An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 87: Dramatic Irony and Feminine Wiles (Esther 6-10)

Esther 6-10
Dramatic Irony and Feminine Wiles.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Esther 6

“And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.”

In this chapter, Ahasuerus learns that Mordecai played a major role in thwarting a plot against him, but that he had received no reward for it. Ahasuerus asks Haman how he should reward a man who has done him great service. In a great piece of literary misunderstanding, Haman thinks that Ahasuerus must mean him, so he names a load of honours; rich apparel, the kings horse, a procession through the streets. Ahasuerus says, okay, go and give all this to Mordecai for me.

Haman goes home in mourning, where Zeresh tells him that if he’s been beaten in this, he’ll be beaten in everything by Mordecai. And on that ominous note he heads off to Esther’s banquet.

Esther 7

“Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:”

At Esther’s banquet, she makes her petition to Ahasuerus – to spare the lives of herself and all her fellow Jews, who have been condemned to death. When she names Haman as the instigator of this, Ahasuerus stalks off in a rage for a short while. Whilst he’s gone, Haman pleads with Esther for his life but, somehow, ends up “fallen on the bed where Esther was”, like some kind of ridiculous farce. Ahasuerus thinks that Haman is trying to rape Esther and Haman’s fate is sealed. We all saw the irony coming, right? There just happen to be the handy set of gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai; now they are used for Haman.

Esther 8

“Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.”

Esther is given all of Haman’s holdings, and she places Mordecai in charge of them. She also pleads with Ahasuerus to reverse Haman’s order of destruction against the Jews, which he grants. There’s some good description of the extent of the Persian Empire, 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia, with messengers by mule, camel and “young dromedary” heading to all corners, granting mercy to the Jews (and also a right of vengeance against anyone trying to carry out Haman’s orders).

Of note is the last verse, that says that many people became Jews – I don’t recall this happening before or if it was possible, but it’s an interesting notion to bring up that conversion was something that could happen.

Esther 9

“Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,”

I can’t help but think that if you are a persecuted minority saved from death by a royal decree that perhaps the best course of action is not the immediate mass slaughter of those who were seeking to kill you. Tempting though it may be, and perhaps temporarily produced a feeling of security, it probably didn’t engender much in the way of good feelings amongst the non-Jews of the Persian Empire to have 75,000 people killed around them. Nonetheless, Ahasuerus doesn’t seem to have minded, and even offers Esther more petitions. She asks that Haman’s ten sons be hanged from his gallows, which they are (possibly they are dead already). So this is the origin of the festival of Purim, named from “pur”, which is the lot cast by Haman to try to destroy the Jews. It’s a kind of Jewish Halloween these days, from what I can tell.

Esther 10

“And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?”

And a three verse chapter to finish of that basically decrees the greatness of Ahasuerus and Mordecai. That’s an odd little interlude with some quite nice intrigue and dramatic irony. I’m not too keen on the fate of Vashti and the mass reprisals at the end, I don’t think they paint the perpetrators in a very good light even though pitched as being a good thing to happen. What’s quite interesting about this book, however, is that God is not mentioned at all; usually He crops up at least as provoking decisions (He could, for example, have been given as the reason that Ahasuerus judged in favour of Esther), but is not invoked once.

It's only in compiling these for publication that I noticed that Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are all parts of the same story concerning the restoration of Judea under King Cyrus, and the central Jewish characters responsible. I recall asking back at the beginning of Ezra why the Persian kings would agree to it - this book gives the reasons. Plus I'm a little confused - is it Persia or Babylon that conquers the Israelites? Because they're not the same entity (in modern terms, Iran or Iraq). Or do the Jewish chroniclers not really care and use either interchangeably to refer to foreign invaders from the East?