PURIFICATION.— See Unclean.
PURIM (ni!s or Dnsn 'd;). — A Jewish festival of whose origin and institution we have an account in the Book of Esther. There we are informed that the festival had its rise in the resting and rejoicing of the Jews in Persia after their slaughter of their enemies on 13th Adar, in the 12th year of king Ahasuerus {i.e. Xerxes, B.C. 473). "That was the day which Haman, the grand vizier, had chosen by lot (=pur. Est 3') for the extermination of the Jews throughout the Pers. empire. Owing to the fact that in Susa the conflict was renewed on 14th Adar, the ' day of feasting and gladness ' in that city fell on the 15th. It was therefore enacted, as ■we learn from what appears to be an interpolation (9^"'-), by an ordinance of Mordecai, the successor of Haman, confirmed by Esther the queen (who were chiefly instrumental in procuring the deliver- ance), tliat there should be an annual celebration of the feast in all time coming, among the Jews and their seed, both on 14th and 15th Adar; 'that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.' No religious services were enjoined, and the observance seems to have been at first merely of a convivial and charitable nature ; but ultimately it was accompanied ^vith the reading of the Uk. of Esther in the synagogue, the whole con- gregation joining enthusiastically in the closing passages relating to Mordecai's triumph, and, at the mention of Haman, hissing, stamping, gesticulating and crying out, ' Let his name oe blotted out ; let the name of the wicked perish,' while the reader pronounced the names of Haman's ten sons all in one breath to indicate that they expired at the same moment. This reading of ' the Megilla,' pre- ceded and followed by a special benediction, com- mencing in each case with the words, ' Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe,' takes place both on the evening of the 13th of Adar, which is observed as a fast day (called ' the Fast of Esther,' traceable from the 9th cent. ; cf. 9" 4"),
and on the inorninn; of the 14th, which along with the loth is devoted to celebrations of a festive and social character, as enjoined in Scrip- ture, but without any prohibition of labour. To the inllueneeof theBlc. of Esther the festival seema to have largely owed its popularity (Buxtorf, Sijn. Jud. 24, and Ginsburg in Kitto's Cycl.). Apart from that book, the following are the only allusions to the subject that have been discovered in ancient literature. Referring to the commemoration of the victory over the Syrian general Nicanor on 13th Adar (B.C. 161), 2 Mac (15*), which was prob- ably written a little before the beginning ot the Christian era, mentions that the anniversary fell on the day before ' Mordecai's day.' 1 Mac (about a century earlier) is silent on the point, although it mentions (7^") the institution of ' riicanor's day.' Josephus, WTiting about the close of the 1st cent. A.D., gives an account of the feast (Ant XI. \\. 13), and mentions that in his day it was observed by the Jews throughout the world on the 14th and 15th Adar, which days they called ^povpaiov^. In the Meg. Taanith (xii. 31), which existed in the 2nd cent. A.D., these two days are also mentioned as ' the days of Purim,' when ' mourning is for- bidden.' By some 'the Feast of the Jews' (Jn 5', cf. 4^' 6^) is identitied with Purim ; but the inference is questionable, as the latter never had any special connexion with Jems., and was not likely, as actually celebrated, to be very attractive to the Saviour (but see Milligan-Moulton on Jn 5')-
With regard to the historical origin of Purim, there has been during the last half-century a growing tendency to reject the narrative in theBk. of Esther, largely owing to the difficulty of finding any Persian word with which the name Pur can be identified. Various theories have been advanced to show that the festival had quite a diflerent origin.
1. According to Reuss(Ge^cA..4 T, § 473), following J. D. Micbaelifl iGesch. A T), it may have ^own out of the Nicanor-festival on 13th Adar, the latter losing its historical significance in the course of an eventful century or two, and thus becoming a pre- paratorj- fast to * Mordecai's day,* whose strong hold upon the popular milid (notwithstanding the misgiving of the Great Synagogue, itejj. Lxx. 4) was due to the popularity of the Bk. of Esther, with which it was so closely connected. This theorj-, how- ever, leaves the Purim mystery unsolved, and it is negatived by the fact that even so late as in the Meg. Taanith (xii. 30) the 13th Adar is spoken of as * Nicanor's day.'
2. J. Fiirst (Kanon AT) and E. Meier {Btb. Wrtb.) trace Purim directly to a Pere. spring-festival (adopted by the Jews in Susa), and suppose the name to be connected with Pers. 6aAar= spring. Z\iT\z\ZDMG xxvii.) takes a similar view, regartling the Bk. of Esther as designed to invest the festival with a Jewish character when it could no longer be got rid of ; while Meyboom gives the idea a practical form by supposing Haman to be an emblem of ninter overcome by the sun (Esther) and the moon (Mordecai).