Mordecai Meets Artemidorus Or: Reading EsthOG Add A:1‒11 + F:1‒6 with an Ancient Greek Handbook on Dreams
Esther - Kristin Joachimsen
Marie-Theres Wacker [+]
University of Muenster
Marie-Theres Wacker, Dr. theol., is a retired professor of Old Testament and women’s/gender studies at the University of Münster, Germany. She is currently working on a commentary on Esther (Hebrew/MT and Greek/LXX) for the Herder Theological Commentary Series.
Description
The dream of Mordecai narrated in EsthOG A:1–11 and its interpretation given in F:1–6(+7–10) will be read through the lens of the only surviving manual on dream interpretation from Hellenistic-Roman antiquity, Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams) by Artemidorus of Daldis. It can be shown that the narrator who creates the character of Mordecai uses known techniques of dream interpretation in combination with his specific idea of the outcome of the dream. In addition, Mordecai’s social position is of some importance for his dream to be accepted as trustworthy, and conversely, his dream confirms his position as an accepted authority.