II. Historicity. — On this subject the most diverse opinions have been held, ^lany old and a few modern writers * maintain the narrative to be thoroughly historical. But an increasing number t hold it to be more or less a work of imagination ; while some J regard it as a poetical invention, having no appreciable basis of fact to rest on.
The follow mg are the principal arguments for the historical character of the boolc. — (1) The narrative claims to be historical, referring more than once to ' the chronicles ' of Persia as contain- ing a record of the events in question (10- 2'^ 0') ; and its admission to the Pal. Canon, notwithstand- ing the absence of any allusion to the Holy Land or to Jewish ordinances, is so far a conKrmation of its claim. (2) The Feast of Purim, with which it was so closely connected as to be known among Alex, writers as ' the Epistle of Purim,' and which, in the time of Jos. [Ant. XI. vi. 1,3) was observed by Jews in all parts of the world, is a standing memorial of the remarkable episode in Jewish history which the book records. (3) Its lifelike representation of Pers. manners and customs, especially in connexion with the palace at Susa (ji. 10.14 .29.21.23 37.12.13 46.11 54 g8)_ isj i^inQ o\it by
the results of modern travel and researcli (Raw- linson's ^?ic. Monarchies, iv. pp. •2G9-"2S7 ; Morier, Fergusson, Loftus, Dieulafoy), and tinds support in Herodotus and other ancient writers. (4) The conduct of Ahasuerus is in harmony with the vain, capricious, passionate character of Xerxes (the identification of the two names was the first result obtained from the deciphering of the cunei- form inscriptions by Grotefend in 1802), as depicted by heathen writers (Herod, vii. ix. ; ./Esch. Pers. 46711'.; Juv. X. 174-187); and this may account for some things in the narrative that would other- wise seem almost incredible. (5) It appears from
• Kelle, VindicUe Est,; Havernick, Eini*-itu/io ', Baumgarten, De Fide Lib. Est.; Welte, Eirdntunq -j Keil, £inleitung ; Her- vey, Smith's DB; Nickes, De Est. "Lxb.; Cas^el, K"m.; Raw- linson, .Speaker's Com.; Wordsworth, Com.; J. Oppert, AnnaieM Phil. Chrit., and Remu des Et. Ju. 1804 ; J. W. Haley, Bk. 0/ Est.; and, in the main, F. W. Scbultz, Laiige'i Com.; and Orelli, Pl:E, art. ' Esther.'
t Eichhom, Einleitujtg; De Wette, Einleitmtg; Bleek, Bin- leitung; Winer, BiW. iiirB i. ; Dillniann in .Schenkel's Bibeiiex. art. ' i'urini ' ; Ewald, Ge^ch. Isr. ; SUihelin. Kinleitung ; Ryssel. Hertiieau, jExcy. Itnndb.; 0>iti\\,S. ami Z. Kg. Kom.; David.son, Introduction; Hitzig, Gfsch. Jsr.; Herzfeld, Geech. Isr.; Stanley, Jewish Ch.; Driver, LOT 449 fl. ; Cheyne, Ene. Brit, art ' Esther' ; Konig, Einleitujxg.
I Semler, Appar. VT; Bertholdt, Einleitung; Kuenen, Iteliii. Isr.. and Onderz.^l 661 ft. (Hint. Crit. vol. i.); N61d.-ke, AUtMt. Lit.; Reuss, Geech. AT; Zunz, ZDMG. 1893; GraU, ilG »'J, ISSii ; Bloch, ' Hel. Bestandth. iin Bib. Schr.,' Jud. Lit. BL, 1877 ; Comill, EinitU.; Bertholet, Die SUUrig der Itr.
ESTHER, BOOK OF
ESTHER, BOOK OF
775
Herod, vii. 8 that Xerxes held a great council of war in the third year of his reign before setting out for Greece, and that he returned to Susa in the spring of his seventli year, — which agrees with the dates assigned to the great feast and the choice of a successor to Vashti (1' 2"). (6) Although the narrative is minute and circumstantial, containing many names (of courtiers, princes, 10 sons of Hanian, etc., I'"-" 9'"") as well as other details, it is remarkably free from literary and historical discrepancies, such as have been detected in the Apocr. books of To and Jth and Ad. Est. Ac- cording to Oppert, there is not a single proper name that may not be rejiarded as belonging to the idiom of Cyrus and oif Darius, and after the conquests of Alexander such writing was pliilo- logically impossible. (7) The silence of contem- porary and later writings regarding the events narrated in the Bk. of tst is partly due to the disappearance of literature bearmg on the history of Persia, and partly to the interest of Herodotus and Ctesias being centred in the points of contact between Persia and Greece. As for the Bk. of Ezra, it leaves the period from B.C. 516 to 459 (between chs. 6 and 7) a blank, except in 4°-*.
On the other hand, the following are the chief objections that have been taken to the histor- icity of the book. (1) The story bears on the face of it the appearance of a historical romance, a number of its features being in themselves ex- tremely improbable, e.g. the six months' feast, involving such prolonged absence of the governors from their duties in the provinces ; the summons of Vashti before the assembled peoples and princes, ftnd the subsequent decree, suggested by ' tlie wise men,' that every man should bear rule in his own tsuse, which would have been the publication of Ahasuerus' folly; the long interval before the choice of Vashti's successor; the decree for the wholesale massacre of the Jews (not excepting those in Judtea, and numbering proliably two mil- lions) on account of the obstinacy of a single Jew ; the publication of this decree eleven months before the time for its execution ; the issue of a subse- quent decree virtually sanctioning civil war ; the immense slaughter of the Persians notwithstand- in" their superiority in numbers, and the wonder- ful preservation of Jewish lives, as well as the absence of revenge on the part of the Persians; the institution by Alordecai and E. of a feast that would perpetuate the disgrace of the sovereign in the eyes of his subjects, and embitter the relations between Jew and Persian (but cf. the annual commemoration of the massacre of the Magians, Herod, iii. 79 — with which Niebuhr was dispo.sed to connect the story). Add to this that the scries of coincidences and contrasts culminating in the over- throw of Haman 'the At/agite' (1 b 15 — but Oppert connects this name with Agaz, a tribe of Media mentioned in the inscriptions of Saigon) and the exaltation of Mordecai of the tribe uf Benjamin, is too perfect to have been drawn from real life. (2) The manifest aim of the writer is to encourage and glorify the Jews ; and the whole narrative, whicii is marked by exaggeration and innuendo, is artfully designed to serve that purpose (2"-"-'^ 3>.i. 414 010.II.1J 7. 8»-"-" 9'» 10). (3) The refer- ences to 'the chronicles' may be merely a rhetori- cal device in imitation of similar allusions in Neh and Ezr (in this connexion it is noteworthy that the terms of the royal edicts are not given) ; or the sources referred to may be like the Bab.-Pers. chronicles, from which Ctcsiaa professes to have derived information — the story being 'an example of Jewish Hnggada founded upon one of those eemi-historical talcs of which the Pcrs. chronicles Bceui to have been full' (Sayce, IICM p. 475). (4) A strictly historical interpretation of the nar-