Migration and Diaspora in the Book of Esther
Esther - Kristin Joachimsen
Frederik Poulsen [+]
University of Copenhagen
Elisa Uusimaki [+]
Aarhus University
Description
This article investigates the themes of migration and diaspora in the book of Esther, focusing on how types of human mobility and ideas of Jewish life in the diaspora inform the fictional narrative set in the Achaemenid period. First, we draw attention to the phenomenon of migration, “the movement of persons who change their residence from one place to another” (Tacoma 2016, 30–31), and argue that the book of Esther invites us to imagine several forms of movement in the ancient world. While the book depicts the life of a Jewish community in Susa as an outcome of forced migration (Esth 2:5–6) and thus raises the question of a permanent change of residence and related processes of cultural adaptation in the post-exilic context, it also discusses other types of movement that have received less attention in research, especially the forced migration of young girls trafficked (here defined as the transportation of people through force with the purpose benefitting from their work or service in the form of sexual exploitation) to the court and the exchange and migration of letters between communities within the empire. Second, we investigate the view of “diaspora” in the book of Esther, which shows hardly any interest in Jerusalem or the ancestral land and instead constructs Susa as the center of Jewish life from which Mordechai and Esther exercise their leadership and instruct fellow Jews during a crisis. We examine three key elements of diaspora in the book, including dispersion, homeland orientation, and boundary maintenance.