The Storyline:

The Book of Esther reads like a modern-day movie script. It’s a Babylonian tale of King Ahasuerus who reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. He is depicted as a rich, powerful, party-loving King. And like all rich, party-loving Kings enjoyed the most extravagant of lifestyles. His carousing, somewhat orgiastic feasts always culminated in showing-off his Queen’s beauty. As noted in the text, at the last feast, his Queen (Vashti) refused to show-up and dance before his drunken officials. Her refusal ultimately led to her downfall and the search for a virgin replacement Queen began in earnest, ‘Bring out your virgins!’

Enter Mordecai, a fourth generation exiled, disgruntled Israelite. Mordecai was looking for an opportunity to free his people from oppression. Aren’t we all? 😊 He learned of the Opening for a new Queen and immediately thought of his niece, Esther. Esther (Hadassha/Myrtle) like her name suggests, had that rare combination of being plain and beautiful at the same time. The Myrtle, her tree, is associated with love, good luck, and subliminal beauty. It’s striking star shaped flowers, burst into bloom at ‘Such a time as this’. In Spring, actually, after the long winter of captivity and oppression.

It’s no doubt, Esther is the Hero of her own story. But a movie script wouldn’t be a movie script with just a Hero. You need a Villain and a Plot. The Villain in Esther’s story is Haman. Haman is busy working behind the scenes, plotting, plotting to kill the Jews. King Ahasuerus is either complicit or unaware of Haman’s evil plan but will hear about it soon enough. That’s because Mordecai is always listening at The Gates (Gates=Sanhedrin), yes, Mordecai also happened to be Sanhedrin. His rightful seat was Haman’s seat.

The uncle and niece team worked their magic until the King was mollified by Esther’s beauty. One full years’ worth of portions and lotions did the trick. Six months’ worth of dedicated contraceptive myrrh in anticipation of sex with the King. Life became good again for this pair when Haman’s evil plot was uncovered. The Villain was publicly shamed and hung on the gallows. Lots and lots of other people also died, why, I do not know. Finally, the alienated Jews of Shushan slept easy, knowing that they were victorious yet again, and all their enemies were dead.   

Is Esther really Judith from The Apocrypha? 

I’m quoting from Jewish author Hayyim Schauss who says that it is doubtful Esther’s story is real. That the text has its origins in Babylon and was considered Jewish folklore.

Hayyim Schauss in his book on Jewish Festivals, says.

“It’s the same story as Judith, in Bathula, rich widow Judith, after saying her prayers, dressed herself and with the help of her slave made her way to the camp of the enemy. Holofernes invited her to a feast and when he was drunk, she beheaded him and carried his head through the city streets. Many people were killed that day and Judith was hailed as the hero to her people.”

“Esther is folklore — the Talmudic Rabbi’s tell us it’s a Jewish dream of destroying their enemies the Amalekites.”

Okay, I agree, Esther didn’t chop off King Ahasuerus’s head, nor did she carry it through the city. Although she may as well have, because she took half his Kingdom. Compare the wording in Esther Ch.1:9 “Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women in the royal palace which belonged to King Ahasuerus.” And then compare later chapters and verses of Esther’s ownership of the Kings Palace. Esther climbed the ranks very quickly and is portrayed as running the Palace as her own.

It’s not just Talmudic Rabbi’s that considered the book of Esther as a fable, the Essenes and the Sadducees rejected it as well. I kind of have a soft spot for the Essenes, they were more spiritual than people give them credit for. For some reason the gore and gouge of Esther appealed to the Christians. Christians kept it in their Canon and if Judith and Esther are the same then the Catholics have the story twice. But how would they know? They wouldn’t, because not many Catholics read their Bibles. Ouch!

Let’s begin to compare Judith and Esther. Both are single beautiful Jewish women, one a widow and the other an orphan. Although, rumor has it that Mordecai and Esther had a little thing going on, that juicy tidbit is for later. The assumption has something to do with the Hebrew grammar that describes her single status. Judith and Esther both reference Nebuchadnezzar, either directly or indirectly by referencing the Babylonian Captivity. They both live in cities with powerful Kings. And both their sworn enemies are the King’s right-hand men whether it be Haman or Holofernes. Their enemies want to destroy their people.

In Esther, Haman’s plot is to kill the Jews, in Judith, Holofernes issues a threat of death if Jews did not worship the King (Nebuchadnezzar). Of course, this was also the case with Esther. Haman started the whole ‘hatred of the Jews’ by not bowing down to the King’s statue in the first place. Both call on their fellow Jews to fast, pray, mourn, sackcloth and ashes and so forth. In Judith the spirituality extends to naming the High Priest (Joachim) and including a prayer. No such prayer exists in Esther, however the long version of Esther in the Septuagint does contain a prayer. Personally, I believe if the prayer was in Esther also, the similarities would be too obvious. Both women slept with the uncircumcised kings to achieve their end goals and in both cases many, many people were killed.

The differences between Judith and Esther are that according to the texts, Judith came before Esther. The characters are similar and play very similar roles, but their names are different. Judith is more historically correct, and Esther is not. Holofernes was a real person and there was a real revolt against Persia and the Jews took part in that revolt https://historica.fandom.com/wiki/Holofernes. One other point raised by author Hayyim Schauss is that the historian, Herodotus left us his writings on the Persian Dynasty. Herodotus mentions that a Persian General’s daughter, Amestris, as being the Queen at the same time as Esther was supposed to be Queen. And that Royal wives were specially chosen from aristocratic families and never outsiders.

The problem for me with stories like this, whether Esther or Judith, is that the Hebrew Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) repeatedly mentions periods of peace following the destruction of one’s enemies. Is this sustainable though? Can we rid ourselves of all our enemies and truly have peace? For me, the short answer is, NO! This is absolute nonsense and attempting to destroy our enemies through wars only creates more wars and more enemies. That’s what history has shown us. In the Jewish Torah for instance, they destroyed their enemies time and time again, and yet they still had enemies.

In concluding, the story of Esther from the Torah then is a tale of war with unrealistic expectations. And I find it rather odd that Esther is considered a hero. The similarity to Judith is something that cannot be ignored. Even most Rabbi’s considered Esther folklore and agree that it was imbued with the Jewish dream of destroying their enemies. The storyline is, Mordecai hears of a plot to destroy the Jews, so he sends his niece Esther to seduce the King. Bear in mind that this is purely hearsay and could only be a rumor for all we know. The King listened to Esther, the perpetrator (Haman) is ousted and hung, and the entire population of Shushan, Persia, 75,811 people are slaughtered (ironically modern-day Iran, only much smaller). Collective punishment, death by association, kill or be killed is the motto of Esther’s story.

Next time it’s Mordecai and Esther in Myth and Legend: Their redemptive qualities.

Cheryl Mason.