Esther
Edited by
Kristin Joachimsen [+–]
Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society
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Kristin Joachimsen is Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at MF-Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society. She is the author of Identities in Transition: The Pursuit of Isa. 52:13-53:12 (Brill 2011). Her current research focuses on prophetic and poetic literature, as well as the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Theoretically, she elaborates on topics like historiography, identity, cultural imagination, and perspectives taken from postcolonial and gender studies. She is the initiator and PI of the interdisciplinary research project Perception and Reception of Persia (PERSIAS).
Helge Bezold [+–]
University of Marburg
Helge Bezold is a post-doctoral researcher and teacher at the University of Marburg, Germany. His study Esther – Eine Gewaltgeschichte (De Gruyter 2023) explores the literary and historical backgrounds of violence in the ancient Esther tradition. It was awarded the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise in 2023. His current research project focuses on the oracles against Babylon in the book of Jeremiah.
The Book of Esther is a thrilling story about how Esther and Mordecai averted the plan to annihilate the Jewish people in the Persian period. Both its many textual versions and different readings in various media imply a wealthy interpretive tradition of the story. For centuries, readers have been fascinated by the narrative’s suspense and drama, its courageous and smart Jewish protagonists, and its happy ending. However, the story has also troubled generations of readers. Among other things, Haman’s genocidal plan and his Jew-hatred, the lack of references to God, and the battle scenes before the celebration of Purim in the ninth chapter have led to intensive and often contradicting discussions among interpreters.
Standing on the shoulders of an amazingly rich history of interpretation, this volume gathers innovative research on core aspects of the book that challenge long-held scholarly assumptions. The articles in this volume trace the reception history from antiquity to modern times among Jewish, Christian, and Islamic circles, discussing the story of Esther in, for instance, its Hebrew and Greek versions, Targum, Babylonian Talmud, the synagogue paintings in Dura Europos, and the Lutheran reformation. In bringing together experts working with comparative material and interdisciplinary approaches to identity, belonging, gender, migration, violence, horror, fan fiction, and social media, this volume offers fresh perspectives and invites readers to reshape their understanding of the Book of Esther.
This volume will be first published online and then as a print book.
Provisional Table of Contents:
Introduction
Kristin Joachimsen and Helge Bezold
Themes
1. Belonging and Becoming in the Book of Esther
Anne-Mareike Wetter
2. On Laws and Kings: The Book of Esther and Its Theology
Veronika Bachmann
3. The Book of Esther and Imaginations of the Persian Court: Hebrew and Greek
Helen Efthimiadis-Keith
4. Mordecai Meets Artemidorus or: Reading EstLXX Add A:1‒11 + F:1‒6 with an Ancient Greek Handbook on Dreams
Marie-Theres Wacker
5. Male Fantasy, Violent Women, and the Book of Esther
Laura Quick
6. Migration and Diaspora in the Book of Esther
Frederik Poulsen and Elisa Uusimäki
7. Reading Hadassah through the Lens of Horror
Ericka S. Dunbar and Maria Hearing
Issues
8. The Book of Esther as Novella
Joseph Cross
9. The Book of Esther’s Story and History: Mimicrying the Gesture of proskýnēsis in Mordecai’s Refusal of Bowing for Haman
Kristin Joachimsen and Julian Degen
10. Esther’s People in Context: Law, purity, and separation in the diaspora between Esther and 3 Maccabees
Agata Grzybowska-Wiatrak
11. A Maccabean Mordechai: Reading the Book of Esther in the Maccabean Period
Helge Bezold
12. The Making of the Other: The Hellenistic Jewish Construction of the Persian King in 5:1–12 of the Greek Alpha-Text of Esther
Lydia Lee and Ji Xiaowei
13. In and Out of the Jewish Heavenly Archive: Esther and Imagined Canon
Esther Brownsmith
14. The Book of Esther and Qumran
Mika Pajunen and Kristin De Troyer
Reception of the Book of Esther
15. The ‘Esther Panel’: Queenship, Power, and Performance in the Dura Europos Synagogue (ca. 240)
Barbara Crostini
16. Esther in the Targumim
Paul Moore
17. Esther and the Rabbis of Sasanian Babylonia
Cecilia Haendler and Alexander Marcus
18. Purim and the Esther Scroll(s)
Joanna Homrighausen
19. Esther on Stage: Approaching the Reception History of Esther in the Reformation Period
Stefan Michels
20. Esther in Islamic Cultures
Adam Silverstein
21. Modern Jewish Reception of the Book of Esther
Aaron J. Koller
22.Esther Online: Reception(s) of the Book of Esther on Swedish and US-Based Internet Discussion Forums
Hanna Liljefors
