Misconceptions In Elie Wiesel's The Book Of Esther

The book of Esther is a story of how Ester a Jewish woman comes to save the Jewish people from destruction by Persia. She is being raised there by her uncle Mordecai. When the King of Persia searches for a wife, she is selected because of her great beauty. Later she wins his favor and becomes his wife. This leads to her being able to influence the King when a plot to kill all of the Jews is revealed. Esther is portrayed as a wise, elegant and gracious woman.

This book is a very interesting story. I had read it many years ago, but I had a few misconceptions about it. When reading it for this class I learned several things. That it took place in the Persian empire not the Babylonian. King Xerxes sent his queen away when she wouldn’t

come to him at the feast. This would lead him to his search for a new queen. He only wanted a virgin and he had eunuchs in charge of his search and all of the eligible ladies they found. The eunuchs had the eligible ladies train and undergo beauty treatments for a whole year. I had thought that the King had many wives, but the book makes it sound like he just had one wife at a time. Esther is the heroine of the story but she hides the fact that she is a Jew. She went through a long selection process and won favor of the eunuchs and the King who then chose her to be his Queen out of all the women. Soon she finds out from Mordecai that there was a plot to kill the King. “During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh. Two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes”(Ester 2:21 NIV). Ester goes to the King to warn him of the plot. This wins her more favor and influence of the King. The King also remembered that Mordecai had revealed the plot and rewarded him for it at a later time. Soon there is another plot by Haman

to kill all of the Jews because Mordecai had angered him.

Esther goes to great risk to persuade the King to save the Jewish people. When the King finds out about Haman’s plan he doesn’t know what to do, but he returns to see Haman pleading with Esther. The King accuses Haman of trying to rape his wife and has him executed on the gallows that Haman had built to kill Mordecai. I found it interesting that once a law had been written it was not reversible. Esther came up with an ingenious plan to deal with this issue and save her people. It wraps up with a great battle, resulting in a Jewish victory, and a holiday to commemorate the event.

According to Harpercollins Bible Commentary, the book of Ester has ten chapters in the Jewish and Christian cannon. However in the Septuagint bible the book has sixteen chapters. The extra chapters are used in the Greek and Catholic bibles. Protestants consider the extra six chapters to be part of the Apocrypha (353).

Many of the details in the book of Ester are very historically accurate. It turns out that Xerxes is a real historical figure who lived from 486-465 BC. Some other historical details are the size of the empire, an advanced postal system, the keeping of official diaries for the King and the use of impalement for execution of criminals

(353).
From my reading of the commentary I also learned that the Jewish have a festival of Purim. The basis for this holiday is to commemorate the deliverance of the Jewish people from destruction by the Persians. The Commentary says, “At Purim the order of the day should be domestic merrymaking and the exchange of gifts rather than the solemn or militaristic

ceremony” (354). These details made the story seem more real for me, even though the plot itself seems fairly unlikely to have been a historical event.
The Harpercollins Dictionary gave me some more information on the additions to the book of Esther. It says, “The purpose of the additions is to give a more specifically religious cast to the book as well as to the festival of Purim associated with it” (259). Another point it brought up was that the book never mentions God. This has led to some dispute among Jews as to whether or not the book should be considered cannon. So the additions give credit for the deliverance of the Jewish people to God through Esther and Mordecai’s prayers. That way in the Catholic version, Esther is rewarded for her piety rather than her beauty (259). The dictionary also discusses the book of Esther in the Jewish tradition. It is in the last of the five scrolls, this is part of the Tanakh or writings. Apparently there is also a bit of controversy as to whether or not King Xerxes had called for his wife Queen Vashti to appear at his party naked. This would make a little more sense as to why the Queen would refuse the Kings order. Either way it ends up in her being removed as queen (260). The dictionary also argues that, “Certain elements, in particular, betray what might be regarded as literary fiction. For example, Mordecai is named as having come over in the exile from Israel, but this would make him well over one hundred years old” (261).
Scholars for the most part think that the book was written during the eastern dispersion of the Jews in the third or fourth century BC. There is some controversy to this theory as the

scholar Gottwald argues, “The book was written during the Maccabean period, since the Persians were famously tolerant towards the Jews, and the book of Esther shows an oppressive streak in the ruling authorities, which would have been more characteristic of Jewish life under the Hellenistic regimes” (261).

However, it’s an anonymous book with no serious debate as to who authored it.

There are a few controversies among scholars about the book. The fact that it does not mention God is a big one. Some scholars argue that the lack of reference to God makes this a secular book and not cannon. The violence in the ending of the book has caused much argument as well. Some scholars claim that the focus is not on the slaughter but on the honor Jews receive within the empire. However, Gottwald cites the violence as support for the book taking place during the Maccabean time period (261).

Some scholars think that the main purpose for the book was to establish the Jewish festival of freedom, or Purim. The Jews celebrate this as a time they were scattered all over the earth, but were respected and able to defend themselves. Others have said that it’s a comedy because of the exaggerated characters and events. The 180 day party and the elaborate rituals the candidates for queen went through could be looked at in a comedic

light.
This book was interesting and while I don’t know for sure if the events are historically accurate there is much we can learn from it. It shows Esther as a wise and powerful woman, something very progressive for the time period. The whole book seems a bit exaggerated by

the extravagance of the court but maybe the King lived like that. Some of the events are either very unlikely coincidence or divine providence. The plot gives us hope that good will prevail over evil and that people can overcome adversity.

Works Cited

The Bible: New International Version. Colorado Springs, CO: International Bible Society, 1984. Print.
Mays, James Luther. The HarperCollins Bible Commentary. Rev. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000. 353-358. Print.
Powell, Mark Allan. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. 3.ed. ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. 259-262. Print.