[Esther 0] The Prologue

My study of Esther dates back to spring 2011. My study of Esther could been seen as an act of the providence of God, for it seemed like within the spring months of 2011, Esther was thrown at me from many areas of my life. I was timekeeping for ACC Bible Quizzing, and the 2011 Bible Quizzing material was on Joseph and Esther. I was in the midst of student teaching, and the 10^th grade Bible teacher at Christian School of York asked me to teach his 10^th grade class the book of Esther. Already I ran into the book of Esther twice. The third time I would run into it would be in a short discussion in my small group Bible study. Although the discussion was brought about by an event I did not partake in, and the discussion was short and a “side note,” it was a very interesting discussion that raised questions. What happened to bring about the discussion (the “historical occasion” if you will) was a chapel that my 2 friends had at Lancaster Bible College. The chapel speaker began speaking on Esther, and then halfway through the chapel, he announced that the men and women would be split up and spoken to privately on what Esther meant for each gender. As the men and women suspected, the women talked about what it meant to be a woman in leadership (my 2 male friends verified this with their female friends and classmates). The men were excited to learn what Esther means to them as males, but they would be disappointed. Pretty much, the men were told that lesson men can learn from Esther is that men should allow women in leadership. Now may I remind you this chapel is led by a male, so arguing that they are pushing a feminist movement would be a weak one, but whatever your stance is on women in leadership, it should leave you scratching your head. It left my 2 friends scratching their head. Questions arose from the chapel. Why do we have the book of Esther in the Bible? What’s the main point, the moral of the story, and the lesson to be learned from the book of Esther? It would seem like that chapel speaker believed that the main point and the moral of the story is on women in leadership. But if that’s the case, it would beg the question: “Then what does the book of Esther mean for men?” There’s got to be a deeper meaning than “allow women leadership.” Even if you’ve heard that women in leadership is the moral lesson to be learned, I’m going to argue it’s not by giving an argument for a stronger point, a lesson that is equally applicable for men and women. It’s the providence of God.

I want us to float back to one of the questions I asked in the [long] introduction paragraph above. Why do we have the book of Esther in the Bible? A better question: Does Esther belong in the Bible? I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but there are whole studies on the canonicity of the Bible, or determining what books belong in the Bible. And Esther is one of the most debatable and one of the hardest books of the Bible to accept. It hasn’t always been accepted throughout history. A prime example would be the Essences, a Jewish group who didn’t even bother to copy manuscripts of Esther, nor translate Esther into other languages. It’s important to know if Esther is worthy to be in the Bible. If we don’t believe that Esther belongs in the Bible, we’re not going to learn anything from it. To do this, we have to look at some of the outside information we know about the book of Esther before we dive into the actual story of Esther. Yes, I know I usually look at the background information of the book to help give a bigger and deeper understanding of the text, and that’s still true for the book of Esther. But the background information is especially important for the book of Esther because it’s what the theologians and other Bible scholars look at to determine whether Esther is canon or not. So let’s look at the background information as evidence to help us decide whether or not Esther belong in the Bible.

So first let’s look at the author of Esther. Tradition has stated over time two authors. The earliest Jewish tradition credits the Great Synagogue for writing the book of Esther. Let me explain the Great Synagogue. Around one hundred years before Jesus came, about one hundred Jewish Rabbis and other religious leaders of the day got together to decide what books needed to be in the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament. During this time, to explain Purim, they want to put Esther in the Bible, but there are hundred of copies, some of which are just official Persian transcripts, and others editions weren’t even on written down. They were oral traditions. So the Jewish Rabbis, who called themselves “The Great Synagogue,” came together to make one copy of the story of Esther, one that agreed with no contradictions. That’s what most Jews say we have today. About one hundred years after the Great Synagogue, there was a Jewish historian by the name of Josephus. Josephus simply said Mordecai was the author, end of story. Some of Jews stick with his reasoning

Each side has valid proof. Those who see Mordecai as the author look at Esther 9:20, which says Mordecai had written it. But the other side will just come back and say it only says Mordecai wrote some of the book, not all of it. The Great Synagogue supporters point towards Esther 10:3. Esther 10:3 uplifts Mordecai greatly. The supporters would say it’s out of character for Mordecai to be so boastful. The supporters of the Great Synagogue also would say that the book many times over mentions the “annals and the chronicles of the Medes and the Persian,” so it’s another source. On the other side, the Mordecai supporters say that it has to be Mordecai because the author is clearly a Persian Jew because the author has full knowledge of the Persian laws and customs, and is lesser concerned about Israel. While I do believe those who support the Great Synagogue has strong arguments, I believe the arguments for Mordecai are stronger, so I’m going to say that Mordecai is the author of the book of Esther.

But the who question has another important people group, known as the audience. The audience is whom the book was originally intended to. The audience for the book of Esther is for all the Jews in Persian Empire. The Jews are scattered among the Persian Empire, thanks to the Babylonian exile. But it might be more specifically to the Jews in Israel. I’m not going to much explanation now, but the Jewish population is still heavily concentrated in Israel. Even though there is a lot of Jews in Israel, they are struggling. The Babylonian invasion tore apart the country and the Babylonian exile only left the poorest of the poor there. Rebuilding Israel is a struggle. For example, it took them 21 years to rebuild the temple. Even during that period, that’s a long time to rebuild a temple.

Now we know the who and the whom, let’s ask ourselves “when,” which obviously refers to dates. This question also comes in two parts. The first part is “When do the events happen?” The answer is somewhere between 483-473 BC. In terms of the Bible chronology, this would be between Ezra 6 and 7. This is critical between the temple has just been finished, and the Jewish people are trying to get back to the Law, which will go into a little deeper later. We know this time frame is right because King Xerxes ruled 486-465 BC. The other date question would be “When is this book written?” and the answer to that would be some time between 465-435 BC. Esther 10 talks about Xerxes in the past tense, so it has to be after his reign. But if Mordecai is the author, it can’t be later than his life. (This has led some canonicity scholars to believe Esther is the last book of the Old Testament to be written.)

Let’s look at the location, or the “where” next. Technically we can say the story happens in the whole Persian Empire because a lot of the decisions that King Xerxes makes affects Jews all around the Persian Empire. But if we were to get into the majority of the story, it would happen the capital city of Susa. It was also known as Shusan. Actually, if we wanted to get more specific, we could even say that it happens at the king’s palace and citadel of Susa. A citadel is the marketplace, the city square. All the important affairs of the city happen there, from the political, like court cases, to the financial, like business transactions. A lot of important events will happen in the citadel of Susa in the book of Esther. But there’s got to be a deeper reason we look at the location than that. So what’s the importance of knowing the location is Susa? The book of Esther focuses on the Jewish people, but doesn’t really mention Israel. The Jewish characters seem to have no urge to even go back to the land of Israel. God doesn’t care as much about the land, but he more cares about the people.

Now we’re going to talk about the “what.” The “what” is the historical occasion, or the events that lead up to the story. Since this Bible book is a historical narrative, the historical occasion will consist of the events that lead up to the current setting of the where and the when. So the question we have to ask ourselves is: What important events do we need to know to understand how we have Jews scattered about the Persian Empire? Well, how far back do you want to go? Technically, we can go all the way back to Genesis, explaining how God created man, but man fell from glory into sin, and how God chose a person (Abraham) to bring about a chose people who will ultimately bring about the Messiah and salvation. But I don’t think that’s necessary. Don’t worry, I got it down to 7. First, we need to remember God’s promise to the Israelites that they get to be in the promised land if they obey God, but if they do not obey God, they will be sent into exile. But as we know, the Israelites don’t obey. One of the reasons may be because they did not get rid of the foreign influences that would turn them to idol worship. One example I am going to pick out is King Saul and the Amalekites. The Lord commands Saul to kill off the Amalekites and wipe them off the face of the planet. Saul, to exalt himself, decides to let the royal family live. This specific example might come back to hurt the heroes of the story. But back to the disobedience of Israel, the disobedience leads to sin, and the sin leads to exile. Even with Israel and Judah split, both will go into exile. Israel is taken captive by Assyria in 722 BC and Judah is exiled by Babylon in 586 BC. While Judah is in exile, one of its prophets, by name of Daniel, interprets a couple of dreams in which God reveals the progression of empires. First comes the Babylonians. Next the Medes and the Persians will take over, then the Greeks will conquer, followed by the Romans. Sure enough, we see the first part come true as the Medes and Persians take over Babylon 539 BC. The Persian King Cyrus allows all the exiled to go back home, but many choose to stay there. The Jews that do decide to go back to have a huge assignment in front of them. They have to rebuild the capital city of Jerusalem, which includes the temple and the city walls, as well as their homes. And they are struggling. They are poor and they face opposition. They are losing hope.

So now we know the who, whom, where, when, and the what, we can answer the why. The “why” is the purpose of the book of Esther. Why was the book written? To create a purpose, we need to combine all the details of the information given above. We’re agreeing on Mordercai writing the book of Esther. We’re agreeing that the audience is the Jews, mostly the Jews heavily concentrated in Israel. Now take into to consideration the historical occasion. The Jews in Israel are struggling to rebuild Israel and are losing hope. What do you need to do for someone struggling and losing hope? You motivate them! What do you motivate them with? God’s providence and faithfulness!

Mordecai wrote the book of Esther to motivate the Jews with God’s providential delivery and faithfulness to his people.

Now we know the purpose, or why Mordecai wrote the book, we can answer the plan, or how Mordecai will demonstrate God is provident, God is faithful and God will deliver. Maybe you’ve heard the Bible isn’t good at story telling. Well, Esther proves that wrong. The book of Esther is written like a play. It is a 3 act play, with 3 scenes each, except the last act, which has 4 scenes. Each scene is a chapter, and each chapter is a scene.

1. Act 1: The characters are introduced, and conflict arises (Esther 1-3)
1. Scene 1: A spot opens up (Esther 1)
2. Scene 2: The heroes are introduced and are strategically placed (Esther 2)
3. Scene 3: The villain is introduced, and he begins his evil plan (Esther 3)
2. Act 2: The plot thickens, and the climax is reached (Esther 4-6)
1. Scene 1: The heroes devise the plan (Esther 4)
2. Scene 2: The heroes set up the plan (Esther 5)
3. Scene 3: CLIMAX!- a foreshadowing of the villain’s downfall to the heroes (Esther 6)
3. Act 3: The heroes save the day (Esther 7-10)
1. Scene 1: The heroes win, the villain loses (Esther 7)
2. Scene 2: The good guys win, the bad guys lose (Esther 8)
3. Scene 3: The heroes and the good guys celebrate (Esther 9)
4. Scene 4: And they all live happily ever after (Esther 10)

Maybe a visual would help.

 

 

It’s called a literary pyramid (or some name similar to that). A literary pyramid shows the rising action, the climax, the falling action and the resolution. At the base on the left, the characters, setting and conflict are introduced. The incline on the left is the rising action, or what happens to get from the conflict to the climax. At the top of the pyramid is the climax, where the plot twists in a way that it cannot go back to what it use to be. The falling action is what happens to get from the climax to the resolution. Finally, there is the resolution, where the problem is solved. When the book of Esther is put in the literary pyramid, it would look like the picture above. Esther 1-2 is the introduction, where the protagonists are introduced and the setting is put in place. In Esther 3-5, the antagonist is introduced, and the antagonist starts bringing in conflict against the protangonists. In Esther 6, the climax happens because the antagonist’s downfall is in full motion and nothing can stop it. Esther 7-8 shows the downfall fully play out and Esther 9-10 displays the resolution to the story in its final state. The literary pyramid demonstrates a second time that Esther is good story material.

Now that we have the introductory material, we have now made a big step forward in deciding whether or not the book of Esther is canonical, or whether or not the book of Esther belongs in the Bible. First, let’s review what we just talked about

AUTHOR (WHO): Mordecai

AUDIENCE (WHOM): The Jews

DATE (WHEN): Took place 483-473 BC, written in 465-435 BC

LOCATION (WHERE): Susa, the capital city of the Persian Empire

HISTORICAL OCCASION (WHAT): The Jews in Israel are struggling to rebuild Jerusalem, and they are losing hope

PURPOSE (WHY): Mordecai wrote the book of Esther to motivate the Jews with God’s providential delivery and faithfulness to his people.

PLAN (HOW): A 3-Act Play

 

A big part of canonicity is historicity. Historicity is seeing if the Bible lines up with history. When it comes to historicity, Esther has its strengths and weaknesses. The first strength is that book accurately reflects the Persian empire, its culture and its customs. The second strength is that it fits the literary style of the time, too. Back then, history was told like a story. At the same time, history can be its weakness. One weakness is that there is no mention of Vashti, Esther, Mordecai or Haman is mentioned in any discovered Persian writings. Xerxes is mentioned in the Persian writings, but the character of Xerxes in those Persian writings is totally different from the character of Xerxes in the book of Esther. But one could easily say it’s because the Persian writings made sure to put their king in a positive atmosphere, without mistakes or problems. Another weakness is that the times and chronologies do not always match what we know as history. Besides history, canonicity is also looked at from different perspectives, such as the message. Those for Esther being in the Bible would say Esther belongs because of 3 important messages. First, it shows the triumph of God’s people over his enemies. Second, it shows the providence of God. Third, it gives a background of Purim. But the message can be contested simply with one fact: there’s not mention of God, or any other name for God, such as Lord. We’re even going to find in our reading the perfect verse where God could be mentioned, but he’s not. In fact, there’s no mention of the law or sacrifices either (but to be fair, sacrifices would have to happen in Jerusalem, and the story takes place in Susa). So what is the good of a message if there is no God? Does God have to be mentioned to say he’s at work?

Those last 2 questions are the questions I want to stick in your mind all throughout our study of Esther. “Is God at work even though he is not mentioned?” I think the same question applies to us. God will not always give a big sign that says, “I am at work here!” So does that mean God is not at work? By no means! It is up to us to see God at work, use that in our testimony, and praise Him. So for this Bible study, I am going to give you a follow-up activity. Take a piece of lined notebook paper. Label this paper in the top margin “God Sightings.” In the left hand column, to the left of the red/pink line, write the date. In the body, right of the red/pink line, write down something or somewhere you saw God at work. I plan to stretch this Bible study on Esther throughout September, so see if you can keep this list up daily for the whole month of September, or even past that. But if even if you decide not to participate in this little exercise, I’ll be pointing out the “God Sightings” in Esther. You can follow along with that.

In conclusion, I ask again, “Does Esther belong in the Bible?” There are more pros for Esther being in the Bible than there are cons against. The pros for Esther’s canonicity are stronger than the weak cons. So I have come to the decision that Esther belongs in the Bible. Since Esther belongs in the Bible, it needs to be studied so we can learn from it. So let’s begin our walk through this 3-Act play to see what message God is teaching us