Esther Through the Centuries

✍ Scribed by Jo Carruthers

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 322
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This interdisciplinary commentary ranges from early midrashic interpretation to contemporary rewritings introducing interpretations of the only biblical book not to mention God.

• Unearths a wealth of neglected rewritings inspired by the story’s relevance to themes of nationhood, rebellion, providence, revenge, female heroism, Jewish identity, exile, genocide and ‘multiculturalism’
• Reveals the various struggles and strategies used by religious commentators to make sense of this only biblical book that does not mention God
• Asks why Esther is underestimated by contemporary feminist scholars despite a long history of subversive rewritings
• Compares the most influential Jewish and Christian interpretations and interpreters
• Includes an introduction to the book’s myriad representations in literature, music, and art
• Published in the reception-history series, Blackwell Bible Commentaries

✦ Table of Contents

Esther Through the Centuries
Contents
List of Plates
Series Editors' Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Why Reception?
An Irredeemable Book?
Jewish Tradition
Christian Tradition
Summary of Works
Godless Scripture
Allegory
Providence, Chosenness, Nationhood
Political Application
Esther as Literature
Esther 1:1–9
1:1 The King and Empire
1:3 The King's Feast
1:4 Display of Wealth
1:8 No Compulsion to Drink
1:9 Women's Feast
Vashti
Esther 1:10–22
1:12 Disobedience
1:13–22 The Empire Strikes Back
1:19 Vashti's Punishment
1:22 The Decree
Esther 2:1–7
2:1 The King Remembers Vashti
2:2–4 To the Harem
2:5–6 Mordecai
2:7 Hadassah- Esther
Esther 2:8—23
2:8–14 Esther in the Harem
2:15 Esther's Beauty
2:16–18 Esther Becomes Queen
Esther 3
3:1 Haman
3:2 'But Mordecai did not bow down'
3:7 Casting Lots
3:8 (Mis)Representing Jews: A People Set Apart
3:8 Evil Counsellors
3:12–15 Genocidal Edicts
3:15 'The King and Haman sat down to drink'
Esther 4:1–14
4:1–3 'Great mourning among the Jews'
4:4–14 Esther and Mordecai Confer
4:14 'From another quarter'
Esther 4:15–17
4:15 'Fast ye for me'
4:16 'If I perish, I perish'
Esther as Exemplar of Resolve
4:17 'Mordecai […] did everything as Esther had ordered him'
Esther 5
Esther before Ahasuerus
5:4–8 Esther's First Banquet
5:9–14 Haman's Wrath
Esther 6
The King's Sleeplessness
6:11 The Triumph of Mordecai
Esther 7 and 8
7:1–6 Esther's Second Banquet
7:7–8 Haman's Fate
8:1–6 'How can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?'
8:7–14 Th e Irreversible Decree
8:15–17 'The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour'
Esther 9 and 10
9:2 Scenes of Slaughter
9:7–10 Ten Sons of Haman
9:26 Purim
9:29 & 32 'Then Esther the Queen … wrote with all authority'
10 The Greatness of Mordecai
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Pre-1500
1500–1800
Post-1800
Esther Secondary Sources
Other Secondary Sources
Index