Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:esther Chapter 11 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of esther, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Esther 11
New Revised Standard Version
2In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream.
3He was a Jew living in the city of Susa, a great man, serving in the court of the king.
4He was one of the captives whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had brought from Jerusalem with King Jeconiah of Judea. And this was his dream:
5Noises and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult on the earth!
6Then two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly.
7At their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against the righteous nation.
8It was a day of darkness and gloom, of tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult on the earth!
9And the whole righteous nation was troubled; they feared the evils that threatened them, and were ready to perish.
10Then they cried out to God; and at their outcry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river, with abundant water;
11light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and devoured those held in honor.
12Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind, seeking all day to understand it in every detail.
1In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought to Egypt the preceding Letter about Purim, which they said was authentic and had been translated by Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, one of the residents of Jerusalem. END OF ADDITION F WISDOM OF SOLOMON
99THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON Introduction The Wisdom of Solomon was written as a message of encouragement and exhortation for Jews living somewhere in the Diaspora (the Jewish communities outside the land of Israel) during the Greco-Roman era. Immersed in a cosmopolitan, pagan culture, one that generally viewed Judaism with suspicion if not contempt, many Jews felt hard-pressed to remain loyal to the basic principles and practices of their faith. This book simultaneously affirms the basis of that faith and critiques those who oppose it, in the interests of promoting adherence to Jewish traditions in changing, difficult circumstances. Although the author claims to be King Solomon (with parts of ch
9based on his prayer for wisdom in
1Kings 3.6-9), this ascription has been recognized as a literary fiction since ancient times. Instead, the author is an anonymous Hellenistic Jew writing sometime in the late first century BCE or early first century CE. The book's bitter polemic against Egyptian religion (see, for instance, ch 12) suggests Alexandria as a location, and anti-Jewish uprisings in that city may provide part of the background for the author's reflections. Composed in Greek, this book is among the most Hellenized works of the Apocrypha; that is, it reflects extensive interaction with Greek literary and philosophical conventions (see, for example, the use of the standard list of cardinal virtues in 8.7). The author's intention, however, is not to promote the achievements of Greek culture, but to appropriate them, so as to prove the excellence of Judaism in categories relevant to his readers' multicultural environment. As for its literary genre, many modern critics describe the Wisdom of Solomon as a form of didactic exhortation that demonstrates the superiority of a particular way of life or school of philosophy (in this case, Judaism) over its competitors and detractors. (This is technically called WISDOM OF SOLOMON
100"protreptic discourse.") So, for example, while the author can describe wisdom as an emanation of divine power that pervades the entire world, he contends that it comes to most perfect expression in God's revelation to Israel, and depicts it in terms familiar from the personified Wisdom (Greek, "Sophia") of biblical texts like Proverbs 8, Job 28, Sirach 24, and Baruch 3-4. Above all, the author is concerned to portray wisdom as the guiding force of divine providence, saving righteous Israelites and punishing their wicked adversaries. In conjunction with this aim, the book also asserts the significance of Jewish faith in terms of the ultimate benefits it confers. Thus persecutors, sinners, and idolaters face divine retribution in the afterlife, while the faithful will "live forever" (5.15). This emphasis on immortality represents one of the book's distinctive features, as well as something of a new development in Jewish thought (see 3.4n). The book consists of three major sections. The first, chs 1-6, contrasts the lives of the just and the wicked, dramatizing the eschatological destinies of the two groups. The sections begins and ends with exhortation to seek wisdom and righteousness (1.1-15; 6.1-25). The next section, chs 7-10, celebrates the figure of divine Sophia. The author's persona as Solomon emerges most clearly here, as the king describes wisdom and his pursuit of her. The third section, chs 11-19, adopts the approach of historical comparison, presenting an elaborate system of contrasts based largely on Exodus 7-14. A series of digressions in 11.1715.19 explains why God's judgment manifested itself differently in dealing with the Egyptians and the Israelites. This adaptation of the Exodus story is meant to complement the arguments of the first two sections, providing biblical examples of the righteous and the unrighteous, and demonstrating how the power of divine wisdom operates in human history. This book is included among the deuterocanonical books of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, but is considered one of the Apocrypha by the Protestant churches. WISDOM OF SOLOMON 101