Editing Book of Esther (section)

== Setting and structure ==
=== Setting ===
The biblical Book of Esther is set in the Persian [[Capital city|capital]] of [[Susa]] (''Shushan'') in the third year of the reign of the [[List of monarchs of Persia#Achaemenid Empire (559–334/327 BC)|Persian king]] [[Ahasuerus#Book of Esther|Ahasuerus]]. The name ''Ahasuerus'' is equivalent to ''Xerxes''<ref name="Baumgarten">{{cite book
|last1= Baumgarten |first1= Albert I. |last2=Sperling |first2=S. David |last3= Sabar |first3=Shalom
|editor1-last= Skolnik |editor1-first=Fred |editor2-last=Berenbaum |editor2-first=Michael
|title= Encyclopaedia Judaica |edition=2|volume=18
|location= Farmington Hills, MI |publisher=Macmillan Reference|year= 2007 |page= 216}}</ref> (both deriving from the [[Old Persian|Persian]] ''Khshayārsha''),<ref name="larkin">{{cite book |first= Katrina J.A. |last=Larkin |title=Ruth and Esther (Old Testament Guides) |location= Sheffield, UK|publisher= Sheffield Academic Press |year= 1996|page= 71}}</ref> and Ahasuerus is usually identified in modern sources as [[Xerxes I]],<ref>{{cite book |first= Sidnie White |last= Crawford |chapter= Esther |editor-first=Carol A.
|editor-last=Newsom |editor-first2=Sharon H. |editor-last2=Ringe |title= Women's Bible Commentary| location= Louisville|publisher=Westminster John Knox |year=1998|page=202}}</ref><ref name="Between">{{cite book |first=Jill |last= Middlemas |editor-first=Bob E.J.H. |editor-last= Becking |editor-first2=Lester |editor-last2=Grabbe |title= Between Evidence and Ideology | location=Leiden|publisher= Brill |year=2010|page=145 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DF7RzZJXM-UC&pg=PA145|isbn= 978-9004187375 }}</ref> who ruled between 486 and 465 BCE,<ref name= "Baumgarten" /> as it is to this monarch that the events described in Esther are thought to fit the most closely.<ref name="larkin" /><ref>{{cite book |first= Carey A. |last=Moore |title= Esther (Anchor Bible) |location= Garden City, NY |publisher= Doubleday|year= 1971 |page= xxxv}}</ref>

Assuming that Ahasuerus is indeed Xerxes I, the events described in Esther began around the years 483–482 BCE, and concluded in March 473 BCE.

Classical sources such as [[Josephus]], the Jewish commentary ''[[Esther Rabbah]]'' and the [[Christian theology|Christian theologian]] [[Bar Hebraeus]],<ref name="budge">E.A.W. Budge, ''The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus'', Gorgias Press, reprint 2003</ref> as well as the [[Koine Greek|Greek]] [[Septuagint]] translation of Esther, instead identify Ahasuerus as either [[Artaxerxes I]] (reigned 465 to 424 BCE) or [[Artaxerxes II]] (reigned 404 to 358 BCE).<ref name="budge" />

On his accession, however, Artaxerxes II lost Egypt to pharaoh [[Amyrtaeus]], after which it was no longer part of the Persian empire. In his ''Historia Scholastica'' [[Petrus Comestor]] identified Ahasuerus (Esther 1:1) as [[Artaxerxes III]] (358–338 BCE) who reconquered Egypt.<ref name="Comestor">{{Cite web | url=https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Historia_Scholastica/Esther#De_Ocho_seu_Artaxerxe. | title=Historia Scholastica/Esther – Wikisource | access-date=2017-12-17 | archive-date=2022-07-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705054616/https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Historia_Scholastica/Esther#De_Ocho_seu_Artaxerxe. | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Structure ===
The Book of Esther consists of an introduction (or [[exposition (narrative)|exposition]]) in chapters 1 and 2; the main action (complication and resolution) in chapters 3 to 9:19; and a conclusion in 9:20–10:3.{{sfn |Clines|1984|p=9}}
[[File:Book of Esther a part of Cairo Geniza.jpg|thumb|The introduction of Book of Esther, hand written, part of Cairo Gniza, digital collections of Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa]]

The plot is structured around banquets ({{langx|he|מִשְׁתֶּה|mišˈte}}, plural {{lang|he|מִשְׁתָּאוֹת}} ''mištāˈoṯ'' or {{lang|he|מִשְׁתִּים}} ''mišˈtim''), a word that occurs twenty times in Esther and only 24 times in the rest of the Hebrew bible. This is appropriate given that Esther describes the origin of a Jewish feast, the feast of [[Purim]], but Purim itself is not the subject and no individual feast in the book is commemorated by Purim. The book's theme, rather, is the reversal of destiny through a sudden and unexpected turn of events: the Jews seem destined to be destroyed, but instead are saved. In literary criticism such a reversal is termed "[[peripeteia|peripety]]", and while on one level its use in Esther is simply a literary or aesthetic device, on another it is structural to the author's theme, suggesting that the power of God is at work behind human events.{{sfn |Jobes|2011|pp =40–41}}

The book of Esther has more [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] loanwords than any other biblical work and the names of the key protagonists, Mordecai and Esther, for example, have been read as  allusions to the gods [[Marduk]] and [[Inanna|Ishtar]], who, symbolizing respectively Babylonia and Assyria, were twin powers that brought about the fall of [[Susa]], where the narrative of Esther is set and  where the [[Elam]]ite god  [[Humban]]/Humman (compare Haman)<ref>[[Paul Wexler (linguist)|Paul Wexler]], ''Silk Road Linguistics,'' Studies in Arabic Language and Literature, [[Harrassowitz Verlag]] 2021 {{isbn|978-3-447-11573-5}} vol.10 p.694 notes an alternative derivation from [[Elamite language|Elamite]] ''Humpan>Human'', the divine name doubling as an [[anthroponym]].</ref> exercised divine sovereignty. Purim practices like eating “[[Hamantash|Haman's ears]]”, ear-shaped loaves of bread or pieces of pastry are similar to those in Near Eastern ritual celebrations of Ishtar's cosmic victory.<ref>Wexler p.695: ‘Any resemblance between Ishtar's ear-shaped pastries and Haman's ear-shaped pastries may be the accidental result of later practice, but a common denominator is also possible, in that the original function of sacrifice is thought to be partaking of, and eating, the god. The eating of Haman represents symbolically the eating of a slain enemy god in order to absorb his power, such as is expressed in the Cultic commentaries</ref> Likewise other elements in Purim customs such as making a racket with a [[Grager|ratchet]],  masquerading and drunkenness have all been adduced to propose that such a kind of pagan festival akin to rites associated with Ishtar of [[Nineveh]], which shares these same features, lay behind the development of this story.<ref>Wexler 2021 pp.694-695</ref>