REL 464 - The Inter-Testamental Era
Course Notes - Esther
The initial wide-spread dispersion of Jews away from Israel/Judah and into the rest of the world was started by the Assyrians, who deported the northern Israelites and settled them in scattered communities throughout the Assyrian Empire. It was continued by the Babylonians, who deported Jewish leaders and nobility to Babylon - this included Ezra, and Daniel and his companions.
When Cyrus allowed the Jews to return from their Exile in Babylonia/Persia to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, not all the Jews did so. In fact, it was probably a minority of the Jewish population of Babylon/Persia who returned to Jerusalem. During the seventy years of the Exile new generations of Jews had grown up who had no first-hand knowledge of Jerusalem and the land of Israel - which was by then referred to as Judah. They were more comfortable living as Jewish inhabitants of Persia, so remained there. The Jewish community of Babylon developed their own variation of Jewish culture, their own teachers, and their own literature.
In the Biblical Book of Esther, "Ahasuerus" was the Jewish version of the king's name.
"Xerxes" was the Greek version - but his Persian name was pronounced something like "Akhshavarsh" or "Khshayarsha" - remember, it would have been written in Cuneiform, which does not correspond exactly to our western alphabet.
Xerxes' father was Darius, who had started the wars with Greece, and had lost the Battle of Marathon.
On his accession to the throne, Xerxes re-opened the wars started by his father, and built up a great navy to attack Greece. This navy was composed mainly of Phoenician ships - Phoenicia had been invaded by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and was assimilated into the Persian Empire by this time.
The Athenians, under the leadership of Themistocles, tricked the Persian fleet into following them into the relatively shallow, confined, bay between the Attic mainland and the island of Salamis. The Persians had already lost some ships to storms in the Aegean, but still had between 700 and 800; the Greeks had only 200 to 300 ships.
Xerxes was so sure that he would be victorious, that he pitched his royal tent and had his throne placed on top of a hill, and sat there to watch the battle. The Greeks pretended to flee from the Persians, who followed them into the narrow straights between the island and the mainland. Then the Greek ships turned and attacked. The Greek ships were better at maneuvering than the larger Persian ones, and in the melee which ensued many of the Persian ships were sunk or fled, pursued and attacked by the Greeks.
Realizing his defeat, Xerxes fled, leaving his possessions behind him. The Greeks took them and kept them on display - the display included gorgeous golden plates, which still exist and are kept in one of the Museums in Greece - unfortunately I cannot find any color photos of them. The Greeks also captured Xerxes' special white horses, which were used to draw the royal chariot.
Xerxes executed the admiral who had led his fleet to disaster, left Greece, and returned to Persia, leaving one of his generals to try to continue the war.
That is the setting for the beginning of the Book of Esther.
Xerxes had returned to Persia, to his palace at Shushan - Susa - and called for a "Victory Feast" to make it seem that he had actually won the wars. The Persian throne was too insecure for there to be any suspicion of weakness on the part of the king. Towards the end of the days of feasting and drinking Xerxes was no longer sober, and called for his chief Queen, Vashti, to show herself to the men at the feast.
The Bible says she was told to come wearing her crown (Esther 1:11) - it does not say whether she was supposed to be wearing any clothes, or whether she was supposed to come naked. However, in that culture, to show her face to men other than her husband would have been almost as bad as appearing without clothes.
The Queen was doomed whether she refused or whether she obeyed - if she obeyed, she would have been displayed to other men, so would be judged as unfit to come to the king again, and would have spent the rest of her life shut away in seclusion. If she refused - as she did - she would be judged to be disobedient to the king, and would suffer the same penalty as before.
With that in mind, we can understand why Esther, after she had been appointed to be the next Queen, and was asked to go to the king to try to rescue the Jews from the plots of Haman, said "If I die, I die." (Esther 4:16). Xerxes by that time was probably paranoid and unpredictable, and Esther did indeed risk her life by going to him with her requests.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
