the context assumed in this analysis is that of the revised narrative which is

initiated in order to make specific arguments. Such arguments being, an affirmation of the

resisting of the encroaching Greek culture and an affirmative argument for instigating Jewish

resistance against any totalizing violence of genocide (8:9-14).

B. Specific Concerns

The general themes now having been established in context, one is then able to look to

the central concerns of chapters 7 and 8 via this interpretive context. Important to a correct

interpretation of both chapters is the acknowledgment of intertextual parallels that occur within

the overarching narrative of the preceding six chapters and into chapters 7 and 8. The author of

Esther draws upon, in constructing the narrative, two possible parallels.

The argument here is that the primary concerns deal with themes represented in the

Joshua narrative rather than in an Exodus parallel. The first possible parallel is the connection

with themes similar in Exodus, with regard to the salvation of the Jewish people. In Esther 7 and

8, Queen Esther makes a request for the salvation of the Jewish people in a foreign land (7:3-4;

8:5-7), which leads to the institution of a feast and a defense of the people. While the general

themes are present, C.A. Moore note how rather than this being direct parallels it is more likely a

result of “the demands of effective story-telling technique”.9

7 Butting, Klara. Esther: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story in the Fight against Anti-Semitism and Sexism. 2408 Lawrence Broadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. 497. 9 Moore, C.A. “Daniel, Esther and Jeremiah: The Additions. AB 44. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977. As cited in: Bush, Frederich. “Ruth/Esther”. Word Biblical Commentary 278. Dallas: Word Books Publisher, 1996.

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A more readily applicable approach to understanding the events illustrated in Esther 7

and 8 are to link them to the parallel of the story of Joshua. In particular, the approach of Klara

Butting is especially pertinent insofar as she locates the central themes of the Esther narrative, as

well as of chapters 7 and 8, within the parallel to Joshua as it informs the subversive nature of the

Esther text.10 In Joshua, the central character is unjustly imprisoned due to sexual coercion.

Sexuality and political dominance are thus, implicitly linked within the Joshua narrative. Both

Mordecai, as the one who refuses the act of obedience to the Empire against Jewish custom (3:2-

4), as well as Esther, who defies gender and political customs in her standing before the King

and in revealing Haman’s plot (5:1-3; 7:1-6), stand in the role of the Joshua character. Thus,

Joshua may be designated as a paradigmatic figure by which the author of Esther embraces in

constructing a sociocultural subversive narrative of the Jewish and female victory.11

In similar fashion, the opening chapter of Esther, which portrays Queen Vashti usurping

the expected gender/political customs of the Empire in her refusal to appear before the King

(1:10-12), reflects the link of sexual identity and how this identity interplays with social

structures and status in political dominance of an Empire. With regard to Esther’s own resistance

people, chapter 7 draws upon this protestation of Vashti. Indeed, for Esther, “Vashti’s story

becomes a living source from which she takes directives and plans for her own resistance”.12

Furthermore, the calling by Esther of feasts as the medium by which to actualize her “outing” of

Haman’s planned genocide (7:1-4) displays a parallel to the feast of the King in chapter 1 (1:12-

22) in which Vashti is declared to be deposed as Queen.13

10 Butting, Klara. Esther: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story in the Fight against Anti-Semitism and Sexism. 242. 11 Bush, Frederich. Ruth/Esther. 280. See also: Butting, Klara. Esther: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story in the Fight against Anti-Semitism and Sexism. 239.12 Ibid. 246. 13 Ibid. 247.

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This resistance reflects a further dimension of parallel to the Joshua story. From the time

of Esther agreeing to disobey custom in an attempt to save the Jews from destruction (4:15-17),

she had stepped into the Joshua role. This illustrates the reflection of Joshua as one who refuses

social constructs in adherence to a true end of justice or allegiance. The proceeding interactions

between the King, Haman and Esther (7:7-10) also point to the subversive message and the

connection to sexuality. Not only does Haman appear after the divulging of his plot to be, from

King Ahasuerus’ perspective, attempting to rape Esther but also, this misunderstood sexual

assault combines with Esther’s outing of Haman to reverse the normative order of political

events.

Moving past these general themes of parallel and context, more specific designations and

applications of these central themes of Jewish identity, survival and cultural subversion can be

drawn from both chapters 7 and 8. As previously stated, the Hellenization process of the

Palestine region, during the period between 332-141 B.C.E., brought about a cultural identity

crisis for the Jewish people living in Palestine. Esther as a responsive text situates chapters 7 and

8 in such a way as to highlight a message of subverting the impinging Hellenistic influences,

while simultaneously and correlatively asserting the parameters by which such a

defense/resistance might be undertaken.

An example of how chapters 7 and 8 function as paradigmatic texts for application in a

Hellenized Palestine is found in Esther 8:11. In the textual world Mordecai has, in yet another

allusion to the Joshua paradigm, been promoted within the structures of Empire and now utilizes

this position to sanction the use of violence to the point of annihilation in order to ensure the

survival of the Jewish people.14 If the contextual framework of a Hellenized Palestinian location,

with regard to Esther’s composition, is ascribed to then this passage carries significant weight

14 Lawrence Broadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. 498.

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towards establishing a precedent to resist genocidal policies of rulers such as Antiochus

Epiphanes IV. Thus, the central concern of survival surfaces in Esther.

Moreover, this concern for survival is one that not only sanctions the use of violence but

also, affirms subversive action from within the foreign governmental structures themselves.

Esther as Queen utilizes her power, albeit in an unorthodox fashion, within the Persian imperial

structure instrumentally to expose Haman’s plot (7:1-6) and to purposively save the Jewish

population (8:6). Likewise, Mordecai acts from within governmental structures that are not

indigenous, nor even sympathetic, to the Jewish system in order to bring about the desired result

of Jewish salvation (7:9-11).

Hermeneutical Significance

A. General Reflections

The concerns related to hermeneutical significance of the Esther passage are readily

applicable into the contemporary issue of violence enacted by modern nation-states and

maintaining Christian identity as the Church. This violence refers not only to explicit acts of

genocide but also to the structures of empire implicit in classically liberal western states that are

based upon what may be termed ‘an alternative soteriology of salvation from an assumed state of

human violence’. Such a soteriology is perpetuated via the structures of empire that enforce laws

through coercive violence.15

Esther 7 and 8 provides a picture of resistance of the dangers of classically liberal

societies, as well as against current structures of sexism couched in such governments. It is the

contention here that the liberal societies of the contemporary west are imperial systems. From

this position of being within an imperial system, the assertion is that the book of Esther, while

15 Cavanaugh, William T. Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism. New York: T&T Clark Ltd. 2002. 2, 19.

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originally meant for encouraging the survival and distinctiveness of Jewish identity, may be

applied with a decisively Christian theological perspective in resisting the pull towards a

capitalist syncretism of empire and Church.

With regard to challenges in application, the obvious difference in the mode of imperial

enforcement and oppression/threat to Christian identity to that of the Jews in the Esther text

provide for a general challenge. However, the position taken is that the basic themes of resisting

empire and maintaining identity do not require a directly corresponding context but rather, are

intentionally lifted out of the original context and reformed in light of a Christian politic body

called Church and the challenges of a capitalist society.

B. Specific Reflections

One of the characteristics of Ester as a whole, and of chapters 7 and 8 in particular, is

what may be referred to as “intentional difference” or peculiarity on the part of the Jewish people

despite their situation, textually, in the Persian Empire (3:2-5; 8:15-17). Theologian Joerg Rieger

notes how within the history of the broad form of human governance labeled “empire” it is

impossible for groups of people to remain neutral.16 This is due to what Rieger identifies as the

overpowering nature of empire towards domination, which necessitates a response from

individuals, as well as groups, of either accommodation or resistance.17 Just as for the Jewish

people in Esther 8, the Christian Church, which faces the reduction of those virtues that form

their decisively Christian identity, or otherness, must react to the impending threat of an

oppressive ideological syncretism with classically liberal political structures.

If utilized without any sort of modification, the text of Ester 7 and 8 provide a general

parameter of political resistance in which the aforementioned elements of political cooption, on

16 Rieger, Joerg. Christ and Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. 4. 17 Ibid. 4.

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the part of the Jew or Christian (8:9-14), is permitted along with a stance of aggressive violence.

This violence includes counter-attack to the point of creating an alterative fear of annihilation on

the part of the enemy (8:17). Given that the attempt here is to apply this text with a specifically

Christian theopolitical modification however, such an appeal to violence must be directed into

revision along with an outright acceptance of explicit political participation.

The first specific point of hermeneutical concern, with regard to the survival of Christian

particularity, is then, the necessity for resistance of the Church as a group. Helpful in establishing

the modified nature of the picture of resistance painted in the Esther 7 and 8 is a basic definition

of the Church as tradition. Ronald Thiemann, in following the school of thought found in

Alasdair MacIntyre, defines Christianity, insofar as it exists as tradition, as a “historically

extended, socially embodied argument” which asserts specific truths in praxis particular to the

people called Church.18

This is an important concept insofar as it defines the Church in such a way as to

incorporate the general attitude of identity as displayed in Mordecai’s defiance (3:2), while

remaining open to a modification of the appeal to violence that Mordecai advocates for the

Jewish population (8:11-13). As stated above, the application of the resistance to the dangers of

empire in Esther ought to be undertaken by the Church, however, it is the contention here that for

the Church to affectively resist the evils of classically liberal democracy the Church must jettison

all politics, which appeal to coercive violence or participation.

The theopolitical project of Stanley Hauerwas is helpful in this regard, insofar as

Hauerwas is able to illustrate the combative effectiveness of a Church oriented around the

18 Ronald F. Thiemann, Revelation and Theology: The Gospel as Narrated Promise. Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.. 72. As cited in: Arne Rasmusson, The Church as Polis: From Political Theology to Theological Politics as Exemplified by Jürgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995. 33.

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primary identity of a people living under the peaceable Kingdom. Put simply, for the Church to

resist the pull of liberal imperialism the Church must realize that to be Church means to disposes

any notion of rights or retributive violence in favor of being a “servant community”.19 The

Christian politic is one both unapologetically qualified and opposed to the norms of an empire of

imposed individualism.

Works Cited

19 Hauerwas, Stanley. The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983. 99.

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Bush, Frederich. "Ruth/Esther ." In Word Biblical Commentary , 278. Dallas: Word Books

Publisher , 1996.

Butting, Klara. Esther: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story in the Fight against Anti-

Semitism and Sexism. Vol. III, in A Feminist Companion to the Bible: Ruth and Esther , edited

by Athalya Brenner, 239-247. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press , 1999.

Beale, Timothy K. Esther . Vol. VII, in BERIT OLAM: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry ,

edited by David W. Cotter, xiv. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Inroduction . New York : Paulist Press, 1984.

Cavanaugh, William T. Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a Political Act in

an Age of Global Consumerism. New York : T&T Clark Ltd., 2002.

Dumbrell, William J. The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament . 2nd

Edition . Grand Rapids : Baker Academic , 2002.

Hauerwas, Stanley. The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ehtics . Notre Dame :

University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.

Rasmusson, Arne. The Church as Polis: From Political Theology to Theological Politics as

Exemplified by Jurgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas. Notre Dame: University of Notre

Dame Press, 1995.

Rieger, Joerg. Christ and Empire . Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

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