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The Book of Esther's story provides the traditional explanation for Purim, a celebratory Jewish holiday that is observed on the Hebrew date on which Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the day that the Jews killed their enemies after Esther exposed Haman's intentions to her husband. There is general agreement among scholars that the ...
By the time the Greek version of Esther was written, the foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to Judah was the kingdom of Macedonia under 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 "Bougaion" (Ancient Greek ...
Esther was the chief character in the Book of Esther.She is counted among the prophetesses of Israel. Allusions in rabbinic literature to the Biblical story of Esther contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond the text presented in the book of the Bible.
Haman Begging the Mercy of Esther, by Rembrandt. Haman (Hebrew: הָמָן Hāmān; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I (died 465 BCE) but traditionally equated with Artaxerxes I or Artaxerxes II. [1]
His story is celebrated in the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates his victory. One theory frequently discussed in scholarship suggests that the Book of Esther serves as an etiology for Purim, with Mordecai and Esther representing the Babylonian gods Marduk and Ishtar in a historicized Babylonian myth or ritual. [ 3 ]
The term megillah is most widely used for the book of Esther, even though it is applied to the rest as well. The term megillah is also used in a joking way, in reference to any lengthy story. [6] Eugene H. Peterson's Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work examines the application of the Megillot to Christian pastoral theology. [7] [page needed] p.21.
The Fast of Esther (Ta'anit Ester, Hebrew: תַּעֲנִית אֶסְתֵּר) is a fast on Purim eve commemorating two communal fasts undertaken by the Persian Jewish community of Shushan in the Book of Esther, for the purpose of praying for salvation from annihilation by an evil decree which had been instigated by Haman, the king's royal vizier, an anti-jewish enemy from the Amalekite nation.
Esther 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. [1] The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE. [2] Chapters 1 and 2 form the exposition of the book. [3]