tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3760483280850202682024-03-13T09:57:11.867-07:00Queen Esther, Mordecai, King Ahasuerus and HamanAMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-6253134349126012602024-02-20T22:51:00.000-08:002024-02-20T22:51:10.671-08:00 Qur’an catapults evil Haman way back to the era of Moses <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguNeq_BSorTym30FFcyXnEesRgnAGgOuxUx0pm87A-5huEWuc2GBsy0EEydy8GNxUuK6D1nPyR2ZMwvI7wO1hg1P22RXR7EExVkE3lUeKK1CH4dO0ZYBinAL4yzl6ksEuodtjOA0GRq1UEK8_reM8GYVr9pS1lf-bL5VfIckmC2SAczPSPCmyLXIqgMns/s318/images.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguNeq_BSorTym30FFcyXnEesRgnAGgOuxUx0pm87A-5huEWuc2GBsy0EEydy8GNxUuK6D1nPyR2ZMwvI7wO1hg1P22RXR7EExVkE3lUeKK1CH4dO0ZYBinAL4yzl6ksEuodtjOA0GRq1UEK8_reM8GYVr9pS1lf-bL5VfIckmC2SAczPSPCmyLXIqgMns/s600/images.jpg"/></a></div>
by
Damien F. Mackey
“If only Muslims could find the name “Haman” or something similar
in Egyptian records … as this would allow them to claim that Haman
is indeed an Egyptian name, and thus enable them to disconnect
the Haman in the Qur’an from the Haman found in the
biblical book of Esther”.
Jochen Katz
In conventional terms, this (the back-dating of Haman to the era of Moses) would be a dislocation of the biblical Haman backwards in time by approximately a millennium.
But that is what Islam does to ancient history, time and time again. It mangles it.
See for instance my article:
Biography of the Prophet Mohammed (Muhammad) Seriously Mangles History
(7) Biography of the Prophet Mohammed (Muhammad) Seriously Mangles History | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
in which a supposed “Mohammed” of the C7th AD claims to be a “brother” of the prophet Jonah who is actually situated well back in BC time, and has connections with a “Nineveh” that had long ceased to exist.
For a proper chronology of Haman and his historical identity, see e.g. my article:
King Amon’s descent into Aman (Haman)
(7) King Amon’s descent into Aman (Haman) | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Now, Jochen Katz has attempted to restore some sanity with regard to the Qur’anic dislocation of Haman in his article, “The Haman Hoax”:
https://www.answering-islam.org/authors/katz/haman.html
Introduction
The Qur’an contains several instances of “historical compression”, i.e. stories in which two or more separate historical events are combined to create a new story, or a character from one story is transferred or imported into another story. For example, in the Qur’an we find Saul and David in the story of Gideon, or a Samaritan together with Moses in the Exodus narrative. A list of many more such historical compressions is provided on this page.
Damien Mackey’s comment: I might as well include these “historical compressions” here:
In the following some smaller discrepancies between the Qur'an and the scriptures it supposedly confirms.
Historical Compressions:
1. Saul, David, Gideon and Goliath
2. A Samaritan tempting the Israelites in Moses time?
3. Prophets and Kings in Israel before the time of Moses?
4. Moses and the Gospel?
5. Punishment for future disobedience?
6. Mary, the sister of Aaron?
7. Pharaoh and Haman?
8. A Pharaoh Who Forgot to Die in Time?
9. Was there a second period of slaying the sons of the Israelites?
10. Moses or Jacob?
11. Did Joseph's parents go to Egypt?
12. Abraham's name
13. Abraham and Solomon
Other contradictions in comparison to the Bible:
Introductory remark
14. Did God teach Adam the names of the animals?
15. Noah's Age
16. Were Believers Really Called Muslims Before the Time of Muhammad?
17. The Quran’s Mistakes regarding the Biblical Patriarchs
18. Who Adopted Moses: Pharaoh’s Daughter or Pharaoh’s Wife?
19. Adoption by Adaption analyzes various discrepancies inf the quranic version of the stories of Moses and Joseph.
20. A Flood in the time of Moses?
21. Israel, the Quran and the Promised Land
22. The Quran, Moses and the Tablets of Stone
23. Solomon Working with Demons
24. Israel's Response to the Covenant: ‘We Obey’ or ‘We Disobey’?
25. Where is the Blood?
26. Divinely Inspired Ignorance?
27. Which Prophets Did the Jews Kill?
28. What kind of book is the Injil?
29. Animal sacrifices for Christians?
30. Why did the Queen of Sheba come to Solomon?
31. Ezra the Son of God?
32. Jesus reached old age?
33. Did the golden calf say 'Moo'?
34. Did disobedience result in extra commandments?
35. How many messengers were sent to Noah's people?
Further discussion: Who are those messengers that were rejected by Noah's people?
36. The Progeny of Abraham?
37. Two young men?
38. How many wings does an angel have?
Jochen Katz continues:
Whether these stories and characters were confused by the author of the Qur’an out of ignorance or deliberately merged for a certain purpose, these new stories are presented to the readers as reports of historical events and therefore constitute historical errors in the Qur’an.
One of the best known examples of such apparent historical confusions in the Qur’an is the character of Haman in the story of Moses and Pharaoh. Pharaoh and Haman were two of the most dangerous figures in the history of the Jews. Both of these men attempted genocide against the Israelites. Pharaoh gave the command to kill all male newborn babies (Exodus 1) and Haman plotted to have all Jews killed who were living in exile in Persia (Esther 3).1
However, these two events were separated in two ways: (a) the geographical distance of several thousand kilometers between Egypt and Persia, and (b) about a thousand years distance on the historical timeline.
Since the character of Haman is so obviously out of place in the story of Moses and Pharaoh, this matter has a high embarrassment factor, and Muslims apparently felt the pressing need to find a reasonable solution to this charge of a historical error in the Qur’an.
If only Muslims could find the name “Haman” or something similar in Egyptian records … as this would allow them to claim that Haman is indeed an Egyptian name, and thus enable them to disconnect the Haman in the Qur’an from the Haman found in the biblical book of Esther.
In fact, apologists for Islam have managed to devise a hoax that has impressed and misled many people over the last 15 years. This hoax went through three main stages of development (associated with Maurice Bucaille, Islamic Awareness, and Harun Yahya) and all three stages are available on the internet, plus plenty of variants.2 ….
As a foretaste of the things to come, let me mention in this introduction only two details out of the many false Muslim statements on this topic.
Maurice Bucaille claims to have consulted a prominent Egyptologist about the name Haman and a possible transliteration of that name in hieroglyphs. He then writes:
In order to confirm his deduction about the name, he advised me to consult the Dictionary of Personal Names of the New Kingdom by Ranke, where I might find the name written in hieroglyphs, as he had written before me, and the transliteration in German. I discovered all that had been presumed by the expert, and, moreover, I was stupefied to read the profession of Haman: “Chief of the workers in stone-quarries,” exactly what could be deduced from the Qur'an, though the words of Pharaoh suggest a master of construction.
For comparison, here is the entry in Ranke’s dictionary:
Quite obviously, Bucaille lied. Ranke’s transliteration does not say “Haman”, nor does Ranke say anything about him being the “Chief of the workers in stone-quarries”. [The meaning and implications of this entry will be discussed in great detail in the next two sections of this paper.]
Harun Yahya wrote about ten years ago:3
The name "Haman" was in fact mentioned in old Egyptian tablets. It was mentioned on a monument which now stands in the Hof Museum in Vienna, …
This is another lie. There is not even one Egyptian tablet, let alone many, on which the name Haman was found, nor is the artefact with the inscription that allegedly contains the name Haman “a monument”; it is a door post and it does not say “Haman”.
Most ironically, there has not even been a “Hof Museum” in Vienna for more than eighty years!
The whole story is a hoax from start to finish. ….
Damien Mackey’s comment: Read the whole of Jochen Katz’s article.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-81083243322369522892024-02-19T12:12:00.000-08:002024-02-19T12:12:12.578-08:00 King Amon’s descent into Aman (Haman)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7ZkCxdzxzee55-pkrUJ6ebzd4Dt3d1Gn4f6jva2JvgjavgtJ_wwzwMCW8yQwL1m0v_ThSSRH8txZXZWyGeaBVgg3bYR6_oAXJ3AV5SvX5iEelS9SR3LmrPt7fstnBKEm2HQWKlY3jHLWpygNLPbYjzgNtx0ZQ74FXhgLhvfmwsjnVtsPV8ObEA3weWw/s1000/haman.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7ZkCxdzxzee55-pkrUJ6ebzd4Dt3d1Gn4f6jva2JvgjavgtJ_wwzwMCW8yQwL1m0v_ThSSRH8txZXZWyGeaBVgg3bYR6_oAXJ3AV5SvX5iEelS9SR3LmrPt7fstnBKEm2HQWKlY3jHLWpygNLPbYjzgNtx0ZQ74FXhgLhvfmwsjnVtsPV8ObEA3weWw/s600/haman.jpg"/></a></div>
Part One: Honing in on the ever malevolent king Amon
by
Damien F. Mackey
If Haman is Amon, then that would account for the origin of the name Haman, which I had previously imagined must have been Jehoiachin’s Persian name.
For instance, the famous Persian name Achaemenes can be rendered as Hakhamanish (containing the element haman). Amon itself, though, is very much an Egyptian name, and we know that pharaoh Necho, at about that time,
had a certain influence in naming young kings of Judah (2 Kings 23:34).
How could this young king of Judah have managed to achieve such a degree of wickedness, when, as according to 2 Chronicles 33:21: “Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned two years in Jerusalem”?
Not very long a reign, not very old in years, for Amon to have surpassed in wickedness (v. 23) his father, Manasseh, who “reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years”.
My Revised Amon
My explanation for how king Amon of Judah was able to amass such an appalling record of “evil in the sight of the LORD” would be that the count of his reign had continued into a long period of captivity. I would take as an example of this king Jehoiachin of Judah, who, having “reigned in Jerusalem three months” before having been taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchednezzar (2 Kings 24:8-12), continued to have his regnal years counted there in exile, so that we read further on (25:27): “In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon …”.
King Jehoiachin is a particularly apt comparison - at least according to my revision - because he would continue in his evil ways (“trespassed more and more”) culminating in his rôle as the terrible Haman during the Medo-Persian era.
See e.g. my article:
If King Belshazzar made Daniel 3rd, who was 2nd?
(10) If King Belshazzar made Daniel 3rd, who was 2nd? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
But king Jehoiachin now - in my steps here towards a deeper revision - becomes even more apt given that his alter ego, Haman, enables for a virtual name comparison with Amon, leading to my proposed new identification of (Jehoiachin)-Haman with Amon king of Judah.
Haman is in fact called Aman (even closer to the name, Amon) in a version of Tobit 14:10, where he has been confused with Nadab (or Nadin), which is the correct reading.
{Haman and Nadin, my ‘Holofernes”, belong to two entirely different eras}
My new suggestion (Haman = Amon) does admittedly affect certain biblical sequences as we currently have them (e.g. Amon can now no longer be the father of king Josiah) - as well as affecting information pertaining to who was the mother of Amon.
If Haman is Amon, then that would account for the origin of the name Haman, which I had previously imagined must have been Jehoiachin’s Persian name. For instance, the famous Persian name Achaemenes can be rendered as Hakhamanish (containing the element haman). Amon itself, though, is very much an Egyptian name, and we know that pharaoh Necho, at about that time, had a certain influence in naming young kings of Judah (2 Kings 23:34).
Scholars dearly wish that they knew more about Amon, given that the Bible dismisses him, qua Amon, in just a few verses. “It is rather unfortunate that so little is known of the reign of Amon, king of Judah; for he lived evidently in a critical period”.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1420-amon-king-of-judah
However, if Amon has the alter egos that I have proposed for him in this article, then we can actually know quite a lot about him.
The Jewish Encyclopedia here recalls a Rabbinic comment on the extreme wickedness of King Amon of Judah:
The fact that Amon was the most sinful of all the wicked kings of Judah (II Chron. xxxiii. 23) is brought out in the Talmud (Sanh. 103b) as follows:
(Sanh. 104a)
Ahaz suspended the sacrificial worship, Manasseh tore down the altar, Amon made it a place of desolation [covered it with cobwebs]; Ahaz sealed up the scrolls of the Law (Isa. viii. 16), Manasseh cut out the sacred name, Amon burnt the scrolls altogether [compare Seder Olam, R. xxiv. This is derived from the story of the finding of the Book of the Law, II Kings, xxii. 8]; Ahab permitted incest, Manasseh committed it himself, Amon acted as Nero was said to have done toward his mother Agrippina. And yet, out of respect for his son Josiah, Amon's name was not placed on the list of the kings excluded from the world to come.
[End of quote]
What does gel nicely - according to my revised view that Amon is Haman - is the situation of death of Amon (2 Kings 21:23): “Amon’s officials conspired against him and assassinated the king in his palace”, with the situation of death of Haman (Esther 7:9): “And Harbona, one of the eunuchs that stood waiting on the king, said: ‘Behold the gibbet which [Aman] hath prepared for Mardochai, who spoke for the king, standeth in Aman's house, being fifty cubits high’. And the king said to him: ‘Hang him upon it’.”
Both deaths occurred violently, at the hands of officials, in the palace (house) of the offender.
In the case of Amon, we get the added note that (2 Kings 21:24): “Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon …”.
The “land”, I believe, is Susa, and the Jews (now assisted by the Persian king) are in the midst of a major conflict, yet unresolved, with their enemies. So it may not be surprising to learn that there was a retaliation for the death of Amon-Haman, who had many friends and allies (Esther 5:10-11): “But dissembling his anger, and returning into his house, [Haman] called together to him his friends, and Zares his wife. And he declared to them the greatness of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and with how great glory the king had advanced him above all his princes and servants”.
A concluding note
New problems arise from this radical new proposal about King Amon of Judah, which places him much later in time than is usually accepted for him.
I have already admitted this above.
These problems will be elaborated upon, and hopefully addressed, as this article progresses.
Part Two:
Some implications of Amon’s being Jehoiachin-Haman
“Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he was king [reigned] three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name
was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem”.
2 Kings 24:8
At the end of Part One I noted that “new problems arise from this radical new proposal about King Amon of Judah, which places him much later in time than is usually accepted for him”.
These “problems” are not insignificant.
First of all, this deeper revision must affect the sequence of the latter kings of Judah as currently set out in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, etc.
For instance, Amon can no longer be the father of Josiah as recorded in various places. E.g.:
2 Kings 21:24;
2 Chronicles 33:25;
Jeremiah 1:2;
Zephaniah 1:1;
Matthew 1:10.
And, considering that the royal sequence is also set out in the New Testament, in Matthew 1:6-11, then the Genealogy of Jesus Christ as we currently have it must be affected as well. According to another version of Matthew 1:10 (ESV), though, Josiah was the son of “Amos”, not Amon: “… Hezekiah [was] the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah …”.
Bible Gateway adds the note to this: “Matthew 1:10 Amos is probably an alternate spelling of Amon; some manuscripts Amon; twice in this verse”.
In actual fact, the names “Amos” and “Amon” are two entirely different names.
The fact that “Amos” can appear instead of “Amon” may give me some hope now for thinking that there is a certain leeway for rejecting Amon as the father of Josiah.
And, perfectly in accord with my revised view that King Amon of Judah was also the wicked Haman of the Book of Esther is Abarim’s association of these two names:
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Amon.html#.W5WkP-RNB9A
Associated Biblical names
♂♕☀Amonאמון
אמן
♂Haman
Other related problems that arise from my deeper revision are the different ages and reign lengths attributed to the supposedly two kings, but whom I am identifying as one, plus three different female names ‘claiming the right’ to be the king of Judah’s mother:
2 Kings 21:19: “Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah”.
2 Kings 24:8: “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he was king [reigned] three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem”.
Esther 3:1: “After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha …”, she being queen Hamutal (Hammutal) of 2 Kings 23:30 according to my revision.
Part Three:
Re-casting the sequence of Judaean kings
“Now after this he (King Manasseh) built a wall without the city of David,
on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate,
and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height,
and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.”
2 Chronicles 33:14
With King Amon of Judah identified in this present series with Haman of the Book of Esther - described as a “king” in Queen Esther’s prayer (14:10), “to magnify forever a mortal king” - and whom I have previously identified with King Jehoiachin (var. Coniah) of Judah, and hence having now detected a duplicating sequence embedded in our various lists of Judaean kings, it becomes necessary to attempt to re-cast the royal list without any such duplications.
Let us turn again the Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah in Matthew 1, to that part of Matthew’s list from King David to Jeconiah (= Amon) (vv. 7-11):
David was the father of Solomon …
Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of Jeconiah ….
As has often been pointed out, four known kings (Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah and Jehoiakim) are missing from Matthew’s list here (Jehoahaz now needs to be added), making it seem to many to be artificially constructed.
D. M. Williams, for instance, will wonder about three of these missing Judaean kings, in his “A word on the skipped generations in Matthew’s genealogy”:
https://resurrectingraleigh.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/a-word-on-the-skipped-generations-in-/
But in addition to the striking features of the schema, there are some nettlesome ones as well: namely, Matthew has to skip a few kings in order to make the second block of fourteen “work” (compare, for instance, 1:8-9 with 1 Chronicles 3:11-12–what happened to Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah?) and the final block, if you count, actually only has thirteen generations. One question which came up in our study yesterday was basically What are we to make of this? Are we now resting our faith on a lie? If Jesus was not born precisely forty nine generations after Abraham, is our faith in vain?
[End of quote]
I have wondered especially about the omission of the mighty kings, Joash and Amaziah, who, though they erred, do not appear to have been so consistently bad as, say, Ahaz, or Manasseh, who are included in the list.
But, in the end, I had acquiesced to arguments connecting them with the Omride queen, Athaliah - although that would apply more directly to king Jehoram (who was married to her, 2 Kings 8:18), who is not omitted from the list.
But now, with duplications recognised (if I am on the right track), there is no longer need for Joash and Amaziah to be excluded from the list.
With Amon now folded into Jeconiah (or Jehoiachin) as according to this series, and with Amon no longer recognised as the father of Josiah, but rather one named “Amos” thus being recognised, then, finally - and what I have long wondered about - Hezekiah can now be identified with his mirror-image Josiah.
Manasseh now becomes the wicked Jehoiakim, another of those kings who has been left out of Matthew’s genealogical list.
And “Amos”, the father of Josiah, becomes Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah.
The name Amos, or Amoz, is only a consonant different from Ahaz.
This would therefore be my emended list:
Hezekiah [=Josiah] the father of Manasseh [=Jehoiakim],
Manasseh the father of Amon [=Jehoiachin] ….
If Manasseh were Jehoiakim, then that would explain, for one, why the prophet Jeremiah names Manasseh as the reason for the Babylonian enmity (Jeremiah 15:4): “I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem”, even though Jehoiakim was just as evil and was, conventionally speaking, far closer in time to the Babylonian troubles than was Manasseh.
Again it would explain the strong tradition of the prophet Isaiah’s being martyred during the reign of king Manasseh.
“Michael A. Knibb writes: "The Martyrdom of Isaiah is a Jewish work which has come down to us as part of a larger Christian composition known as the Ascension of Isaiah".”
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/ascensionisaiah.html Un-mentioned in the Bible in connection with king Manasseh, qua Manasseh, this incident can (I think) be related to the martyrdom of the prophet Uriah (var. Urijah) during the reign of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:23): “And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people”.
Uriah now becomes Isaiah.
Incidentally, the prophet Uriah was “fetched forth” from Egypt by an “Elnathan” (v. 27), who may well be the same as the father of king Jehoiachin’s mother, “Nehushta daughter of Elnathan” (2 Kings 24:8): “His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan …”.
Unlike king Amon/Jehoiachin, who evolved into Haman, and who “humbled not himself before the LORD [BUT WHO] trespassed more and more”, his similarly long-reigning (in captivity) father, king Manasseh/Jehoiakim, thankfully, “had humbled himself” (2 Chronicles 33:22, 23).
The conversion of King Manasseh is told in vv. 11-13:
Therefore the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the Assyrian king; they captured Manasseh with hooks, shackled him with chains, and transported him to Babylon. In his distress, he began to appease the LORD, his God. He humbled himself abjectly before the God of his ancestors, and prayed to him. The LORD let himself be won over: he heard his prayer and restored him to his kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is indeed God.
As we read at the beginning, king Manasseh began the rebuilding and fortifying of Jerusalem.
I would tentatively identify king Manasseh/Jehoiakim with the “Sheshbazzar prince of Judah” of Ezra 1:8: “Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah”.
“Sheshbazzar” would of course have been the king’s Babylonian name, given to him in captivity. As we do not hear any more about Sheshbazzar, he, now aged (if he were Manasseh), may well have died not long afterwards – or simply left the overseeing of the remaining building work to younger men.
Part Four:
Who was the actual mother of King Amon of Judah?
“After these events, King Ahasuerus honored Haman son of Hammedatha …”.
Esther 3:1
Having alter egos for King Amon of Judah, whilst serving to solve certain problems according to the findings of this series, also adds a few complications as I noted in Part Two:
“Other related problems that arise from my deeper revision are the different ages and reign lengths attributed to the supposedly two kings, but whom I am identifying as one, plus three different female names ‘claiming the right’ to be the king of Judah’s mother:
2 Kings 21:19: “Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah”.
2 Kings 24:8: “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he was king [reigned] three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem”.
Esther 3:1: “After these events, King Ahasuerus honored Haman son of Hammedatha …”, she being queen Hamutal (Hammutal) of 2 Kings 23:30 according to my revision”.
Actually, I have already partly solved the problem of ‘three mothers’ for the one king here by indicating that the otherwise unattested “Hammedatha”, of whom Haman was the “son”, was the same as the Jewish queen, Hammutal (or Hamutal).
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Hamutal.html#.W5cH5uRNB9A
“There is only one Hamutal in the Bible, and she is the mother of kings Jehoahaz and Zedekiah of Judah (2 Kings 23:31, 24:18, Jeremiah 52:1)”.
{That these kings could have more than the one name is attested by Zedekiah originally having been Mattaniah (2 Kings 24:17)}
As to whether either Meshullemeth (above), said to be the mother of Amon, or Nehushta (above), said to be the mother of (Amon’s alter ego) Jehoiachin, was the actual biological mother, I have not looked into the matter yet deeply enough to make any sort of judgment.
One possibility to be considered is that Meshullemeth and Nehushta were the same person, though with different patronymics due to possible differentiation between father and grandfather.
But, whatever may be the case, we have easily managed to reduce three ‘mothers’ to two.
Differing ages and reign lengths: Amon … twenty-two years old … he reigned in Jerusalem two years; Jehoiachin … eighteen years old … he … [reigned] three months in Jerusalem, can readily be accounted for by co-regency.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-64940413392233852452024-02-18T23:20:00.000-08:002024-02-18T23:20:05.351-08:00If King Belshazzar made Daniel 3rd, who was 2nd?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqrnep-A4NFbZd6GKSI4HRykO_YJ-mtuXn6h543rMtLDFD3ioXWfDjtyhkCBpJcKFvNNxMrGEODqe-MsnOnK88ioysZ_c9AEuiEYqAVmXSjs6GxS-0lRyIpRws-9yOX3LsKX2hPMWBn0kOXXaIVyocb6SOYFHK_qQLTe7QIH09PFYjRzk_BQmFw1Tvgg/s310/download.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqrnep-A4NFbZd6GKSI4HRykO_YJ-mtuXn6h543rMtLDFD3ioXWfDjtyhkCBpJcKFvNNxMrGEODqe-MsnOnK88ioysZ_c9AEuiEYqAVmXSjs6GxS-0lRyIpRws-9yOX3LsKX2hPMWBn0kOXXaIVyocb6SOYFHK_qQLTe7QIH09PFYjRzk_BQmFw1Tvgg/s600/download.jpg"/></a></div>
by
Damien F. Mackey
Question:
I have a question concerning Belshazzar and the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel was offered to be the third ruler of the kingdom if he could tell the interpretation of the writing on the wall. The question was asked, Was [sic] there two rulers in the kingdom at that time or was there only one king? http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVanswers/2007/10-08c.html
That is a perfectly legitimate question to ask, and it is one that I have attempted to answer, and will do so again here, by modifying what I previously wrote about it under the same title:
If King Belshazzar made Daniel 3rd, who was 2nd?
But, firstly, here is the answer given to this question at La Vista Church of Christ:
________________________________________
Answer:
"Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:29).
In most kingdoms there would be the current king, the heir apparent, and then the chief counselor. After Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 B.C., Babylon had a series of short-lived kings.
Nebuchadnezzar's son, Evil-Merodach, succeeded his father, but was assassinated two years later. His brother-in-law, Neriglissar, came to the throne, but he died four years later.
His infant son, Labashi-Marduk, was next in line, but was assassinated. He was followed by the last king of Babylon, Nabonidus.
Babylonian kings were required [to] attend a yearly new year ceremony and pledge their loyalty to the Babylonian god, Marduk. Nabonidus, however, chose to give loyalty to another god, the moon god Sin. This caused such an uproar in Babylon that Nabonidus left the city and put his son, the crown prince Belshazzar, in charge.
This explains the third in line offer. Belshazzar was second after his father, Nabonidus, and offered to put Daniel directly under himself. ….
[End of quote]
This “Answer”, doggedly following the textbook succession of neo-Babylonian kings, which contains duplicates, is doomed to be wrong.
It does succeed, however, in identifying the correct historical person as the “King Belshazzar” of the Book of Daniel, namely, Belshazzar son of Nabonidus. The latter, though, Nabonidus, who was the same as King Nebuchednezzar, was, by now, dead.
Here follows the modified version of my original article:
Introduction
According to my new arrangement of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, which - arguing for certain duplications in the sequence - involves an approximate halving of the number of kings conventionally listed:
Aligning Neo-Babylonia with Book of Daniel
(5) Aligning Neo-Babylonia with the Book of Daniel | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Some of the benefits of this restructuring, are that:
• Nabonidus, considered by various scholars to have been the true paradigm for Daniel’s “Nebuchednezzar”, is now to be identified with Nebuchednezzar;
• Belshazzar (= Amel-Marduk) is the last king of the dynasty, as according to Daniel; and
• Belshazzar is immediately followed by the Medo-Persians.
How it all works out
in relation to Daniel
King Belshazzar is now the Amel-Marduk (Awel-Marduk or Evil Merodach) who raised up the captive Judaean king, Jehoiachin (Coniah) (2 Kings 25:27-30):
And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;
And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;
And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.
And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.
Clearly, King Belshazzar (as Amel-Marduk) had made Jehoiachin second to himself, having “set [Jehoiachin’s] throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon”.
Considering the short reign of Belshazzar as Amel-Marduk (c. 562-560 BC, conventional dates), and as Daniel’s Belshazzar (8:1):
“In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me”, a mere 2-4 years, Jehoiachin would presumably still have been second in the kingdom at the time of “Belshazzar’s Feast” (Daniel 5:1-29). The best that Daniel could be given, therefore, was “the third highest ruler in the kingdom”.
First: King Belshazzar;
Second: Jehoiachin;
Third: Daniel.
But the blasphemous numero uno would promptly lose his place at the top, for we read (5:30): “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain …”.
His replacement at the top? V. 31: “And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old”.
Presumably Jehoiachin retained a high place:
He was the conspiratorial Haman of the Book of Esther, according to my:
Haman un-masked
(10) Haman un-masked | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Darius the Mede, though, appears to have employed a different system of government (Daniel 6:1-3):
It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
The fierce revolt of the Babylonians against the king in support of Daniel (Daniel 14:27-30) may have opened the door for the advancement, again, of Jehoiachin, now as Haman. And so Darius the Mede, the “Ahasuerus” of the Book of Esther (3:1): “… promoted Haman … the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him”.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-15947911931872458682024-02-18T23:08:00.000-08:002024-02-18T23:08:26.094-08:00Mehuman and Memukan of Esther 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_oVt_4tisGSY1AeaEYGRRYl-lsbuUQJ1CuV_ygNZVUuA8EuI4dZySlVaX1cjQwaZHtdIFsyLYtRmOJby1SfsEfHEzy6owW1uoK5TR8bd3fSl5leJlS6SQE0QKz8Z7cugCvG5S1KZ8zrsF-Vw2syhuK2rMS0GrjdH_ZSujEAL2SNxxy-m1sOX7i9emE8/s270/download.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_oVt_4tisGSY1AeaEYGRRYl-lsbuUQJ1CuV_ygNZVUuA8EuI4dZySlVaX1cjQwaZHtdIFsyLYtRmOJby1SfsEfHEzy6owW1uoK5TR8bd3fSl5leJlS6SQE0QKz8Z7cugCvG5S1KZ8zrsF-Vw2syhuK2rMS0GrjdH_ZSujEAL2SNxxy-m1sOX7i9emE8/s600/download.jpg"/></a></div>
by
Damien F. Mackey
To me, these look like two very similar lists, with the names reversed in order:
Mehuman-Memukan; Karkas-Karshena; Zethar-Shethar; Abagtha-Admatha ….
The names Mehuman and Memukan (Memukhan) look very much the same (with just an ‘m’ and, say, ‘kh’ inverted).
Moreover, Mehuman and Memukan both are numbered amongst seven officials of King Ahasuerus of Medo-Persia:
Esther 1:10: “[Ahasuerus] commanded the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Karkas ….
Esther 1:13-14: “[Ahasuerus] spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king—Karshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memukan, the seven nobles of Persia and Media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom.
To me, these look like two very similar lists, with the names reversed in order. Thus:
Mehuman-Memukan; Karkas-Karshena; Zethar-Shethar; Abagtha-Admatha ….
This was in “the third year of [Ahasuerus’s] reign” (1:3).
Now, according to Daniel 1:21, the prophet “continued until the first year of King Cyrus.” But Daniel 10:1 tells that Daniel was still there until the “third year of Cyrus king of Persia”, who was, according to my reconstructions, King Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther:
Real historical characters in the Book of Esther
(3) Real historical characters in the Book of Esther | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
I had thus, previously, considered it an outside possibility that Mehuman may have been Nehemiah (my Daniel):
Daniel and Nehemiah
(3) Daniel and Nehemiah | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Interchange the M with an N (as is commonly done in ancient languages) and Mehuman becomes Nehuman, which is very like Nahum, a name related to Nehemiah:
https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Nehemiah.html
I have lately accepted the likelihood of the view, espoused by Yaacov Bronstein, that Memukan (Memuchan) was none other than Haman himself:
Suggestion that the name Memuchan in Esther 1:16-22 may be a reference to Haman
(4) Suggestion that the name Memuchan in Esther 1:16-22 may be a reference to Haman | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
And I would now carry over that view to suggest that Mehuman also was Haman.
What really swung me on this one was Abarim’s relating of the name, Mehuman, with, not only Haman, but also Amon:
https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Mehuman.html
Related names
• Via אמן ('aman): Abanah, Amana, Amen, Amittai, Amnon, Amon, Haman, Heman
This seems to reinforce another theory of mine that Haman was the former King Amon of Judah.
There is another thing of which I was quite unaware, seemingly reinforcing Bronstein’s view. The Septuagint of Esther 1:10 has, instead of Memuhan, the name Aman (Αμαν), which is the Greek version of Haman.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-53359851314927068262024-02-16T21:15:00.000-08:002024-02-16T21:15:53.438-08:00Gog and Magog: Satan, Haman, Russia, or Macedonian Greek?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJ17vFy0eGkMXYXaM5hUfQGD6kQSlPMkKSENQlBgcNVibmtHwkQkFKgXfy0lAyf3YAa74vaty5KoL47n7gjs6LjBUwgiFw2YzCB2UKkAXZ-xX7cBJ9jBHGNJUjcpazFk2cHm8E5RWPdzmJ4bYmCDW8G_PMwVIxH7pLk-2Cty5_7Cc-XvT8aRFxkjsjmU/s375/Depiction-of-Judah-fighting-a-Seleucid-warrior-Breaking-Israel-News-375x250.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJ17vFy0eGkMXYXaM5hUfQGD6kQSlPMkKSENQlBgcNVibmtHwkQkFKgXfy0lAyf3YAa74vaty5KoL47n7gjs6LjBUwgiFw2YzCB2UKkAXZ-xX7cBJ9jBHGNJUjcpazFk2cHm8E5RWPdzmJ4bYmCDW8G_PMwVIxH7pLk-2Cty5_7Cc-XvT8aRFxkjsjmU/s600/Depiction-of-Judah-fighting-a-Seleucid-warrior-Breaking-Israel-News-375x250.jpg"/></a></div>
by
Damien F. Mackey
Reader Suggests “Gog is Satan”
A Reader’s opinion: Your view on Gog and Magog is similar to James Jordan's old view that it was about the Maccabees. Jordan changed his mind and believes it refers to Esther. Personally, I disagree with both approaches. I see Gog and Magog (and the other prophecies of an eschatological battle) as referring to the war of the Church to convert the nations throughout her history. Gog is the eschatological wicked king mentioned in Numbers 24, and it is stated there that the messiah's kingdom is higher than Gog.
For complex reasons I don't have space to go into now, I think Gog is Satan.
Mackey’s Response: This interpretation, Gog being Satan, reminds me a bit of the suggestion of some regarding the nephilim giants of Genesis 6:4, that they were fallen angels.
According to Fr. John Echert, with whom I am inclined to agree, an interpretation such as this can run into what Fr. Echert here calls, “metaphysical complications”:
Answer by Fr. John Echert on 1/22/2006:
Genesis records a strange hybrid which resulted from sexual unions between the "daughters of men" and the “sons of God.
6:1 When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
While many scholars prefer to dismiss this entirely as myth which is borrowed from pagans cultures of the ancient near east, it is more appropriate to look for some truth and reality behind this mythical sounding text. Some of the Church Fathers, such as St. Augustine, Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria suggested that the “sons of God” may refer to righteous descendants (men) of Seth who took descendants (women) of Cain as wives. In such a case, “sons of God” associates the men with the goodness of God whereas “daughters of men” would be intended as a contrast to this. This is typical of ancient Semitic expressions which must not be interpreted literally as we understand such constructions but in accord with the customary use of language at the time. Knowing the background of Cain as a killer and the bad blood of his descendants, it is no wonder that such unions would be regarded in a negative light, which unions led to a situation in which humanity was corrupted and unacceptable to God. On the other hand, it is said of Seth and his line that these were the first to reverence the Name of Yahweh. The word “Nephalim” literally means “fallen ones” which sense would be consistent with an interpretation that views this group as a corrupt mixture of good and bad blood. Other commentators have suggested that the “sons of God” were (fallen) angels who somehow mated with human women, but this does present metaphysical complications in light of the natures of each. For now, I find the Patristic solution the most satisfying. ….
[End of quote]
There is a serious need today for a return to the studying of philosophia perennis, a sound Philosophy of Being, with its clear distinctions between the various levels of being (whether created or uncreated).
I find it most difficult to regard the “Gog” of Ezekiel 38 and 39 as being anything other than a human being, he being a prince-ruler of provinces known to us from the Assyrian records, and said to be leading an international army comprising soldiers from known places at the time, such as Persia and Ethiopia (Cush), these invading Israel, and there meeting catastrophic defeat.
The nephilim giants perished in the Flood - demons, of course, do not drown.
The Gerasene “Legion” may, perhaps have had their ‘wings dampened’, but it was only the herd of swine that actually drowned (Mark 5:12-13):
“The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them’. He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned”.
Likewise, one does not bury Satan (‘I will give Gog a burial place in Israel’), nor his demon army. Neither will one find Ezekiel’s “human bone” remnants amongst non-human demons (39:11-16):
‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD. People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground. After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed search. As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, near a town called Hamonah. And so they will cleanse the land’.
James B. Jordan, who has written some interesting articles, had thought to connect the phonetically alike names, “Hamon” and “Haman” (the wicked conspirator in the Book of Esther). But he had realised that a connection between the two was problematic: “The main argument against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture an invasion of the land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened throughout the Persian Empire”: https://theopolisinstitute.com/the-battle-of-gog-and-magog/
{“… Numbers 24, and it is stated there that the messiah's kingdom is higher than Gog”.
No, Numbers 24:7 actually says “higher than Agag”, which may be an entirely different geographical prospect}.
Conclusion on Satan
Certainly, I think that one might legitimately argue that Gog and Magog may represent Satan and his minions on a metaphorical level of interpretation of Scripture.
But such an interpretation cannot at all be made to fit a literal level of interpretation, which is the level of interpretation with which I am concerned in this article.
Could Haman be Gog?
At least one able commentator, James B. Jordan, has suggested that the enigmatic Gog and Magog might well fit the drama of the Book of Esther, with the wicked Haman, enemy of the Jews, being Gog.
For instance:
“It seems to me that if I were a Jew living during the intertestamental era,
I would be struck by the correspondence between Haman and Hamon-Gog, and it would cause me to consider whether or not they are related”.
James B. Jordan has proposed the following interesting comparison: http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/biblical-horizons/no-2-the-battle-of-gog-and-magog/
The battle of Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. My purpose in this brief essay is to propound an explanation for this passage that I have not encountered in any of my commentaries, but that makes more sense to me than any other. I offer it here in the hope that others can enter into conversation over the matter. Thus, this essay is designed as a "first word" and not the "last word" on the subject.
….
At this point, Ezekiel describes the attack of Gog, Prince of Magog, and his confederates. Ezekiel states that people from all the world will attack God’s people, who are pictured dwelling at peace in the land. God’s people will completely defeat them, however, and the spoils will be immense.
The result is that all nations will see the victory, and "the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward" (Ezk. 39:21-23). This is the same idea as we found in Zechariah 2:9, "They you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me," which I argued above most likely refers to the events of Esther.
Chronologically this all fits very nicely. The events of Esther took place during the reign of Xerxes, after the initial rebuilding of the Temple under Joshua and Zerubbabel and shortly before the restoration of the Temple by Ezra and the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah.
….
Looking at a few details, we see that the victory of the Jews over their enemies in Esther resulted in the deaths of 75,310 people (Esth. 9:10, 15, 16). This number of deaths is commensurate with the extent of the slaughter pictured in Ezekiel 38-39. The Jews were told that they might plunder those they slew (Esth. 8:11), but they did not take any of the plunder for their personal use (Esth. 9:10, 15, 16), which surely implies that it was regarded as holy and was sent to adorn the Temple. Was this the gold and silver "found in the whole province of Babylon" that Ezra brought to Jerusalem a few years later (Ezr. 7:16)?
Another interesting correspondence lies in the fact that the book of Esther repeatedly calls attention to the "127 provinces" of the Persian Empire, and in connection with the attack on the Jews, speaks of the "provinces which were from India to Cush" (Esth. 8:9). This goes well with the way Ezekiel 38 starts out, for there a number of nations are mentioned from all over the world, all of which were within the boundaries of the Persian Empire (Ezk. 38:1-6). In other words, the explicit idea that the Jews were attacked by people from all the provinces of Persia is in both passages.
Another possible cue [sic] is found in the prominent use of the Hebrew word for "multitude" in Ezekiel 39:11, 15, and 16. That word is hamon, which is spelled in Hebrew almost exactly like the name Haman. It was Haman, of course, who engineered the attack on the Jews in Esther. In Hebrew, both words have the same "triliteral root" (hmn). Only the vowels are different. (Though in hamon, the vowel "o" is indicated by the letter vav.) According to Ezekiel 39:11 and 15, the place where the army of Gog is buried will be known as the Valley of Hamon-Gog, and according to verse 16, the nearby city will become known as Hamonah. It seems to me that if I were a Jew living during the intertestamental era, I would be struck by the correspondence between Haman and Hamon-Gog, and it would cause me to consider whether or not they are related.
Yet another corroboration, to my mind, lies in the fact that Haman was an Amalekite. He was an "Agagite," a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag who was captured by Saul and hacked to pieces by Samuel (1 Sam. 15; Esth. 3:1). What Esther records is the last great attack upon Israel by Amalek, and the final destruction of Amalek. Now, Numbers 24:20 states that "Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction." The term "nation" is more closely associated with the Japhethites than with the Hamites or the Shemites. We don’t know which "nation" Amalek was, since it is not listed in Genesis 10, but it would seem to have been a Japhethite one.
At any rate, what is striking about Ezekiel 38 is that the nations listed as conspiring against Israel are Japhethite and Hamite nations seldom if ever heard from outside the primordial list of Genesis 10. Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Beth-togarmah, Tarshish, and Gomer are all Japhethite nations from Genesis 10:2-4. Cush, Put, Sheba, and Dedan are Hamite peoples from Genesis 10:6-7. Thus, the notion is of a conspiracy of primordial peoples against the true remnant of the Shemites. This certainly squares well with the fact that Haman was the preeminent representative of Amalek, the first of the nations.
[End of quote]
As James B. Jordan points out, there seem to be some compelling reasons to accept that the prophet Ezekiel’s Gog (and Magog) was a prefiguring of the Haman conspiracy in the Book of Esther.
Whilst I have been favouring the Macedonian (Seleucid) era, and the blasphemous Nicanor, the “Macedonian” element does appear also in the LXX version of the Book of Esther: “In the LXX, Haman is called a "Macedonian" by Xerxes (see Esther 16:10)”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haman_(biblical_figure)
Haman is variously also called a “Bougaean” and an “Amalekite”, the latter being the nationality for him favoured by James B. Jordan.
Haman is also, like Gog, an inveterate enemy of the Jews.
Moreover, as with Gog and Magog, so with Haman, the tables are turned when the beleaguered Jews gain the upper hand and annihilate their foes.
However, things are not always as they seem. According to my interpretations of the Book of Esther, Haman was not an Amalekite at all. He was, shock, horror - but yet according to a legend of the Jews - a Jew, and known to Mordecai.
I developed this startling notion in my article:
Haman un-Masked
(5) Haman un-masked | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
and it ultimately led me to the conclusion that Haman was in fact the Jewish king, Jehoiachin, or “Coniah the Captive”, and that it was from the Greek word for “captive” that Haman had mistakenly been confused as an Amalekite: “Now, ‘Amalekite’ (Greek: Amali̱kíti̱s) could no longer be regarded as Haman’s nationality, but as a misinterpretation of the epithet by which he, as king Jehoiachin, was best known: “the Captive” (Greek: aichmálo̱tos), of very similar phonetics”.
More recently, I wrote about it, and the origin of the name “Haman”, as an Egyptian name, in my article:
Setting the record straight on the historical Haman
(5) Setting the record straight on the historical Haman | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Some Islamic scholars have thought, but most anachronistically, to connect the name and person, Haman, with Hemiunu, the architect of King Cheops’s Great Pyramid:
Qur’an catapults evil Haman way back to the era of Moses
https://www.academia.edu/38676968/Qur_an_catapults_evil_Haman_way_back_to_the_era_of_Moses
My identification of Haman with the well-known (and ill-fated) biblical king Jehoiachin thus enables for any guess work to be taken out of the historical location of the Book of Esther.
Now, James B. Jordan himself has realised that there is a problem with his own reconstruction. And it turns out to be a major one. Jordan continues:
The main argument against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture an invasion of the land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened throughout the Persian Empire. At present, this argument does not have much force with me because of the fact that this entire section of Ezekiel is so highly symbolic in tone anyway. Chapter 37 gives us the vision of the valley of dry bones, after all, and chapters 40-48 are a thoroughly geometrical vision of the Restoration Temple. Thus, I can see no difficulty in assuming that Ezekiel is picturing the final world-wide attack of Amalek and his cohorts under the imagery of an attack on the land, imagery derived from the book of Judges (cp. Jud. 18:7, 10, 27 with Ezk. 38:8, 11, 14).
A final corroboration of this interpretive hypothesis comes from what we might call the "Amalek Pattern" in the Bible. Note in Genesis 12-15 that Abram moves into the land after escaping Pharaoh (ch. 12), settles down and experiences peace and prosperity (ch. 13), and then faces an invasion of a worldwide alliance of nations (ch. 14). This alliance captures Lot, but Abram rescues him, after which a Gentile priest blesses Abram (ch. 14). Finally, after this, God appears to Abram in a vision and makes covenant with him (ch. 15), guaranteeing him a "house."
Now look at Moses: After escaping Pharaoh (Ex. 1-14), the people are given food and water in the wilderness (Ex. 16). Then Amalek attacks and kills many Lot-like stragglers (Ex. 17; Dt. 25:17-19). Moses defeats Amalek, after which a Gentile priest (Jethro) blesses the people, and then God appears in the Cloud and makes covenant with them (Ex. 18-24), including the building of a "house" (the Tabernacle).
The same themes show up in the history of David: After escaping Pharaoh Saul (1 Sam. 18-26), David finds a place of rest in the "wilderness" at Ziklag (ch. 27). Then Amalek attacks and steals David’s wives (ch. 30), but David defeats them. Following this, a Gentile priest-king (Hiram of Tyre, whose as a Gentile king was also a priest) blesses David (2 Sam. 5:11-12), and then God appears to David in a vision, promising him a "house" (2 Sam. 7).
In this pattern, the attack of Gentile world powers (Gen. 14) is associated with the attack of Amalek (Ex. 17; 1 Sam. 27). As can plainly be seen, the same pattern recurs in the Restoration. After departing from Babylon, the people settle in the land and experience a degree of peace. Then comes the attack of Amalek and Gog & Magog. After this, Gentile priest-kings sponsor the return of Ezra and Nehemiah to restore the land and the "house."
While it would be fascinating to follow up this theme in the Gospels, Acts, and possibly Revelation, enough has been said to indicate that it is a recurring pattern, and one that lends some support to the hypothesis that the attack of Gog and Magog is fulfilled in the book of Esther.
[End of quote]
As intriguing as might seem to be “the correspondence between Haman and Hamon-Gog”, I would suggest that it is merely a phonetic coincidence, with no actual connection at all between the two names.
Nor do I think that Ezekiel 38-39’s “invasion of the land of Israel”, can be reduced to James B. Jordan’s “highly symbolic in tone”, but that it is rather what would actually turn out to be the biblico-historical case.
Conclusion on Haman
Haman is neither the Haman-Gog of Ezekiel 39, nor the Hemiunu of Old Kingdom Egypt.
Haman was the idolatrous Judean king, Jehoiachin the Captive, whose father had - as a vassal to pharaoh Necho - named his son after the Egyptian god, Amon.
The name has no connection whatsoever to Hamon-Gog.
Russia and the War of Gog and Magog
Are We Living in the Biblical End Times? What Scripture Says About Gog, Magog, and Russian Chaos
BILLY HALLOWELL, FAITHWIRE
02-25-2022
As Russia continues an unprovoked invasion into the sovereign nation of Ukraine, political warnings abound.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the United Nations on Wednesday an outright war with Russia would be the “end of the world order.”
Others are pondering what Russian President Vladamir Putin’s obstinate and dangerous acts mean for the future of international affairs more broadly.
Amid all this dismay, though, is a lingering theological conversation that has unfolded for decades around the biblical end times and Russia’s theoretical involvement in it.
Are the end times upon us? Are Russia’s actions part of the eschatological landscape? What does it all mean? These are just some of the pressing questions before us.
Is Russia a Key End-Times Player?
Most Bible experts carefully discuss these issues and are cautious not to overstate or definitively make proclamations about nations and events, though viable theories have emerged that are worth exploring.
Author Joel Rosenberg has been among those who have vocally explored Old Testament prophecies about the biblical end of days, discussing Russia’s potential placement in the mix. He published a blog post a few years ago in which he discussed world events as they pertain to the writings of Ezekiel, a biblical prophet.
“The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel wrote 2,500 years ago that in the ‘last days of history, Russia and Iran will form a military alliance to attack Israel from the north,” Rosenberg wrote. “Bible scholars refer to this eschatological conflict, described in Ezekiel 38–39, as the ‘War of Gog & Magog.'”
NEW DEVELOPMENT... Russia Rejects Israel’s Claim to Golan Heights
The text discusses a “Gog, of the land of Magog” and points to not only a battle but a victory for the Lord before the world’s eyes.
Ezekiel 38:14-16 (NIV) reads:
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it?
You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.”
….
What is Gog and Magog?
There are undoubtedly many opinions surrounding Gog, Magog, and the intensely complex themes in these biblical texts.
GotQuestions is one of the outlets that has provided an explainer regarding Russia, among other facets.
“Gog is a person. Whoever Gog is, he is from the land of Magog and is the leader of Tubal and Meshek (some translations add ‘Rosh’ to the list) and a confederacy of other nations: Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, and Beth Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:5 –6),” the outlet notes. “And, whoever he is, he will have plans to ‘attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people,’ viz., Israel (verses 11, 14, and 18). But, regardless of Gog’s plans, the Lord God is against him and will defeat him soundly (Ezekiel 38:4-19 –23; 39:3–5).”
This is a pretty concise recap of what is believed to be happening in this text. But you might have a lingering question: Why is Russia believed to be Magog by so many?
If you take out a map and look to the north (these Scriptures note Gog comes from the “far north”), you’ll find Russia and former Soviet territories. So, it’s not surprising to see so many Bible experts point to this region.
One other note worth mentioning here is “Persia,” a nation listed as being in alliance with Magog, is modern-day Iran. Considering current affairs and trajectories, that piece is raising a lot of eyebrows.
….
[End of quotes]
Imposing an ancient scenario upon the modern-day world is never going to fit literally.
Though it may have some metaphorical value.
More sensibly, we read from Jeffrey Goodman (2012):
http://www.newscientificevidenceforgod.com/2012/02/debunking-russiawar-of-gog-and-magog.html
….
Debunking the Russia/War of Gog and Magog Myth
One of the more popular topics among Christians today is the “end times.” With each significant news story, a correlation between it and end times events prophesied in the Bible is sought. Because of recent military activities and tensions in Russia and Israel, the end times event prophesied in the Bible called “The War of Gog and Magog” is now a red hot topic. Ezekiel 38/39 tells how Gog, the powerful leader from the land of Magog, will lead a confederacy of nations to invade Israel during the end times and start a war of unprecedented size and devastation.
Many end times aficionados believe that Magog represents Russia and that Russia will soon come to invade Israel. However, the ancient Assyrians had dealings with Magog, and their Court records clearly identify Magog and it is not Russia. For decades Christians have been deceived and have been unwittingly deceiving others about who is to be involved in the prophesied invasion of Israel. Russia has absolutely nothing to do with Magog and being the nation that will lead an invasion of Israel.
While many may picture Russia as an “evil empire,” personal opinions, traditional views, incomplete research, and current events cannot be the basis of the identification of Gog and Magog and the interpretation of Ezekiel 38/39. The correct identification and interpretation of Ezekiel 38/39 must be based on scripture, with the aid of the archeological and historical context of these scriptures. (The scriptures of the Bible are set in a context of ancient cultures, nations, and times.)
While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, everyone is not entitled to their own set of facts. Although opinions may abound, there is not one verifiable fact or any primary evidence to support the belief that Magog represents Russia. II Peter 1:20 says “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” This is consistent with II Timothy 2:15 which says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Any interpretation of Ezekiel 38/39 requires recognition of the historical truth and obedience to the word of God which is truth.
The brief report below explains the great deception about Russia and the War of Gog and Magog. Complete details about this topic and other end time events are available in my new book THE COMETS OF GOD.
….
Russia and the War of Gog and Magog
While most end times Bible prophecy authors have argued that Russia's origins trace back to the ancient nation of "Magog” described in Ezekiel 38-39, this is simply not true. This myth that traces back to the mid 1800’s is built on historical statements that were deliberately altered, and on the assumption that the similarity of certain words could mean something else in another language. Although ancient records have been found that tell a different story about the identity of Magog and about Russia’s origins, the “Russia is Magog” myth persists.
Assyrian Court Records
The popular identification of the nations of Ezekiel 38-39 is not correct. Despite the traditional viewpoint, professional archeologists know the identity of these nations from the Assyrian Royal Court records. The reliable, clear and detailed records of Assyrian Royal Court show they dealt directly with each of these nations about 100 years before Ezekiel wrote. These are the same records that are referred to in Ezra 4:15, 19 and 5:17-6:7. These passages tell how the Jews of the fifth century BC 538 BC–457 BC overcame opposition by the local Persian governor to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem by referring to these same Assyrian cuneiform court records. They are also the same records Bible scholars now use to provide independent verification and edification of the Bible’s historical accounts from about 805 BC to 530 BC.
The Assyrian Royal Court records provide direct evidence and represent an incontestable primary source on this subject, since they were written during the time period in question by people who were directly involved. Primary sources have greater value than secondary sources, which can include generalizations, speculation and interpretations made long after the occurrence of the events.
On this particular subject, too often what has been written about these countries constitutes secondary evidence and is not based on facts.
In some instances statements are the product of mischief, bias or not studying all of the available information.
The Assyrian Court records show dealings with Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:3-6), the nations that stretched across ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from west to east. From these records we also learn that the ancient nation of Gomer (Ezekiel 38:6), an enemy of the Assyrians invaded Asia Minor by coming down from an area around the northeast shore of the Black Sea. Archeologists know that the militant leader called “Gog” in Ezekiel 38/39 led a confederacy of these nations against invading Gomer. ….
[End of quote]
Russia is a crucial player in non-biblical prophecies approved by the Catholic Church, such as Fatima and the Divine Mercy (as opposed to the myriads of unapproved ones like Garabandal, Medjugorje, etc., etc.).
Fatima 1917
Brother André Marie asks:
https://catholicism.org/what-are-the-errors-of-russia.html
What Are ‘the Errors of Russia?’
MAR 23, 2017 BROTHER ANDRÉ MARIE
In her apparition of July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima told Sister Lucy that “Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the Church.
The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.”
People sometimes ask the question, “What are the errors of Russia?” In her article, Have the “Errors of Russia” Now Infected Rome?, Dr. Maike Hickson gives the most exhaustive list I have ever seen in reply to this question.
….
But, what, then, are the “errors of Russia” as they were developing at the time of the Bolshevik-Russian Revolution shortly after the Fatima apparitions? It would seem that they include, among other things, the following list of characteristics:
1. A reductively atheistic materialist world-view which aims at undermining anything Christian in society;
2. An ideology that is disconnected from Truth and reality;
3. A cultural Marxism that later permeated also the West with the help of the Frankfurt School and Antonio Gramsci’s ideas;
4. A revolutionary socialistic spirit that undermines especially major aspects of family life – especially with the help of feminism, divorce and abortion;
5. A Hegelian dialectic philosophy, along with dialectic materialism, which claims that strife and ongoing contention in society are necessary in order to bring about higher and unfolding forms of life; such an approach essentially denies and purportedly transcends the principle or law of non-contradiction.
6. A form of governing “revolutionary socialism” that is also constitutionally called “Democratic Centralism,” the latter formulation meaning that things have the appearance of being openly democratic, yet they are all centrally organized and managed in the background (Dr. Robert Hickson recently applied this principle to the current situation in the Church – especially with regard to the Family Synods – here);
7. A disregard for tradition and for the traditional institutions of society (or now of the Church, such as the Curia?) as “counter-revolutionary forces”;
8. A deceitful misuse of language with the intent to manipulate the public;
9. A method of branding one’s own opponents with sweeping and demeaning epithets that abstractly categorize them as “right-wing” or “counter-revolutionary” [and what about the most-common term in use among the left: “fascist”?];
10. An approach to ongoing revolutionary changes where there is both “a slow path” and “a fast path” of the Revolution; such is “the Dialectic” and the “dialectical process”;
11. Toward more moderate and compromising opponents, one first tries to incorporate them into the professed new system so as to use them as Lenin’s “useful idiots” in the sense that they help give to the world the illusory idea that nothing has really changed;
12. As a last element – but of course a very important and painful one for those who lived under Communism – there is a constant sense of distrust and fear, unto the imprisonment and killing of one’s intransigent opponents.
[End of quotes]
Divine Mercy
Divine anger at Russia: https://www.theprodigalfather.org/lecture-on-divine-mercy-what-jesus-said-about-russia-and-how-we-can-be-at-peace-in-a-time-of-war-cancel-culture-polarization-and-division/’
Sister Faustina Kowalska, standing in the breach as a new Moses:
…. This was December 19, 1936. [818] I have offered this day to Russia. I have offered all my sufferings and prayers for that developing country. After Holy Communion, Jesus said to me; I cannot suffer that country anymore. (Listen to this) Do not tie my hands, My daughter. (209) I understood that if it had not been for the prayers of souls pleasing to God, the whole nation would have already been reduced to nothingness. Oh, how I suffer for that nation which has banished God from its borders! ….
Conclusion on Russia
Gog and Magog pertain to antiquity, not to the modern era, Fatima and Russia’s errors, which are dealt with, instead, in the Fatima and Divine Mercy revelations of the C20th.
These are still most relevant today!
Some Geography
Old Testament texts, such as the much-discussed Ezekiel 38 and 39,
should be studied according to their own proper geographical setting,
rather than having superimposed upon them a modern global world scene.
The geography of Ezekiel 38 and 39 can be well understood, for instance,
from the Assyrian incursions into the same regions not much before Ezekiel’s own time.
One must reject a common tendency today to take words from, e.g., Ezekiel 38:2, such as rosh (רֹאשׁ), and meshech (מֶשֶׁךְ), and tubal (תֻבָל), and re-invent them as modern places, such as, respectively: “Russia”; “Moscow”; and “Tobolsk” (or “Tblisi”).
Not to mention the possibility that “Gog” (38:1, 2) himself might stand for “President Putin”.
Rosh is best interpreted, not as a place name, but as e.g. “chief”, hence (38:2): “Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal”, whilst the last two names are known from the Assyrian records as Mushki (Muški) and Tabal.
There seem to have been a western Mushki (= Phrygia) and an eastern Mushki (Cappadocia and Cilicia). “The Phrygian King Midas has been identified with Mita of Mushki, who appears in Assyrian records as a contemporary of Sargon II between ca. 718 and 709 BC”:
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sqOXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=mita+of+mushki+sargon+iI&source=bl&ots=CiKC0Byq8q&sig=JsvzmPuYdCGZCT6qifLpz6Lf8qo
Tabal was located in the Kayseri region of central Anatolia.
As for Magog, I like the following Assyrian-based explanation, once again, that the name simply means “the land of Gog” (http://blogs.christianpost.com/guest-views/debunking-the-russia-war-of-gog-and-magog-myth-8754/)
Gog is a historical man who the Greeks called Gyges of Lydia. In Gyges of Lydia we have the leader the Assyrians called "Gugu, King of Ludu," and "Gugu of Magugu," who is referred to in the Bible as Gog of Magog. "Magog" simply means "the land of Gog." In Akkadian ma means land, so in Akkadian Ma- gugu means "the land of Gugu," which becomes our Ma-gog. (Just as the Assyrian eponym for the land of the leader called Zamua is rendered as Ma-zamua). Magog is an eponym for the ancient nation of Lydia that was in the westernmost part of Asia Minor.
The Assyrians often referred to a new land by the name of the first leader they learned of from this land. The Assyrians dealt with Lydia through Meshech, who were subsequently defeated by Gomer, and thus the Assyrians finally came to deal with Lydia directly. ….
Then follows the typical extension of the ancient prophecy into a Christian framework:
“In the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39 Gog is being used as a "historical type" of the "antichrist" who is prophesied to come during the end times, and Magog is being used as a "historical type" of "the land of the antichrist."
Passing on to verses 5-6, we encounter five more place names: “Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah …”.
“Persia” = Persia;
“Cush” is Ethiopia;
The Maccabees, in whose era I would set the Gog incident, were confronted by various hostile governors of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. Thus (2 Maccabees 3:4-6):
But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been made captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the administration of the city market; and when he could not prevail over Onias he went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who at that time was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.
He reported to him that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of untold sums of money, so that the amount of the funds could not be reckoned, and that they did not belong to the account of the sacrifices, but that it was possible for them to fall under the control of the king.
And (2 Maccabees 8:8-9):
When Philip saw that the man was gaining ground little by little, and that he was pushing ahead with more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king’s government. Then Ptolemy promptly appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king’s chief Friends, and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand Gentiles of all nations, to wipe out the whole race of Judea. He associated with him Gorgias, a general and a man of experience in military service.
And (2 Maccabees 10:11): “When [Antiochus] Eupator succeeded to the kingdom, he put a certain Lysias in charge of the government as commander-in-chief of Coelesyria and Phoenicia”.
“Gomer”, is generally thought to indicate the Cimmerians.
“Gomer fathered the Cimmerians who located southwest of the Black Sea. After being defeated by the Assyrians they settled in the area between Armenia and Cappadocia (Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:6)”.
http://jaymack.net/genesis-commentary/Dh-The-Line-of-Japheth.asp
“Beth Togarmah” is the Assyrian Til-garimmu
With whom Sargon II made a treaty.
Some of these nations were Japhetic in origin (Genesis 10:2-5):
The sons of Japheth:
Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.
The sons of Gomer:
Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
The sons of Javan:
Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites. (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)
“On the mountains of Israel”
A key factor militating against the possibility of satisfactorily locating Ezekiel’s Gog incident to the Book of Esther, with Gog being Haman, was James B. Jordan’s point: “The main argument against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture an invasion of the land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened throughout the Persian Empire”.
He is right, for according to Ezekiel 39:1-6:
Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD’.
Clearly, the geographical setting for the annihilation of the forces of Gog is ‘the land of Israel and its mountains’. And, whilst that region may not fit well the drama of the Book of Esther, it is precisely the geography for the many confrontations between the Seleucid armies and the Maccabean Jews.
Real Gog and Magog
Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him …’.
Ezekiel 38:1-2
And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal …”.’
Ezekiel 39:1
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Revelation 20:8
Certain books deemed apocryphal, that do not constitute part of the Jewish or Protestant canon, but which figure in the Catholic bibles, I have found to be absolutely essential for completing key identifications.
For example:
Without the Book of Tobit, one might not be able to come to realise that, contrary to the textbooks, Sennacherib succeeded his father, Shalmaneser [V] (Tobit 1:15): “But when Shalmaneser died, and his son Sennacherib reigned in his place ...”.
Hence my:
Assyrian King Sargon II, Otherwise Known As Sennacherib
https://www.academia.edu/6708474/Assyrian_King_Sargon_II_Otherwise_Known_As_Sennacherib
Again, without the Book of Tobit, I may never have been able properly to identify (at least as I see it) the prophet Job:
Job’s Life and Times
https://www.academia.edu/3787850/Jobs_Life_and_Times
And, without the Book of Judith, I may never have discovered what actually happened to the 185,000-strong army of Sennacherib:
“Nadin” (Nadab) of Tobit is the “Holofernes” of Judith
https://www.academia.edu/36576110/_Nadin_Nadab_of_Tobit_is_the_Holofernes_of_Judith
Without 1 Maccabees 11:38-51, I would not have had a clue as to what historical situation was being referred to in 2 Maccabees 8:20: “And of the battle that they had fought against the Galatians, in Babylonia; how they, being in all but six thousand, when it came to the point, and the Macedonians, their companions, were at a stand, slew a hundred and twenty thousand, because of the help they had from heaven, and for this they received many favours”.
Jews annihilate the “Galatians”
https://www.academia.edu/44850554/Jews_annihilate_the_Galatians_
Now it seems to me that 1 and 2 Maccabees, again, might enable for the interpretation of that enigmatic prophecy by Ezekiel concerning Gog and Magog, which is later taken up by the Evangelist St. John in the Book of Revelation.
“Holofernes” and Nicanor
Because of certain similarities between the Maccabean accounts of Nicanor against the Jews, and the arrogant “Holofernes” who sought to take Jerusalem, some commentators presume that the Book of Judith was written during – and mirrored - the C2nd BC era of the Maccabees.
Judith Parallels in Maccabean
Defeat of Treacherous Nicanor
The author(s) of the Nicanor narratives in 1 and 2 Maccabees may well have had in mind the stirring ancient saga of the heroine Judith’s defeat of “Holofernes”.
This last was, according to my reconstructions, e.g.:
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf
the catalyst for the rout and defeat of Sennacherib’s 185,000-strong Assyrian army.
And Judas Maccabeus will duly allude to this epic Jewish victory in his prayer for victory against the blasphemous Nicanor:
I Maccabees 7:40-42: “Then Judas prayed and said, ‘When the messengers from the king spoke blasphemy, your angel went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians. So also crush this army before us today; let the rest learn that Nicanor has spoken wickedly against the sanctuary, and judge him according to this wickedness’.”
Cf. Judith’s prayer (Judith 9:7-14):
‘Here are the Assyrians, a vast force, priding themselves on horse and chariot, boasting of the power of their infantry, trusting in shield and spear, bow and sling. They do not know that you are the Lord who crushes wars; Lord is your name. Shatter their strength in your might, and crush their force in your wrath. For they have resolved to profane your sanctuary, to defile the tent where your glorious name resides, and to break off the horns of your altar with the sword. See their pride, and send forth your fury upon their heads. Give me, a widow, a strong hand to execute my plan. By the deceit of my lips, strike down slave together with ruler, and ruler together with attendant. Crush their arrogance by the hand of a female.
Your strength is not in numbers, nor does your might depend upon the powerful. You are God of the lowly, helper of those of little account, supporter of the weak, protector of those in despair, savior of those without hope.
Please, please, God of my father, God of the heritage of Israel, Master of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all you have created, hear my prayer!
Let my deceitful words wound and bruise those who have planned dire things against your covenant, your holy temple, Mount Zion, and the house your children possess. Make every nation and every tribe know clearly that you are God, the God of all power and might, and that there is no other who shields the people of Israel but you alone’.
II Maccabees 15:22-24: “[Judas’s] prayer was worded thus: ‘You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judaea, and he destroyed no less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib’s army; now, once again, Sovereign of heaven, send a good angel before us to spread terror and dismay. May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they have come with blasphemy on their lips to attack your holy people’. And on these words he finished”.
Because of the undoubted similarities between the Judith drama and Maccabees here, some commentators conclude that the Book of Judith must be a late product reflecting Maccabean times. For example (http://mb-soft.com/believe/txs/judith.htm):
Both the apocalyptic element in the book and certain details of the narrative suggest that it dates from the period of the Maccabees. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, is said to have wanted “to destroy all local gods so that the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone and people of every language and nationality should hail him as a god” (3:8). Yet it was the Seleucids, not the Assyrians or Babylonians, whose kings first insisted on divine honors. In that case, “Nebuchadnezzar” might represent Antiochus IV, while “Holofernes” may stand for his general Nicanor, “Assyrians” for the Seleucid Syrians, and “Nineveh” for Antiochus's capital Antioch. This interpretation is supported by the existence of a Hebrew Midrash that tells the story of Judith in an abbreviated form, explicitly assigning it to the period of Seleucid oppression.
[End of quote]
The fact is that Judith of Bethulia and Judas Maccabeus belonged to two entirely different eras separated the one form the other by at least half a millennium.
Judith belongs to the neo-Assyrian era of Sennacherib (c. 700 BC). Hence, “Assyrians” in the Book of Judith means Assyrians, not “Seleucid Syrians”, and “Nineveh” means Nineveh, and not “Antioch”!
But there are, nevertheless, definite parallels between the two eras, just as someone arriving on earth in a thousand years’ time might discern parallels between the First and Second World Wars. May even end up concluding that this must have been just the one World War.
Judith’s era is somewhat like, but yet very different from, the era of Judas Maccabeus.
The Book of Judith, probably written by the high priest, Joakim (4:6), could not have been influenced by 1 and 2 Maccabees. Instead, it could only have been the other way around.
Comparing the two enthralling sagas, we find for example:
Just as the Assyrian king will send his competent second-in command (Judith 2:4), so will King Demetrius send Nicanor “ranking as Illustrious” (I Maccabees 7:1, 26).
Like “Holofernes” (6:2-6), Nicanor is arrogant and mocking (as according to Judas’s testimony above).
The Jews, the priests, in Jerusalem, in fear for their Temple, turn to God and ask for vengeance upon the Assyrians (4:9-12), as do those whom Nicanor had mocked and threatened (I Maccabees 7:36-37).
In both sagas, the small Jewish forces will be confronted by massive foreign ones.
Like “Holofernes”, Nicanor falls early, thus precipitating a rout.
The Jews then swarm upon the enemy from all quarters.
The head of “Holofernes” is publicly displayed (14:1), as is that of Nicanor (I Maccabees 7:47).
Judith and her victorious people will celebrate the victory for “three months” (16:20), whilst the Maccabees will mark the day as an annual day of celebration (Mordecai’s Day) (I Maccabees 7:48-49).
Peace then prevailed for a time (cf. Judith 16:25; I Maccabees 7:50).
The main point of this article, though, is to identify “Gog and Magog”.
How does the above relate to this enigmatic foe of Israel?
Is Nicanor the key?
Gog Long Foretold
Ezekiel 38:16-17
…. O Gog …. Thus saith the Lord GOD; ‘Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?’
Who foretold Gog?
Some Equivocal References
Prophetic utterance about Gog goes back to the time of Moses according to some versions of Numbers 24:7, such as the LXX, which renders Balaam’s prediction of “a king higher than Agag”, as “a king higher than Gog”. Likewise the Samaritan Hebrew text.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=yjMHAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA33&lpg=RA1-P).
But there is an Amalekite king called “Agag” at the time of King Saul (I Samuel 15:8): “[Saul] also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive …”.
Again (http://danielstreett.com/2011/09/23/gog-the-locust-king-lxx-texts-of-note-3/): “In Vaticanus, Deut 3:1, 13 read Γωγ [Gog] instead of Ὠγ [Og] as the king of Βασάν [Bashan]. Og, of course, also takes on mythic proportions in Jewish tradition”.
The name, “Gog”, also appears in the LXX version of Amos 7:1, the prophet Amos actually belonging to the neo-Assyrian period of the C9th-8th’s BC. We read of this at: http://danielstreett.com/2011/09/23/gog-the-locust-king-lxx-texts-of-note-3/
In Amos 7:1 LXX we have a most intriguing passage. Most English translations read something like this: “The sovereign LORD showed me this: I saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.)” (NET Bible)
Gog the Grasshopper
The LXX, however, reads: οὕτως ἔδειξέν μοι κύριος καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐπιγονὴ ἀκρίδων ἐρχομένη ἑωθινή καὶ ἰδοὺ βροῦχος εἷς Γωγ ὁ βασιλεύς. In English: “Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a swarm of locusts coming early, and behold, one locust, Gog, the king.” It’s possible that the translator has seen in Amos 7:1 a link to Joel’s locust army, which comes from the north (Joel 2:20), and has thus linked it to Ezekiel’s Gog, which also comes from the north (Ezek 38:15).
[End of quote]
More Promising Predictions
Though the prophet Zechariah, who is late - whose life continued on into the post-exilic period - never actually mentions Gog, he does predict a Jewish victory over the Greeks (9:13):
I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,
and make you like a warrior’s sword.
The most promising of all biblical anticipations of the Macedonian Greek hostile incursions into Palestine comes of course from the prophet Daniel, from as far back as “the first year of Darius the Mede” (11:1), who was none other than the King Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther.
The prophet Ezekiel refers to Daniel in several places. Though various modern commentaries suggest that this is not the Daniel of the Old Testament, but possibly a pagan king, Dan’el, of Ugaritic literature. In my article on this:
The Identity of the “Daniel” in Ezekiel 14 and 28
(DOC) Identity of the 'Daniel' in Ezekiel 14 and 28 | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
I quoted the following from The Jerome Biblical Commentary (my emphasis):
Inasmuch as Daniel (Hebr consonants d-n-‘-l, Danel, as in Ugaritic) is placed beside Noah and Job, he is probably a figure from antiquity known through popular tradition and not to be identified with the biblical Daniel. Probably, although not necessarily, the reference is to Danel of ancient Ugarit, known for the effectiveness of his intercession with the gods, for attention to their desires, and as a righteous judge (ANET 150).
Sticking, however, with the real Daniel, the biblical prophet, who I believe was Ezekiel’s “Daniel”, this is what that prophet foretold about the one who I think looms as a most likely candidate for Gog (11:21-31):
He will be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honor of royalty. He will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure, and he will seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him; both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a few people he will rise to power. When the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will distribute plunder, loot and wealth among his followers. He will plot the overthrow of fortresses—but only for a time.
With a large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South. The king of the South will wage war with a large and very powerful army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. Those who eat from the king’s provisions will try to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall in battle. The two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. The king of the North will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country.
At the appointed time he will invade the South again, but this time the outcome will be different from what it was before. Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury against the holy covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant.
His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.
Who is Gog?
What did the prophet Ezekiel have in mind when he predicted the rise of Gog?
Since Ezekiel’s “Gog”, already foretold in bygone days, was to emerge at a time well beyond Ezekiel’s own era (38:8): “After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war …”, and well after the return from Babylonian Exile: “… whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety”, we would not expect the prophet to have crystal clear knowledge of this future enemy - just a general impression.
Ezekiel, apparently having an inspired awareness of the general region to be ruled by the future foe of Israel, chose to identify him by the generic name of “Gog”.
This was likely a hearkening back to the historical king Gyges of Lydia, whom the Assyrians called “Gugu, King of Ludu”.
For the Seleucids did indeed rule over the Lydian realm of Gyges.
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=yklDk6Vv0l4C&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=eum):
“The Romans are said to have taken “India and Media and Lydia” from Antiochus and to have given them to Eumenes”. This is a reference to I Maccabees 8:8.
{Commentators say that “India” ought perhaps to be replaced here by “Ionia”, since the Seleucids are thought not to have reigned over India}.
I have already discussed Seleucid control over Coele Syria and Phoenicia, as well.
And, although Egypt and Ethiopia rightfully belonged to the Ptolemies, Antiochus IV “Epiphanes”, the stand-out candidate for Ezekiel’s “Gog”, would successfully invade Egypt with a great force (I Maccabees 1:17-20):
And the kingdom was established before Antiochus, and he had a mind to reign over the land of Egypt, that he might reign over two kingdoms.
And he entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots and elephants, and horsemen, and a great number of ships:
And he made war against Ptolemy king of Egypt, but Ptolemy was afraid at his presence, and fled, and many were wounded unto death.
And he took the strong cities in the land of Egypt: and he took the spoils of the land of Egypt.
“[Antiochus] took the spoils of the land of Egypt”. Nothing surprising about that, of course.
But Ezekiel will give as Gog’s very motivation, loot and plunder (38:12-13):
‘I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?”’
And Antiochus’s next move would be to turn upon Israel and plunder Jerusalem and its Temple (vv. 21-34):
And after Antiochus had ravaged Egypt in the hundred and forty-third year, he returned and went up against Israel.
And he went up to Jerusalem with a great multitude.
And he proudly entered into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof, and the table of proposition, and the pouring vessels, and the vials, and the little mortars of gold, and the veil, and the crowns, and the golden ornament that was before the temple: and he broke them all in pieces.
And he took the silver and gold, and the precious vessels: and he took the hidden treasures which he found: and when he had taken all away he departed into his own country.
And he made a great slaughter of men, and spoke very proudly.
And there was great mourning in Israel, and in every place where they were.
And the princes, and the ancients mourned, and the virgins and the young men were made feeble, and the beauty of the women was changed.
Every bridegroom took up lamentation: and the bride that sat in the marriage bed, mourned:
And the land was moved for the inhabitants thereof, and all the house of Jacob was covered with confusion.
And after two full years the king sent the chief collector of his tributes to the cities of Juda, and he came to Jerusalem with a great multitude.
And he spoke to them peaceable words in deceit: and they believed him.
And he fell upon the city suddenly, and struck it with a great slaughter, and destroyed much people in Israel.
And he took the spoils of the city, and burnt it with fire, and threw down the houses thereof, and the walls thereof round about:
And they took the women captive, and the children, and the cattle they possessed.
Not long after this, however, Judas Maccabeus began to win battles against the hated foreigners. He defeated Apollonius, who had “gathered together the Gentiles, and a numerous and great army from Samaria, to make war against Israel” (3:10-11). And then an army led by “Seron, captain of the army of Syria” (vv. 13-24).
Naturally, these setbacks infuriated king Antiochus IV (vv. 27-33):
Now when king Antiochus heard these words, he was angry in his mind: and he sent and gathered the forces of all his kingdom, an exceeding strong army.
And he opened his treasury, and gave out pay to the army for a year: and he commanded them, that they should be ready for all things.
And he perceived that the money of his treasures failed, and that the tributes of the country were small because of the dissension, and the evil that he had brought upon the land, that he might take away the laws of old times:
And he feared that he should not have as formerly enough, for charges and gifts, which he had given before with a liberal hand: for he had abounded more than the kings that had been before him.
And he was greatly perplexed in mind, and purposed to go into Persia, and to take tributes of the countries, and to gather much money.
And he left Lysias, a nobleman of the blood royal, to oversee the affairs of the kingdom, from the river Euphrates even to the river of Egypt:
And to bring up his son Antiochus, till he came again.
So it is apparent that the profligate Antiochus “Epiphanes” was ever seeking more and more plunder and wealth. Just like Gog.
Moreover, due to the vastness of the Seleucid empire, Antiochus could draw on what Ezekiel says of Gog, “the many nations with you” (38:6). These included (vv. 5-6) “Persia”, to where Antiochus would march to replenish his treasury, “Cush”, included in his conquest of Egypt, “and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops”, all lands belonging to the Seleucid empire.
Later Antiochus’s general, Nicanor, will march against the Jews with “no fewer than twenty thousand armed men of different nations”, or, as The Jerusalem Bible puts it, “an international force” (2 Maccabees 8:9).
From a reading through of 1 and 2 Maccabees one learns that the Maccabean family would have to face wave after wave of massive forces over a lengthy period of time. In other words, the assault by Gog upon Israel was not simply just one concentrated invasion at one point in time, as was the case with Sennacherib’s Assyrian army of 185,000. No, it was a prolonged affair. And it saw one Seleucid king succeed another.
Ezekiel, who knew the broad outline of the war, summarised it as follows whilst reverting to apocalyptic language (38:14-20):
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground’.
Gog’s war machine would be no amateur assortment of troops, but a well-oiled and well-armed fighting force that properly understood war (vv. 4-5): “… your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets …”.
Likewise, the forces of Gorgias, one of the “mighty men of the king’s friends” (1 Maccabees 3:38, 4:7): “And they saw the camp of the Gentiles that it was strong, and the men in breastplates, and the horsemen round about them, and these were trained up to war”.
And, later, the troops of king Antiochus V, son of the now-deceased “Epiphanes” (1 Maccabees 6:28-30):
Now when the king heard this, he was angry: and he called together all his friends, and the captains of his army, and them that were over the horsemen.
There came also to him from other realms, and from the islands of the sea hired troops.
And the number of his army was an hundred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand horsemen, and thirty-two elephants, trained to battle.
V. 35: “And they distributed the beasts by the legions: and there stood by every elephant a thousand men in coats of mail, and with helmets of brass on their heads: and five hundred horsemen set in order were chosen for every beast”.
V. 39: “Now when the sun shone upon the shields of gold, and of brass, the mountains glittered therewith, and they shone like lamps of fire”.
V. 51: “And [Antiochus] turned his army against the sanctuary for many days: and he set up there battering slings, and engines and instruments to cast fire, and engines to cast stones and javelins, and pieces to shoot arrows, and slings”.
But all of this massed force will ultimately be in vain, for this is to be a victory, not of Gog’s, but of the Lord’s (38:21-23):
I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’
Historians writing about the Hellenistic era can tend to downplay the significance of the Jewish resistance as being of minor concern to the Seleucid kings, who, they estimate, had far bigger fish to fry.
That would probably have been the case had not the Seleucids had the misfortune to have encountered Judas Maccabeus, undoubtedly one of the greatest military tacticians and intrepid warriors in Jewish history.
Despite the fact that 1 and 2 Maccabees record victory after victory by the Maccabean-led Jews over armies - some of massive size and strength - sent against them by successive kings and governors, and commanded by some of their most illustrious generals, historians seem at pains to play it all down as being of no great import.
That is a common pattern that one finds with regard to biblical history and archaeology. There seems to be a predisposition by would-be scholars to give little or no credit to Israel, to minimalise, or even to annihilate from the historical record, the claims and achievements of Israel. And, ironically, the Israelis can be at the forefront of this, as witness Israel Finkelstein’s boast to have rid history of King Solomon.
Less radically than Finkelstein, but still following a minimalising tendency, Peter Green will describe the Jewish-led resistance of the Maccabees as “a comparatively minor affair” (Alexander to Actium: The Hellenistic Age, 1990, p. 497):
For the clarification of Hellenistic history it should always be borne in mind that the Jewish problem, including the nationalist revolution under Judas Maccabeus … was, from the viewpoint of Alexandria and, subsequently, Antioch, a comparatively minor affair, involving local tribal politics, and significant chiefly because of its strategic setting between Idumaea and Samaria, on the marches of Coele Syria ….
Green is right insofar as he notes Israel’s “significance” in relation to its geographical setting. Did not the prophet Ezekiel have Gog describe it thus (38:12): “I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people … living at the center [navel] of the land [earth]”?
The fact that king Antiochus “Epiphanes” had, to his chagrin, completely under-estimated the power of the Jewish resistance, is not the same as to say that it was in actuality something “comparatively minor”.
The situation is quite well described at: http://www.zianet.com/maxey/inter3.htm
JUDAS (166 - 160 BC)
In the early days of this growing revolt against his authority and abuses, Antiochus again made a major mistake -- he vastly underestimated the power and zeal of this band of Jewish rebels. He assumed this was little more than a minor incident which would be quickly put down. Therefore, he sent out some of his less capable generals [sic], with only a small army, to seek out the rebels and put down the rebellion. It would prove to be a costly miscalculation.
These generals and their forces were simply not equal to Judas, who was possibly one of the greatest military minds in all of Jewish history! Even though greatly outnumbered, Judas and his rebels defeated general after general in battle. He overpowered General [Apollonius] near Samaria; he routed General Seron in the valley of [Beth-horon]; and in a tremendous victory south of Mizpah he conquered three generals, who led a combined army of 50,000 troops .... and he did it with only 6000 poorly equipped Jewish rebels!! The people of Israel gave Judas the nickname "Maccabeus" because of his great daring and success in "hammering" the enemy forces into the ground.
Antiochus soon realized he had a full-scale rebellion on his hands, and that it was far more serious than he had originally believed. He decided, therefore, to end the revolt in a most dramatic fashion, and to exterminate the Jewish people in the process. He sent Lysias, the commander-in-chief of the Seleucid army, along with 60,000 infantrymen and 5000 cavalry, to utterly destroy the Jews. This vast army was additionally commanded by two generals serving under Lysias -- Nicanor and Gorgias. This powerful army finally encountered Judas, who had a force of only 3000 poorly equipped rebels, in the town of Emmaus, which was just over 7 miles from Jerusalem. Judas managed to gather together another 7000 rebels, but was still terribly outnumbered. He prayed to God for strength and deliverance (I Maccabees 4:30-33), and God answered! They won a huge victory over the Seleucid army!
Judas then determined to enter Jerusalem and liberate the city, and also to purify the Temple and rededicate it to God. When they entered the holy city, the extent of the destruction which they beheld caused them to be overwhelmed by grief (I Maccabees 4:36-40). Their grief, however, soon turned to determination and action. They set about the task of driving the enemy out of the city, and also of cleaning up the Temple. On December 25, 165 BC (exactly three years after Antiochus had defiled the altar of God by offering a pig upon it), the Temple of God was rededicated to God with rejoicing and sacrifices. The celebration continued for eight days. This is the famous "Feast of Lights" (Hanukkah) which is still celebrated by the Jews to this day.
[End of quote]
“To exterminate the
entire Jewish race”
King Antiochus “Epiphanes”
It seems that, whilst the initial motivation of the invading armies had been plunder and loot, as anticipated also by the words Ezekiel will put into the mouth of Gog (38:12-13; cf. v. 10):
‘I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods …’. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?”’,
the fury that the unexpected Maccabean victories had stirred up in the hearts of kings Antiochus, Lysias, and Nicanor, had so affected them that the primary motivation now appears to have become - as with wicked Haman (Esther 3:6) - to destroy the Jews completely.
Thus the furious Antiochus “Epiphanes”, returning from Persia (II Maccabees 9:4):
And swelling with anger … thought to revenge upon the Jews the injury done by them that had put him to flight. And therefore he commanded his chariot to be driven, without stopping in his journey, the judgment of heaven urging him forward, because he had spoken so proudly, that he would come to Jerusalem, and make it a common burying place of the Jews.
But it would mainly be the Jews doing the burying as according to Ezekiel 39:11: ‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog’.
Moreover, it would be the Jews who would be enjoying the abundant booty (I Maccabees 4:23): “And Judas returned to take the spoils of the camp, and they got much gold, and silver, and blue silk, and purple of the sea, and great riches”. (II Maccabees 8:25): “They seized the money from the people who had come to buy them as slaves”.
Moreover, king Antiochus himself would now die a most horrible death (9:8-12):
Thus he that seemed to himself to command even the waves of the sea, being proud above the condition of man, and to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance, now being cast down to the ground, was carried in a litter, bearing witness to the manifest power of God in himself:
So that worms swarmed out of the body of this man, and whilst he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell off, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to the army.
And the man that thought a little before he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry, for the intolerable stench.
And by this means, being brought from his great pride, he began to come to the knowledge of himself, being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains increasing every moment.
And when he himself could not now abide his own stench, he spoke thus: It is just to be subject to God, and that a mortal man should not equal himself to God.
Continuing now with: http://www.zianet.com/maxey/inter3.htm
Having finally achieved the liberation of Jerusalem, and the restoration of their religious practices in the Temple, Judas and his rebels now turned their attention to the task of seeking to liberate all of Palestine from pagan control. Within a rather brief period of time they were able to regain possession of much of the land. However, their successes were short-lived, for Lysias, now acting as king after the death of Antiochus, who had died during a military campaign in Persia, gathered a large army and marched upon Jerusalem.
In the autumn of 163 BC, Lysias, and an army of 120,000 men and 32 war elephants, met Judas and his army 10 miles SW of Jerusalem. Lysias made the elephants drunk on grape and mulberry wine so they would stampede over the Jewish rebels (I Maccabees 6:34). This time Judas was unable to prevail, and although they killed 600 of the enemy soldiers, they were nevertheless forced to retreat into the city of Jerusalem. During this battle, Eleazer (the younger brother of Judas) died in a most heroic manner when he single-handedly attacked a large elephant that he believed to be carrying the enemy king (I Maccabees 6:42-46). Lysias surrounded Jerusalem in the hopes of starving the Jews into submission. But during this siege he learned that one of his rivals was marching against his own capital city in an effort to overthrow him and take the throne. Being anxious to return home and defend his throne, he made an offer of peace to Judas -- the Jews would be allowed to worship their God unmolested, if they would remain politically loyal to the Seleucid Empire. Judas agreed to these terms, and Lysias and his army departed.
[End of quote]
At this point we read that (2 Maccabees 12:1): “When these covenants were made, Lysias went to the king, and the Jews gave themselves to husbandry”, for the Jews were apparently, according to Ezekiel (38:12), “stock-breeders and tradesmen”.
Nicanor
Contrary to the view above that king Antiochus had “sent out some of his less capable generals”, the highly-regarded Nicanor, for instance, was “ranked as Illustrious” (I Maccabees 7:26), and was “in the closest circle of the King’s Friends” (II Maccabees 8:9). Now, Nicanor’s brief was brutally straightforward: “Ptolemy immediately appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus … and sent him with more than 20,000 troops of various nationalities to wipe out the entire Jewish race. Ptolemy also appointed Gorgias, a general of wide military experience, to go with him”.
And: (I Maccabees 7:26): “… king [Demetrius] sent Nicanor … who was a bitter enemy to Israel: and he commanded him to destroy the people”.
It was on this occasion, when faced with Nicanor, that Judas Maccabeus would remind his army of the great Jewish victory over Sennacherib’s massive force of 185,000 (7:41).
Just as Ezekiel had foretold the anticipation of the merchant nations for Jewish booty (38:13): “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil?”, so do we read in 2 Maccabees 8:10-11:
Nicanor determined to make up for the king the tribute due to the Romans, two thousand talents, by selling the captured Jews into slavery. So he immediately sent to the towns on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the Almighty that was about to overtake him.
And again (v. 34): “The thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews …”.
Nicanor, as we read earlier in this series, had come against the Jews with an “international” force, and this claim is further substantiated by I Maccabees 6:29: “There came also to [Nicanor] from other realms, and from the islands of the sea hired troops”.
General Nicanor’s final effort to defeat the heroic Judas Maccabeus is narrated in 1 Maccabees 7:43-49:
And the armies joined battle on the thirteenth day of the month Adar: and the army of Nicanor was defeated, and he himself was first slain in the battle.
And when his army saw that Nicanor was slain, they threw away their weapons, and fled:
And they pursued after them one day's journey from Adazer, even till ye come to Gazara, and they sounded the trumpets after them with signals.
And they went forth out of all the towns of Judea round about, and they pushed them with the horns, and they turned again to them, and they were all slain with the sword, and there was not left of them so much as one.
And they took the spoils of them for a booty, and they cut off Nicanor's head, and his right hand, which he had proudly stretched out, and they brought it, and hung it up over against Jerusalem.
And the people rejoiced exceedingly, and they spent that day with great joy.
And he ordained that this day should be kept every year, being the thirteenth of the month of Adar.
And once again, more elaborately, in 2 Maccabees 15:25-36:
Nicanor and his troops advanced with trumpets and battle songs, but Judas and his troops met the enemy in battle with invocations to God and prayers. So, fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they laid low at least thirty-five thousand, and were greatly gladdened by God’s manifestation.
When the action was over and they were returning with joy, they recognized Nicanor, lying dead, in full armor. Then there was shouting and tumult, and they blessed the Sovereign Lord in the language of their ancestors. Then the man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his people, the man who maintained his youthful goodwill toward his compatriots, ordered them to cut off Nicanor’s head and arm and carry them to Jerusalem.
When he arrived there and had called his compatriots together and stationed the priests before the altar, he sent for those who were in the citadel. He showed them the vile Nicanor’s head and that profane man’s arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty. He cut out the tongue of the ungodly Nicanor and said that he would feed it piecemeal to the birds and would hang up these rewards of his folly opposite the sanctuary. And they all, looking to heaven, blessed the Lord who had manifested himself, saying, “Blessed is he who has kept his own place undefiled!”
Judas hung Nicanor’s head from the citadel, a clear and conspicuous sign to everyone of the help of the Lord. And they all decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—which is called Adar in the Aramaic language—the day before Mordecai’s day.
Though the Seleucids had intended for the Jews to be lying dead in heaps, as food for birds and worms, this turned out to be the fate, instead, of their vaunted leaders, such as king Antiochus, dying of worms and foul stench, and Nicanor, his tongue fed “piecemeal to the birds”.
Conclusion about Gog and Magog
This certainly pertains to the era of the Seleucid tyrant-king, Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’, and his ill-fated general, Nicanor, who, Judas Maccabeus assured, went completely off his head.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-18542659573092179972024-02-16T11:33:00.000-08:002024-02-16T11:33:50.722-08:00Book of Esther and Enuma Elish<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRhvcdIotbzll_BCAvN_XPk4G2d2O8sA-SSi675XSoHC09w3uM8UmoUKQcdm757wTvSdnnRKWw3xJj07Z0j7t-_d9om-ZqldNYjoQKU4w1a_YEsNMljS5ay7kWr-a63jovGZSNBor1HABo7Rxkng0c_0rA5dKnV1fEGTEN5Qaj6Y2jbsHKmDjb4VGit4/s1200/enuma-elish-babylonian-poem-creation.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRhvcdIotbzll_BCAvN_XPk4G2d2O8sA-SSi675XSoHC09w3uM8UmoUKQcdm757wTvSdnnRKWw3xJj07Z0j7t-_d9om-ZqldNYjoQKU4w1a_YEsNMljS5ay7kWr-a63jovGZSNBor1HABo7Rxkng0c_0rA5dKnV1fEGTEN5Qaj6Y2jbsHKmDjb4VGit4/s600/enuma-elish-babylonian-poem-creation.webp"/></a></div>
by
Damien F. Mackey
“As a dreamer, and especially as a dream interpreter, Mordecai is brought
in line with Daniel and, more importantly, with their predecessor Joseph”.
Aaron Koller
A reader has written (e-mail):
…. The crest on the door of the Vatican is a Dragon. I think that is a clue to what is inside. ….
Damien Mackey’s response:
Then you’d have trouble with the Book of Esther, in which the holy Mordecai, the Jew, is depicted as a great dragon.
Mordecai in his dream (Apocr. Esth. i. 4-11) sees two dragons coming to fight each other (representing Mordecai and Haman, ib. vi. 4); the nations make ready to destroy the “people of the righteous,” but the tears of the righteous well up in a little spring that grows into a mighty stream (comp. Ezek. xlvii. 3-12; according to Apocr. Esth. vi. 3, the spring symbolizes Esther, who rose from a poor Jewess to be a Persian queen).
The sun now rises, and those who had hitherto been suppressed “devoured those who till then had been honored” (comp. Esth. ix. 1-17).
A Vatican emblem is a dragon, but this has nothing to do with Satan. The Bible says Yahweh spews fire from his mouth and smoke from his nostrils in II Samuel, that he has enormous wings in Psalms. In Numbers, he orders Moses to make a bronze fiery serpent image. Etc.
[End of e-mail exchange]
One writer, Aliyah bat Stam, has gone so far as to connect: https://ononion.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/161/
The Book of Esther and the Enuma Elish
Posted on February 20, 2013
… It has often been suggested — and by often, I mean every single Pagan I have ever talked to has mentioned it, and half of the Jews who knew anything about Judaism have said it to me, personally, at least once– that the Book of Ester [Esther] actually a veiled myth about Marduk and Ishtar.
Can you blame them?
Purim is widely known to be a Jewish adaptation of a Babylonian drinking holiday. Just listen to the names, too. Mordechai and Esther. They sound like the [names] of those two deities.
I decided to do some investigation into this Babylonian drinking holiday, and was lead [sic] back to an ancient Babylonian tale about how the hero, Marduk, defeated Tiamat. In it, there are indeed many similarities to the Purim story.
The antagonist, Tiamat, is terrorizing the good gods (or the ones that the reader is supposed to be rooting for). In the third tablet we learn,
17. “All the gods have turned to her,
18. “With those, whom ye created, they go at her side.
19. ”They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat they advance;
20 . “They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day.
21. ”They prepare for battle, fuming and raging;
22. “They have joined their forces and are making war.”
“The gods” here are sort of a faceless multitude.
Likewise, in the Book of Ester, there is a faceless multitude waiting to do evil to the Jews:
“And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.” (Esther, 3:13)
In both, there is also a wine feast that is instrumental in swinging the tide of history over to the side of the “good guys.”
In the Enuma Elish, Tablet 3:
133. They made ready for the feast, at the banquet [they sat];
134. They ate bread, they mixed [sesame-wine].
135. The sweet drink, the mead, confused their […],
136. They were drunk with drinking, their bodies were filled.
137. They were wholly at ease, their spirit was exalted;
138. Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree the fate.
and in the Book of Esther:
“Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.
And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre.
Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.
And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.” (Esther, 5:1-4)
An aside: Scepter? Do you mean his staff? His power rod? The big long thing he likes to have in his hand? Yeah. It’s tip. She touched it. Oh yes, the Jewish people went there.
The stories also have a very similar ending, too.
From the Enumah Elish (fourth tablet):
27. When the gods, his fathers, beheld (the fulfilment of) his word,
28. They rejoiced, and they did homage (unto him, saying), “Marduk is king!”
29. They bestowed upon him the sceptre, and the throne, and the ring,
and then,
101. He seized the spear and burst her belly,
102. He severed her inward parts, he pierced (her) heart.
103. He overcame her and cut off her life;
104. He cast down her body and stood upon it.
105. When he had slain Tiamat, the leader,
106. Her might was broken, her host was scattered.
107. And the gods her helpers, who marched by her side,
108. Trembled, and were afraid, and turned back.
109. They took to flight to save their lives;
110. But they were surrounded, so that they could not escape.
111. He took them captive, he broke their weapons;
112. In the net they were caught and in the snare they sat down.
113. The […] … of the world they filled with cries of grief.
And in the book of Ester:
“8:1 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.
8:2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.”
and then,
“8:17 And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.”
and then, just in case the Hebrew Mythos left it unclear as to who, exactly, is wearing the pants:
“And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.
Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.” (Esther, 9:12-13)
Do not. Mess. With Jewish. Women. Ever.
[End of quotes]
Aaron Koller, in Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (pp. 115-116), likens Mordecai to other biblical dreamers, Joseph and Daniel: https://thetorah.com/a-more-religious-megillat-esther/
As a dreamer, and especially as a dream interpreter, Mordecai is brought in line with Daniel and, more importantly, with their predecessor Joseph. …. This not only established Mordecai as reminiscent of earlier biblical heroes, but also establishes his religious bona fides: he, like Joseph and Daniel, was the recipient of divine revelation and (by implication) divine approval. Certainly, the author of Addition A was biblically-oriented: the dream contains many intertextual references to other biblical books. These include use of the imagery of the dragon, fountain, battle, and the contrast between dark and light from Jeremiah 28. ….
[End of quote]
The titanic struggle
“In the second year of the reign of Ahasuerus the Great …. Mordecai … of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. He was a Jew in the city of Susa, a great man serving in the court of the king. He was one of the captives whom Nebuchednezzar king of Babylon had brought from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judea. And this was his dream:
‘Behold, noise and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth! And behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly. And at their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against the nation of the righteous. And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth! And the whole righteous nation was troubled; they feared the evils that threatened them, and were ready to perish. Then they cried to God; and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river, with abundant water; light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honour’.
Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind and sought all day to understand it in every detail” (Esther 11:1-12).
According to the unusual arrangement of the Book of Esther, this section from chapter 11 is situated at the very beginning of the narrative. It is, however, a most fitting introduction to the story since it sets the scene for the main drama to follow, presenting a symbolic account of it to the reader in prophetic form. In the ‘denouement’, or resolution of the drama, at the end of the Book of Esther in chapter 10, Mordecai explains all the various parts of his dream, whose meaning had become fully known to him as the events unfolded. It depicts the titanic struggle between good and evil as a fight between “two great dragons”.
More specifically, as Mordecai finally reveals to us in chapter 10,
“The two dragons are Haman and myself” (10:7).
Mordecai’s apocalyptic dream is also a perfect back-drop for the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. She came upon the earth in 1917, when all nations were involved in the Great War (1914-1918). It was indeed a time of “darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth”. Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), the then reigning Pontiff, had used all the diplomatic resources at his disposal to bring an end to the hostilities, the shock of whose advent may well have killed his holy predecessor, Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914). But seeing that his efforts were in vain, pope Benedict XV turned his eyes to Heaven, and on the 5th of May 1917 he ordered that recourse be had to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, adding to the Litany of Loreto a new invocation: “Regina pacis, ora pro nobis”, that is, “Queen of Peace, pray for us”.
And thus again, as in the case of Mordecai’s dream, a great “dragon” had begun to “roar” loudly on behalf of “the whole righteous nation”. But in this case it was the Supreme Pontiff of the chosen nation of the holy Catholic Church who cried to God and who ordered that all Catholics do the same.
The response from Heaven was immediate.
On the 13th of May, 1917, a mere eight days after the Holy Father had begun his plea to Heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary visited the troubled earth, appearing to three innocent children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, at Fatima in Portugal. The precise place to which the Queen of Peace came at Fatima was one completely unknown, not only in Portugal and in the world, but even to the majority of the inhabitants of Fatima. Its name is Cova da Iria, a word which is derived from the Greek term eirene, meaning ‘peace’.
The graphic images of noise, tumult, affliction and wholesale confusion upon the earth, ‘with every nation preparing for war’, as described in Mordecai’s dream, anticipate not only the Great War during which Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima first appeared, and the many wars that have followed, but even more significantly they recall to mind that relentless and on-going struggle for souls. The latter is, of course, a spiritual warfare between the forces of good and evil, the “two great dragons” of the Book of Esther. In the past two to three centuries this struggle has visibly assumed a more global aspect; a bitter fight to the death between the holy Catholic Church and the forces of a world-wide conspiracy for global conquest and the formation of a “One-World ‘Church’,” (Pope St. Pius X) masterminded by the Devil, and set in motion initially through the agency of the secret societies of Freemasonry.
The conspirators of evil were already in the midst of laying down their plans to unleash the “great red dragon” of Communism (cf. Revelation 12:3) upon Russia in 1917, when Heaven went into action. With Lenin and Trotsky in Petrograd, preparing to give orientation to the Bolshevist revolution which they directed, there came from Heaven, from the east, a Lady of Light, to Fatima. She was the same “Woman clothed with the sun” who – as the Evangelist had predicted long ago – would be opposed to this great red dragon (Revelation 12:3-5). She came solemnly to remind us of the unique and infallible means of salvation, strengthening our Faith in God, inviting us to prayer and penance and to flee sin, asking us to recite the Rosary daily and to consecrate ourselves to Her Immaculate Heart.
It was only after Our Lady of Fatima’s six apparitions in 1917 had run their course from May to October that, on the 7th of November of that year, the Bolshevist faction triumphed first at Petrograd, then at Moscow.
As Fr. J. DaCruz put it, whilst at the eastern end of Europe the spirit of Antichrist was being “unloosed, not only against true religion, but even against the very idea of God and against civil society, the most terrible onslaught in all history, at the same moment there appeared in splendour at the western extremity, the Great and Eternal Enemy of the infernal serpent!” [More about Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, p. 54].
The Thirteenth Day of the Month
To appreciate why Heaven has placed such special emphasis on the 13th day of the month, making it the intended day of each of the six apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, we need to refer again to the pages of the Book of Esther.
It is an important point and one that has been made before.
Mordecai the Jew had been raised to prominence in the court of the King of Medo-Persia because he, having become cognizant of a plot by two of the king’s eunuchs to assassinate their master, had duly informed the king and had thus saved his life.
We also learn about Mordecai that he had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle; for, after both her parents had died, Mordecai had adopted the girl as his own daughter (Esther 11:3; 12:1; 2:7). [Actually, she became Mordecai’s wife].
This Mordecai is therefore a key player in the whole drama.
Into the midst of this tranquil scenario steps the sinister Haman.
For reasons unexplained, the king so advances this foreign guest of his (Esther 16:10) as to set him above all the princes and make him second in the kingdom (cf. e.g. 3:1-2 and 16:11). This means that all the king’s servants were expected to bow down to Haman. The fact that Mordecai would not bow down filled Haman with fury. He thereupon resolved “to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai himself” (3:1, 6).
There is more to Haman than first meets the eye, and it gradually becomes apparent that his intentions are conspiratorial. Because of his extreme cunning, Haman has no difficulty insinuating his way into great prominence in the kingdom of Medo-Persia; his ultimate purpose being, as he speedily rose to become “the person second to the royal throne” (16:11), to get rid of the king. For, as it turned out, even the eunuchs’ plot to assassinate king Ahasuerus had been masterminded by Haman (12:16). A chastened king Ahasuerus would later testify that this Haman, who “was called our father and was continually bowed down to by all”, had thought to “transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians” [sic] (16:12, 14).
No doubt Haman intended for himself (and/or perhaps for one of his ten sons) to be the ruler over this united kingdom of east and west. Only one obstacle remained, and it was in the form of his rival colleague, Mordecai; the one man of rank in the kingdom who was neither deceived by Haman’s guile nor would bow down to him. Inasmuch as Mordecai had unmasked the plotting of the eunuchs to kill the king, and had made a written account of it (12:4), Haman had good reason to be wary of him. Unable, therefore, to vent his antagonistic spleen upon Mordecai directly, Haman felt that he could harm him through his race. Firstly destroy the Jews, he probably reasoned, and deal with Mordecai later, perhaps after King Ahasuerus himself had been dispatched.
It is here that we come across the significance of the 13th day of the month.
It did not take much for the astute Haman to persuade Ahasuerus that the Jews, with their “different” laws and customs, and their flouting of the king’s laws – as Haman had claimed – were not profitable for the king to tolerate, and so ought to be destroyed (3:8). Haman’s offer to the king of the enormous sum of ten thousand talents of silver (3:9) was an added incentive.
“So the king took the signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman … the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, ‘the money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you’.” (13:10-11).
Lots (purim) had been cast before Haman, “day after day” and “month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar” (3:7), presumably to determine the most propitious time to act.
Next the king, after having agreed to Haman’s wicked counsel, summoned his secretaries “on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the princes of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language; it was written in the name of king Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods” (13:12-13).
That is the significance of the thirteenth day of the month. The central drama in the Book of Esther is played out in its entirety between that thirteenth day of the first month, when Haman persuaded the king that the Jews must be annihilated for the common good, and the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the intended date for the full realisation of Haman’s terrible plan.
The Lady of Light
In the biblical story it is Queen Esther who comes to the rescue of her people. The “cry” of the whole righteous nation, praying that God might deliver it from the evils that were threatening to engulf it, is symbolized in Mordecai’s dream as no more than “a tiny spring”; for the small Jewish nation meant absolutely nothing to the king of Medo-Persia. The profound difference, in the eyes of the king, made by Esther’s intercession on behalf of her people, is exemplified in Mordecai’s retrospective explanation of this part of his dream (10:6):
“The tiny spring which became a river, and there was light and the sun and abundant water … the river is Esther whom the king married and made queen”.
For God’s chosen people of today, it is of course the Blessed Virgin Mary who makes all the difference to their feeble prayers of supplication. It is She who, as Mediatrix before the sublime King of Heaven, adds the necessary weight to these prayers to ensure that He will listen to them. Like Esther of old, the Queen of Peace entered into the midst of the fray, because again a righteous nation, led by its chief prince – in this case the Holy Father – had begun to implore Heaven to send down its peace and protection.
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-9180559853370237352020-09-09T17:21:00.003-07:002020-09-09T17:22:18.689-07:00
Part One:
A Jewish scholar clarifies the main terms
by
Damien F. Mackey
“And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed”.
Daniel 9:26
Introduction
Daniel’s famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks “has been”, according to J. Paul Tanner, “one of the most notorious interpretive problem passages in Old Testament studies” (“IS DANIEL’S SEVENTY-WEEKS PROPHECY MESSIANIC?”).
Many see this prophecy as referring to Jesus Christ the Messiah, his Death and Resurrection, and thereby regard it as a most important piece of chronology for dating the era of Jesus Christ, based on Daniel 9:25: “… from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks …”.
That is, 434 years (for the “sixty-two weeks”).
And this is precisely how I have long regarded, and have calculated, this prophecy.
In more recent times though, however, I have come to reject the notion that the prophet Daniel’s periods of “Weeks” are meant to be taken as chronological projections well into the future. And, with this, has inevitably come about the new conclusion of mine that the “cut off” Messiah can by no means be a reference to Jesus Christ himself.
On the contrary, the person to whom I believe Daniel’s prophecy is here pointing was actually a most wicked biblical character who was, in the end - and as according to this prophecy - left with “nothing” (with no descendants).
Not least of my reasons for rejecting that there could have been approximately 500 years (Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks”) between the era of Daniel and that of Jesus Christ is the fact that:
Medo-Persian History [is] Archaeologically Light. Part One: Introductory
https://www.academia.edu/31090097/Medo-Persian_History_Archaeologically_Light._Part_One_Introductory
For more, read this multi-part series.
In my related article:
Persian History has no adequate Archaeology
https://www.academia.edu/31113083/Persian_History_has_no_adequate_Archaeology
I began with the following quotation: “The very existence of a Median empire, with the emphasis on empire, is thus questionable” (H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, "Was there ever a Median Empire?"). Although there was a Medo-Persian empire, it was far briefer, with far fewer kings, than according to the textbook estimates.
Scholars down through the centuries have not been unanimous in their interpretations of the meaning of the Daniel 9 text.
Whilst many have regarded it as being Messianic (with reference to Jesus Christ), others have not. And even the Church Fathers, who generally tended to relate it to Jesus Christ, were by no means unanimous in their explanations of the various details of the prophecy.
This is apparent from J. Paul Tanner’s introduction to the subject:
https://www.dts.edu/download/publications/bibliotheca/DTS-Is%20Daniel%27s%20Seventy-Weeks%20Prophecy%20Messianic.pdf
THE SEVENTY-WEEKS PROPHECY IN DANIEL 9:24–27 has been one of the most notorious interpretive problem passages in Old Testament studies. As Montgomery put it, “The history of the exegesis of the 70 Weeks is the Dismal Swamp of O.T. criticism.” 1 Early church fathers commonly embraced a messianic interpretation of the passage and sought to prove a chronological computation for the time of Messiah’s coming based on this prophecy. This approach has been favored by many conservatives—both premillennial and amillennial—down through the centuries. Advocates of the messianic view differ over the details of interpretation (e.g., the number of times Messiah is referred to in the passage, the termini of the calculations, or how the final seventieth week relates to the first sixty-nine), but they agree that this passage is one of the most astounding references to the Lord Jesus Christ and the time of His first advent.
On the other hand some writers see no reference to Messiah in this passage. This includes most critical scholars, who typically favor a Maccabean fulfillment (i.e., in the second century B.C.), and Jewish exegetes, who—although differing about various details—tend to see the fulfillment of this passage with the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 and/or its aftermath. ….
[End of quote]
I have noted in past articles (particularly relating to early Genesis) how a superficial reading of a given biblical text, without one’s really coming to grips with the proper meaning of the Hebrew words or with the intentions of the ancient scribe(s), can lead to weird and wonderful interpretations of the Bible that such interpreters will then insist is the infallible Word of God. A classic case in point is the great Noachic Flood, which has become, in the hands of sincere Fundamentalists, or ‘Creationists’, a global Flood complete with a Queen Mary sized ship, that I think would have been a complete surprise to Noah and his family.
And the same situation has occurred, I believe, with Daniel 9, which has had all of its Jewish meaning emptied out of it, thereby ‘enabling’ for a marvellous long-range Messianic prophecy, culminating in Jesus Christ himself.
And, in the process, the historical chronology of the ancient world has been totally mangled.
Thankfully, there is a Jewish scholar at hand to clarify certain meanings.
I refer to Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz’s (“Daniel 9 – A True Biblical Interpretation. A brief explanation of Daniel Chapter 9”):
https://jewsforjudaism.org/knowledge/articles/daniel-9-a-true-biblical-interpretation/
in which article I find some important lessons pertaining to the Hebrew words – though I would not accept the Rabbi’s conventionally-based chronology and dates.
Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz writes:
The book of Daniel is filled with Messianic illusions and calculations that even left Daniel pondering their meanings. …. Is there something about the Jewish Messiah?
Daniel Chapter 9
The ninth chapter has been of particular interest to both Jews and Christians. The message of a merciful God communicated in verse 18, “for not because of our righteousness do we pour out supplications before You, but because of Your great compassion.” has been a foundation of a Jews personal and spiritual relationship with God. Christians, on the other hand, tend to focus on verses 24 -26. The following is the Christian translation of those verses:
24) Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25)Know therefore and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again with plaza and moat but in troubled times.
26) Then after sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
Many Christians assert that these passages are a prophecy that predicts the exact dates that the Messiah will come and also die. They believe that Jesus fulfilled these predictions. Before examining these verses it is important to point out that: 1) Based on the Hebrew original and context, Jews have very valid reasons for rejecting the Christian interpretation and 2) the New Testament authors never quote these passages and calculations as a proof-text.
To understand this chapter, we must begin with an explanation of the term “weeks.”
Daniel chapter 9 uses the Hebrew word (שבעים ~ Shavuim) to represents a period of time multiplied by seven. For various reasons this word is translated as “weeks” and means a multiple of seven years rather than a multiple of seven days.
a) We see a similar use in the verse, “You shall count~ שבע שבתת השנים) seven Shabbaths of years), seven years seven times… forty-nine years.” Leviticus 25:8
b) A Shabbath is a period of seven days and shares the same Hebrew root for the word (שבועה~Shavuah) that means “week”.
c) Normally the plural of week would be (שבעות ~ Shavuot) in Daniel it uses the masculine “ים” ending for ( שבעים~ Shavuim) similar to (years ~ שנים) This indicates that (שבעים~ Shavuim) is referring to a multiple of seven years
d) Both Jews and Christian agree that this is referring to a multiple of years.
Therefore in Daniel chapter 9, each week is a period of seven years.
Christian polemicists interpret these passages in the following way. These passages are being spoken by Daniel after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the evil Babylonian empire. At some point after the destruction, there will be a “decree” issued to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Starting from the issuing of that decree, 7 and 62 weeks totaling 69 weeks of years (483 years), will pass and then the Messiah will come and in that same seven year period “week” he will be cut off, but not for himself, but for the sins of mankind. Then the city and sanctuary will be destroyed. Christian assert that their calculation proves that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy to the exact day.
After the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, any Jews that survived the Babylonian slaughter were exiled from their land. Daniel, for example, lived in Babylon. Eventually, the Babylonians were conquered by the Persian Empire. Christians claim that the decree mentioned in Daniel 9:25 was issued by the Persian King Artaxerxes in the year 444 BCE, based on Nehemiah 2:1-8. These passages speak about the king giving Nehemiah “letters” (אגרות ~ Iggrot) for safe passage and permission to rebuild the Temple.
The building of Jerusalem was started and halted several times, and there are three additional decrees mentioned earlier in the Bible.
1) In Ezra 1:1-4, King Cyrus issues a proclamation (קול ~ Kol) and writings (מכתב ~ Michtav) granting the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.
2) Ezra 6:12-13, King Darius issues a decree (טעם ~Taam) granting permission to rebuilt the Temple.
3) Ezra 7:11-16, Artaxerxex, issues a decree (טעם ~Taam) granting permission to rebuilt the Temple. (Artaxerxex is a Persian title of royalty and can refer to different leaders. This is similar to the way Pharaoh is the title of rulers of Egypt)
We will see latter that it is significant that in these verses there are four different words used to describe these proclamations, and none of them match the Hebrew word used in Daniel 9 which is (דבר ~ Devar) that means “word.”
With four different proclamations, there is no historical justification to choose the one mentioned in Nehemiah 2 and there is no reliable source stating that it occurred exactly in 444 BCE. It seems that Christians picked this passage out of convenience and assigned it this specific date, because if you start at 444 BCE and count 69 weeks of years (483 years) you reach 39 CE. Whatever their reason for choosing Nehemiah’s reference and attributing it as having occurred in 444 BCE it is still seven years off from the year 32 CE when Jesus supposedly died.
This seven-year discrepancy is resolved by Christian theologians who redefined the definition of a “year.” They claim that prophecies like Daniel’s are to be understood in “Prophetic years” that have 360 days rather than 365 ¼ days. The argument that Daniel might be speaking to Babylonians who may have had a 360 year is unsubstantiated and refuted by the fact that this particular passage is spoken in Hebrew to Jews who had a different calendar then and Babylonians who spoke Aramaic.
Prophetic Year vs Solar Year
One Christian attempt to prove this concept of Prophetic years is from the New Testament: “They will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months, and they will prophesy for 1260 days.” Revelations 11:2-3
By dividing 1260 (days) by 42 (months) you get 30 days per month, they claim that each month is 30 days and a Prophetic Biblical year would therefore be being 360 days (30×12=360). An additional proof-text utilizes the events surrounding the flood. The following verses are quoted to show how biblical months were periods of 30 days,
“the water prevailed upon the earth 150 days” Gen 7:24 and
the flood started on,
“the 17th day of the second month” Gen 7:11, and ended on,
“the 17th day of the seventh month.” Gen 8:4.
They argue that by taking this exact five month period and dividing it into the 150 days, you will see that there must be five months of 30 days each and therefore a year would be 360 days. The Christian argument continues that the difference between a solar year of 365 ¼ days and the so-called prophetic year of 360 days is what caused the seven-year discrepancy in their interpretation of Daniel 9, and the resolution of the problem is accomplished by converting the time period from “biblical” years to solar years.
They argue that that by multiplying 360 days by 483 years (69 weeks of years) you get 173,880 prophetic days. To convert this to solar years, you divide the 173,880 days by 365 1/4 (days), and you will get 476 years.
444 BCE plus 476 years will give you the year 32 CE, which they claim is the year that Jesus not only made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Messiah’s arrival) but was also crucified (cut off ).
Before explaining why this line of reasoning is absolutely false and a simply an act of desperation to resolve their 7 year miscalculation, we must explore the correct meaning of Daniel 9 and the concept of a Jewish calendar year.
Translating Daniel Correctly
It is essential to a correct understanding of Daniel 9, to point out that it is incorrect to read this passage as if it were speaking about the Messiah. This may appear obvious to Christians since their translations has the word “Messiah” mentioned twice in this chapter; however this is the result of a blatant and intentional mistranslation of the Hebrew word (משיח ~ Moshiach”).
This word literally means “anointed” and is an adjective as in the 1 Samuel 10:1-2 where the word clearly means an act of consecration. It is not a personal pronoun that refers to a particular individual called “The Messiah.” The word (משיח ~ Moshiach”) is used throughout Jewish Scriptures no less than 100 times and refers to a variety of individuals and objects. For example:
Priests: Leviticus 4:3
Kings: 1 Kings 1:39
Prophets: Isaiah 61:1
Temple Alter: Exodus 40:9-11
Matzot ~ Unleavened Bread: Numbers 6:15
Cyrus ~ a non-Jewish Persian King: Isaiah 45:1
Even in Christian translations, the word Moshiach is translated 99% of the time as “anointed.” The only exception is twice in Daniel 9 verses 25 and 26. This inconsistency is even more blatant since Christian translators translate the word (משיח ~ Moshiach) as “anointed” one verse earlier when it is used in Daniel 9:24. In this instance, it is referring to anointing the innermost chamber of the Holy Temple known as the “Holy of Holies,” (קדשים קדש ~ Kodesh Kedoshim). It is incorrect to translate this, as some missionaries do, to mean the “most holy one” in an attempt to have this refer to the Messiah rather than a place.
Therefore, in Daniel, the passages should be correctly translated as:
Daniel 9:24 “Until an anointed prince” and not as “Until Messiah he prince.”
Daniel 9:25 “an anointed one will be cut off” and not as “the Messiah will be cut off.”
Additionally, in verse 25 there is no definite article (Hey ~ ה) before the word (משיח ~ Moshiach), and it is incorrect to translate this as “the Messiah” or “the anointed one” as if it were speaking about one exclusive individual. When translating correctly as an “anointed individual,7” the passages could be referring any one of a number of different individuals or objects that were anointed and not necessarily “the Messiah.”
A careful examination of Daniel 9 will lead to a clear understand of exactly to whom and what this chapter is referring. An additional mistake made by Christians is the translation of 7 and 62 weeks as one undivided unity of 69 weeks. The Christian version makes it sound as if the arrival and “cutting off” of the “Messiah” will take place sixty-nine weeks (483 years) after a decree to restore Jerusalem. They add the 7 and 62 weeks together and have one person (the Messiah) and two events occurring towards the end of the 69th week.
Actually, according to the Hebrew the 7 and 62 weeks are two separate and distinct periods. One event happens after seven weeks and another event after an additional 62 weeks. Simply put, if you wanted to say 69 in Hebrew you would say “sixty and nine.” You would not say “seven and sixty two.”
Furthermore, in Daniel it is written “7 weeks and 62 weeks rather than “7 and 62 weeks.” The use of the word “weeks” after each number also shows that they are separate events. The use of the definite article (ה ~ Hey) that means “the” in verse 26, “and after the 62 weeks shall an anointed one be cut off,” is sometimes deleted in Christian translations, but it’s presence in the Hebrew original clearly indicates that the 62 weeks is to be treated as separate period of time from the original 7 weeks.
The correct translation should be: “until an anointed prince shall be 7 weeks (49 years),” “then for 62 weeks (434 years) it (Jerusalem) will be built again but in troubled times.” Then after (those) the 62 weeks shall an anointed one will be cut off.” Daniel 9:24-25
Two separate events and anointed ones, 62 weeks (434 years) apart.
Christians also incorrectly translated the Hebrew (V’ayn Lo ~ לו ואין), at the end of Daniel 9:26. They translate it that he will be cut off “but not for himself,” as if it refers to someone being cut off not for himself but cut off for us and indicating a form of vicarious attainment. However the Hebrew original means “and he will be no more” literally “and no more of him” and indicates the finality of his demise. Interestingly the Hebrew word (kares ~ כרת) translated as “cut off” biblically refers to someone who has sinned so grievously that they are put to death by heavenly decree as a divine punishment for their own transgressions.
Mackey’s comment: As I wrote above, “… the person to whom I believe Daniel’s prophecy is here pointing was actually a most wicked biblical character who was, in the end - and as according to this prophecy - left with “nothing” (with no descendants)”.
The Rabbi continues:
An awareness of these eight mistranslations is essential to understanding the ninth chapter of Daniel. To recap:
(קדשים קדש) mean “holy of holies” not the “most holy one”
(דבר ~ Devar) that means “word” not decree.
(משיח ~ Moshiach”) means “anointed” not “Messiah” verse 23
(משיח ~ Moshiach”) means “anointed” not “Messiah” verse 24
“seven weeks and sixty-two ” means two events one at 7 weeks and the other
62 weeks later not one event after a cumulative 69 weeks
(Hey ~ ה) mean “the”
(V’ayn Lo ~ לו ואין) mean “will be no more” not “not for himself”
(kares ~ כרת) means death to a transgressor the cuts off their relationship to God.
Jewish Calendar Years
In addition to … these eight mistranslations Christians, as mentioned above, manipulate their calculation of the 69 weeks in Daniel 9 in an attempt to have them coincide with the arrival and death of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Christians based their understand with a belief that the starting point of the prophesy begins in 444 BCE with the decree issued by King Artaxerxex (Ezra 7:ll-16). Sixty–nine weeks (483 years) would bring you to 39 CE. This is 7 years off the commonly accepted date of 32 CE being the year Jesus was put to death. As mentioned above they attempt to resolve this issue by transforming “prophetic years” into solar years. The problem is that according to Jewish tradition and scriptures there is no such thing as a prophetic year of 360 days.
Jewish scripture clearly teaches that the Jewish calendar is both Solar and Lunar. As early as Genesis 1:14, that deals with the creation of the sun and the moon, we are told that “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years” Both luminaries are used to determine our calendar.
A solar year is 365 1/4 days and a lunar year is 11 days shorter, 354 days long. Unlike the Gentile’s year where the length of the months is set by convention rather than a relationship to the lunar calendar, a Biblical Jewish calendar must coincide with both the sun (for seasons) and the moon. When God, commanded the people of Israel to sanctify the months he established the month that the Exodus took place as the first of the months. Exodus 12:1. God also commanded to observe Passover in the springtime as is says, “Observe the month of springtime and perform the Passover for God, for in the month on springtime God took you out of Egypt.” Deut 16:1.
In other words, a biblical calendar must coincide the months with the seasons creating a Solar-Lunar calendar.
There is an eleven day difference between a solar and lunar year. If Jewish holidays were established solely by a lunar year the holidays would move further and further away from their original seasons. This happens all the time with the Muslim Lunar calendar with Ramadan falling in a variety of seasons. A biblical Solar/Lunar calendar corrects this by adding a 13 month leap year approximately every 4 years. Some years have 12 months and the leap year has 13. The fabricated “prophetic year” of 360 days could not exist because it would not allow Jewish holidays to coincide with both months and seasons.
Understanding Daniel
Now we can return to the beginning of Daniel 9 and establish the correct starting point for Daniel’s prophesy. The Christian major error in establishing the starting point of Daniel prophesy is caused by their mistranslation of the verse, “know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:25
Since their translation asserts that the starting point of this prophesy is from the issuing of a certain decree to rebuild Jerusalem, they incorrectly assume that it is the decree of King Artaxerxex. However, as mentioned above, there were a number of different decrees made concerning returning and rebuilding Jerusalem.
In Daniel 9:25, the original Hebrew used the word (דבר ~ Devar) which is significantly different from a human decree. The word (דבר ~ Devar) refers to a prophetic word. In the beginning of Daniel 9 verse 2, this word is used when Daniel says that he wants to understand “the word of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah.”
As mentioned above, in all of the passages that mention some form of decree or proclamation concerning Jerusalem, none of them use the Hebrew word (דבר ~ Devar).
The correct translation of Daniel should be: “Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” Daniel 9:25
Therefore the correct starting point of Daniel’s prophesy must be associated with the issuing of a prophetic word and not a human decree. The word (דבר ~ Devar) is used in the beginning of Daniel chapter 9. A careful reading of the beginning of this chapter clarifies the correct meaning of the reference to the “word to restore and to build Jerusalem” mentioned in Daniel 9:25.
Chapter 9 begins as follows: “I Daniel considered (or contemplated) in the books the number of the years which the word (דבר ~ Devar) of G-d came to Jeremiah the Prophet that would accomplish to the destruction of Jerusalem” Daniel 9:2
Here Daniel uses the word (דבר ~ Devar) when pondering the numbers of years that Jeremiah had spoken about. Jeremiah had twice prophesied concerning a 70 year period.
Once Jeremiah said: “and these nation shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years and it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that nation … and make it everlasting desolation” Jeremiah 25: 11-12
This prophesy states that Babylon would dominate Israel for a total of 70 years.
Jeremiah also says: “After 70 years are accomplished to Babylon I will take heed of you and perform My good word towards you in causing you to return to this place.” Jeremiah 29:l0
This prophesy states, that after the 70 years, in addition to the end of Babylonian domination, the Jews would also return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. There are two Jeremiah prophesies concerning: 1) subjugation, and 2) return to Jerusalem.
Jeremiah’s 70 years start from the initial subjugation of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This took place 18 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, as demonstrated by the following passages, We know that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar. As it says:
“In the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the chief executioner was in service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem… and destroyed the Temple of God” Jeremiah 52:12-13
The 19th year means that 18 full years had already been completed. Nebuchadnezzar started to subjugate Jerusalem in his first year of his rule; this can be derived from the following verses;
“in King Yehoyakim’s third year (three completed years) Nebuchadnezzar came to besiege Jerusalem” Daniel 1:1
“in the fourth year (three completed years) of Yehoyakim which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar” Jeremiah 25:1
These verses demonstrate that Nebuchadnezzar started to besiege Jerusalem in his first year and the destruction of Jerusalem took place in his “19th” year. Therefore, 18 complete years had passed from the beginning of the siege until the destruction of Jerusalem. During these 18 years Jerusalem was laid siege and completely surrounded. Scriptures also indicate that the 70 years of Jeremiah were completed with the advent of Cyrus the King of the Persian Empire. As it says:
“Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.” Ezra 1:1-3
“Those who survived the sword he exiled to Babylon, where they became slaves to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia began to reign. This was the fulfillment of the word of God to Jeremiah, until the land would be appeased of its Sabbatical years, all the years of its desolation it rested, to the completion of 70 years. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, upon the expiration of God’s prophesy spoken by Jeremiah. God aroused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia and he issues a proclamation… to build God a Temple in Jerusalem.” 2 Chronicles 36:20-23
In addition to the Babylonian rule ended in fulfillment of Jeremiah 25:11-12, Cyrus also gave permission, in fulfillment of Jeremiah 29:l0, to the Jews to return to Jerusalem, as it says;
“Whoever is among you all his people, let his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord G-d of Israel.” Ezra 1:4
It is important to remember that from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 18 years before the fall of Jerusalem, until the fall of the Babylonian Empire, when Cyrus came into power, 70 years had elapsed. By subtracting the 18 years subjugation before the destruction of the first Temple from the total of 70 years we are left with 52 years. This proves that King Cyrus arose to power and fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophesy 52 years after the destruction of Jerusalem.
Mackey’s comment: This “52 years” is, I believe, too large a figure for the period in question.
I think that Jeremiah’s “70 years” ought instead to be dated from the 13th year of king Josiah, which was 23 years from the 1st year of Nebuchednezzar, as according to this most important of OT chronological entries (Jeremiah 25:1-3):
The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: ‘For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened’.
And at this point we can leave the Rabbi’s excellent and most helpful discourse as, from now on, his identification of Medo-Persian kings begins greatly to confuse matters – at least according to my own arrangement and identification of these monarchs.AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-83730060617426220082020-07-27T12:46:00.001-07:002020-07-27T13:09:20.056-07:00Book of Esther Key to Knights Templar and 1307 AD<div align="center">
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">by</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Damien F. Mackey</span></strong><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For some, the origin of the 13<sup>th</sup> as being an unlucky day has arisen from a famous conspiracy in the Old Testament’s Book of Esther; for others it may have come about due to an incident in (presumably) modern European history about which very much has been written in recent times. In the first case, in the Book of Esther, it is the plot of the evil Haman and his co-conspirators to annihilate all the Jews in the 13<sup>th</sup> day of the month Adar (Esther 3:6-13). This is perhaps the first famous 13<sup>th</sup> day incident in history, that is if you believe that the story of Queen Esther is in fact history, rather than just a pious and edifying fiction. (On this, see our: <a href="http://amaic1.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/the-talmud-declares-that-when.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://amaic1.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/the-talmud-declares-that-when.html</span></a>). But some historians regard the arrest of the leaders of the Knights Templar on the 13<sup>th</sup> day of October, 1307, as the reason why the 13<sup>th</sup>day is considered to be unlucky. Sharan Newman has considered the thirteenth in the context of the Templars in her brand new book, <i>The Real History Behind the Templars</i> (Penguin 2009, p. 249):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I have often heard that our superstition about Friday the thirteenth being an unlucky day stems from the arrest of the Templars. It’s very difficult to trace the origin of a folk belief. It does seem that the thirteenth was an unlucky number long before the Templars, and there are traditions that Friday is an unlucky day, perhaps stemming from Friday being the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. I haven’t been able to discover when the two beliefs were joined. It was certainly unlucky for Jacques [de Molay] and the rest of the Templars. In fact, Jacques’ world was shattered in the predawn hours of the next morning, Friday, October 13, when the <b>Temple in Paris </b>was invaded by agents of the king.“All the Templars that could be found in the kingdom of France were, all at once, in the same moment, seized and locked up in different prisons, after an order and decree of the king”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">So which of these views, if either, is the correct one?<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">I would say both.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></i></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="color: #cc0000;">But how, both?</span></span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When reading Newman’s critical account of the famous Templar incident I was struck for the first time (even though I had read about this many times before) by the host of likenesses in the overall account of this gripping story with the details of the biblical Book of Esther.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The comparisons are amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Just to take as a starting-point the brief account given above by Newman, we have here all of the basic elements that we find also in the plot of the Book of Esther, namely:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The leader of a group of supposed conspirators arrested without warning<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">at the behest of the king (not mentioned in the above account),<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">by “agents of the king”,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">on the thirteenth day of a month,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">with his fellow conspirators also seized “all at once”.</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This action was followed by the execution of the leader and of all of his followers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Both accounts are fascinating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Book of Esther is considered by some to be a well worked out piece of literature, with not too much in it by way of historical reality. And, there is again so much intrigue surrounding the Knights Templar - as nearly anyone living today would probably know, thanks to authors such as Dan Brown - that it is often hard to separate what is fact about them from what is fiction. Books continue to be churned out on this most fascinating of subjects. The logistics of the arrest of these formidable knights, on the 13<sup>th</sup> day, “in the same moment”, for instance, can almost beggar belief. And for what reason? There is no unanimity at all about the why’s and the wherefore’s of it. It is all a bit bizarre, something like the cruel execution of the old and amiable Socrates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In various of my now many historical reconstructions (some might call them historical deconstructions), dedicated to Jesus Christ, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the Alpha and Omega,</b> and Lord of all history, I have argued that some key Old Testament personages and events have, strangely, been sucked into the Black Hole of so-called ‘Dark Ages’ history (600-900 AD), where they have been re-cast - given a modern colouring (names, geography). The supposed incident of king Philip the IV’s capture of the chief Templars, on that fateful 13<sup>th</sup> day of October 1307, is of course outside that timescale. However, thanks to Newman’s critical account of it, I have been suddenly struck by the host of likenesses in the overall account of it with the Book of Esther, with which I am well familiar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Though this event, as just said, falls a bit outside the ‘Dark Ages’ period, it, too, seems to be largely fictional. I am not going to go so far as to deny the historical existence of the main players in the drama, but I am going to make bold as to insist that many of the dramatic events in this terrible tale are completely fictitious as to AD time, though they did actually occur (with different names and geography, of course) back in about the C6th BC, in an equally terrifying conspiracy of biblical proportions: the story of Queen Esther.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It will be the purpose of this article to unravel the modern tale by showing how it, in its basic elements, finds its real place in the Book of Esther.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">An Important Note About the Characters Involved</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As was the case in my article, “Beware of Greeks Bearing Myths” (<b><i><a href="http://bookofjob-amaic.blogspot.com/search/label/Beware%20of%20Greeks%20Bearing%20Gifts"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue;">http://bookofjob-amaic.blogspot.com/search/label/Beware%20of%20Greeks%20Bearing%20Gifts</span></span></a></i></b>)- in which I had argued that the biblical books of Tobit and Job underlie much of Homer’s <i>Odyssey</i> - I had noted that what certain characters might have done or said in the original (biblical) versions, can be, in the case of the copycat version, transferred to another character: <i>“I need to point out that it sometimes happens that incidents attributed to the son, in the Book of Tobit, might, in The Odyssey, be attributed to the son's father, or vice versa (or even be attributed to some less important character). The same sort of mix occurs with the female characters”, </i>so now do I say the same thing again in the case of the Book of Esther as absorbed into the presumed C14th AD scenario.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So who are the main players in the supposed C14th incident involving the Knights Templar, who I believe find their basis in the Book of Esther?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Most obviously, to begin with, there is the king.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The King</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther and King Philip IV <i>le Bel</i> (“the Fair”) in the C14th. Both can be competent, but they are also flawed. Both are keen on money. Both have a tendency towards gullibility - being “duped and taken advantage of by his entourage” is a description of King Philip that we shall encounter below - he being prepared to leave important affairs in the hands of his trusted officials. Philip IV’s supposed contemporary, Bernard Saisset, certainly thought that Philip le Bel was all show and no substance. Thus Newman (p. 241):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One comment that Saisset made became famous throughout Europe. “Our king resembles an owl, the fairest of birds but worthless. He is the handsomest man in the world, but he only knows how to look at people unblinkingly, without speaking”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And similarly, p. 244:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Historians have disagreed as to how much Philip was the instigator of the deeds attributed to him. ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Another contemporary said, “Our king is an apathetic man, a falcon. While the Flemings acted, he passed his time in hunting …. He is a child; he does not see that he is being duped and taken advantage of by his entourage” ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This last aspect of the king’s make up is certainly apparent at least in his counterpart in the Book of Esther, king Ahasuerus (of whom we do not have a physical description). King Ahasuerus, after he had been duped by Haman and his fellow conspirators, seems then to have come to his senses, to have matured. Thus he decrees with the wisdom of hindsight (Esther 16:8-9): <i>“In the future we will take care to render our kingdom quiet and peaceable for all, by changing our methods and always judging what comes before our eyes with more equitable consideration”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Still, Ahasuerus must have been basically a most competent king to have been able to rule over so massive an empire (127 provinces, Esther 1:1). It is only to be expected that he would have had to delegate responsibilities to his ministers. He had an active and close-knit bureaucracy (Esther 12:10: 1:13, 14; 2:14; 3:12; 4:6; 7:9) and he kept close about him <i>“sages who knew the laws (for this was the king’s procedure toward all who were versed in law and custom” </i>(1:13). He had also a most efficient courier and postal service (3:13; 8:1; 12:22). Newman has made some favourable comments on King Philip as an administrator (p. 245): <i>“From looking at the records, I’m inclined to think he was smarter than people thought and not just a puppet …”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Another of the significant changes in King Philip’s reign is his reliance on lawyers to maintain the workings of the state. Unlike his ancestors, Philip’s advisers were not relatives or knights who owed him military service, but legal administrators. “The strongest, most highly developed … branch of the government was the judicial system” …. Philip was a master at using this system to give legal justification for all his actions, including annexing the land of other countries, bringing down a pope, expelling the Jews, and, of course, destroying the Templars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">His legacy is still being disputed. In many ways he strengthened the French government …. He established a weblike bureaucracy that, as far as I can tell, still survives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Essentially this is all perfectly apt for king Ahasuerus as well. Did he not, for instance, employ his legal team to determine the case of his first wife, Queen Vashti, whom he subsequently dismissed on their advice (Esther 12:12-21)? – thereby paving the way for the young Esther. He also greatly strengthened his kingdom, adding further tribute to his treasuries (Esther 10:1-2): “King Ahasuerus laid tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea [presumably Greece]. All the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Media and Persia?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Wicked Conspirator</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the Book of Esther the chief conspirator is of course Haman himself, who, as we have read, conspires to massacre all the Jews. Haman is the archetypal secret Masonic or Illuminati type of conspirator, bent on world domination. Now Jacques de Molay, because of the ambiguity (good and bad) associated with him, also partly fills the role of Haman, as the wicked conspirator, but partly, too, he emerges as the righteous persecuted party. Newman tells as follows of this most enigmatic Jacques de Molay (p. 227):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jacques de Molay, the final Grand Master of the Templars, has become a figure of legend. To some he was a martyr, to others a heretic. He was either the victim of a plot or justly punished for the crimes of the order. Plays have been written about him. A Masonic youth group is named after him. Was he the last master of a secret society? Was he a heretic who denied the divinity of Christ? Or was he just a devout soldier caught up in the snares of the king of France, a relic of a dying world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Who was this man who presided over the Templars in their last days?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly Guillaume de Nogaret, the king’s adviser and henchman, can on the one hand represent the wicked Haman in the C14th saga, whilst, on the other hand, he can appear to be the hero, or righteous adviser, like Mordecai, who got rid of a most pernicious influence (Haman/fallen Templars). It is de Nogaret who apparently organises the 13<sup>th</sup> day capture of the Templars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For some, though de Nogaret definitely had an evil (Haman-like) reputation. Thus Newman (pp. 244-245):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[King Philip’s] close adviser <b>Guillaume de Nogaret </b>has been blamed for every evil thing Philip did, especially regarding Pope Boniface and the Temple. It’s possible that Philip was easily duped. It’s also possible that Philip, like many people, preferred to make a good impression on the public and let underlings take the heat. He might have been a Teflon king.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">…. I’m sure the matter will continue to be debated for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“[Nogaret] also earned the enmity of a much better writer than he”, </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Newman goes on to tell (p. 274).<i>“In the <b>Divine Comedy</b> Dante compared Nogaret to Pontius Pilate …”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This particular Guillaume may very well merge in the story of the Templars with Guillaume de Paris, the Inquisitor General of Paris, whose directions King Philip was, as we shall read below, inclined to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Persecuted Jews</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Persecuted Jews are a common factor in both ‘histories’, the biblical and the C14th. Newman considers the Jews in our context in a section, <i>“Philip and the Jews”, </i>pp. 243-244:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Money still being a problem, Philip’s next target was the Jewish population … they were already set apart from the rest of the population and could be more easily targeted. They were not numerous and concentrated mostly in the major cities. Jews were also considered a separate society ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By 1306 …Philip began looking for a new source of cash. In the Jews he suddenly noticed a section of the population that had a good deal of disposable income and who wouldn’t be missed at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">…. Philip made a plan to expel the Jews and take their property. His excuse was that they were known usurers who gouged honest Christians with exorbitant interest ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Actually it was Haman who had prompted the king about the Jews in the kingdom, owing to the fact that the Jew, Mordecai, had refused to do obeisance to Haman, despite the king’s directives. In the following account, Haman, after having cast lots and having determined on the 13<sup>th</sup> as the most propitious day, then tells king Ahasuerus about these unco-operative Jews in his kingdom. It is Haman, too, who adds the money element to it. The singularity of the Jews is again here, as in the case of Philip IV, a major issue (Esther 3:8-9):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">‘There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, so that they may put it into the king’s treasuries’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Apparently the Templars were also amongst the beneficiaries of the Jewish purge (Newman, p. 244): “Evidence that the Templars weren’t expecting to be put among the outsiders was the fact they bought the synagogue complex in Belvèze either from the fleeing Jews or from the king. The complex was walled and had a moat, perfect to the needs of the Templars …”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That King Philip IV was interested in money and pomp is apparent from any written account of him. And these identical factors also seem to be well to the fore in the Book of Esther in regard to king Ahasuerus. Thus he, in a great banquet, <i>“displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred eighty days in all”</i> (Esther 1:4). Just as Haman had provided big money for the king’s treasury, <i>“so that the king would not suffer any loss”,</i> so presumably had <i>“the treasurer of the Templars [given] Philip a loan of 200,000 florins … enormous loan …”</i> (Newman, p. 231). Around 1297,<i> </i>the king had collected another sum from the Templars (p. 230): <i>“… King Philip had borrowed 2,500 livres from the Temple”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Haman seemed to know the empire better than did the king, as he has to tell the king of the geography of the Jews. The Jews were largely at this time in the‘Babylonian Captivity’, due to the destruction of their city and Temple by king Nebuchednezzar II. And indeed we read that there was also a ‘Babylonian Captivity’ of Temple Knights as late as 1302, but by the Saracens, supposedly, not by the Chaldeans (Newman p. 230): <i>“… the brethren of the Temple were dishonourably conducted to Babylon…”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Likewise, Jacques de Molay well knew the kingdom of his king and beyond it, due to his vast travels (<i>ibid.</i>): <i>“The next two years [1294-1295] were spent in a tireless crisscross of the countries in which the Templars were most invested: France, Provence, Burgundy, Spain, Italy, and England”.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Band of Conspirators</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> <b>and/or the Persecuted</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The enigmatic Knights Templar are at once - because of the mystery surrounding them - the dark conspirators, Haman’s allies, of the Book of Esther, but they are also the ones who, like the persecuted in the Book of Esther, are marked out for a 13<sup>th</sup> day annihilation. The “rival operation” (as discussed in our <i>Five First Saturdays</i> book, with its many references to the Book of Esther, at: <a href="http://amaic2.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/five-first-saturdays-of-our-lady-of.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://amaic2.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/five-first-saturdays-of-our-lady-of.html</span></a>), that complete <i>bouleversement</i> in the plot of the Book of Esther, with the persecuted suddenly becoming the persecutors, is what has apparently caused so much of the confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The tension between the two warring sides, symbolised in “Mordecai’s Dream” by the <i>“two great dragons”</i> (Esther 11:2-12), is picked up in the Templar story, as we shall see, in the frequent rivalry and competition between the Knights Templar and the Hospitallers, who outlast them. <i>“The Templars and Hospitallers are often seen as rivals, even enemies”, </i>writes Newman (p. 157). And (p. 159): <i>“The main issues that divided the two orders</i> <i>were political. Although in theory they were supposed to be outside of local squabbles, in reality it was impossible not to get pulled into them”.</i> On one occasion, in a dispute over property, <i>“the Hospitallers supported the Genoese and the Templars the Venetians. This more than once led to blows between the knights”.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Does this all symbolically recall the great political division between the Persians and the ‘Macedonians’ in the Book of Esther?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Comparing the Book of Esther with </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">the Fall of the Knights Templar</span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">127 Reasons to Compare the Book of Esther and the Downfall of the Templars</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">King Ahasuerus is introduced into the Book of Esther as the ruler of a vast empire (1:1): <i>“This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasueurus who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven [127] provinces from India to Ethiopia”.</i>Whilst the extent of the territory ruled by the king of France could by no means compare with that, what we have here in the Book of Esther is a second figure (apart from the number 13) that re-occurs in the Templar saga. <b>I refer to the number 127.</b> It is the number of provinces in the king’s empire. It is also, as Newman has noted, the number of charges issued against the Templars (p. 265): <i>“In the next few months [after the first questioning of de Molay on October 24, 1307], the list of accusations grew to 127”.</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Mysterious Haman</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Haman has been a person most difficult to identify historically, but even to understand properly within the context of the Book of Esther.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Who was he, and from whence did he arise?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Even his nationality seems to vary from text to text: ‘Bougaean’, ‘Agagite’,‘Macedonian’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We have seen above similar questions asked about de Molay’s origins, whose birthplace too, apparently, is by no means certain. Thus Newman (p. 228):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The place of [de Molay’s] birth is not certain, either. He seems to have been from a village in Burgundy, but there are several there named Molay. His biographer, Alain Demurger, has narrowed it down to two towns …. But one can’t be certain about even that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">…. Jacques’ family and early life are a complete mystery. We don’t know why he decided to join the Templars. There isn’t a mention of him in any surviving Templar documents that might tell us what he did before he was elected Grand Master. It seems ironic that the most famous of the Templar Grand Masters is also the one we have the least information on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ironic indeed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Newman has dedicated her Chapter Thirty-Two to a character whom she says has been <i>“considered the most sinister”, </i><b>Guillaume de Nogaret.</b> She begins (p. 272):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Of all the people involved in the <b>arrest and trials of the Templars, </b>Guillaume de Nogaret has been considered the most sinister, the man who was the mastermind behind everything that happened. This servant of the king had cut his teeth on the stage with Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and was ready once again to prove himself to his master, <b>King Philip IV, </b>by destroying the Templars as well. Many have considered him the evil genius behind the trial of the Templars as well as the campaign against Boniface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Who was this man? Was he pulling the strings to make King Philip dance to his tune or was it Guillaume who was the puppet, taking the fall for the king?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What a marvellous description - this could also be of the rise and fall of Haman!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The name “Nogaret” is, according to Newman (<i>ibid.), “not the name of a place but is a variation on the Occitan word nogarède, or “walnut grower” …. </i>Interestingly, the Jews, on the Feast of Purim – the feast that grew from the Jewish victory over Haman (Esther 10:13; 11:1) – eat what they call “Haman’s ears” (<i>Oznei Haman</i>); a special triangular pastry whose ingredients include chopped up walnuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Nogaret’s rise to power had been rapid, just as Haman’s was (Esther 3:1-2):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">… King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the officials who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate bowed down and did obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Newman (pp. 273-274):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Sometime around 1296, Nogaret received a call from Paris. He’d made the big time, legal counsel to the king! …. Over the next few years he successfully handled several negotiations for Philip. In 1299, he was rewarded by being promoted to the nobility. After that, he was entitled to call himself “knight” …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Nogaret seems to have been Philip’s main counselor during the king’s battle with Pope Boniface. ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In Philip’s confrontation with the pope, Nogaret was apparently the guiding hand and also the one who physically led the attack on the pope in his retreat at Anagni in 1303. ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In [his use of the media], Nogaret was a master. According to Nogaret’s defense of the king’s actions, Boniface was a heretic, idolater, murderer, and sodomite. He also practised usury, bribed his way into his position, and made trouble wherever he went. …. These charges were never proved but they convinced many. They also gave Guillaume de Nogaret good material for his diatribe against the Templars four years later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly, Haman had earlier dubious ‘form’. He had actually been secretly plotting, via the agency of <i>“two eunuchs of the king”,</i> against king Ahasuerus himself (Esther 12:1-6). Haman had obviously covetted the first place in the empire right from the start. The plot was foiled by Mordecai, who then became the object of Haman’s wrath. But Haman was proud. <i>“… he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, having been told who Mordecai’s people were, Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus”</i> (Esther 3:6).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As noted earlier, Guillaume de Nogaret may also be merged with Guillaume of Paris, at whose instigation King Philip claimed to have sent out his secret orders for the arrest of the Templars on that fateful 13<sup>th</sup> day. Newman (p. 249):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Philip winds up by telling his officials that he is only taking this drastic step at the request of the Inquisitor General in Paris, and with the permission of the pope, because the Templars pose a clear and present danger to all the people of Christendom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">….Guillaume de Paris, the Inquisitor, was also Philip’s private confessor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This is exactly the same scenario as in the case of Haman’s plot. The king is, in this instance at least, passive. And, for Ahasuerus, it is owing to the advice of the <i>“counselors”,</i> as he said, with <i>“Haman</i> … <i>in charge of affairs”, </i>that the king had proposed to annihilate the Jews (Esther 13:3-7):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When I asked my counselors how this might be accomplished, Haman - who excels among us in sound judgment, and is distinguished for his unchanging goodwill and steadfast fidelity, and has attained the second place in the kingdom - pointed out to us that among all the nations in the world there is scattered a certain hostile people, who have laws contrary to those of every nation and continually disregard the ordinances of kings, so that the unifying of the kingdom that we honourably intend cannot be brought about. We understand that this people, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to every nation, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws, and is ill-disposed to our government, doing all the harm they can so that our kingdom may not attain stability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Therefore we have decreed that those indicated to you in the letters written by Haman, who is in charge of affairs and is our second father, shall all – wives and children included – be utterly destroyed by the swords of their enemies, without pity or restraint, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of this present year, so that those who have long been hostile and remain so may in a single day go down in violence to Hades, and leave our government completely secure and untroubled hereafter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Counter Plots</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the Book of Esther the original plot is the secret covenant of Haman and his allies to annihilate the Jews. The conspirators then cleverly, through deceit, manage to gain the king’s co-operation in their evil plan. Eventually, of course, all that is turned around, thanks to Queen Esther, prompted by Mordecai, leading to the exposure of the conspiracy to the king and the death of the conspirators. In the Templar tale, the Templars are both the secret schemers, supposedly (thus reflecting one aspect of the Esther story), but they are also the victims of the king’s wrath (thus reflecting another aspect of it).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The motivation for the destruction of the Jews in the story of Esther is basically Haman’s pride and ambition, hurt by the refusal of Mordecai to bow down before him as the king had commanded all the officials to do (Esther 3:2). Lots (“Pur”) were cast before Haman to determine the most propitious day for the destruction of the Jews (3:7). According to Queen Esther, in her prayer to God:<i>“… [the conspirators] have covenanted with their idols to abolish what [God’s] mouth has ordained … to open the mouths of nations for the praise of vain idols, and to magnify forever a mortal king”.</i> In this, including also Haman’s accusation above that <i>“this people, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to every nation, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws, and is ill-disposed to our government”,</i> I think we have the very foundation of the charges against the secretive Templars for idolatry, singularity and their bowing down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The secretive Haman and his fellow conspirators were certainly practising idolatry- they were up to no good. But the charge of secrecy against the Templars may be a bit odd, as this was typical of religious orders. Newman explains it (p. 269):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On the accusation that the Templars met at night, and in secret, that’s one of those no-win situations. They sometimes met at night after reciting the predawn prayers called matins. According to the rule, they were first to check up on their horses and gear and then could go to bed. But this was also a convenient time for holding chapter meetings. The meetings were held in secret in the sense that what happened in them was not to be discussed with outsiders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The odd thing about the charge is that most religious orders had closed meetings. The purpose of the chapter was to discuss faults and problems. These weren’t things they wanted the public at large to know about. I don’t know why no Templars bothered to mention this ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">{Because it didn’t actually happen}.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is most sinister and Mason-like in the case of Haman and company, turns out to be perfectly normal, however, in the context of a religious order such as the Templars. “Why did Philip decide that the Templars would be his next target?” Newman asks next (p. 248):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s not really clear, even with the mass of material his counsellors wrote to justify his actions. If we take these documents at face value, the pious king had recently been horrified to learn that the Templars were not as they seemed. Instead of being the pillars of Christendom, a bulwark against the heathen, they had really renounced Christ and were working actively against Him and, by extension, against the most Christian king of France and, oh yes, the papacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One month before the arrest, on September 14, 1307, Philip sent secret orders to his officials throughout the land. His words leave no doubt of his shock and horror at what he was asking them to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Compare this with Haman’s accusations against the Jews. But most especially also, later, king Ahasuerus’realisation in his decree of what Haman was really all about, which could almost be a manifesto of what the Templars were supposed to have degenerated to (Esther 16:2-7):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Many people, the more they are honoured with the most generous kindness of their benefactors, the more proud do they become, and not only seek to injure our subjects, but in their inability to stand prosperity, they even undertake to scheme against their own benefactors. They not only take away thankfulness from others, but, carried away by the boasts of those who know nothing of goodness, they even assume that they will escape the evil-hating justice of God, who always sees everything. And often many of those who are set in places of authority have been made in part responsible for the shedding of innocent blood, and have been involved in irremediable calamities, by the persuasion of friends who have been entrusted with the administration of public affairs, when these persons by the false trickery of their evil natures beguile the sincere goodwill of their sovereigns. What has been wickedly accomplished through the pestilent behavior of those who exercise authority unworthily can be seen, not so much from the more ancient records that we hand on, as from investigation to matters close at hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This situation explains the genuine shock of the (less than historically genuine, as according to the Templar story, at least) much less grand and eloquent king of France (Newman, p. 248):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“A bitter thing, a doleful thing, a thing horrible to contemplate, terrible to hear, a detestable crime, an execrable pollution, an abominable act, a shocking infamy, something completely inhuman, even more, outside of all humanity”.!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The men who received this must have been quaking in their boots as they read, not knowing what monster was about to be unleashed. Philip’s orders continue in this way for a full page before he lets on that the perpetrators of this evil are, gasp, the Templars! “Wolves in sheep’s clothing, under the habit of their order, they insult the faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for the salvation of mankind, is crucified again in our time …”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Likewise, the more composed king Ahasuerus, does not immediately name to whom he is referring. For, so far from what has been quoted above of his decree, the public would not have known about whom he was actually talking. But now, after his statement about his intending to be more prudent in the future (v. 8), Ahasuerus does name the chief culprit in this most damning statement (vv. 10-14):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For Haman son of Hammedatha, a Macedonian (really an alien to the Persian blood, and quite devoid of our kindliness), having become our guest, enjoyed so fully the goodwill that we have for every nation that he was called our father and was continually bowed down to by all as the person second to the royal throne. But, unable to restrain his arrogance, he undertook to relieve us of our kingdom and our life, and with intricate craft and deceit asked for the destruction of Mordecai, our saviour and personal benefactor, and of Esther, the blameless partner of our kingdom, together with their whole nation. He thought that by these methods he would catch us undefended and would transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now, this <i>is</i> a reason for a king’s anger!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">King Philip’s letter was written on a 14th day, a figure that also appears in Haman’s decree for the slaughter of the Jews, <i>“on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month”</i> (Esther 13: 6).<i> </i>Just as king Ahasuerus had commanded, through Haman’s design, the destruction of all the Jews (vv. 6-7), so King Philip, likewise (Newman, p. 249):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">… commands his men to arrest all the Templars in their jurisdiction and hold them. The officials are also to seize all their goods, both buildings and property, and hold them for the king (<i>ad manum nostrum</i> – “for our hand”), without using or destroying anything. Because, of course, if it should turn out that the Templars were innocent, everything ought to be returned to them just as they left it ….<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To which Newman adds (in footnote 8): <i>“If you believe this, I have some land in Atlantis I’d like to sell you”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Greed, the procuring of the victims’ goods and property, was also a motivating factor in Haman’s cruel decree (Esther 3:13): <i>“Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving orders to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods”.</i> The<i>“king’s provinces”</i> here takes the place of <i>“their jurisdiction” </i>in the case of King Philip’s <i>“men”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It is noticeable that the Jews who were victorious on the 13<sup>th</sup> day of the month, killing all their enemies, <i>“laid no hands on the plunder”. </i>Did Ahasuerus also decree in his case the equivalent of Philip’s <i>ad manum nostrum?</i> On the day of Haman’s death, Queen Esther had been given by the king <i>“the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews”. Then the king took off the signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. So Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman” </i>(8:1-2).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And, in the case of King Philip:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“It was rumoured that Philip even spent the night of October 13, 1307 at the Temple so that he could be the first to start counting the loot after the arrests. It’s a nice image”, </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">writes Newman (p. 208),<i> “but there is no evidence”.</i> She is more definite that: <i>“After the fall of the Templars, the Templar enclosure was taken over by the crown for a time before it was finally turned over to the <b>Hospitallers”.</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Again it is the same parallel scenario.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The king (Ahasuerus) has a sleepless night (the night before Haman’s arrest). (Esther 6:1). After the arrest, he takes over Haman’s possessions, holds them for a while, but then hands them over to Queen Esther (whose vindicated party “the Hospitallers” sometimes, as we have found, seem to represent).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Queen Esther</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Does the regal person after whom the Book of Esther is named figure anywhere, in any shape or form, in our reconstructed history?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Not obviously. There is no queen of King Philip who appears able to match the status of Queen Esther by any stretch of the imagination. His wife, we are told, was “Jeanne, heiress of Navarre and Champagne” (Newman (p. 239).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A far more significant queen is Queen Melisande, from about a century earlier, presumably, who might be a faint reflection of Queen Esther. Newman has considered her important enough to have dedicated an entire chapter (Ten) to her, as “Melisande, Queen of Jerusalem”. There is perhaps an incident in the Book of Esther, known as “Esther’s banquet” (5:1-14; 7:1-10), where there may be something of a partly parallel situation of Melisande with Esther. Queen Esther is preparing to lure Haman into a snare for his destruction at a dinner attended by the king. According to the story, Queen Esther, previously, had bravely gone before the king to request that he and Haman attend a banquet that she had prepared for them (Esther 15). She had won over the king, who had then promised that he would fulfil whatever she might request, <i>“even to the half of my kingdom”</i> (5:1). Her only request at the first banquet would be for a repeat of it on the second day, <i>“let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them and then I will do as the king has said” </i>(v. 8). A crucial section now follows that just may have some resonances in the Templar story, but not yet with Queen Melisande (vv. 9-14):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and observed that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was infuriated with Mordecai; nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home. Then he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh, and Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honoured him, and how he had advanced Haman over the officials and the ministers of the king. Haman added, “Even Queen Esther let no one but myself come with the king to the banquet that she prepared. Tomorrow also I am invited by her, together with the king. Yet all this does me no good so long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the Templar story, it is Jacques de Molay who is supposedly feeling secure, blissfully unaware of the trap into which he is about to plunge headlong. Of course he did not have a wife and many sons, as in the case of Haman. That part of the story may pertain to de Molay’s sometime ‘double’, de Nogaret who <i>“had a wife Beatrix, and three children, Raymond, Guillaume and Guillemette …” </i>(Newman p. 235). Nor was it a banquet that de Molay had attended on his last day, supposedly, but a funeral. Newman tells of it (p. 249):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On Thursday, October 12, 1307, Jacques de Molay attended the funeral of Catherine de Courtenay, the wife of Charles de Valois …. He was given a place of honor and even held one of the cords of the pall …. That night, he must have gone to bed feeling sure of his place in court society.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The “funeral” aspect of this story may have arisen from how it all develops, with the sleepless king finally recalling what Mordecai had done for him, and deciding to honour him. This all happens just prior to the second banquet (Esther 6:1-11). Certainly Haman is suddenly reduced from his high pitch of arrogance to a flat state of mourning: <i>“… but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered”. </i>It sounds like a funeral alright! His wife then predicts her husband’s complete fall before Mordecai the Jew (v. 13).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It is during the second banquet, to which Haman is now whisked off (v. 14), that there occurs an incident with the queen that the already angry king views in the worst possible light. The terrified Haman (once Queen Esther has exposed him before the king as a mortal enemy) throws himself on the couch where Esther was reclining to beg his life from her. The king had just risen from the feast in wrath and gone into the palace garden (7:5-7). <i>“When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall … the king said “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?””.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now this serious story may have its slight resonance in the following account that Newman gives about Queen Melisande at a banquet, where it is the queen herself who is up to mischief (p. 59):<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">William of Tyre relates with great relish a story of how the queen was having an affair with her cousin, Hugh of Le Puiset ….The tale says that, one day at a dinner, one of Hugh’s stepsons accused him of being Melisande’s lover and plotting to kill the king. The young man challenged Hugh to prove his innocence in combat. When the day came, Hugh was nowhere to be found. He was judged guilty and his lands forfeit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The accuser of the rebel in the Book of Esther is the king’s eunuch, Harbona. The‘guilty’ man who has <i>“his lands forfeit”</i> is Haman. But the queen is not an active partner in any sort of affair with this guilty man, who had indeed harboured an ambition <i>“to kill the king”. </i>(And, when transferred to de Molay, the guilty man’s death is not by fire, but on the gallows). Thus Esther (7:9-10):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high”. And the king said, “Hang him on that”. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly King Philip makes his decision on the fate of de Molay in relation to his own palace garden (Newman p. 236):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">King Philip was at his palace nearby and was immediately informed of the stand taken by Jacques and Geoffrey de Charney. The king had had enough. The chronicler, Guillaume de Nangis, says, “Without telling the clergy, by a prudent decision, that evening, he [the king] delivered the two Templars to the flames on a little island in the Seine, between the royal garden and the church of the Hermit brothers ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">King Ahasuerus had permitted Queen Esther to ask even for half of his kingdom. He subsequently gave her all of the deceased Haman’s property. In the Templar story it all goes one better – but most unbelievably. A whole kingdom is actually given to the Templars and the Hospitallers, as Newman tells (p. 157):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Many donation charters gave property equally to the Templars and Hospitallers. The most astonishing of these is that of Alfonso I, king of Aragon and Navarre, made in 1131 in which he left his entire kingdom to the Templars, Hospitallers, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusion</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Dan Brown could never have guessed that the ancient Book of Esther, an inspired book of the Holy Scriptures, may contain all the secrets of the Knights Templar and may be the very key to unlocking their many mysteries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span></b><br /></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-61286865966619205112020-02-10T14:36:00.001-08:002020-02-10T14:40:46.902-08:00Joakim and Susanna’s progression to become Mordecai and Esther<br />
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<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“And Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to
King Ahasuerus. He was a </span></i><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7463"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">man</span></span></i></a><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> held </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">in respect among the Jews, esteemed by
thousands of his brothers, a </span></i><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7463"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">man</span></span></i></a><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> who </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">sought the </span></i><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=5257"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">good</span></span></i></a><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> of his people and cared for the welfare of his
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<b><i>Esther
10</i>:<i>3</i></b></div>
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With the assistance of a significantly revised Neo-Babylonian
dynasty through to the early Medo-Persian period, I have been able historically
to identify the wicked King Belshazzar of Daniel 5 as King Evil-Merodach, son
of Nebuchednezzar II ‘the Great’, and the un-named second ruler in Belshazzar’s
kingdom as Jehoiachin (or Coniah), whom Evil-Merodach had exalted over the
other princes in Babylon (2 Kings 25:27-30).</div>
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These are all historically verifiable kings.</div>
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Now, if Jehoiachin (Coniah) is also, as I have identified him:</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Haman
un-masked</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.academia.edu/37584041/Haman_un-masked"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/37584041/Haman_un-masked</span></a></div>
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then that leads us into the Book of Esther, and to Mordecai,
who, with Queen Esther herself, would expose the machinations of Haman.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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Is there any evidence that this Mordecai, too, was a real
historical person? </div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
There may be. David J. Clines, in his article “The Quest for
the Historical Mordecai” (<a href="https://www.academia.edu/2454296/The_Quest_for_the_Historical_Mordecai"><span style="color: #0070c0;">https://www.academia.edu/2454296/The_Quest_for_the_Historical_Mordecai</span></a>),
writes of one “Marduka” in Susa during the Persian period whom various scholars
have considered as a possible candidate for Mordecai. I am interested here in
what Clines writes about these various opinions, since Clines himself seems
pre-disposed to dismiss the Book of Esther as merely “a romance”: </div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">…. it appears to be necessary to insist
that evidence for a Persian official at Susa named Marduka, if that is really
what we have, is next to useless in any debate about a historical Mordecai. For
if on other grounds it seems probable that the book of Esther is a romance
and not a historical record, it is quite irrelevant to the larger question
of the historicity of the writing to discover that one of its characters
bears a name attested for a historical person. Fictitious characters usually
do. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Clines tells of these other estimations of Marduka:</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the standard works, commentaries,
encyclopaedias and monographs, wherever the historicity of the Book of Esther
is discussed, there is usually to be found some reference to the possible
extra-biblical evidence for Mordecai. Here is an extract from a typical
encyclopaedia article in <i>The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible:</i></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Reference must be made to a single undated
cuneiform document from the Persian period, found at Borsippa, which refers to
a certain Marduka who was a finance officer of some sort in the Persian court at
Susa during the reign of Xerxes I. While a connection between such an
individual and the Mordecai of the book of Esther is in no sense established,
the possibility of such a historical event as is related in Esther cannot be
dismissed out of hand. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Carey A. Moore, the author of the Anchor
Bible commentary on Esther, is a little more positive about the implications of
the reference to Marduka. This official, who ‘served as an accountant on an
inspection tour from Susa’, could be, he suggests, ‘the biblical Mordecai
because, in all likelihood, Mordecai was an official of the king prior to his
being invested in [Est.] 8.2 with the powers previously conferred on Haman’. To
Moore, ‘at first glance all of this seems rather persuasive, if not conclusive’.
While he is indeed careful to point out the uncertainties that surround the
identification of Marduka with Mordecai, he nevertheless concludes that</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">since the epigraphic evidence concerning
Marduka certainly prevents us from categorically ruling out as pure fiction the
Mordecai episodes in the Book of Esther, it is safest for us to conclude that
the story of Mo[r]decai may very well have to it a kernel of truth. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Robert Gordis, rather more boldly, appears
to have no reservations whatever about the identification of Mordecai with
Marduka. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">For him, the attestation of the names
Marduka and Mrdk … is ‘the strongest support thus far for the historical character
of the book’. …. He writes:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">A Persian text dating from the last years
of Darius I or the early years of Xerxes I mentions a government official
in Susa named Marduka, who served as an inspector on an official tour … [T]he
phrase <i>yōšēb<b> </b>bĕša‘ar<b> </b>hammelekh, </i>‘sitting in the king’s
gate,’ which is applied to Mordecai repeatedly in the book, indicates his role
as a judge or a minor official in the Persian court before his elevation to the
viziership. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The conclusion to be drawn is rather
obvious:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">That there were two officials with the same
name at the same time in the same place is scarcely likely. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">From Edwin M. Yamauchi we even gain the
impression that the identification of Marduka with Mordecai has now become the
consensus scholarly view:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mardukâ</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> is listed as a <i>sipîr</i> (‘an accountant’) who
makes an inspection tour of Susa during the last years of Darius or early years
of Xerxes. It is Ungnad’s conviction that ‘it is improbable that there were two
Mardukas serving as high officials in Susa.’ He therefore concludes that this
individual is none other than Esther’s uncle. This conclusion has been widely
accepted. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Siegfried H. Horn
concurs:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The result of this disco[c]very has been a
more favorable attitude toward the historicity of the book of Esther in recent
years, as attested by several Bible dictionaries and commentaries published
during the last decade. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">So secure is the identification of Mordecai
with Marduka in his eyes that he can even invite us to reconstruct the personal
history of Mordecai on the basis of what we know about Marduka:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is quite obvious that Mordecai, before
he became gatekeeper of the palace, must already have had a history of civil
service in which he had proved himself to be a trusted official … the trusted
councillor of [t]he mighty satrap Uštannu, whom he accompanied on his official
journeys.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Since my re-setting of Mordecai’s engagement with Haman has it
occurring far earlier than the standard time for it, in the reign of “Xerxes”
(C5th BC) - and nearer to the return from Captivity - it thus becomes necessary
to demonstrate a compatible revised chronology of Marduka. </div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now there
was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: And he took a wife
whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, a very beautiful woman, and
one that feared God. For her parents being just, had instructed their daughter
according to the Law of Moses. Now Joakim was very rich, and had an orchard
near his house: and the Jews resorted to him, because he was the most
honourable of them all.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Daniel 13:1-4</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When in the process of searching for
greater information about Mordecai in the Bible it occurred to me that a
possible candidate for him might be Joakim the well-respected husband of
Susanna. Admittedly, I have very little to go on here, considering the brevity
of the information provided about Joakim in the Story of Susanna.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: square;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim
was apparently a Jew, as was Mordecai (Esther 2:5): “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now in the citadel of </span><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=11169"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Susa</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> there lived a Jew called Mordecai son of Jair, son of
Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin …”, and a man of great standing.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: square;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim,
as “</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">a man
that dwelt in Babylon”,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was apparently also of the Babylonian
Captivity, as was Mordecai (2:6), “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">who had been deported from </span><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6304"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Jerusalem</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> among the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of
Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon”. </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: square;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim was a contemporary of a
young Daniel, who figures prominently in the Story of Susanna (Daniel 13:45).
Mordecai was taken into captivity about a decade after Daniel had been, “</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah” (Daniel </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">1:1).</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">{That does make for a very tight chronology for
Daniel, though, who was apparently still “a young boy”, or a “young youth”, or
“young man”, in the Story of Susanna}.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: square;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim
“was very rich”. Mordecai, according to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Legends of the Jews</i> (V. 4), “became a wealthy man”. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim,
since his house was used for “matters of judgment” (Daniel 13:6), may himself
have been a judge, as we found was likely the case with Marduka (=
Mordecai?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim
is a figure very much in the background in the Story of Susanna, in which young
Daniel comes to the fore. And Mordecai, too, tended to work quietly behind the
scenes, advising his niece, Queen Esther, whilst Haman and King Ahasuerus will take
centre stage.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim
was well respected by many amongst the Jews, he being “</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">the most honourable of them all”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">.
And this we read similarly about Mordecai (Esther 10:1-3):</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">King Xerxes
imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of
the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in
the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">preeminent among the Jews, and held in high
esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people
and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews. </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“The Talmud says that
this must be a euphemism, since wives, </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">not daughters, sleep
in men’s “bosoms”.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Following on my identification of the
well-respected Jew in Babylon, Joakim, with the Jew, Mordecai, and his wife
Susanna, with Esther, I find further Jewish testimony in favour of Mordecai as
the husband of Queen Esther. Thus, for instance, professor B. Barry Levy has
written (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://thetorah.com/what-was-esthers-relationship-to-mordechai/"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://thetorah.com/what-was-esthers-relationship-to-mordechai/</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">):</span></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">What was
Esther’s Relationship<br />
to Mordechai?</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Biblical,
Traditional, and Not-So-Traditional Interpretations</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">W</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">hat was the biological relationship between Esther
and Mordechai? Were they cousins or uncle and niece? And was
Mordechai Esther’s adoptive father or even her husband? </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Biblical Evidence: Cousins and
Adoptive Father</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The
biblical text is straightforward (Esth 2:7):</span></div>
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<sup><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">אסתר ב:ז</span></sup><span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> וַיְהִ֨י אֹמֵ֜ן
אֶת־הֲדַסָּ֗ה הִ֤יא אֶסְתֵּר֙ בַּת־דֹּד֔וֹ כִּ֛י אֵ֥ין לָ֖הּ אָ֣ב וָאֵ֑ם
וְהַנַּעֲרָ֤ה יְפַת־תֹּ֙אַר֙ וְטוֹבַ֣ת מַרְאֶ֔ה וּבְמ֤וֹת אָבִ֙יהָ֙
וְאִמָּ֔הּ לְקָחָ֧הּ מָרְדֳּכַ֛י ל֖וֹ לְבַֽת:</span></div>
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<sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Esther 2:7</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> He (=Mordechai) was foster father to
Hadassah—that is, Esther—his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor
mother. The maiden was shapely and beautiful; and when her father and mother
died, Mordechai adopted her as his own daughter.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">According
to the <i>Megillah</i>, Esther is the daughter of Mordechai’s uncle, and thus,
Esther and Mordechai are first cousins. When she was orphaned, Mordechai
adopted her. Ostensibly, that should close the matter, but as almost anyone who
has visited a school at Purim time (or has discussed the matter with his
children or grandchildren) knows, it is not that simple.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Mordechai as Esther’s Husband</span></b></div>
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<span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">תנא משום רבי מאיר: אל תקרי לבת אלא לבית.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A Tanna taught in the name of R.
Meir: “Read not ‘for a daughter’ [<i>le-bat</i>], but ‘for a house’ [<i>le-bayit</i>].”</span></div>
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<span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">וכן הוא אומר ולרש אין כל כי אם כבשה אחת קטנה אשר קנה
ויחיה ותגדל עמו ועם בניו יחדו מפתו תאכל ומכסו תשתה ובחיקו תשכב ותהי לו כבת.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Similarly, it says: But the poor man
had nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had brought up and reared; and
it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own
morsel, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a
daughter.</span></div>
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<span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">משום דבחיקו תשכב הוות ליה (לבת) [כבת]? אלא (לבית)
[כבית] – הכי נמי לבית.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Because it lay in his bosom, was it
like a daughter to him? Rather what it means is like a wife; so here, it
means a wife.</span></div>
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<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The
Talmud presents a two-step argument.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> The term <i>bat</i> is understood as<i> bayyit,</i>
which often carries the meaning “wife” in rabbinic exegesis. In fact, a common
word for “wife” in the Talmud’s Aramaic is “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">דביתהו</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">,</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> meaning </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">of his house.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> The second generation Amora Yossi ben
Chalafta, actually sites this as </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">good practice</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> (<i>Ruth Rabba</i>, parasha 2):</span></div>
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<span lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">א”ר יוסי בן חלפתא מימי לא קריתי לאשתי אשתי ולביתי ביתי
אלא לאשתי ביתי ולביתי אשתי</span></div>
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<td style="background: white; border-image: none; border: 0px rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 2.25pt 6pt;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">R. Yossi ben Chalfta said: “Never in
my life have I referred to my wife as ‘my wife’ or my house as ‘my house.’
Rather, [I always refer to] my wife as ‘my house’ and my house as ‘my wife.’”</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">B.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> To support this reading, the Talmud sites
Nathan’s parable of the poor man with his pet sheep, which he allowed to sleep
in his “bosom” and treated like a “daughter.” The Talmud says that this must be
a euphemism, since wives, not daughters, sleep in men’s “bosoms.” Hence we see
that the word </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">בת</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> can refer to a wife.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
Linguistic Buttressing of the Midrash</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br />
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Rabbi Meir presents us with an <i>al
tiqre-</i>style midrash, which <i>substitutes</i> one word for a
similar-sounding biblical one. </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">True,
the words <i>bat</i> and <i>bayyit</i> don’t sound all that alike, but it may
be that a phonetic variant is at work undergirding this midrash. Specifically,
certain pieces of evidence point us to the probability that in many dialects of
Hebrew (and Aramaic) the y<i>od</i> was actually pronounced more like the
glottal stop (a slight throat click) of an <i>aleph</i> than as an English Y.</span></div>
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<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Biblical
proper names beginning with the letter <i>yod</i> were often rendered in
other languages as if they began with <i>aleph</i>, suggesting that that is how
they were actually pronounced. A good example is <i>Yisra’el,</i> transcribed
as <i>Isra’el</i> in Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and other languages.</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></sup></div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ancient
Samarian ostraca spell “wine” as </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">ין</span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">
not </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">יין</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">, though the Greek cognate <i>oinos </i>may
be evidence of the<i> yod</i>’s presence.</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></sup></div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo4; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In
various targumim we also find third-person imperfect verb forms that are
spelled with initial <i>aleph,</i> not the expected <i>yod.</i></span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[4]</span></sup></div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo5; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Mishnah
<i>Baba Qama</i> 1:1 states </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">כל</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">שחבתי</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">בשמירתו</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">…</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> as opposed to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">כל</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">שחייבתי</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">. The Talmud (b. BQ 6a) suggests that the tanna was
a Jerusalemite and therefore spoke with a clipped <i>yod</i>.</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[5]</span></sup></div>
<div style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Thus,
<i>bat</i> and <i>bayyit </i>may have been phonetically equivalent to the
authors of the midrash, perhaps even sounding identical. Thus, to a listener,
Mordechai taking Esther <i>le-bat</i> could have carried either or both of
these meanings.</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[6]</span></sup></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Mordechai as Esther’s Uncle</span></b></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">No
traditional rabbinic text claims that Mordechai was Esther’s uncle, but the
idea has both popular currency</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[7]
</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">and support in early texts. The
earliest source for this may be Josephus, who writes:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Now
among the many who were gathered together, there was found in Babylon a girl
who had lost both parents and was being brought up in the home of her uncle (θε</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">ῖ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">ος</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">), his name being Mordechai (<i>Antiquities of the
Jews</i>, 9:198).</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[8]</span></sup></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The
same interpretation appears in Jerome’s Latin translation (the Vulgate), which
says that Esther was the daughter of Mordechai’s brother (<i>filiae fratris</i>)
in 2:7 and similarly refers to Avichayil, Esther’s father, as Mordechai’s
brother (<i>Abiahil fratris Mardochei</i>). The Vulgate is the standard
biblical text used by Catholics, and thus in the Catholic tradition Esther is
described as Mordechai’s niece. As Josephus has not had the same effect on
popular culture as the Vulgate, it seems likely that the Jewish sources
that describe Mordechai as Esther’s uncle may have been influenced by the
Catholic version of the biblical text, though they are probably not aware of
this.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusion:
Influence of Outside Sources</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br />
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">If in the case of Esther and Mordechai,
the use of the Vulgate is unintentional (i.e., picked up unconsciously from the
surrounding culture, perhaps as a consequence of the age disparity between
them). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Nevertheless,
when we comb through rabbinic texts, we can see that many medieval rabbis (even
some Ashkenazim) made use of “non-traditional” sources,</span><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">[9]</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">
including the Septuagint, the Peshitta, the Apocrypha, and, yes, even the
Vulgate.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">[End of quote]</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And again, along similar lines (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/306/Q5/"><span style="color: #222a35; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/306/Q5/</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">)</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Delores Elliott from Courtenay, British Columbia wrote:</span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Rabbi,</span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We are confused. Some Rabbis contend that Esther was Mordecai's wife and
if she was, that raises a lot of legal questions and yet in Holy Scriptures we
cannot find anything except that she was raised by him and that she was like
his daughter! Help! Am I missing something here? Thank you so much. We enjoy
your answers and have been collecting them in a notebook to refer back to for
answers.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><br />
<hr align="center" size="2" width="25%" />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dear
Delores Elliott,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Book
of Esther says, "And he adopted Haddasah, i.e., Esther...and when her
mother and father died, Mordechai <i>took her to him </i>as a daughter." (<i>Esther
2</i>)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are
three apparent snags in this verse. First, since the verse says that Mordechai
"adopted Haddasah," why does it seem to repeat the fact that he
"took her to him as a daughter?" Isn't that the same thing? Second,
there is no <i>legal status </i>of "adoptive parent" in Judaism; that
is, you <i>raise </i>an orphan girl in your home, but you don't "take her
as a daughter." Finally and most notably, "took her to him" is
always used in the Torah to refer to marriage.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Literally,
then, the verse is saying that he married her.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why does
it use the term "<i>daughter</i>?" The terms "sister" and
"daughter" are common expressions of endearment, as we see in other
places in the Torah (<i>e.g., Ruth 2:8, Shir Hashirim 4:9</i>) and Talmud (<i>e.g.,
Shabbat 13b</i>). The idea is that a husband and wife should develop a loving
and giving relationship as one naturally has with one's child and sibling.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, it's
not hard to see how the Talmudic Sages saw in this verse support for the oral tradition
that says Mordechai, Esther's cousin, was also her husband.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to Rabbinic
traditions, the two lustful elders who accused Susanna <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">were the same persons as two wicked judges referred to
and named by the <span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">prophet Jeremiah (29:21-23):</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
<div align="center" style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“This is
what the </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Almighty, the God of Israel, says about Ahab
son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in
my name: ‘I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
and he will put them to death before your very eyes.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Because of them, all the
exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned
in the fire.’ For they have done outrageous things in
Israel; they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and in my
name they have uttered lies—which I did not authorize. I know it and am a
witness to it,’ declares the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord”</span>.</span></i></div>
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</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"> </span></div>
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</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The colourful account of Susanna and the two
elders is well summarised by Jennifer A. Glancy of the Jewish Women’s Archive: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/susanna-apocrypha"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/susanna-apocrypha</span></a></span></div>
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</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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</div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
</ul>
<h1 style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #393939; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">Susanna: Apocrypha</span></span></h1>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #777777; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"><em> </em></span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000003"></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The brief,
self-contained story of </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/art-representation-of-biblical-women"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Susanna</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> appears in Greek but
not Hebrew manuscripts of the Book of Daniel. Most modern editions of the Bible
include it among the Apocryphal/ Deuterocanonical Books as Daniel 13. Although
readers will respond to and remember most vividly Susanna and her predicament,
the story’s conclusion emphasizes Daniel’s emergence as a young figure of
wisdom. On account of this, some ancient Greek versions place the Book of
Susanna before Daniel 1. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000004"></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The text first
introduces Joakim, a wealthy man living in the Babylonian </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/glossary/diaspora"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">diaspora</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> (Greek for
“scattered abroad,” Jews who lived outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile
of 587 b.c.e.). Joakim, however, plays
a minimal role in the unfolding of the story. </span></span></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<u><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></span></u></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mackey’s Comment</span></u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">: My
earlier proposed identification of this Joakim with the great Mordecai:</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well-Respected
Mordecai. Part Two: As Joakim, Husband of Susanna</span></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/23107025/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.academia.edu/23107025/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna</span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></u></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">will serve to open up, as
this series progresses, some intriguing new possibilities.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Glancy continues with her
commentary:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Susanna’s introduction
defines her in terms of her relationships to two men, as wife of Joakim and
daughter of Hilkiah, and tells that she is beautiful and righteous and was
trained “according to the law of Moses” by her parents (vv. 2–3). </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000005"></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Joakim’s house
functions as a courthouse for the Jewish community. Two elders who serve there
as judges separately develop lustful feelings toward Susanna, whom they spy
walking in the garden when the house empties at midday for the community to go
to their own homes for lunch (vv. 8–12). One day the two elders catch each
other lingering behind in order to watch Susanna, and they conspire together to
entrap her (vv. 13–14). </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000006"></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">On a hot day
Susanna decides to bathe in the garden (v. 15). She believes herself to be
alone with her maids because the elders have concealed themselves (v. i6). When
Susanna sends her maids away to bring ointments for her bath (vv. 17–18), the
elders reveal themselves and try to coerce her into sexual relations. They say
that, unless she lies with them, they will testify that she sent her maids away
in order to be with a young lover (vv. 19–21<i>). </i>Susanna’s dilemma is
this: to submit to the elders is to disobey the law of Moses, which she has
been raised to follow, but to resist the elders is to invite the death penalty
for adultery (Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22). She articulates her decision, “I choose
not to do it; I will fall into your hands, rather than sin in the sight of the
Lord” (v. 23). Susanna cries aloud, and so do the elders (v. 24). Their
shouting attracts members of the household (v. 26), specifically identified as
“servants,” who, when they hear the elders’ story, are “very much ashamed, for
nothing like this had ever been said about Susanna” (v. 27). </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000007"></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Susanna’s trial
occurs on the following day at her home, described as “the house of her husband
Joakim” (v. 28). Susanna comes before the two elders and the people,
accompanied by her parents, her children, and other unspecified relatives—her
husband is not mentioned (vv. 29–30). The lascivious elders ask that she be
unveiled so that they may continue to look at her (v. 32). Those who weep with
her weep at this disgrace (v. 33), which in Theodotion’s version amounts to an
unveiling of Susanna’s face. (The NRSV follows Theodotion, an alternate Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible.) In the Septuagint version, Susanna is
stripped naked, in accordance with ritual Jewish law (Ezek 16:37–30; Hos
2:3–10). The elders proceed with their accusations (v. 34). They claim that
they saw Susanna in the garden, embracing a young lover whose strength enabled
him to elude them as they attempted to detain him; they further claim that
Susanna has refused to cooperate in naming the lover (vv. 36–41a). Because of
the credibility of the elders in the community, the assembly believes them and
condemns Susanna to death (v. 41b). </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="wp9000008"></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">No one offers
testimony on Susanna’s behalf. She, however, turns to heaven for help, crying
aloud to God that she is innocent (vv. 42–43). The text records, “The Lord
heard her cry” (v. 44). Just as Susanna is being taken to her death, God stirs
“the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel” (v. 45). Announcing that he
cannot be part of Susanna’s execution (v. 46), he asks the assembly for the
right to cross-examine the elders (vv. 47–49). Before the reassembled court,
Daniel separates the two elders and questions each about the location of the
lovers’ intimacies. The first elder identifies a mastic tree (v. 54) as the
site of the illicit coupling, and the second elder identifies an evergreen oak
(v. 58). Daniel thus reveals their deceit and the innocence of Susanna, “a
daughter of Judah,” a descendant of southern Judah (v. 57). The two elders are
then sentenced to the fate they intended for their victim: death (v. 62). </span></span></div>
<div align="right" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">[End of quote]</span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to R. Charles, as cited at: </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/S/susanna-the-history-of.html"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/S/susanna-the-history-of.html</span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">… the first half of the story rests on a
tradition regarding two elders (Ahab and Zedekiah) who seduced certain women by
persuading them that they would thus become the mother of the Messiah. This
tradition has its origin probably in Jer 29:21-23, where it is said that Yahweh
would sorely punish Ahab and Zedekiah because they had "committed villany
in Israel," having "committed adultery with their neighbours' wives"
…. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the basis of all of the above, we may be
able to give names to Susanna’s ill-fated accusers:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Ahab and Zedekiah.</span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The German orientalist, Georg Heinrich August Ewald</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (d. 1875), had thought
that the account of the two lustful elders who were infatuated with Susanna must
have been inspired by a Babylonian tale involving the goddess of love and two
old men.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once again, however, this
is a case of biblical historians and commentators presuming that a given
biblical story was inevitably dependent upon a pagan myth (or myths) of a
similar theme. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">At </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/S/susanna-the-history-of.html"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/S/susanna-the-history-of.html</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> we read</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ewald
(Geschichte(3), IV, 386) believed that [the story of Susanna] was suggested by
the Babylonian legend in which two old men are seduced by the goddess of love
(compare Koran 2 96). ….</span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Looking at this Koran
(Qur’ān) reference, 2:96, I find:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.1pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.1pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">And you will surely find them
the most greedy of people for life - [even] more than those who associate
others with Allah . One of them wishes that he could be granted life a thousand
years, but it would not remove him in the least from the [coming] punishment
that he should be granted life. And Allah is Seeing of what they do.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.1pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Whilst I myself am unaware
of the Babylonian legend to which Ewald referred, I would find it very
intriguing if this Babylonian “goddess of love” was Ishtar herself - as I think
she must have been. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My reason for saying this
will become clear later, as I proceed to develop a wider identity for Susanna
in a biblical context.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 22pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Commentators
have picked up some striking likenesses between the story of Susanna</span></i></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">(in the
Book of Daniel) and the drama surrounding Queen Esther. </span></i></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">G.J. Steyn, for instance, has discovered some
“striking similarities” between, not only Susanna and Esther - of relevance to
this present series - but also including the Jewish heroine, Judith. Here I
take just two short portions from Steyn’s most insightful article (pp. 167-168)
</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/8985/Steyn_Beautiful(2008).pdf?sequence=1"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/8985/Steyn_Beautiful(2008).pdf?sequ</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">“BEAUTIFUL</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">BUT</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">TOUGH”.</span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">COMPARISON</span> OF <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">LXX</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">ESTHER,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 1.5pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">JUDITH</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt;">AND</span> <span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">SUSANNA”</span></span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-break-override: restrictions; punctuation-wrap: simple;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 61.7pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-break-override: restrictions; punctuation-wrap: simple;">
<span lang="EN-US"><img height="2" src="file:///C:/Users/LIB_PU~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image005.png" v:shapes="Group_x0020_5 Freeform_x0020_3" width="442" /></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold;">FEARLESS IN THE FACE OF DEATH</span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Bold; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold;"> </span></b></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times-Italic; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Italic;">Esther </span></i><span style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">requests that her people fast and
pray three days and nights for her and then she will approach the king without
being summoned by him – which is against the royal custom. If she then dies,
she dies (4:16). Esther then uses her mightiest weapon, her beauty, as an
instrument to save her people.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt -3.8pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times-Italic; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Italic;">Judith </span></i><span style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">took a similar decision as Esther
by going voluntarily into the presence of the very man who seeks to destroy her
people. She went forth, out of the city gates and down the mountain (10:9-10).
Her beauty gave her entry past the soldiers (10:14, 19, 23), right into the
tent of Holofernes, the chief captain of the Assyrian army (10:17, 20-21). She
stays three days in the camp (12:7) and beheaded Holofernes the fourth night,
passing again by the Assyrian soldiers. </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt -3.8pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times-Italic; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Italic;">Susanna </span></i><span style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">knows very well that whatever her
decision would be, she is destined to die (Sus 1:22). She “sighed” (… Sus 1:22)
and “cried with a loud voice” (… Sus 1:24). She chose to turn down the advances
of the two elders rather “than to sin in the sight of the Lord” (… Sus 1:23).</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">and:</span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold;">TRUST IN GOD AND PRAYER</span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Bold; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Esther approached God in her moments of fear and anxiety and
expressed her trust in God. This becomes clear from the contents of her prayer
in LXX Addition C (14:1-19): “… she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said:
O my Lord, you alone are our King. Help me in desolation – not having a helper,
but you. For my danger is in my hand (… 14:3-4); “You are righteous, O Lord!”
(… 14:7); “O King of the gods and of all powers” (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "tte1b8f498t00"; mso-bidi-font-family: TTE1B8F498t00;">… </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">14:12).</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Judith confesses her trust in the Lord when she spoke to the
elders of the city … (Jud 8:20). Her trust in God surfaces again in her prayer
… (Jud 9:7-8).</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Susanna too, approached God in her moment of fear on her way to be
executed. She prays to the “everlasting God” (… Sus 1:42) who knows all secrets
and who knows the false witness that was borne against her (Sus 1:42-43).</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having
previously (<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Four</b>)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>touched briefly upon the similarities
between the story of Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) and the drama narrated in
the Book of Esther, I take matters a step further here, testing a possible
identification of Susanna with Esther.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those “striking similarities” between Susanna
and Esther, previously noted, might lead one to consider whether there might
even be an actual identification of person here as well. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I seem to find solid arguments for and against
such a conclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joakim</span></i></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
connecting link</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">between
the two dramas</i> may be (if accurate) my identification of Joakim with the
great Mordecai:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well-Respected
Mordecai. Part Two: As Joakim, Husband of Susanna</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/23107025/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.academia.edu/23107025/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna</span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></u></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Such a connection, however, would also raise
some real queries with regard to Queen Esther. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">She, generally considered to have been a</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: lower-roman;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo7; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">beautiful (2:7)</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo7; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">young </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo7; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">virgin, (2:2) </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo7; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">raised as a daughter by Mordecai (2:7), would
now, all of a sudden, need to be significantly reconsidered as a, still </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 3cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: lower-roman;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo8; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">beautiful, but</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo8; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">not so young, </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo8; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">married woman</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo8; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">with kids (“her children”, 1:30 Sus. RSV). </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 3cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Such an apparently unorthodox reconsideration
of the famous biblical queen is not, however, without its support (at least
regarding Esther’s marriage to Mordecai) in Aggadic tradition. According to,
for instance, Tamar Meir’s article “Esther: Midrash and Aggadah”, this
tradition “casts the Biblical narrative in a different light”: </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/esther-midrash-and-aggadah"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/esther-midrash-and-aggadah</span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Babylonian tradition
maintains that Esther was Mordecai’s wife. Esth. 2:7 states: “Mordecai adopted
her as his own daughter [literally: took her <i>le-vat</i>],” which the midrash
understands as: Mordecai took her <i>le-bayit</i>, that is, as a wife (BT <i>Megillah</i>
loc. cit.). This exegesis casts the Biblical narrative in a different light.
Esther was taken to the royal harem despite her being married, which further
aggravated her sorry condition. This also leads to a different understanding of
Mordecai’s involvement, as he walks about in the royal courtyard out of concern
for his wife. </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="right" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">[End of quote] </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There may have been some unusual situation
here. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And there was indeed, according to an article,
“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thematic
irony in the story of Susanna” </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/1255/3295"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/1255/3295</span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #682828; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ironic expressions in<i> </i>episode
one (vv. 1−14) </span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #682828; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This first episode consists of
the introduction to <i>Susanna </i>(1−4), which includes the introduction of
her family, her husband and the two elders (5−6), as well as the emergence of
the conflict (7−14). In particular, it focuses on Susanna’s beauty and
godliness on the one hand and the elders’ wickedness on the other hand. In this
comparison lies the irony. The episode contains, as will be demonstrated
shortly, remarkable ironic words, expressions and incidents. Most of these
ironic utterances consist of the reversed use of social conventions. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The first ironic expression
concerns the relationship between Susanna and her husband, expressed by the
verb λαμβάνω [to take, to acquire] (cf. v. 2). There is no doubt that, in the
context of the ancient Jewish patriarchal society, this verb portrays a marital
relationship between husband and wife in terms of possessor and possession (Di
Lella 1984:332−334, 1995:39; see also Liddell & Scott 1996:1026; Delling
2000:5; Bauer <i>et al.</i> 2000:583). In this environment, λαμβάνω would
normally indicate the ascendancy of the husband over his wife and presupposes
the insertion of the woman in her husband’s family (Fuller 2001:339) and not
the contrary. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The use of λαμβάνω in this
case, however, seems to contradict these established patriarchal practices. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In actual fact, the
relationship between Susanna and her husband, as depicted in the story, does
entail the prominence of the woman. Firstly, according to the story, Jewish
identity is related to the practice of the Law of Moses, piety (Kanonge
2009a:381). It is strange that nothing is said about Joakim’s piety. Besides,
Susanna has a genealogy, or at least her father is named, but Joakim’s father
does not appear (Moore 1977:94). In Biblical traditions, ‘genealogies can
express social status, political power, economic strength, legal standing,
ownership …’ (Wilson 1979:19). To have no genealogy is to be less important in
a community. It seems, from this story and specifically from verse 63, that
Susanna is more important in the community than her husband. In fact, according
to the abovementioned verse (63), she is not inserted in her husband’s family,
but the contrary is assumed. According to Archer (Ilan 1993:55), women named
after their father were either ‘divorced or widowed’. This is not the case
here. Indeed, Susanna is being prioritised here at the expense of her husband.
It is remarkable that the normal familial order, as accepted in patriarchal
societies, is changed with the reading as follows: Σουσαννας μετ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ὰ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ιωακιμ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">το</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ῦ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ἀ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">νδρ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ὸ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">α</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ὐ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">τ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ῆ</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> [Susanna
with Joakim her husband]. This order is unusual in patriarchal traditions where
the husband is supposed to take the lead in everything. There is an overturned
use of social conventions.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Susanna,
living as she did during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, would seem to
have been far too early for her - according to conventional estimations - to be
identifiable as Queen Esther, supposedly living deeply into Persian history. </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My streamlined version of the Chaldean to
Medo-Persian history, though, as outlined in this series and developed elsewhere,
for example in:</span></div>
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Aligning
Neo-Babylonia with Book of Daniel. Part Two: Merging late neo-Assyrians with
Chaldeans</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/38330399/Aligning_Neo-Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_Two_Merging_late_neo-Assyrians_with_Chaldeans"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/38330399/Aligning_Neo-Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_Two_Merging_late_neo-Assyrians_with_Chaldeans</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">and</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">If
King Belshazzar made Daniel 3rd, who was 2nd?</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/40311215/If_King_Belshazzar_made_Daniel_3rd_who_was_2nd"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/40311215/If_King_Belshazzar_made_Daniel_3rd_who_was_2nd</span></span></a></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">has greatly shortened the chronological
distance between king Nebuchednezzar II ‘the Great’ and the Medo-Persians, with
Nebuchednezzar’s death occurring, now, only a handful of years before the
emergence of Darius the Mede - he, in turn, being my choice for the Book of
Esther’s great monarch: </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">King Ahasuerus</span></i></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Darius the Mede was already an old man when he
came to the throne (Daniel 5:31): <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the
age of sixty-two”. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">He, I have identified with king Cyrus. See e.g.:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Was
Daniel Twice in the Lions' Den?</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/24308877/Was_Daniel_Twice_in_the_Lions_Den"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/24308877/Was_Daniel_Twice_in_the_Lions_Den</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Any consideration of the age of Queen Esther -
which will be an issue in this present article - may need to factor in the age
of the Great King whom she married.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although historical chronology is no longer a
major issue according to my revised context, the actual age of participants in
the drama - the young Daniel, and lovely Susanna in connection with Queen
Esther - will be. It has already been determined that Queen Esther, if she were
also Susanna, would have been a married woman with children of her own, and,
hence, not a virgin. That her husband was none other than Mordecai himself -
which comes as quite a surprise - is borne out, though, as we have learned, by
an Aggadic tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ages of
Daniel, Susanna (and Esther)</span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Taking the Vulgate Latin version of the story
of Susanna in the Book of Daniel, we find Daniel himself described as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">puer junior, </i>which would appear to
indicate an extremely young male, and which is translated as “young boy”.
According to my Latin dictionary <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">junior</i>
equates with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">juvenis. </i>Though this
description tends to indicate a male up to the age of 17, it is “frequently
used of older persons … 20<sup>th</sup> - 40<sup>th</sup> year”. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">That gives us a lot more leeway in the case of
Daniel.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Say he was, as some estimate, 14-15 years of
age when taken into captivity, his intervention in the case of Susanna could
have occurred - in light of the above “20th-40<sup>th</sup> year” - as late as
approximately the 25<sup>th</sup> year of Nebuchednezzar II.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Susanna, with children, must have been, say, 20
at the time, and, if so, about 38 at the death of Nebuchednezzar. By about the
3<sup>rd</sup> year of Ahasuerus (Esther 1:3), when she - if as Esther - was
chosen, she would have been in her 40’s – likewise when married in the 7<sup>th</sup>
year (2:16). </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">King Ahasuerus would have been, by then (his 7<sup>th</sup>
year), nudging 70. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Vulgate gives the females chosen for the
king as (Esther 2:3) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">puellas speciosas et
virgines. </i></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Septuagint Greek has, for the same verse, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">κοράσια</span></i><span style="color: #101050;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (young
women) </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">άφθορα, which can mean “unblemished”. When
Tamar (Themar) is called a “virgin” in the Greek II Kings 13:2, the word used
is a different one, “parthenos” (</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&ved=0ahUKEwjZwpWR1pLPAhUBUWMKHa-MC7kQFghJMAs&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbiblehub.com%2Fgreek%2F3933.htm&usg=AFQjCNEAr5Y1FBRFBnvwTu9sgERpvnZwnA"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">παρθένος).</span></span><span style="color: blue; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Esther herself is never directly referred to as
a virgin. She is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pulchra nimis et decora
facie</i> (“exceedingly beautiful and becoming”). </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In Esther 2:7, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Esther</i> [is] … <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">quoque inter
ceteras puellas”. </i>The Latin word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">puella</i>
(singular) may indicate married or not.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And in Esther 2:9, the short-list is now <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">septem puellas speciosissimas </i>(“seven
most beautiful women”).</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The outstanding woman, Esther, had made an
early impression (2:8-9):</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN-US">Esther
also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of
the harem.</span><span lang="EN-US"> She pleased him and
won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and
special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the
king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the
harem.</span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Presumably eunuch Hegai’s action was prompt and
‘immediate’ because he had appreciated the true quality of Esther, and not
because - as necessitated in the case of the woman who went to the plastic
surgeon because she had a wrinkled face and crow’s feet (but came out with wrinkled
feet and a crow’s face) - she had lost her looks. Women in their 40’s can still
be beautiful.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having accounted for the tricky matter of age,
those similarities between the story of Susanna and the Book of Esther that we
have already discussed - and those between Susanna and Esther - can now really
kick in.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In both cases we encounter a beautiful and
pious woman, a Jew (cf. Susanna 13:57; Esther 2:7), who had been taught the Law
by her parents (cf. Susanna 13:3; Esther 14:5), who, as we read previously,
trusted fully in the Lord, and was prepared to die rather than to compromise
herself. </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My
conclusion in this series has been that the Susanna in Daniel became Queen
Esther.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this conclusion now presents
us with three names: </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Susanna,
Hadassah and Esther, since, as we are informed </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Esther 2:7): “… Hadassah … was also known as Esther”.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Making Sense of the Names</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There are a stream of similarities running
through the Story of Susanna and the Book of Esther.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Story of Susanna commences (13:1):</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“Now
there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joakim …”.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Whilst, according to Esther 2:5:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">“</span></sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the
tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai …”.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In this series I have identified, as one, this
“Joakim” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Babylon</i> with this
“Mordecai” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Susa.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Babylonian (Chaldean) era had come and gone
and Joakim, now as Mordecai, lived under a Medo-Persian king, in Susa. The
great man had two names, the one Hebrew, Joakim (i.e., </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yehoyaqim</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">,</span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">יְהוֹיָקִם</span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "david" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“raised
by God”)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, and the other his given Babylonian name: “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud" title="Talmud"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Talmud</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (<i>Menachot</i>
64b and 65a) relates that his full name was "<b>Mordechai Bilshan</b>"
(which occurs in Ezra 2:2 and Nehemiah 7:7). Hoschander interpreted this as the
Babylonian <i>marduk-bel-shunu</i> meaning "Marduk is their lord",
"Mordecai" being thus a </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocorism" title="Hypocorism"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">hypocorism</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">”.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.25pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the same way we can account for the name,
“Esther”, the foreign name given to our heroine in Babylonian captivity (as in
the Story of Susanna). The name is generally considered to derive from the
Mesopotamian goddess (of fertility, love, war, sex and power), Ishtar, the same
as the biblical Astarte. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Previously, I had referred
to Ewald’s view that the account of the two lustful elders, who accused
Susanna, had its counterpart in a legend involving the Babylonian “goddess of
love”, who I presumed to be Ishtar. Thus I wrote: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Whilst I
myself am unaware of the Babylonian legend to which Ewald referred, I would
find it very intriguing if this Babylonian “goddess of love” was Ishtar herself
- as I think she must have been. My reason for saying this will become clear
later in this series, as I proceed to develop a wider identity for Susanna in a
biblical context.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My conclusion would be - unlike Ewald’s - that
the Babylonian legend had derived from the Story of Susanna. And this Susanna,
I have argued, became Queen Esther, whose name arose from the pagan “goddess of
love”, Ishtar. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Regarding the name, “Hadassah”, at least one
scholar, as I recall (though I no longer have the reference), had argued that
it was simply a Hebrew version of Esther. I think that that might be stretching
things, however. More likely, Hadassah was the woman’s Hebrew name, meaning
“myrtle (tree, sprig)” – just as Mordecai had an original Hebrew name before
his being given a Babylonian name as well. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">That leaves us to account for the name
“Susanna”, literally meaning “lilly”. </span></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.naturalenvironmentaquatix.com/#!plants-1/ac2dp"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"><br /></span></span></a></span></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">One is reluctant to suggest that the woman had
two Hebrew names, Hadassah and Susanna. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A possibility, I think, is that Susanna might
be a name added retrospectively, and referring to the fact that Hadassah-Esther
had become, in the Medo-Persian period, the queen of Susa. Hence Susanna,
“She-of-Susa”. Again a hypocorism.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan"><span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Susan</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a
feminine </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Given_name" title="Given name"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">given
name</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, from French <i>Susanne</i>, from Late Latin </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_(given_name)" title="Susanna (given name)"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Susanna</span></span></i></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, from
Greek <i>Sousanna</i>, from Hebrew <i>Šošanna</i>, literally meaning "</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily" title="Lily"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">lily</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">",</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan#cite_note-1"><sup><span lang="EN" style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></sup></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> a term derived from </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susa" title="Susa"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Susa</span></span></i></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
(Persian: <i>Šuš</i>), a city in southwest Iran that was the ancient capital of
the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elamite_kingdom" title="Elamite kingdom"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Elamite
kingdom</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_empire" title="Achaemenid empire"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Achaemenid
empire</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan#cite_note-2"><sup><span lang="EN" style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></sup></a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.25pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps further strengthening my identification
of Susanna with Queen Esther (= Ishtar) may be the Babylonian “goddess of love”
legend, reminiscent of the account of the two elders, and the possible
reference, in the name, “Susanna”, to the capital city of Susa, where Esther
reigned. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-6577570939186140742019-11-26T14:28:00.004-08:002019-11-26T14:28:31.278-08:00Did King Darius make up the story of Cambyses’s madness? <br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <a class="ilightbox-gallery" href="http://www.liberaldictionary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cambyses-6898.jpg"><img alt="cambyses-6898" aria-describedby="gallery-1-480118" class="attachment-full size-full tie-appear" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ksFhso9iw2j6RgPVOIcMHF17ZaAFfYxGm_KvsVrLgcOjVpS5V4negxQTcLcMsNT4eHd8xgllIqrqRYuR6txlpMmHpTHD_aDyzvOOHrTa3V2jRAUBsRcx3aQOx9jadU3YoA=s0-d" width="625" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.liberaldictionary.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cambyses-6898.jpg"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a><br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 20pt;">by</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 20pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
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<span style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Sir, I am reading your Nabonidus papers. Re: the madness of Cambyses, this is a story made up by Darius to justify his seizure of power from the sons of Cyrus. Cyrus would have known if Cambyses was prone to madness and would not have entrusted the throne to him. Cambyses was not mad; he did die from a wound; but not one self inflicted for having killed the Apis Bull. The Apis Bull died a natural death and was replaced. There was no "imposter" Bardiya. Darius killed the real Bardiya and made up the imposter and Cambyses madness stories to cover up his seizure of power. Herodotus was taken in, or otherwise induced to endorse the false propaganda. Yours …. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Damien Mackey’s response:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Or is it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Cambyses” as a Persian king</i> that has been “made up”?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">For, might not “Cambyses” actually be the mad King Nebuchednezzar himself?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">After all, Cambyses had (as I have noted in articles) another name, “Nebuchednezzar”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And Nebuchednezzar also smashed Egypt – particularly in his guise as Ashurbanipal (who had a burning fiery furnace). See e.g. my series:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">"Nebuchednezzar Syndrome": dreams, illness-madness, Egyptophobia. Part Two: Ashurbanipal; Nabonidus; Cambyses; Artaxerxes III</span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">most relevant, in this case, being <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Two:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/37512120/_Nebuchednezzar_Syndrome_dreams_illness-madness_Egyptophobia._Part_Two_Ashurbanipal_Nabonidus_Cambyses_Artaxerxes_III"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/37512120/_Nebuchednezzar_Syndrome_dreams_illness-madness_Egyptophobia._Part_Two_Ashurbanipal_Nabonidus_Cambyses_Artaxerxes_III</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And his death also occurred apparently soon after he was in Egypt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And he, too, was highly superstitious and pious.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And he, too, messed around with the traditional rites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And I have also suggested that the Udjahorresne who had assisted Cambyses in Egypt was the very same individual as Tirhakah’s son and heir, </span><span style="border-image: none; border: 1pt currentColor; color: #222a35; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">Ushanahuru:</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Cambyses mentored in Egypt by Udjahorresne. Part Two: Meeting and identifying Udjahorresne</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/38348442/Cambyses_mentored_in_Egypt_by_Udjahorresne._Part_Two_Meeting_and_identifying_Udjahorresne"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/38348442/Cambyses_mentored_in_Egypt_by_Udjahorresne._Part_Two_Meeting_and_identifying_Udjahorresne</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tirhakah being, of course, a contemporary of Ashurbanipal (= Nebuchednezzar).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My best regards,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Damien.</span></div>
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AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-87915867010956336112019-09-23T16:42:00.002-07:002019-09-23T16:44:02.351-07:00Father of Judaïsm: Ezekiel, Ezra, Razis? <br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a class="zoom" href="https://assetsnffrgf-a.akamaihd.net/assets/m/1102017163/univ/art/1102017163_univ_lsr_xl.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Ezekiel sees a vision" height="320" src="https://assetsnffrgf-a.akamaihd.net/assets/m/1102017163/univ/art/1102017163_univ_lsr_lg.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 22pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;"> </span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Razis was a “Father of the Jews”.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">first connection</b> with Ezra, who is called, in Jewish tradition,</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Father of Judaïsm”.</span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ezekiel</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Fr. Arnold J. Tkacik (OSB), writing of the fact that the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied both a fall and then a rise of Israel (or the Jews), will proceed to comment (“Ezekiel”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Jerome Biblical Commentary, </i>21:2): “[Ezekiel’s] contribution to the birth of the new order is so pregnant that he has been called, rightly or wrongly, the father of Judaism”.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">And again we read: <a href="https://new-birth.net/samuels-messages/76-sermons-on-the-old-testament-given-by-jesus/sermon-59-ezekiel-gained-the-title-of-father-of-judaism/"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://new-birth.net/samuels-messages/76-sermons-on-the-old-testament-given-by-jesus/sermon-59-ezekiel-gained-the-title-of-father-of-judaism/</span></a></span></div>
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<h1 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sermon 59 - Ezekiel gained the title of “Father of Judaism.”</span></h1>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">April 15th, 1963</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Received by Dr Samuels </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Washington D.C.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And further, at:</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/old-testament-of-the-bible/summary-and-analysis/ezekiel"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/old-testament-of-the-bible/summary-and-analysis/ezekiel</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "pt serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> we read:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ezekiel has often been called the father of Judaism. His influence on the future development of Israel's religion was, at least for several centuries, greater than that of any of the other prophets. His conception of holiness, which stands in sharp contrast to Isaiah's, became dominant in the period that followed his people's return from Babylonian exile. For Ezekiel, holiness was a quality present in both things and people. Holy objects would be profaned whenever anything common or unclean was brought into direct contact with them, a belief that led to a sharp distinction between the secular and the holy and gave new meanings to such items as the observance of dietary laws, payment of tithes, and observance of the Sabbath. Violation of any of these rules would constitute a profanation of that which was holy or sacred. This interpretation of rules and regulations pertaining only to the Israelite religion served to strengthen the spirit of nationalism and thus to increase the antagonism that already existed between Jews and non-Jews. ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">A Jewish site somewhat similarly designates Ezekiel as:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ezekiel/"><span style="color: #428bca;">https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ezekiel/</span></a></span></div>
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<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1d2936;"><span style="font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: small;">“Father” of Jewish Mysticism</span></span></b></h2>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1d2936;">Furthermore, Ezekiel’s strange, mystical mood, which made him see those elaborate and magnificent visions of the heavenly chariot, became the basis for Jewish mystical studies which later developed into the Kabbalah. ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Apparently, then, Ezekiel is considered to have been the “Father of Judaism”.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ezra</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">But this very same impressive title has been applied to Ezra the scribe:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.islamic-awareness.org/quran/contrad/external/ezra"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.islamic-awareness.org/quran/contrad/external/ezra</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">“Ezra has with some justice been called the <b>father of Judaism</b> since his efforts did much to give Jewish religion the form that was to characterize it for centuries after the specific form the Jewish religion took after the Babylonian Exile”.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">And again: <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/ezra-the-scribe.htm"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/ezra-the-scribe.htm</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">No man since Moses has played so important a part in the literary tradition of the Jews as Ezra the Scribe. By the newer criticism, Ezra the Scribe was the father of Judaism ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">I recalled this very fact in my article:</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">Death of Ezra the Scribe</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/36736367/Death_of_Ezra_the_Scribe"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/36736367/Death_of_Ezra_the_Scribe</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">in which I then proceeded to attempt a link between Ezra and a character who would conventionally be considered way too far distant in time to be a chance for Ezra’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alter ego.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">I refer to the Maccabean:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 14.2pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Razis</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">In “<span style="background: white;">Death of Ezra the Scribe” I asked:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU">Who was Razis?</span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU">And then wrote:</span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The name itself, <em>Razis</em> (Greek: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ραζις</b>), does not appear (at least immediately) to offer much assistance, as we commonly read of it something along the lines of John L. Mackenzie’s: “<em>Razis</em> (Gk <em>razis</em>, Hb ?, meaning <em>uncertain</em>) …” (<em>The Dictionary Of The Bible, </em>p. 721).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Far more useful to us is the Maccabean account of the status of this extraordinary man, a glorious and heroic martyr in the opinion of the author(s) of the Maccabean narrative, but denounced for his act of suicide by some commentators as a madman, or proud, or a coward. For instance, we read this terse estimate of Razis as written by Forbes Winslow: “The self-destruction of Razis is full of horror, and can only be quoted as an evidence of the act of a madman”: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50907/50907-h/50907-h.htm"><span style="color: #428bca;">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50907/50907-h/50907-h.htm</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">William Whitaker, for his part, has written: “And in 2 Macc. chap, xiv., the fortitude of <em>Razis</em> is commended, who laid violent hands upon himself. <em>Yet Razis deserved no praise</em> for his fortitude. For this was to die cowardly rather than courageously, to put himself voluntarily to death in order to escape from the hands of a tyrant” (<em>A Disputation on Holy Scripture: Against the Papists, especially Bellarmine, </em>p. 95).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Here is what 2 Maccabees tells us about the high status of Razis, “called Father of the Jews” (vv. 37, 38-39):</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">… Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem … a man who loved his compatriots and was very well thought of and for his goodwill was called Father of the Jews. In former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and he had most zealously risked body and life for Judaism. Nicanor … sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him ….</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">This crucial information, I believe, provides us with sufficient information to identify, in biblical terms, just who was this major character, Razis.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> <strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></strong></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Razis” of 2 Maccabees</span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;">likely to be an aged Ezra</span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU"> <em><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></em></span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></em></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU">“… Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. …. the gracious hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel”.</span></em></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<em><span lang="EN-AU"><strong>Ezra 7:6, 9-10</strong></span></em></div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
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<div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1">
<span class="post-author vcard"> </span></div>
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AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-73950104330366829402019-09-11T16:36:00.004-07:002019-09-11T16:39:03.092-07:00“Darius the Mede took over the kingdom”<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;"><img alt="Darius I (Civ5)" class="thumbimage " data-image-key="Darius_I_%28Civ5%29.jpg" data-image-name="Darius I (Civ5).jpg" height="360" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/civilization/images/e/ea/Darius_I_%28Civ5%29.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20151118212036" width="640" /></span></div>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 22pt;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 22pt;">by</span></b></div>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 22pt;">Damien
F. Mackey</span></b></div>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 22pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 22pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU">The Book of Daniel presents historians with difficulties regarding
both the Neo-Babylonian and the Medo-Persian successions. An unknown king
“Belshazzar”, given as the son </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU">(and presumably successor) of “Nebuchednezzar”, is slain, and his
kingdom then passes into the hands of a likewise unknown monarch who is called
“Darius the Mede”. </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<br />
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 22pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">King Belshazzar</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The many ‘historical inaccuracies’ that critics
claim to find in the Book of Daniel are, as I have previously argued, not
faults of ignorance on the part of Daniel (or whichever author[s]), but the
limitations imposed upon historical knowledge by a one-dimensional conventional
history.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">See e.g. my” </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of
Daniel</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/35847164/_Nebuchednezzar_of_the_Book_of_Daniel"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/35847164/_Nebuchednezzar_of_the_Book_of_Daniel</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">According to this revision, King Nabonidus, the
penultimate king of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty - who in so many ways fits the
description of the “Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of Daniel (as critics have
noted) - is an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alter
ego</i> of the mighty Chaldean king Nebuchednezzar II. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Already this new vision of history manages to
establish that:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">there
was an historical king like Daniel’s “Nebuchednezzar”;</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">and
he, just like “Nebuchednezzar”, had a notable son named Belshazzar;</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Now, given my equation, Nebuchednezzar =
Nabonidus, I was gratified to learn of documentary evidence attesting to some
apparent mad or erratic behaviour on the part of king Nebuchednezzar II, to
complement the well-attested “Madness of Nabonidus”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">I have also concluded - based on a strikingly
parallel situation - that Evil-Merodach, son and successor of Nebuchednezzar
II, was Belshazzar. I reproduce that information here (with ref. to </span><span lang="EN-AU">British Museum tablet No. BM 34113 (sp 213), published by A. K.
Grayson in 1975)</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Read lines 3,
6, 7, 11, 12, and Mas referring to strange behavior by Nebuchadnezzar, which
has been brought to the attention of Evilmerodach by state officials. Life had
lost all value to Nebuchadnezzar, who gave contradictory orders, refused to
accept the counsel of his courtiers, showed love neither to son nor daughter,
neglected his family, and no longer performed his duties as head of state with
regard to the Babylonian state religion and its principal temple. Line 5, then,
can refer to officials who, bewildered by the king's behavior, counseled
Evilmerodach to assume responsibility for affairs of state so long as his
father was unable to carry out his duties. Lines 6 and on would then be a
description of Nebuchadnezzar's behavior as described to Evilmerodach. Since
Nebuchadnezzar later recovered (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/niv/Dan.%204.36"><span style="color: windowtext;">Dan.
4:36</span></a>), the counsel of the king's courtiers to Evil-merodach may later
have been considered "bad" (line 5), though at the time it seemed the
best way out of a national crisis.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Since Daniel
records that Nebuchadnezzar was "driven from men" (<a href="http://biblia.com/bible/niv/Dan.%204.33"><span style="color: windowtext;">Dan.
4:33</span></a>) but later reinstated as king by his officials (verse 36),
Evilmerodach, Nebuchadnezzar's eldest son, may have served as regent during his
father's incapacity. Official records, however, show Nebuchadnezzar as king
during his lifetime. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Comment</span></u><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">: Now this is the very same situation
that we have found with King Nabonidus’ acting strangely, and defying the
prognosticators, whilst the rule at Babylon - though not the kingship - lay in
the hands of his eldest son, Belshazzar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;">The inevitable (for me) conclusion now is that:</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;">Evil-merodach <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> Belshazzar!</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Again, this new vision of history manages to
establish that</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<ul style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Belshazzar,
the son of Nebuchednezzar II/Nabonidus, was in fact <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a king.</i></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Hence, a solution to the first conundrum referred
to at the beginning of this article: </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">An
unknown king “Belshazzar”, given as the son (and presumably successor) of
“Nebuchednezzar” ….</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Moreover, I am confident that this new vision of
history will enable for the true identification of that most enigmatic of
biblical characters, “Darius the Mede”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 22pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Medo-Persia</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">The
Who, When, How, and Why of “Darius the Mede” of the Book of Daniel.</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Having now established (I think) King Nabonidus’s
son, Belshazzar, as the “King Belshazzar” of the Book of Daniel, then it ought
to become self-evident - for those who know the basic facts about the
historical Belshazzar - which Medo-Persian king succeeded him. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">To put it in the words of the three young men when
confronted by an irate “Nebuchednezzar” (Daniel 3:16): </span><span lang="EN-AU">‘<em><b>Your
question hardly</b></em> requires an answer …’. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-variant: small-caps;">King Belshazzar was succeeded by
King Cyrus.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">According to (<span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="http://www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/belshazzar_darius_mede.htm"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/belshazzar_darius_mede.htm</span></a></span>):</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 0cm; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">King Cyrus of Persia also refers to
Belshazzar when he conquered Babylon in his writings:</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> "A
coward was put in charge as the king of this country . . . With evil intents
he did away with the regular offerings to the gods . . . and
desecrated the worship of the king of his gods, Marduk." BM90920</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Cyrus's statement
that Belshazzar desecrated the worship of his god Marduk matches very closely
to the story in the book of Daniel. Although it wasn't Marduk whose
handwriting appeared on the wall, but the one true God of Israel.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> According to the
Bible, Belshazzar was holding a feast at the time the city of Babylon was run
over by the Medes and Persians.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> The fall of
Babylon as recorded by the ancient historians Herodotus, Berosus and Xenophon
verifies this:</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0cm; width: 355.5pt;" width="474"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 1cm;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Cyrus then dug a trench
and diverted the flow of the Euphrates river into the new channel which led
to an existing swamp. The level of the river then dropped to such a level
that it became like a stream. His army was then able to take the city by
marching through the shallow waters . . . The Babylonians at the
time were celebrating intensely at a feast to one of their gods and they were
taken totally by surprise."</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">[End of
quotes]</span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Unfortunately, some of these semi-historical
ancient texts seem, at times, to mix up Nabonidus and Belshazzar.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Book of Daniel identifies this same
Medo-Persian king as “Darius the Mede” (5:30-31): </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">… </span><span lang="EN-AU">at Belshazzar’s command,
Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he
was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">That very
night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took
over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Daniel 9:1 adds
a little more biographical information about this new king: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">In the first
year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over
the kingdom of the Chaldeans ….</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU">There are some historians who have come to the conclusion that the
“Darius the Mede” </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU">of the Book of Daniel is likely to have been King Cyrus “the Great”
himself.</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">D. J. Wiseman </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Donald John Wiseman</span></b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire" title="Officer of the Order of the British Empire"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">OBE</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_of_the_British_Academy" title="Fellow of the British Academy"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">FBA</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_of_the_Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London" title="Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">FSA</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> (25 October 1918 – 2 February 2010)</span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wiseman#cite_note-Telegraph-1"><sup><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">[1]</span></sup></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> was a biblical scholar, </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeologist" title="Archaeologist"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">archaeologist</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">
and </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyriologist" title="Assyriologist"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Assyriologist</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">. He was Professor of Assyriology at the </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London" title="University of London"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">University of London</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> from 1961 to 1982”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wiseman"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wiseman</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Donald was the son of P. J. Wiseman, whose
brilliant archaeologically-based insights into the structure of the Book of
Genesis (the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toledôt</i>
“family histories”) I have found most illuminating. See e.g. my P. J.
Wiseman-inspired series: </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28730863/Toled%C3%B4t_of_Genesis_Introductory"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Toledôt of Genesis</span></a></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">commencing with:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28730863/Toled%C3%B4t_of_Genesis_Introductory"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/28730863/Toled%C3%B4t_of_Genesis_Introductory</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em><span lang="EN" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">D.
J. Wiseman advanced his “Darius the Mede” as Cyrus theory back in 1957, in his
article, “</span></em><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/daniel_wiseman.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Some Historical Problems in the Book of Daniel</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">” </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">see: </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z3205D.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z3205D.pdf</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
he wrote:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The basis of the hypothesis is that Daniel 6:28
can be translated ‘Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, even (namely, or
i.e.) the reign of Cyrus the Persian.’ Such a use of the appositional or
explicative Hebrew waw construction has long been recognized in Chronicles 5:26
(‘So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria even the
spirit of Tiglath–pileser king of Assyria’) and elsewhere.</span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">[End of quote]</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">We know that “Pul” was the same person as Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria.
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Correct translations of this verse, like the <strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">New King James Version</span></i></strong>,
in this case, phrase it as “the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, <strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">that is</span></i></strong>,
Tiglath–Pileser king of Assyria”.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">William H. Shea </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Dr. William H. Shea, retired associate director of
the Biblical Research Institute, has written a book on this subject (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daniel</i>), as well
as his 1982 up-dated article specifically on the identification of “Darius the
Mede”:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1982-3/1982-3-04.pdf"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1982-3/1982-3-04.pdf</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Although Shea gives some reasons in favour of
“Darius the Mede” as Cyrus, his conclusion is ultimately that: “…this theory
makes the dated references to these two kings in Daniel appear to be quite
haphazard in arrangement, since it provides no explanation why Daniel would
refer back from the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia (10:1), to the first
year of Darius the Mede who was king over the realm of the Chaldeans (11:1)”. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">George R. Law </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">His published version of a 2010 dissertation,
written on our very subject, is a fully comprehensive treatment of the issues
involved – a must read in fact. And Law comes out firmly on the side of “Darius
the Mede” as Cyrus. We read this useful summary of the book at: </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="http://www.readyscribepress.com/home_files/DariustheMede.html"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://www.readyscribepress.com/home_files/DariustheMede.html</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span lang="EN-AU">Identification
of Darius the Mede</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0.75pt;"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Identifying
Darius the Mede has been a problem because of the lack of a direct
correlation between the names in the ancient records of Babylonian kings and
the record of the Hebrew Scriptures. Certainly, the prophet Daniel knew the Babylonian
King whom he stylized as "Darius the Mede," even if modern readers
are uncertain, since this King Darius cast him into a den of lions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><br />
In his book, <i>Identifying Darius the Mede</i>, George Law offers a
scientific method which examines the data from the original sources
concerning six potential candidates who might be identified as Darius the
Mede: Astyages, Cambyses II, Cyaxeres (II), Cyrus the Great, Darius I (the
Persian), and Gubaru (Gobryas). Law's scientific method disqualifies most of
these potential candidates and leaves only Cyrus the Great and Gubaru for
further consideration. <br />
<br />
In his extended consideration of Gubaru, a governor of Babylon, Law offers
the following evidence explaining why Gubaru cannot be identified as Darius
the Mede. In the original sources, there is no evidence of the following:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU">1)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-AU">Gubaru being called "king" in Babylon in
538-536 BC</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU">2)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-AU">Gubaru being governor of Babylon from 538-536 BC</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU">3)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-AU">a district called "Babylon and the Region across
the River" existing in 538-536 BC</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU">4)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-AU">a new governor (administration) being established in
Babylon in 538-536 BC</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU">5)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-AU">Darius the Mede acting as a vassal king.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 23.55pt 0pt 25.95pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">On the
other hand, Law considers how the evidence concerning Cyrus the Great does
fit Daniel's description of Darius the Mede.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div align="right" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-AU">[End
of quote]</span></div>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 0cm; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 150pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 150pt; padding: 0cm; width: 415.8pt;" width="617"><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Was
Daniel twice in the den of lions? Once under “Darius the Mede” and once
under Cyrus?</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">No,
not if - as according to this series - Darius the Mede was King Cyrus. </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Toledôt Assistance</span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sometimes the sacred Scriptures present us
with two or more versions of the same incident, but written by different
authors and hence from a different perspective. Because of seeming
contradictions between (or amongst) these texts, arising as they do from
different sources, critics can pounce on these as examples of biblical
contradiction and error. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">One such situation that I looked at were the
two very similar - though in some ways quite different - accounts of
Abram’s wife, Sarai, and Abraham’s wife, Sarah, being abducted by “Pharaoh”
(in the case of Sarai), and by “Abimelech” (in the case of Sarah):</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">Toledôt Explains
Abram's Pharaoh</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/26239534/Toled%C3%B4t_Explains_Abrams_Pharaoh"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/26239534/Toled%C3%B4t_Explains_Abrams_Pharaoh</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">These tales I concluded, with the benefit of
P. J. Wiseman’s illuminating <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">toledôt </i>theory,
were recording the one and same incident:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">From the now well-known theory of <i>toledôt
</i>(or Toledoth, a Hebrew feminine plural), we might be surprised to learn
that so great a Patriarch as Abram (later Abraham), did not sign off the
record of his own history (as did e.g. Adam, Noah, and Jacob). No, Abram’s
story was recorded instead by his two chief sons, Ishmael and Isaac.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“These are the generations of Ishmael ...” </span></i></b><b><span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">(Genesis 25:12).</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“These are the
generations of Isaac ...” </span></i></b><b><span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">(Genesis 25:19).</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> So, there were <i>two hands </i>at work
in this particular narrative, and this fact explains the otherwise strange
repetition of several famous incidents recorded in the narrative. And it is
in the <i>second </i>telling of the incident of the abduction of Abram’s
wife, Sarai (later Sarah), that we get the name of the ruler who, in
the <i>first </i>telling of it is called simply</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Pharaoh”. He is “Abimelech” (20:2).</span></div>
<div align="right" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">[End of quote]</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Whilst the Egyptianised Ishmael (or his
family) was recounting the story from the perspective of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Egypt; </i>Isaac
(or his kin) gave the story from a Palestinian perspective.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Archaeologically we have learned that Egypt
had, at this time, most appropriately, flowed over into southern Canaan.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">And so with Daniel and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two</i> accounts
of his ordeal in the den of lions (Daniel 6 and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel and the
Dragon</i>), it now follows that - given our identification of “Darius the
Mede” with Cyrus - that only the one incident is being referred to, but
presumably related by different authors. Hence, as with the case of the
abduction of Sarah, it can read as if referring to two separate incidents.
This, whilst being possible, is highly unlikely given Daniel’s advanced age
at this time.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let us consider the points of comparison:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The scene is Babylon (4:30; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel</i> v. 3).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In both cases, Daniel is on very good terms
with a Medo-Persian king (6:3; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel</i> v. 2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The people conspire against Daniel (and the
king) on religious grounds (6:4-5; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel</i> vv.
28-29).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The king, under extreme pressure was
distressed (6:14;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 30).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The fate was a den of lions (6:7, 16;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 31).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The king comes to the den to see what fate has
befallen Daniel (6:19;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 40).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Daniel has been miraculously delivered (6:21;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 40).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The king rejoices, praises Daniel’s God (6:23;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 41).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Daniel is lifted out of the den (6:23;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 42).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">His accusers are thrown into the den and are
instantly devoured (6:24;<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Bel</i> v. 42).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Perhaps the biggest apparent difference
between the two narrations is the length of time that Daniel was in the
den. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel</i>
v. 31 is explicit. It was six days: “</span><span lang="EN-AU">Who cast him
into the lions’ den: where he was six days”. Daniel 6:19, on the other
hand, gives: “At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to
the lions’ den”.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">However,
that does not mean that Daniel was lifted out from the den that next day. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Daniel 6
may be telescoping events here. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The “Chiasmus” Guide </span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the “Abram’s Pharaoh” article (above),
chiastic parallelism also came to the aid of my theory that Abram’s
“Pharaoh” was the same as “Abimelech”. A reader - one albeit critical of
some of what I had been writing - had e-mailed to show that “Pharaoh” and
“Abimelech” actually dovetailed chiastically. Thus he wrote: “Note how B. 1
and B’. 1’ merge beautifully with “Pharaoh” in B. 1 reflecting “Abimelech”
in B’. 1’.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Not that a chiastic parallelism of names
necessarily means that the same person must be intended. Bern Sadler has, in
his magnificent deciphering of the Gospel of Matthew: <span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="http://www.structureofmatthew.com/The%20Structure%20of%20Matthew.pdf"><span style="color: #7f3900; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #7F3900;">http://www.structureofmatthew.com/The%20Structure%20of%20Matthew.pdf</span></a></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">has drawn such a parallel between the name “Jacob”
(Matthew 1:2) and “James” (Matthew 4:21). Most interestingly, “</span><em><b><span lang="EN-AU">James”</span></b></em><span lang="EN-AU"> is the English form of
the Hebrew name “Jacob” (Yaʻaqov).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Now,
James B. Jordan has in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handwriting
on the Wall, </i></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">on p.
314, shown a similar chiastic convergence of “Darius the Mede” (5:31) (his
A.) and ‘Cyrus” (6:18b) (his A’).</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 150pt; padding: 0cm; width: 4.2pt;" width="42"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 150pt; padding: 0cm; width: 26.8pt;" width="43"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 210pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 210pt; padding: 0cm; width: 415.8pt;" width="617"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 210pt; padding: 0cm; width: 4.2pt;" valign="top" width="42"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 210pt; padding: 0cm; width: 26.8pt;" width="43"><div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-11623293652610953252019-09-10T17:23:00.002-07:002019-09-10T17:23:49.174-07:00Biblical heroines confusingly re-emerging in AD ‘Herstory’<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif;"><a data-caption="" data-rel="iLightbox[postimages]" data-title="QSW-Queen-Sheba | SHEVA.com" href="https://www.sheva.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SHEVA-QSW-Queen-Sheba.jpg"><img alt="QSW-Queen-Sheba | SHEVA.com" class="attachment-medium size-medium" data-attachment-id="4404" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="QSW-Queen-Sheba | SHEVA.com" data-large-file="https://www.sheva.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SHEVA-QSW-Queen-Sheba.jpg" data-medium-file="https://www.sheva.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SHEVA-QSW-Queen-Sheba.jpg" data-orig-file="https://www.sheva.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SHEVA-QSW-Queen-Sheba.jpg" data-orig-size="1200,600" data-permalink="https://www.sheva.com/blog/queen-sheva-represent-girl-power/sheva-qsw-queen-sheba/" height="320" scale="0" src="https://www.sheva.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SHEVA-QSW-Queen-Sheba.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">by</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="border-image: none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="border-image: none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></b></div>
<div style="border-image: none; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 22pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 22pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Researchers have pointed to the similarities and differences between
the </i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two great Beta Israel legends mirrored in Ethiopian Christian history, </i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of the Queen of Sheba and Queen Judith …”.</i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shalva Weil</i></b></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The entirely
legendary (supposedly c. 900 AD) Queen of Ethiopia, Gudit (Yodit), or Judith, appears
to be a composite of some of the greatest amongst Old Testament women: namely, the
Queen of Sheba; Judith; and Esther.</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">For the
similarities with the biblical Judith, of the same name, see e.g. my article: </span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></h2>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Judith the
Simeonite and Judith the Semienite</span></b></div>
<h2 align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></h2>
<h2 align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/24416713/Judith_the_Simeonite_and_Judith_the_Semienite"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/24416713/Judith_the_Simeonite_and_Judith_the_Semienite</span></a></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">with
further biblical extensions noted in:</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Judith the
Simeonite and Judith the Semienite. Part Two: So many Old Testament names!</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<h2 align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1f4e79; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/35236672/Judith_the_Simeonite_and_Judith_the_Semienite._Part_Two_So_many_Old_Testament_names_"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/35236672/Judith_the_Simeonite_and_Judith_the_Semienite._Part_Two_So_many_Old_Testament_names_</span></a></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But
apparently this Gudit also had the name “Esther” (or “Esato”). </span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Shalva
Weil tells of it in her article: </span></h2>
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ethiopian-jewish-women"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ethiopian-jewish-women</span></a></span></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></h2>
<h1 align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; font-family: futura-pt; font-size: 20pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ethiopian Jewish Women</span></b></h1>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">….</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Interestingly,
the greatest legend in Beta Israel annals, after the famous meeting between
Queen Sheba and King Solomon, revolves around a woman, Queen Judith, variously
known as Yodit, Gudit … Esther, Esato (=fire), Ga’wa and Tirda Gabaz. The
Scottish explorer James Bruce, in his Travels to Discover the Source of the
Nile, describes how the beautiful queen Judith, queen [sic] of the Beta Israel,
single-handedly overthrew Christianity [sic] and eliminated most of the Solomonic
royal dynasty [sic] based at Aksum. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<u>My comment</u>: The kingdom of
“Aksum” that figures in both the fictitious history of Gudit and also of
Mohammed, seems to be replaceable in each case with the ancient kingdom of
Assyria.</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
Assyria is, of course, fully
relevant to the Book of Judith drama.</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">In
its place, she established a Jewish dynasty, which ruled for several
generations (Bruce 1790: 451–453). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<u>My comment</u>: That is because
the fictitious Gudit is based on a real “Jewish” person, namely, Judith of
Bethulia.</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Researchers
have pointed to the similarities and differences between the two great Beta
Israel legends mirrored in Ethiopian Christian history, of the Queen of Sheba
and Queen Judith (Kaplan 1992). Both women were perceived to be extremely
powerful royal figures. Both were depicted as converts to Judaism. Both led the
Jews against the evil Christians; both were considered to be victorious.
However, while according to the Ethiopian text Kebra Negest, the Queen of Sheba
established the Solomonic dynasty by having relations with King Solomon against
her will, Queen Judith is depicted as the one who destroyed that same lineage.
According to Salamon: “The Jewish woman leader in Ethiopia [sic] may symbolize…
the potential for power castration of the dominant group at the hands of the
minority” (1999:127 fn.10). ….</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<u>My comment</u>: All great
fiction!</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-67998078733090693972019-09-09T18:06:00.002-07:002019-09-09T18:07:45.348-07:00Our Lady of Fatima and Queen Esther<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 26pt;"></span><br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-AU"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em> </em></strong><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uNMgO0EQ0iM/UoQ_VVDhYrI/AAAAAAAAK3E/Kw9R7oRSDcQ/s1600/esther.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uNMgO0EQ0iM/UoQ_VVDhYrI/AAAAAAAAK3E/Kw9R7oRSDcQ/s320/esther.jpg" width="252" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></i></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">“As Pope John Paul II said
when he made the Consecration in 1984, </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">‘Fatima is more important
now than it was in 1917’. </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Fr. Apostoli added his own
insights, “It’s even more important now [2014] </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">than when [John Paul II]
said that in 1984”.”</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">At </span><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://frwest.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Fr. West's Catholic Blog </span></a></span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">(</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">February 21, 2013<span style="color: #335577; text-transform: uppercase;">)</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> we read about:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://frwest.blogspot.com/2013/02/queen-esther-and-our-lady-of-fatima.html"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://frwest.blogspot.com/2013/02/queen-esther-and-our-lady-of-fatima.html</span></a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Queen Esther and Our Lady of Fatima – </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Homily for Thursday of the First Week
of Lent</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: 15pt;">Queen Esther had been chosen
Queen after King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) dismissed his wife Queen Vashti for not
coming to him when she was summoned.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Now
Queen Esther is in anguish because Haman, the wicked aide ... has convinced the
King to issue an order to kill all the Jews in his Empire. Haman did this
because Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who raised her as a daughter, would not bow
down and prostrate himself as Haman passed as the King had ordered. The King is
unaware that Esther his wife is Jewish.</span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">The
date set for destruction was the 13<sup>th</sup> of the month of Adar which
corresponds to either our month of February. It is also the very day that the
Maccabees liberated Israel after a four-year battle with the Seleucid Empire. </span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Sister
Lucia to whom </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262b84; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/fatima/index.htm"><span style="color: black;">Our Lady of Fatima</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">
appeared died on this date. Our Lady of Fatima’s first appearance to the three
shepherd children was May 13, 1917. Her last appearance was October 13, 1917.
On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt. He
credits Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Queen
Esther clothed herself in sackcloth and ashes. She fasted from food and
water for three days and asks the Jews to do the same. After the three
days, she approached the King without being summoned. She did this even
though she was aware that the King could have sentenced her to death for doing
so. </span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">When
the Queen enters into the King’s presence he extends his scepter thus sparing
her life. He was so impressed by her courage and beauty that he promised her up
to half of his kingdom. Instead, she invites him to two banquets and invites
Haman – the man responsible for the order of the genocide of her people. At the
second banquet she pleads for her life and the life of her people. The
King is horrified by what Haman has done and orders him to be hung on the same
gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Persian law did not permit the King
to reverse his decree, but he issued another decree that the Jews could defend
themselves. Instead of being destroyed, the Jewish people were saved and
defeated their enemies in battle. The Jews celebrate this triumph each year as
their Feast of Purim. It doesn’t always fall on the same day. In
2013, the Feast falls on February 24th.</span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Many
see Queen Esther as a type of Mary and the Book of Esther as a type of the
Apocalypse. A <i>figure type</i> is a person, place, thing or event <i>foreshadowin</i>g
a New Testament <i>archetype</i> (a perfect model or type). The New Testament
archetype is always greater than its Old Testament figure type. For example,
Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish is a type of Jesus in the tomb.
Moses is a type of Jesus. </span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">The
Jewish people were saved through the intercession of Queen Esther, so Mary
intercedes for her people today. The Apocalypse foretells a great
persecution of Christians ... but the Book of Revelation speak[s] about the Ark
of the Covenant appearing in the sky and the Woman crushing the head of the
dragon. (Revelation 12)</span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">When
the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima she wore the Star of Esther. In the Old
Testament of the Hebrew text, her name was Hádássah - meaning myrtle, a white,
five-pointed, star-shaped flower. ....</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Like
Esther, Mary came at Fatima to spare her children from destruction. She asked
people to repent of sin, pray the rosary, go to confession, and receive the
Eucharist worthily. On July 13, 1917, Our Lady said to the child Lucia: “…I
shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and
the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded,
Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her
errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The
good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various
nations will be annihilated. ... In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.
The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and an
era of peace will be granted to the world.”</span></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Had her
requests been heeded the world would have been spared the horrors of World War
II in which over 50 million people died and countless other wars and
persecutions provoked by Communists throughout the world. In 1920, Russia was
also the first country to legalize abortion. In 1913, Communist leader Vladimir
Lenin demanded “the unconditional annulment of all laws against abortions or
against the distribution of medical literature on contraceptive measures.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Great
evils threaten our world. Sin increases. So many hearts are hardened. We need
to call on Our Lady in prayer. Heed her requests at Fatima and Lourdes.
Do penance, do the </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262b84; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.dailycatholic.org/1satdevo.htm"><span style="color: black;">Five
First Saturday devotion</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"> by going to confession,
receiving the Eucharist, praying the rosary and meditating 15 minutes on the
mysteries for five first Saturdays of the month in a row. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Queen
Esther asked her people to ... pray and do penance with her. We must listen to
the Blessed Mother today and ask her to intercede with her Son that he might
spare us, our nation and our world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.9pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-74832079568699795282019-09-09T17:36:00.003-07:002019-09-09T17:38:02.466-07:00Where is the ‘Christ’ in the Book of Esther? <br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></i></b></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.pray4zion.org/images/graphics/judas30piecesofsilver.jpg" hspace="1" vspace="1" width="580" /></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU"><br /></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">“The character Haman
himself is reminiscent of Judas Iscariot. He was a scheming pretender who
plotted against Mordecai, a faithful man of God. His attempts to betray
and destroy Mordecai, even receiving payment to accomplish his task, is very
much like Judas.</span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">At the conclusion of the
narrative, we find him hanging from a gallows just like Judas”.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">Chad Ashby</span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Regarding the Book of Esther, Chad Ashby
(2013) asks the question, relevant for a Christian: <span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://chadashby.com/2013/11/04/wheres-the-christ-in-esther/"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://chadashby.com/2013/11/04/wheres-the-christ-in-esther/</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“As a
good Christ-centered reader of Scripture, your question as well as mine should
be, “Where is Christ?” The total absence of “God”, “the LORD”, and any
other mentions of spiritual beings from this play might unnerve you”. </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And he
proceeds to identify the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christic</i>
element in the book:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Esther is one of those books of
the Bible you probably don’t read that often. If that’s true, it’s a
shame. Esther is perhaps the most entertaining, self-contained stories in
the entire Bible. It has all the makings of a great play: a cruel villian,
an oblivious king, a beautiful country-girl-turned-queen, a wise uncle, a [heroic]
underdog, plot twists, comedic irony, and a happy ending. Honestly, the
stuff of Esther is as good as any royal intrigue found in Shakespeare’s finest
plays.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">For most of us, all we know
about Esther is that she won King Ahasuerus’ beauty contest to become his new
queen, and we might vaguely remember that she saved the Jews. Let me
briefly explain the plot…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h1>
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<br /></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
The Drama:</h1>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
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Act 1</h2>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The story opens with King
Ahasuerus and his guests at a dinner party. His Queen Vashti stubbornly
resists his appeal for her to grace the party with her beauty, and in his
drunken stupor he vanquishes Vashti from her royal position. Immediately,
like an episode of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[<em>Pershia’s] Next
Top Model</em></i>, the king sends recruiters into his vast empire to gather
all of the best and most beautiful young women for him to choose his next
queen. Esther, a Jew, charms his eye and wins the competition.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Behind the scenes, Esther’s
uncle Mordecai faithfully serves the king and guides Esther. He uncovers a
plot by two eunuchs to assassinate the king (I know, eunuchs–who woulda thought!). During
the story, Haman, the villainous foe, is promoted to the right hand of the
king. Haman has it out for Mordecai because he will not bow before
him. In childish fury, he decides that not only Mordecai, but the entire
Jewish people will be utterly destroyed for his indiscretion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
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Act 2</h2>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Haman hatches a plot to destroy
the Jews. He goes to the King, and using very vague language encourages
the fatheaded King to decree that all Jews be annihilated because according to
Haman, “Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do
not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not to the king’s profit to tolerate
them.” The king blindly obeys; he and Haman sit down to a quiet afternoon
drink while the rest of the town is thrown into absolute confusion.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Mordecai calls upon Esther with
the alarming news, and he encourages her to use her leverage as queen to
influence the gullible buffoon she is married to so that the Jews might be
saved. Esther agrees. Risking her life, she approaches the king
uninvited but finds favor. She invites him and Haman to a banquet,
thinking she will broach the issue once the king is in good spirits and
well-fed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
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Act 3</h2>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Meanwhile, Haman’s rage against
Mordecai becomes so palatable that he cannot wait until the designated day to
destroy him, but goes home and builds a 75-foot-tall gallows to hang
Mordecai. That night, the king asks for a bedtime story, and one of the
royal officials reads to him from the chronicles of the kingdom–the best sleep
aid available at the time. By chance, the king is reminded of the time
when Mordecai blew the whistle on the eunuch conspiracy against him. He
asks, “Has this man been rewarded?” To his dismay, Mordecai wasn’t even
sent a “thank-you” card.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The next day, as Haman huffs into
the castle to ask to hang Mordecai on the gallows, the king invites him quickly
in and asks, “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor?” Straightening his robe and throwing back his shoulders in smug
delight, Haman says, “For me–I mean, the man–whom the king delights to honor,
let royal robes be placed on him and a royal crown set on his head, and let him
be led on the king’s horse through the public square, and let an official
declare his honor to everyone.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">In response, the king says,
“That sounds great, Haman. Everything you just said, go and do for
Mordecai.” The humiliation, irony, and comedic twist are so delicious you
can taste it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h2>
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<h2 style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
Act 4</h2>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">That evening, Esther’s party is
in full swing. On the second day of the festivities, Esther lets the cat
out of the bag: someone is trying to kill her! In fact a certain man is
seeking to annihilate her entire people. The king, still oblivious as all
get out, cries, “Who is it!?” She replies with accusing finger drawn, “A
foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” As the blood drains from Haman’s
face, the king turns to him in rage. It’s at this very moment that another
one of the king’s mischievous eunuchs reminds the king about the lofty gallows
constructed in Haaman’s backyard. “Hang him on that!” the king exclaims.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<h2 style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
Act 5</h2>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">In the ensuing drama, the Jews
are granted the means to defend themselves from the onslaught of the empire,
and in surprising fashion, these underdogs slaughtered 75,000 of their
foes. The story ends with a victory for the Jews, Esther at the king’s
side, and Mordecai elevated to the second highest office in the kingdom!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></h1>
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<br /></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
But Where’s the Christ?</h1>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">As a good Christ-centered reader
of Scripture, your question as well as mine should be, “Where is Christ?” The
total absence of “God”, “the LORD”, and any other mentions of spiritual beings
from this play might unnerve you. However, several moments in particular
betray that this entire story is actually all about Christ.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">First, in chapter 3, there is a
pivotal moment in the drama where the king gives Haman the right to destroy the
Jews. In verse 11 these are his exact words, “And the king said to Haman,
‘The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good
to you.’” This passive king betrays Israel into the hands of a wicked,
scheming, and vile villain. Haman’s purpose, as revealed earlier in
chapter 3, is “to destroy all the Jews.” I cannot help but hear in King
Ahasuerus’ words an echo from the passion narrative. Another Gentile
ruler, by the name of Pilate, when he had the authority to protect the True
Israel, instead passively uttered those fateful words, “I am innocent of this
man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” When each man had the power to vindicate
Israel, he chose to [defer] to the wicked.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The character Haman himself is reminiscent
of Judas Iscariot. He was a scheming pretender who plotted against Mordecai,
a faithful man of God. His attempts to betray and destroy Mordecai, even
receiving payment to accomplish his task, is very much like Judas. At the
conclusion of the narrative, we find him hanging from a gallows just like
Judas.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Mordecai’s ride around the town
square on the king’s horse just days before the proclaimed execution of all
Israel has to remind us at least a little bit of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem
riding a lowly donkey. In fact, Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman
reminds us of Christ’s unwillingness to bow before Satan in the
wilderness. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Though the infuriated Haman
sought to destroy him, Mordecai was vindicated, and he rose to the right hand
of the king–just as Jesus would do many years later.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The real kicker, however, lies
with Mordecai. After hearing the proclamation of the destruction of the
Jewish nation, he still has hope. Listen to what he tells Esther in 4:14,
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the
Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And
who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as
this?” Most of us know the second half of this verse, but the first part
is the key. Mordecai has faith that God will sustain and deliver the seed
of Abraham.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">That is what this entire drama
is all about. Satan and the Kingdom of Darkness are making another attempt
to destroy the seed of Abraham before the Messiah has a chance to appear. That
is why Esther is all about Christ. It is all about how God protected and
delivered the seed of Abraham from attacks on all sides. It is about how
God used a woman like Esther and a man like Mordecai to overcome Satan’s
vicious attempts to destroy God’s Plan of salvation. On the cross, we see
Satan’s last lunging effort to pierce through and destroy the True Seed of
Abraham. Even as he slew the Messiah, the blessing of Abraham finally came
pouring forth from His open side. Neither, Haman, Judas, or Satan could
make God a liar. His promise to bless all nations through the Messiah came
true in Jesus Christ, and Esther is another exciting chapter about how God made
it happen. ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU">For further comparisons
between Mordecai and Jesus Christ (the ‘New Adam’), and between Queen Esther and
the Virgin Mary (the ‘New Eve’), see my book:</span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/3731625/The_Five_First_Saturdays_of_Our_Lady_of_Fatima"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Five First Saturdays of Our Lady of Fatima</span></a></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/3731625/The_Five_First_Saturdays_of_Our_Lady_of_Fatima"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/3731625/The_Five_First_Saturdays_of_Our_Lady_of_Fatima</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Related to this,
for Mary as the ‘New Eve’, see my article:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">'The Marian
Dimension'. Part Two: The “New Eve”</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: #1f4e79; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/27483384/The_Marian_Dimension._Part_Two_The_New_Eve_"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/27483384/The_Marian_Dimension._Part_Two_The_New_Eve_</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU">and:</span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/30654137/The_Marian_Dimension._Part_Two_b_The_New_Eve_continued_"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/30654137/The_Marian_Dimension._Part_Two_b_The_New_Eve_continued_</span></a></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">For Haman (Aman)
identified as a Jewish king, Amon (Aman), see e.g. my article: </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; font-size: 14pt;">'Taking aim
on' king Amon - such a wicked king of Judah</span></b></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah</span></a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-21153176454873303132019-09-09T16:49:00.002-07:002019-09-09T16:50:38.758-07:00Books of Daniel and Esther<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span><br /></div>
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<br />
<span lang="EN-AU"><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><em> </em></strong><br />
</span></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Esther.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-4331 size-full" src="http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther.jpg" height="399" scale="0" sizes="(max-width: 2099px) 100vw, 2099px" srcset="http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther.jpg 2099w, http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther-300x187.jpg 300w, http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther-768x479.jpg 768w, http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther-1024x639.jpg 1024w, http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther-640x399.jpg 640w, http://lukedockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Links-Between-Daniel-and-Esther-676x422.jpg 676w" width="640" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-AU"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Daniel was
renamed Belteshazzar, and his 3 friends were also given Babylonian names.
Hadassah was given the name Esther, a name by which most people remember her,
and by which her book is known. Having both been taken into the palace of the
king, they were supplied with what they will need to fulfill their role in the
palace”.</span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gretchen S.</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Luke” has blogged
(April 4, 2014):</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://lukedockery.com/2014/04/04/links-between-daniel-and-esther-2/"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://lukedockery.com/2014/04/04/links-between-daniel-and-esther-2/</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Book of Daniel has been one of my favorite
biblical books for a while now, and I’ve always enjoyed the Book of
Esther as well. A while back, I heard a lesson on Esther which got me to
thinking about the striking similarities between the two: </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Faithful Living in
a Hostile Environment</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many of the following similarities can be traced to the
overriding similarity in the setting of both books. The Book
of Daniel follows the lives of Daniel and his three friends as they
live godly lives during a time of captivity in Babylon, working in conjunction
with powerful kings (first Nebuchadnezzar, then Belshazzar, then Darius).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Book of Esther focuses on the lives of
Esther and Mordecai as they live in Susa under the reign of Ahasuerus/Xerxes.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Emphasis on the
Physical Beauty of Young People</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Daniel 1.3-6 mentions that Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah were chosen for the king’s service because they were,
among other things, “without blemish, of good appearance.” They were taken
aside and were to be given special training and a special diet to prepare them
to assist the king.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly, Esther was chosen as part of the harem of
Ahasuerus based on her great beauty (Esther 2.3, 8) and was similarly
treated with a special diet and also given cosmetic treatment (vv. 9-12).</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Changing of
Names</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Daniel 1.7 is clear that Daniel and his friends are
given new names in Babylon (Daniel becomes Belteshazzar, Hananiah is called
Shadrach, Mishael is now Meshach, and Azariah is called Abednego) which seems
to be an attempt to change the identity and allegiances of the young men.
Allusions to Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, were removed from their names
and were replaced with references to false Babylonian gods.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Book of Esther is not as explicit,
but Esther 2.7 mentions that Mordecai was “bringing up Hadassah, that
is Esther….” Hadassah is a Hebrew name, which indicates that her name must have
been changed to Esther at some point while she was under Persian influence and
authority.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Accusations
Against God’s People</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In both Daniel and Esther, we have
the theme of wicked men bringing accusations against God’s people.
In Daniel, political officials who are jealous of the level of authority
that Daniel has achieved under Darius realize that the only way they can get
him in trouble is to outlaw his devotion to Jehovah, and they then inform
Darius that he has violated the law by continuing to pray to his
God (Daniel 6.1-14).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In Esther 3, Haman’s rage over Mordecai’s refusal to
bow before him leads him to propose a scheme to Ahasueras to eradicate the
Hebrew people (Also, this incident could be compared to the refusal of
Shadrach, Mishael, and Azariah to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image
in Daniel 3).</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">God’s Ability to
Save in Difficult Situations</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Mishael, and Azariah are
confident that God has the ability to rescue them from the fiery furnace.
Later, in Daniel 6, Daniel seems to be unfazed by his punishment of being
thrown in the lion’s den.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When Mordecai learns of Haman’s plan to wipe out the Jewish
people, he reflects a similar attitude, telling Esther that the Jews will be
delivered one way or another (Esther 4.13-14).*</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stubborn,
Determined Faith</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One awesome theme of both books is the portrayal of
determined, defiant faith from the characters. Shadrach, Meschach, Abednego,
and Esther all realize the possibility of dying for their actions, but are
determined to remain faithful regardless. Their declarations of stubborn faith
in Daniel 3.16-18 and Esther 4.16 are among my favorite
passages in Scripture.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Promotion of God’s
People to Places of High Authority</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A final related theme of both Daniel and Esther is the
way that God leads his faithful followers to places of high authority in their
respective foreign lands. Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego (Daniel
1.20, 2.46-49, 3.30, 5.29, 6.1-4, 6.25) all find favor in the sight of their
superiors and are elevated to positions of high authority.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly, Esther and Mordecai (Esther 2.1-18,
5.1-8, 6.10-11, 10.2-3) are appreciated by their superiors and granted
power and authority as well.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusion</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">These are just some of the similarities that struck me
between the two books; I’m sure there are more that could be listed. As I
mentioned above, I think a lot of the similarities stem from the overall similarity
in setting, as we have the stories of people trying to be faithful to God in a
surrounding culture which doesn’t always support that lifestyle. In that sense,
I think the books of Daniel and Esther are incredibly relevant to Christians
today as we strive to live as “sojourners and exiles” in our world (1
Peter 2.11).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">*Much has been made of the fact that Esther is
the only biblical book which does not explicitly mention God. While this is
interesting, I don’t think it is particularly significant, as the idea of God
providentially caring for His people is as central to the Book of
Esther as it is to the Book of Daniel.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly, Gretchen S. has written:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.oocities.org/~alyza/Jewish/Daniel.html"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://www.oocities.org/~alyza/Jewish/Daniel.html</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">The
Similarities Between the Books of Daniel and Esther</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The books of
Daniel and Esther have much in common. These commonalities include the overall
genre of the successful courtier, the slander of a Jew (or all Jews), the
triumph of the main character, and other parallels between the texts. This is
not to say that the stories are wholly the same, only that they share much in
common. The common themes in Daniel and Esther can tell a great deal about the
Jewish people of the time. The timelessness of the two books indicates that the
themes continue to have relevance for the Jewish people.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The stories start
similarly for the two main characters. Daniel was taken into the court of the
Babylonian king, with a number of other Judean youths. "Then the king
ordered Ashpenaz, his chief officer, to bring some Israelites of royal descent
and of the nobility--youths without blemish, handsome, proficient in all
wisdom, knowledgeable and intelligent, and capable of serving in the royal
palace" (Daniel 1:3-4).<sup>1</sup> They were to be groomed to be advisors
to the king. A similar thing happened to the Jewess, Hadassah, who was taken
into the palace of King Ahasuerus along with other virgins of his kingdom as a
candidate to be his new wife (Esther 2). Both were renamed with non-Jewish
names. Daniel was renamed Belteshazzar, and his 3 friends were also given
Babylonian names. Hadassah was given the name Esther, a name by which most
people remember her, and by which her book is known.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Having both been
taken into the palace of the king, they were supplied with what they will need
to fulfill their role in the palace. For Daniel and his three friends, this
meant food, training in Aramaic, and writing. "Daniel resolved not to
defile himself with the king's food or the wine he drank, so he sought
permission of the chief officer not to defile himself, and God disposed the
chief officer to be kind and compassionate toward Daniel." (Daniel 1:8-9).
Esther, though she did not ask for anything, was given the perfume, make-up,
and beauty treatments needed for her role by the eunuch in charge (Esther 2:8-9
and 2:15). Daniel's resistance was an active one, while Esther's was one of
passivity. She did not ask for anything with which to beautify herself; it had
to be given to her by the chief eunuch. Even though they resisted in their own
ways, they both found favor in the eyes of those who are charged to making them
ready (Daniel 1:9 and Esther 2:8).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Having been well
prepared, both Daniel and his three companions, and Esther, were taken into the
presence of their respective kings. "Whenever the king put a question to
them requiring wisdom and understanding, he found them to be ten times better
than all the magicians and exorcists throughout his realm." (Daniel 1:20).
"The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won his
grace and favor more than all the virgins. So he set a royal diadem on her head
and made her queen instead of Vashti." (Esther 2:17). All of them found
favor in the eyes of the kings involved. They, like Joseph before them, became
successful courtiers.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Esther's uncle,
Mordecai, became involved in the politics of the court just as Daniel did, when
he saved the king from a plot against his life by Bigthan and Teresh (Esther
2:21-23). Daniel was called in to interpret a dream, and in doing so not only
helped the king, he also saved the lives of his three companions and himself as
chapter 2 of Daniel discusses. Daniel was well rewarded for his dream
interpretation: "The king then elevated Daniel and gave him very many
gifts, and made him governor of the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect
of all the wise men of Babylon." (Daniel 2:48). While Mordecai was not
rewarded immediately, the king did eventually reward him. Haman ... in Esther
6:7-9, advised the king: "For the man whom the king desires to honor, let
royal garb which the king has worn be brought, and a horse on which the king
has ridden and on whose head a royal diadem has been set; and let the attire
and the horse be put in the charge of one of the king’s noble courtiers. And
let the man whom the king desires to honor be attired and paraded on the horse
through the city square, while they proclaim before him: This is what is done
for the man whom the king desires to honor!" Haman himself, who had
planned on having Mordecai impaled, instead had to lead Mordecai around on the
king's horse dressed in royal clothing. Similarly, Daniel was arrayed in
clothing of the royal purple in Daniel 5:22. "Then, at Belshazzar’s
command, they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a golden chain on his neck, and
proclaimed that he should rule as one of three in the kingdom.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">"The Book of
Daniel describes an episode of slander against the Jews in general, and later,
Daniel in particular. Chapter three of Daniel tells about the statue of
Nebuchadnezzar and the law that was made requiring all the people of Babylon to
bow down and worship the statue. Those who did not do so, were to be thrown in
a fiery furnace. "Seizing the occasion, certain Chaldeans came forward to
slander the Jews" (Daniel 3:8). Though their goal was to take power away
from Daniel's three companions, as verse 3:12 makes clear, they had slandered
all of the Jews. Later, in Daniel 6:6-18, other men sought to slander and
entrap Daniel himself. A law--made this time by Darius at the instigation of
the men--made it illegal to bow down to anyone but Darius for thirty days. The
men asked for this law to be made to entrap Daniel, who they knew prayed to G-d
three times a day, bowing down to Him. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">They also knew
that a law, once written by Darius, could not be revoked. Similarly, "When
Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel or bow low to him, Haman was filled
with rage. But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone; having been told
who Mordecai’s people were, Haman plotted to do away with all the Jews,
Mordecai's people, throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus." (Esther 3:5-6).
This is similar to the two cases in Daniel, where both Daniel and his three
companions refused to bow down to kings or statues of kings and worship them.
Granted, Haman (hiss) was not asking to be worshiped, but he was asking
Mordecai to bow down to him. Haman approached the king, saying (Esther 3:8)
"There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other
peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those
of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your
Majesty’s interest to tolerate them." Haman thus convinced Ahasuerus to
write a law that will allow for the massacre of all Jews in the kingdom on a
day selected by lots; again, this law cannot be revoked by the king.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Those people who
are threatened were saved miraculously in all three cases. An angel rescued
Hannaniah, Mishial, and Azuria from the fiery furnace. Another angel closed up
the lions' mouths, saving Daniel. Both of these stories in Daniel end with the
instigators, those trying to kill the heroes, themselves being killed or
executed. The heros are elevated. Esther's story has the instigator, Haman ... executed,
on the very same stakes on which he had planned to impale Mordecai.. The
survival of the Jews of Persia in the story of Esther was a bit more complex,
but nonetheless, it had a miraculous element about it. Esther put her own life
in jeopardy to save the lives of her people. She found favor in the eyes of her
king who, though unable to rescind the law, wrote another law allowing the Jews
to defend themselves. Miraculously, no Jewish lives were lost, while those who
wanted to annihilate them were all killed.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">After the incident
with Daniel's three friends, Nebuchadnezzer made a proclamation: "King
Nebuchadnezzar to all people and nations of every language that inhabit the
whole earth: May your well-being abound! The signs and wonders that the Most
High G-d has worked for me I am pleased to relate. How great are His signs; how
mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion
endures throughout the generations." (Daniel 3:31-33) Similarly, a
proclamation was made in the book of Esther. This proclamation, like the whole
book of Esther, made no mention of G-d. Esther 8:9 says, "So the king’s
scribes were summoned at that time, on the twenty-third day of the third month,
that is, the month of Sivan; and letters were written, at Mordecai’s dictation,
to the Jews and to the satraps, the governors and the officials of the one
hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia: to every province in
its own script and to every people in its own language, and to the Jews in
their own script and language..." This proclamation gave all of the Jews
permission to defend themselves. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Both the
proclamation in Daniel and the one in Esther went out to all nations and all
tongues under the rule of the respective kings. ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><em> </em></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">by</span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Part One: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Communists consider Book of Daniel “dangerous”</span></div>
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<em><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></em></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“The Lord heard [Susanna’s] prayer. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013045"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">As she was being led to execution, </span></a></span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013045;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, </span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">and he cried aloud: </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">‘I am innocent of this woman’s blood’.”</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Daniel 13:44-46</span></i></b></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">The prophet Daniel’s bold defiance of King Nebuchadnezzar and his corrupt régime finds its modern parallel in the courage and resoluteness of Christians today in communist China. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The communists consider the Book of Daniel to be most dangerous:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“In Liushi church a closed circuit television camera hangs from the ceiling, directly in front of the lectern. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">"They want the pastor to preach in a Communist way. They want to train people to practice in a Communist way," said the house-church preacher, who said state churches often shunned potentially subversive sections of the Bible. The Old Testament book in which the exiled Daniel refuses to obey orders to worship the king rather than his own god is seen as "very dangerous", the preacher added”. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html"><span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">According to this same article:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years </span></h1>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America </span></i></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">....</span></b></span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">By </span></b><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/tom-phillips/" title="Tom Phillips"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #ff7200;">Tom Phillips</span></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">, Liushi, Zhejiang province</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">2:00PM BST 19 Apr 2014</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance – not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church". </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence," beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy Week. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime," she added. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which<strong> </strong></span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/us/study-finds-that-percentage-of-protestant-americans-is-declining.html?-r=0" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #ff7200;">had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic – they didn't. They actually failed completely." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Like many Chinese churches, the church in the town of Liushi, 200 miles south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, has had a turbulent history. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">It was founded in 1886 after William Edward Soothill, a Yorkshire-born missionary and future Oxford University professor, began evangelising local communities. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">But by the late 1950s, as the region was engulfed by Mao's violent anti-Christian campaigns, it was forced to close. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Liushi remained shut throughout the decade of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, as places of worship were destroyed across the country. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Since it reopened in 1978 its congregation has gone from strength to strength as part of China's officially sanctioned Christian church – along with thousands of others that have accepted Communist Party oversight in return for being allowed to worship. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Today it has 2,600 regular churchgoers and holds up to 70 baptisms each year, according to Shi Xiaoli, its 27-year-old preacher. The parish's revival reached a crescendo last year with the opening of its new 1,500ft mega-church, reputedly the biggest in mainland China. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"Our old church was small and hard to find," said Ms Shi. "There wasn't room in the old building for all the followers, especially at Christmas and at Easter. The new one is big and eye-catching." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Liushi church is not alone. From Yunnan province in China's balmy southwest to Liaoning in its industrial northeast, congregations are booming and more Chinese are thought to attend Sunday services each week than do Christians across the whole of Europe. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">A recent study found that </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://www.tealeafnation.com/2014/04/infographic-jesus-more-popular-than-mao-on-chinas-twitter/" target="_blank"><strong><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">online searches for the words "Christian Congregation"</span></strong></a></span><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">and "Jesus" far outnumbered those for "The Communist Party" and "Xi Jinping", China's president. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Among China's Protestants are also many millions who worship at illegal underground "house churches", which hold unsupervised services – often in people's homes – in an attempt to evade the prying eyes of the Communist Party. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Such churches are mostly behind China's embryonic missionary movement – a reversal of roles after the country was for centuries the target of foreign missionaries. Now it is starting to send its own missionaries abroad, notably into North Korea, in search of souls. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"We want to help and it is easier for us than for British, South Korean or American missionaries," said one underground church leader in north China who asked not to be named. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The new spread of Christianity has the Communist Party scratching its head. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"The child suddenly grew up and the parents don't know how to deal with the adult," the preacher, who is from China's illegal house-church movement, said. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some officials argue that religious groups can provide social services the government cannot, while simultaneously helping reverse a growing moral crisis in a land where cash, not Communism, has now become king. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">They appear to agree with David Cameron, the British prime minister, </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10770425/David-Cameron-says-Christians-should-be-more-evangelical.html"><strong><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">who said last week that Christianity could help boost Britain's "spiritual, physical and moral" state</span></strong></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ms Shi, Liushi's preacher, who is careful to describe her church as "patriotic", said: "We have two motivations: one is our gospel mission and the other is serving society. Christianity can also play a role in maintaining peace and stability in society. Without God, people can do as they please." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Yet others within China's leadership worry about how the religious landscape might shape its political future, and its possible impact on the Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982 constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal religious activities". </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">As a result, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from what the Party considers acceptable. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Such fears may not be entirely unwarranted. Christians' growing power was on show earlier this month when thousands flocked to defend a church in Wenzhou, a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East", after government threats to demolish it. Faced with the congregation's very public show of resistance, officials appear to have backed away from their plans, </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10745248/Christians-form-human-shield-around-church-in-Chinas-Jerusalem-after-demolition-threat.html"><strong><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;">negotiating a compromise with church leaders</span></strong></a></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"They do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate or accept it because the growth is there," said the church leader. "The number of Christians is growing – they cannot fight it. They do not want the 70 million Christians to be their enemy." </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The underground leader church leader said many government officials viewed religion as "a sickness" that needed curing, and Prof Yang agreed there was a potential threat. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Communist Party was "still not sure if Christianity would become an opposition political force" and feared it could be used by "Western forces to overthrow the Communist political system", he said. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Churches were likely to face an increasingly "intense" struggle over coming decade as the Communist Party sought to stifle Christianity's rise, he predicted. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">"There are people in the government who are trying to control the church. I think they are making the last attempt to do that." ....</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Part Two: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Andrew Bolt’s defence of Cardinal Pell is Daniel-like </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">“Not one witness, nothing.” Bolt said the judge listed “an astonishing number of reasons to doubt Pell’s accuser” including assault dates changing from 1997 to 1996 and the two boys drinking stolen bottles of “a sweet red” wine when Pell actually “used white wine for </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU">health reasons” that had been locked away.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Last night (21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> August 2019) I watched on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sky News</i> TV Andrew Bolt’s seismic reaction to the Melbourne Supreme Court’s rejection of George Cardinal Pell’s appeal of his guilty sentence to child sex offences, and then read about it again this morning (22<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> August) in Bolt’s article, “‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Absurdly high hurdle’ was set for Pell”,</span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-AU">in Sydney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Daily Telegraph. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Bolt’s recounting of certain discrepancies in the details of the case, most notably those concerning year dates and the colour of the wine that the choir boys drank, reminded me of young Daniel’s pointing to glaring contradictions in the case of the convicted Susanna.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Daniel, prefacing his defence with: ‘</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013046"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am innocent of this woman’s blood’ (13:46) - compare Bolt’s being </span><span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">“shocked, just shocked” that someone could be sent to jail if it was remotely possible they had abused someone on “unsupported word” - then proceeded to re-open the case (v. 49): ‘</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Daniel’s methodology was to have the pair of accusing elders separated in order to show up the contradictions (vv. 51-62):</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">.... ‘Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013052"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013051"></a><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013052;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">After they were separated from each other, he called one of them and said: ‘How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term: </span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013053"></a></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013053;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty,</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">although the Lord says, ‘The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.’ <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013054"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together’. </span></span></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013055"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">‘Under a mastic tree’, </span></span></a>he answered. ‘Your fine lie has cost you your head’, said Daniel; ‘for the angel of God has already received the sentence from God and shall split you in two’. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013056"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. ‘Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah’, Daniel said to him, ‘beauty has seduced you, lust has perverted your heart. </span></span></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013057"></a><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your lawlessness. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013058"><span style="color: #f48d1d;">Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together’. </span></a>‘Under an oak’, he said. ‘Your fine lie has cost you also your head’, said Daniel; ‘for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to destroy you both’. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013060"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013059"></a><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013060;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those who hope in him. </span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013061"></a></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013061;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">They rose up against the two old men, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness.</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> They condemned them to the fate they had planned for their neighbor: </span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="34013062"><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">in accordance with the law of Moses they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day. </span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">....</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Here is more from Andrew Bolt: </span></span><a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/he-looks-grim-andrew-bolt-says-the-outvoted-judge-in-george-pells-appeal-focused-on-evidence/news-story/05622a6ae8056a816af7a93f072764cb"><span style="mso-bookmark: 34013046;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1f4e79; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #1F4E79; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/he-looks-grim-andrew-bolt-says-the-outvoted-judge-in-george-pells-appeal-focused-on-evidence/news-story/05622a6ae8056a816af7a93f072764cb</span></span></span></a></div>
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<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #292929; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">Columnist Andrew Bolt has again aired his shock that George Pell has returned to jail based on child abuse claims with “not one witness”.</span></i></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Sarah McPhee</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><a href="https://www.news.com.au/"><span style="color: #0373b3; display: none; text-decoration: none;">news.com.au</span></a><span style="color: #6e6e6e; text-transform: uppercase;">August 21, 2019<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">8:47pm</span></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">'Absurdly high hurdle' was set for Pell: Andrew Bolt</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sky News host Andrew Bolt notes 'there were no tears for Pell' after he lost his appeal against his conviction for abusing two 13-year-old choir boys two decades ago. On Wednesday the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld George Pell's conviction of child sex offences. ....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Andrew Bolt is ‘shocked, just shocked’ that George Pell will remain behind bars after his convictions were upheld by a 2-1 majority judgment in Victoria’s Court of Appeal.<i>....</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Controversial columnist Andrew Bolt said he was shocked and astonished that George Pell will remain behind bars “on someone’s unsupported word”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Opening Wednesday night’s episode of <i>The Bolt Report</i>, the Sky News broadcaster delivered an impassioned response to the earlier day’s events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Victoria’s Court of Appeal upheld Pell’s convictions for child sexual abuse by a 2-1 majority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bolt asked viewers to turn their eyes to Justice Mark Weinberg, who was captured on a live stream from the courtroom as the disgraced cardinal’s appeal was dismissed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Take a look at the judge on the right, sitting there looking grim,” Bolt said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“If you think he looks grim, maybe that’s because he was outvoted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“He does think Pell was jailed unfairly.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pell was convicted in December and later jailed for five charges relating to the rape of a 13-year-old choirboy and sexual assault of another boy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One of Pell’s victims died in 2014 but the other gave evidence at trial.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“Having reviewed the whole of the evidence, two of the judges of the Court of Appeal — Justice (Chris) Maxwell, President of the Court of Appeal and I — have decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offences charged,” Chief Justice Ann Ferguson said, reading from a summary of the judgment.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“Justice Maxwell and I accepted the prosecution submission that the complainant was a very compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Justice Weinberg’s dissenting judgment, however, comprised more than 200 of the 325 pages.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bolt said the judge “instead focused on the evidence” and listed “improbabilities” within the victim’s testimony at length.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“One thing that struck Justice Weinberg very strongly is, he said, that this is a case that depends entirely on the claim of Pell’s accuser being accepted beyond reasonable doubt,” Bolt said.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“Even though this is without there being any independent support for it. Not one witness, nothing.”</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bolt said the judge listed “an astonishing number of reasons to doubt Pell’s accuser” including assault dates changing from 1997 to 1996 and the two boys drinking stolen bottles of “a sweet red” wine when Pell actually “used white wine for health reasons” that had been locked away.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“(Justice) Weinberg repeated there was no independent support for the complainant’s account,” Bolt said. “So, how could you convict a man of that? How?” ....</span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">Whilst George Cardinal Pell is who he is, Susanna and her husband, Joakim, may have biblical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alter egos.</i> See e.g. my series: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/38686545/Well-respected_Mordecai._Part_One_As_Marduka_"><span style="color: blue;">Well-respected Mordecai. Part One: As ‘Marduka’?</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">“And Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. He was a man held in respect among the Jews, esteemed by thousands of his brothers, a man who sought the good of his people and cared for the welfare of his entire race”. Esther... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/23107025/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Two: As Joakim, Husband of Susanna</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: And he took a wife whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, a very beautiful woman, and one that feared God. For her parents being just, had instructed their... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/30510006/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Two_As_Joakim_Husband_of_Susanna_b_A_Euphemism_for_Marriage"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Two: As Joakim, Husband of Susanna (b) A Euphemism for Marriage</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28495858/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Three_Susanna_s_Aged_Accusers"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Three: Susanna’s Aged Accusers</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">According to Rabbinic traditions, the two lustful elders who accused Susanna were the same persons as two wicked judges referred to and named by the prophet Jeremiah (29:21-23).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28516880/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Three_b_Two_old_men_seduced_by_Babylonian_love_goddess"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Three (b): Two old men seduced by Babylonian love goddess</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The German orientalist, Georg Heinrich August Ewald (d. 1875), had thought that the account of the two lustful elders who were infatuated with Susanna must have been inspired by a Babylonian tale involving the goddess of love and two old... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28496258/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Four_Similarities_between_Susanna_and_Esther"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Four: Similarities between Susanna and Esther</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Commentators have picked up some striking likenesses between the story of Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) and the drama surrounding Queen Esther.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28497584/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Five_a_Susanna_and_Esther_identified_as_one"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Five (a): Susanna and Esther identified as one</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Having previously (Part Four) touched briefly upon the similarities between the story of Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) and the drama narrated in the Book of Esther, I take matters a step further here, testing a possible identification... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28517821/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Five_b_Continuing_Susanna_and_Esther_identification"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Five (b): Continuing Susanna and Esther identification</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Susanna, living as she did during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, would seem to have been far too early for her - according to conventional estimations - to be identifiable as Queen Esther, supposedly living deeply into Persian... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28585083/Well-Respected_Mordecai._Part_Five_c_The_Names_Susanna_Hadassah_and_Esther"><span style="color: blue;">Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Five (c): The Names, Susanna, Hadassah and Esther</span></a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">My conclusion in this series has been that the Susanna in Daniel became Queen Esther. But this conclusion now presents us with three names: Susanna, Hadassah and Esther, since, as we are informed (Esther 2:7): “… Hadassah … was also... <a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=damien+f.+mackey+well-respected+mordecai"><span style="color: blue;">more</span></a></span></div>
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AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-7521541812017931112019-07-25T16:46:00.002-07:002019-07-25T16:48:17.490-07:00Book of Daniel may identify Darius the Mede by chiasmus<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><em> </em><a href="https://bookofdanielamaic.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/723f9-untitled.png"><img alt="" border="0" height="412" src="https://bookofdanielamaic.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/723f9-untitled.png?w=400&h=258" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">by</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Through
chiasmus, once again, it may tell us exactly who [Darius the Mede] </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">was by
mirroring him with his <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">alter ego</span></b> monarch of a different
name”.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></strong></span></i></b></div>
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<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU">This article has a parallel in
my:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14pt;">Toledôt Explains Abram's Pharaoh</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/26239534/Toled%C3%B4t_Explains_Abrams_Pharaoh"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.academia.edu/26239534/Toled%C3%B4t_Explains_Abrams_Pharaoh</span></a></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">{Toledôt and chiasmus, the keys to the
structure of the Book of Genesis, </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">may lead us to a real name for this “Pharaoh”.}</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 46.3pt 0pt 0.5in; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">In that article I was been able,
with the benefit of the <i>toledôt</i> and <i>chiastic</i> structures of the
Abrahamic histories, written (or owned) by Ishmael and Isaac,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #222222;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #222222;">“These are the
generations of Ishmael ...” (Genesis 25:12).</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #222222;">“These are the
generations of Isaac ...” (Genesis 25:19).</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 37.3pt 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 37.3pt 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-AU">(a)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">to show that the two accounts of the
abduction of Sarai/Sarah actually referred to just the one single incident, not
two; and that</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 37.3pt 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-AU">(b)</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">he who is called “pharaoh” in the first account (Ishmael’s)
was the same as the “Abimelech” referred to in the second account (Isaac’s). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Thus the Bible does apparently name
Abram’s Pharaoh!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Now Ishmael, whose mother was
Egyptian, writes his account from an Egyptian perspective; whereas Isaac, who
dwelt in Palestine, writes from a more northerly perspective. This difference
in perspective, yielding two rather different accounts of just the one
incident, if not appreciated by commentators, can lead them to conclude, but
wrongly, that these were two quite separate abductions (thereby increasing the
pain for Sarah). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">But, when the Abrahamic
narratives are subjected to chiasmus, then it is found that “pharaoh” is
perfectly mirrored by “Abimelech”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The Bible, therefore, appears to
be providing us with a key identification.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Although it does need to be
noted that two names that intersect in a chiastic structure do not necessarily
always identify each one named as being the same person.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Now to Darius the Mede.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Perhaps more important for
commentators is the fact that the Book of Daniel provides the very same service
in the case of the very enigmatic, but key, Darius the Mede. Through chiasmus,
once again, it may tell us who he was by mirroring him with his <i>alter ego</i>
monarch of a different name. See James B. Jordan’s brilliant chiastic
structuring of Daniel 6 on p. 314 of</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt;">The Handwriting
on the Wall</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=l25D1d4ub_0C&pg=PA314&lpg=PA314&dq=chiastic+structure+of+the+book+of+daniel+darius+and+cyrus"><span style="color: blue;">http://books.google.com.au/books?id=l25D1d4ub_0C&pg=PA314&lpg=PA314&dq=chiastic+structure+of+the+book+of+daniel+darius+and+cyrus</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0.75pt;"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Hence, as many have suspected
(e.g. George R. Law, <i>Identification of Darius The Mede:</i> </span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://readyscribepress.com/home_files/DtM-Daniel_5_30-31.pdf"><span style="color: #0070c0;">http://readyscribepress.com/home_files/DtM-Daniel_5_30-31.pdf</span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #0070c0;">.</span><span lang="EN-AU">), Darius the Mede is the same
as Cyrus the Persian. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The Bible seems to point it out
for us.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Now, the Apocrypha provides a
further confirmation of this identification with another account of Daniel in
the lions’ den. Here Darius the Mede is presented as Cyrus. This again, like
with the abduction of Sarai/Sarah, is a case of the same story being told by
two different authors, quite differently. But it is nevertheless about the one
same incident. All of the main protagonists are there in both accounts.
Biblical scholars ought easily to be able to reconcile the two with sufficient
care and attention to detail.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Just as God would assure that
his beloved Sarah was never going to be abducted twice, so would he assure that
his beloved Daniel had only once to endure the den of lions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-29675673690417345752019-07-24T17:21:00.000-07:002019-07-25T16:47:02.664-07:00King Cyrus favoured as ‘Darius the Mede’<br />
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<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a class="image image-thumbnail" href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/civilization/images/e/ea/Darius_I_%28Civ5%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151118212036"><img alt="Darius I (Civ5)" class="thumbimage " data-image-key="Darius_I_%28Civ5%29.jpg" data-image-name="Darius I (Civ5).jpg" height="360" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/civilization/images/e/ea/Darius_I_%28Civ5%29.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20151118212036" width="640" /></a><br />
</span></span><figcaption><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 128;"><a class="sprite info-icon" href="https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/File:Darius_I_(Civ5).jpg"></a> <div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 20pt;">by</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></span></span></figcaption><br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 20pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">“The author might be using
the approximate age of Darius, sixty-two (62), </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">to emphasize the prophecy of
the seventy weeks determined</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">upon Israel and Jerusalem
(Dan 9:24).</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">This prophecy of the seventy
(70) weeks is divided into three segments: </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">seven (7) weeks + sixty-two
(62) weeks + one (1) week (Dan 9:25-26)”.</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">George R. Law</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">By now I have concluded in various articles that the enigmatic biblical
king, ‘Darius the Mede’ (e.g. Daniel 5:31), was likely the same as King Cyrus ‘the
Great’.</span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">One of these articles involved my connecting, as just the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> incident, both the prophet Daniel in
the den of lions at the time of Darius (Daniel 6), and Daniel’s ordeal in the
den of lions in the time of Cyrus, as narrated in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bel and the Dragon.</i> And so I asked: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14pt;">Was Daniel Twice in the Lions' Den</span>?</b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/24308877/Was_Daniel_Twice_in_the_Lions_Den"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.academia.edu/24308877/Was_Daniel_Twice_in_the_Lions_Den</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">and I concluded that, no he wasn’t – and that Darius must be Cyrus. </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">George R. Law is another who has come to the conclusion that Darius the
Mede was Cyrus, though using different means. In his 2010 article, “Identification
of Darius the Mede” (p. 9), </span></strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Law
surprisingly suggests a link between the age of Darius, 62 years, and the 62 weeks
of the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">God’s decree took
the kingdom from Belshazzar and gave it to Darius the Mede, who actively received
the kingdom.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">In the introduction
of Darius the Mede, there is an incidental hint, the approximate sixty-two-year-old
age of Darius. The identification method employed in chapter four of this dissertation
shows the value of knowing someone’s age and using it as an identifying mark.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The matching
of the age of Cyrus the Great with the age of Darius the Mede was a significant
qualifying characteristic which helped to identify Cyrus as Darius the Mede, but
there might be another reason why the author provided this hint.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">This number, which
is otherwise extraneous information, is specific to three things in</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">the book of Daniel:
1) Darius, 2) Cyrus, and 3) the prophecy of the weeks. The author might be using
the approximate age of Darius, sixty-two (62), to emphasize the prophecy of the
seventy weeks determined upon Israel and Jerusalem (Dan 9:24).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">This prophecy of
the seventy (70) weeks is divided into three segments: seven (7) weeks + sixty-two
(62) weeks + one (1) week (Dan 9:25-26). Cyrus, the 62-year-old conqueror, gave
the commandment granting the Jews permission to return to the land and to
rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. In Daniel 9:25, after a commandment is given
to initiate the restoration of Jerusalem and its temple, and after the
conclusion of the prophesied 62 weeks, that temple, which Cyrus commanded to
rebuild, is to be destroyed. The link between the 62-year-old Darius the Mede and
the 62-year-old Cyrus the Great reinforces this prophecy concerning the 62
weeks which is to pass before the new Temple will be destroyed. ….</span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-AU">[End
of quote]</span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" style="margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Whilst I think that George
R. Law has rightly concluded that Darius the Mede is to be identified with
Cyrus, his suggested connections here seem to me to be rather tenuous.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Good luck to anyone
hoping to identify the biological age of Cyrus in the present state of knowledge
of Medo-Persian history.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">And, do 62 weeks
really separate the beginning of the reign of Cyrus from the destruction of the
new Temple?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #1f4e79; font-weight: normal;"> </span></strong></div>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-16930502070094185392019-07-22T17:50:00.000-07:002019-07-22T17:51:12.653-07:00Queen Esther reverses Jezebel<br />
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<span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><img alt="Overcoming The Spirit of Jezebel | TruthSeekah & Michael Basham" height="360" src="https://www.truthseekah.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Overcoming-Spirit-Jezebel.jpg" width="640" /><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><em>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“[Esther]
is fully visible, unlike Jezebel, but her intentions are concealed from the
beholder. Esther is also beautiful, a familiar attribute of matriarchs in the [Hebrew
Bible]. …. </span></i></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jezebel
lacks a face and a figure, as though she is made of an evil spirit alone”.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Helena Zlotnick</span></i></b></div>
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
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<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in -3.2pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At: </span></strong><strong><u><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: orange;"><a href="http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Zlotnick.htm"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: blue;">http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Zlotnick.htm</span></span></a></span></u></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> we </span></strong><span lang="EN-AU">read this intriguing contrast and
comparison, by Helena Zlotnick (2001), of two famous biblical queens, Jezebel
and Esther:</span></div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"></span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</div>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in; width: 50%;" width="50%"><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 10pt;">Helena ZLOTNICK</span></strong></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0in; width: 50%;" width="50%"><div align="right" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;">
<em><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 10pt;">Biblica</span></b></em><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 10pt;"> 82 (2001) 477-495</span></strong></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">From Jezebel
to Esther:<br />
Fashioning Images of Queenship in the Hebrew Bible</span></b><br />
<strong><br /></strong><br />
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">…. At the heart of this study stands the
hypothesis that the story of Esther and Ahasuerus must be read as a
rehabilitative narrative of the tale of Jezebel and Ahab. To be exact, the
narrative of Esther, if read sensibly and sensitively, bears unmistakable
allusions to that of Jezebel. Both share an ideological kinship that aspires to
define the desired characteristics and behavior of Israelite/Jewish queens.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">An investigation into the use of Jezebel as a
shadowy foil to Esther highlights biblical (redactional) ideas regarding
queenly images, queenly spheres of influence and the molding of
‘Israelite’/Jewish queens …. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I. The Royal Wife:
Queens as Protagonists</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Jezebel is remembered, above all, for her role in
the famed episode of the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kgs 21) …. The story begins with
direct negotiations between two men, a king and his subject, Ahab and Naboth,
over the legal acquisition of a plot of land adjacent to a royal residence. The
exchange is terminated with Naboth’s insistence on the inalienable character of
his property. His refusal to comply with the king’s desire leaves Ahab with two
options: he can abandon his rosy visions of a palatial garden (21,2) or he can
exert his authority to prevail, by hook and by crook, over the scruples and the
objections of Naboth. The king chooses neither. Returning home from his
unprofitable dialogue with Naboth he retires to his bedchamber in a foul mood
and plunges into a fast ….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As the scene shifts from the outside with its
vineyards and hypothetical gardens to the royal bedroom the queen enters the
picture. Her ‘credentials’ had already been established. Readers had been
familiarized with this Sidonian princess as the moving spirit behind her
husband’s devotion to the Baal (16,31), and as the mortal enemy of YHWH’s
prophets (18,4.13)…. The fact that Ahab’s marriage with her also signaled the
acceptance of the Omrides by their neighbors was deemed irrelevant by the
biblical redactor. Yet, with the exception of Solomon, only Ahab achieved the
kind of ‘international’ status that made him a desirable match in the eyes of
neighboring kings.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Jezebel’s intrusion into Ahab’s self-imposed
solitude re-enacts the tale of the vineyard verbally and in the intimacy of the
royal bedroom. Within this familial context Jezebel emerges as the king’s
solicitous spouse rather than as a bearer of idolatry. Her question, ‘What is
the matter with you and why are you not eating’ (1 Kgs 21,5), supports this
image. Ahab replies with a distorted version of the words exchanged with
Naboth. According to his presentation Naboth was guilty of obstinacy if not of
disobedience through an unreasonable refusal of complying with the king’s
seemingly reasonable request.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">On the surface, this brief and rare glimpse into
a royal marriage reveals a model of spousal relations and an inordinate degree
of marital harmony and trust …. Ahab admits his weakness to a sympathetic wife
expecting, presumably, support and understanding. She expresses perhaps
indignation perhaps surprise and promises the fulfillment of his desires. He
refrains from probing her promise. Even before this bedroom snapshot the text
refers to the couple’s closeness and her status, in spite of Ahab’s other
wives. He shares with her not only her gods but also information about the
management of the kingdom, including the difficulties attendant on the
maintenance of correct relations with YHWH’s prophet, Elijah (1 Kgs 19,1). She
issues a death threat to Elijah that effectively undermines Ahab’s conciliatory
politics and demonstrates her standing at the court.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">How extraordinary was the association of an
‘Israelite’ queen, even of foreign descent, with unlimited accessibility to the
king can be fully appreciated through the fashioning of royal intimacy in the
scroll of Esther …. Only three royal couples in the … [Hebrew Bible], Jezebel
and Ahab, Esther and Ahasuerus, David and Bathsheba, are seen, or rather heard
in direct verbal communication. But the nature of Bathsheba’s intercession is
dictated by motherly and not by wifely concerns. Her appearance in the king’s
bedroom, where another woman had been occupying the king’s bed, is carefully
orchestrated by a prophet. She is neither Jezebel nor Esther.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Like Jezebel, Esther is one of many royal
consorts. Unlike Jezebel, when Esther approaches her royal husband she is not
only afraid of the consequences of appearing without summons but she also
behaves as a humble petitioner rather than a royal consort (Esth 4,11). Even in
the privacy of her own rooms Esther has to tread carefully. After obtaining
permission to stage a private banquet for the king and a favorite minister
(Haman) she dares not bring up her grievance before plying Ahasuerus with
drinks (Esth 7,1.2.7). And even then she waits till Ahasuerus seeks
enlightenment regarding the identity of the author of the anti-Jewish measures in
his kingdom.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When Esther exposes Haman Ahasuerus, like Ahab,
retires in anger not to his bedroom but rather to an adjacent garden. That the
scroll conjures up for the king’s inflamed spirit the exact same soothing
landscape that Ahab had desired to create out of Naboth’s vineyard seems hardly
a coincidence. Ahasuerus’ brief stroll in the queen’s garden is staged as a
prelude to the climax of the plot and marks the end of Haman’s career. Ahab’s
urge to enlarge the palace’s garden sets in motion a series of crimes and
signals the demise of his dynasty.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Both the Dtr historian (= the redactor of 1 Kgs
21) and the author of the scroll cloth with mockery the marriages they
delineate. The former casts the king’s bedroom as a launching pad for queenly
crimes; the latter places the queen in bed with her enemy rather than with her
lawful consort. In both narratives communications between king and queen,
although direct, are marked by evasions and half-truths. Ahab and Jezebel
communicate through deceptions. He provides an edited version of his dealings
with Naboth while she avoids further delving into both his statements and her
own strategies. Esther hides her true identity from Ahasuerus when she joins
the harem. She also conceals her true intention from him when she solicits
permission to hold a private banquet for Haman. If Ahasuerus believed his
beautiful wife, a rather doubtful proposition, he elected to humor her by
pretending ignorance.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">An interplay between the words and the actions
of the protagonists further reveals parallels between the tales of Jezebel and
Esther. Jezebel reminds Ahab of his royal status only to undermine her own
assertion by assuming kingly power. Mordechai, ostensibly a caring relative,
reminds Esther of her position at the court solely to prompt her to use it in
spite of danger to her life in obeying his order. Neither Ahab nor Esther, of
course, requires the admonition. But the reminders also imply an admission of
Mordechai’s own helplessness and of Ahab’s inability to deal with the
situation. As the action shifts into the hands of the two queens the scroll is
still careful to entrust the initial urging into the hands of a male relative,
thereby ‘correcting’ the Dtr history that had cast Jezebel as the prompter and
the actor.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">A choice of seminal gestures and phrases in the
scroll’s description of critical preliminaries appears to recall, somewhat
perversely but accurately, the earlier narrative. When Esther hears that
Mordechai has been seen donning mourning clothes at the gate of the palace she
orders an inquiry into this seemingly inexplicable and apparently inexcusable
public display (Esth 4,1-5). Jezebel addresses her grief-stricken and fasting
spouse in a similar mode, likewise implying that his behavior is uncalled for.
At the heart of the familial encounters on the eve of a crisis are two
difficult phrases that emphasize the addressee’s status. ‘Who knows? Perhaps
you have attained royalty for just such a time as this?’ (Esth 4,14) …. Jezebel
addresses Ahab with a similarly pregnant question: ‘Do you now govern Israel?’
(1 Kgs 21,7). In both instances a rhetoric of timeliness is intended to spur
the protagonists to action. Mordechai succeeds in coercing Esther to act;
Jezebel becomes an actor rather than a prompter.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Structurally, the later narrative also encodes
the making of Esther as a queen in a sequence that echoes Jezebel’s queenly
progress. In the wake of the fateful exchange between Esther and Mordechai
Esther, like Jezebel after her interchange with Ahab, appropriates control over
the course of events. She issues an order to summon the Jews of Susa for a
three-day fast (Esth 4,16). In the reconstructed order of events in 1 Kgs 21
Jezebel acts along precisely the same lines: she summons the council of the
elders in Naboth’s town and calls for a fast (21,9). In both cases the queen
effectively transfers the gestures (fasting; mourning) that launch fatal
encounters between kin (Ahab/Jezebel; Mordechai/Esther) to a wider circle of
the public, thereby opening the door to an outbreak or a resolution of a
crisis. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Lest, however, these close analogies inspire
unwary readers with either sympathy towards Jezebel or hostility to Esther, the
latter narrator carefully parts the ways of the two queens. Jezebel disappears,
physically, from subsequent proceedings. Her invisible presence, however, is
constantly referred to in the text. By contrast, Esther appears in all her
regal splendor in the inner palace court as she implements the first part of
her plan to save the Jews from extinction. She is fully visible, unlike
Jezebel, but her intentions are concealed from the beholder. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Esther is also beautiful, a familiar attribute
of matriarchs in the … [Hebrew Bible]. Jezebel lacks a face and a figure, as
though she is made of an evil spirit alone. Moreover, readers are aware of
Jezebel’s aim from the start as she sets out to fulfil her husband’s wish. Her
method of achieving it soon becomes apparent. In the scroll neither husband nor
its readers are familiarized with Esther’s schemes to deliver her promise.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Esther is not only Jewish but a woman with
impeccable royal (Jewish) blood in her veins. Jezebel is constantly branded a
foreigner in a manner that reflects not only her ethnicity but also her
proclivities…. In the redactional history of the Hebrew Bible the Deuteronomist
antipathy to foreigners, and particularly to foreign queens, has been
associated with a deep-seated fear of idolatry through contamination. …. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The scroll depicts the decree of Ahasuerus-Haman
ordering the elimination of the Jews as a writ of national emergency. The clash
between Ahab and Naboth appears, at first, as carrying little import beyond the
king’s petty desire to expand to plant vegetables. Yet behind the issue of the
vineyard versus royal garden lurks the larger question of the legitimate scope
of monarchical actions <i>vis-à-vis</i> the king’s subjects. ….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Underlying Jezebel’s assumption of royal
authority in the case of Naboth is the pitting of her patron-god, the Baal,
with the national Israelite divinity, YHWH. Within this context the queen’s
uncompromising loyalty to her husband, in itself a commendable wifely trait, is
completely obscured. Esther is not even expected to display spousal loyalty to
her royal husband but rather a commitment to her own community of origin. Her
dilemma as a wife and a queen is staged as a predicament of the Jewish people
as a whole. Ahab’s reflects the king’s own pettiness.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In the name of Ahab Jezebel communicates the king’s
alleged commands to the local authorities in Naboth’s hometown. The redacted
story does not explain whether she had been empowered to do so. It implies that
she abused, rather than used the king’s implicit trust in her. …. In the scroll
of Esther not a single person, wife or otherwise, is allowed to issue royal
commands without the king’s explicit seal of approval. Jezebel acts on her own
initiative and without the prompting of a male relative. In her eyes she is
embarking on a just vindication of the injured royal dignity.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The theme of writing on behalf of the king, with
or without explicit permission, and of using the royal seal to convey the legality
of the message dominates both the Jezebel and the Esther accounts. …. 1 Kgs
21,8 depicts Jezebel as writing a royal letter to Naboth’s peers by herself but
in Ahab’s name, and using his seal. She is thus engaged in a pursuit that is
not only unacceptable when undertaken by men without duly conferred authority
but is the height of impropriety when practiced by a woman. Yet, according to 1
Kgs 21,9 the letter merely contained a call for a local fast although the
redacted sequence of the events strongly suggests that it also contained
instructions regarding the staging of the whole affair.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Esther’s sojourn at the court is marked from the
very start by directions incorporated in written commands. She is joined to the
harem upon the publication and dissemination of a royal order to gather
beauties from all over the kingdom (Esth 2,8). Ahasuerus endorses Haman’s
request to eliminate the Jews with his own seal (= ring) (Esth 3,10) and the
royal scribes articulate the command in a series of letters that they
distribute (Esth 3,12-13). The fact that such orders had been issued in the
name of the king and not of his minister is tacitly ignored by Esther when she
pleads in front of Ahasuerus (Esth 7,4-6). The king’s implicit or explicit
permission is precisely the aspect that the redactor of the Naboth affair never
lets the readers forget when he insists on the concealed authorship of Jezebel.
Finally, to illustrate the changing fortunes of Haman, Ahasuerus allows Esther
and Mordechai to issue in his name and with his seal commands relating to the
fate of their enemies (Esth 8,8). According to the scroll’s redactor, such
royal orders, albeit not a royal initiative, nevertheless possess full legal
validity and are irreversible (Esth 8,8).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Casting Jezebel as a usurper of the king’s
authority through stealth reflects both the real limits of queenly power and
the redactor’s own biases. To rehabilitate this queenly image the scroll
carefully invests Esther with direct royal authority to issue empire-wide
commands in the king’s name.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Without, evidently, Ahab’s knowledge or
permission Jezebel bids the leading men in Naboth’s town to announce a public
fast and to appoint Naboth to head this solemn occasion. No reason is given to
account for the fast, nor is objection offered. …. Perhaps the drought that had
marked Ahab’s reign provided the pretext. Unlike Naboth, his peers obey the
royal desire without demure or protest. …. The fast, as in other biblical
narratives, serves as a preliminary to a critical public occasion. In Neh 9,1 a
fast precedes the ceremony of the renewal of the ancient covenant between YHWH
and the exilic community in Yehud. In 1 Kgs 21 the fast is concluded with a
judicial murder that signals the demise of the Omride dynasty. Throughout
Persia the news of the decree ordering the execution of the Jews prompts a
general fast (Esth 4,4). Like Jezebel, Esther calls for a fast as she prepares
herself for what can become a fatal encounter with the king (Esth 4,16). ….</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 19.3pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-34082748258465603642019-07-22T17:07:00.001-07:002019-07-22T17:08:20.545-07:00Queen Vashti as a type of Eve<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><img height="429" src="https://thesongofsongsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/fabbi-fabbio-wedding-procession.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;">Nebuchednezzar’s
‘grandson’,</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;">‘Ahasuerus’ and
queen Vashti</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Part Two: </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Queen
Vashti as a type of Eve</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“A
feast is something happy, joyous, and pleasurable. The feast that King
Ahasuerus made was also happy, peaceful, joyous, and pleasurable. However,
there is one person who ruined the whole atmosphere of the feast and should not
be there, and that was Queen Vashti”.</span></i></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">goodnews.or</span></i></b></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in -3.2pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At: </span></strong><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://www.goodnews.or.kr/en/goodnews/0908/iron.htm"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.goodnews.or.kr/en/goodnews/0908/iron.htm</span></a>
we read this entirely unfavourable assessment of Queen Vashti as a killjoy, in
line with Eve in the Garden of Eden:</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There was someone who
should not be at the feast, and that was Queen Vashti. She ruined all of the
happiness and joy of the feast. She completely stopped it. This story about
Vashti talks about the heart that trusts oneself. If anything like Vashti’s
heart is within our hearts, our hearts cannot flow together with happiness and
joy from the feast.</span></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<strong>ONE WHO
IS ALREADY DEAD</strong> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
The Bible
states that through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world and death through
sin. Although God said to Adam, “Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die,”
Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
as they became disconnected with God, they became connected with Satan. The
Bible is telling us that this condition of being connected with Satan is “You
shall surely die,” meaning death.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
When a hornet lays its eggs, it first stings a poisonous spider, and as soon as
the spider becomes unconscious, it puts its eggs into the spider. A few days
later, the eggs inside the poisonous spider hatch and eat the spider’s body,
and they fly away. When the poisonous spider has the hornet’s eggs inside, it
seems like it is alive but is already dead. When God looks at us at the moment
we connect with Satan, He sees us as already dead. In the God’s eyes, when Adam
ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the whole of
mankind is dead. The Bible precisely says that a person called, “I” is already
dead if I am connected with Satan.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
Because people don’t know that they are already dead, they continue to make
determinations and resolutions, thinking, “I should not rob. I should not
commit adultery. I should quit smoking. I should stop drinking.” At first, it
seems like it is working, but a few days later, they see that they are drinking
and smoking again. Although they say to themselves, “I shouldn’t be doing
this,” they are led and defeated by temptation. Nevertheless, people again
believe themselves and live their lives always making new determinations.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<br />
There is one thing that people do not know clearly. They are being deceived by
themselves. It is as if they are deceived by a swindler. They are deceived by
themselves by such thoughts, “If I decide not to commit adultery, then I could.
If I am determined not to rob, then I would not. I can quit smoking. I can stop
drinking.” Since I am a swindler and am already connected with Satan, I am not
someone who is worthy to be trusted. Just as swindlers deceive people however,
human beings always deceive themselves. It is because they do not know that
they are already dead.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">VASHTI, WHO IS ABANDONED</span></strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">In the book of Esther chapter 1, we can ascertain a
heartbreaking fact. King Ahasuerus made a feast: The first 180 days were for
all his princes and servants, and the next 7 days were for all the people who
were present in Shushan the citadel. A feast is something happy, joyous, and
pleasurable. The feast that King Ahasuerus made was also happy, peaceful,
joyous, and pleasurable. However, there is one person who ruined the whole
atmosphere of the feast and should not be there, and that was Queen Vashti. She
ruined all of the happiness and joy of the feast. She has completely ended it.
The story of Vashti talks about the heart that trusts oneself. If anything like
Vashti’s heart is within our hearts, our hearts cannot flow together with
happiness and joy when there is happiness through a feast.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
King Ahasuerus had sent several eunuchs to invite Queen Vashti to his feast,
but she refused to come. At that time, the king asked the wise men, who
understood the law and judgment, and they, who had access of his presence, told
him that she should be dethroned. We can see through the Bible that Vashti is a
queen who has already been seen to be inadequate in the eyes of the wise men. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Additionally, Vashti had also been making a feast for
the women, but not one of them tries to save her from being abandoned. Looking
at this, we can easily discern what kind of life Vashti lived daily.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
Because Vashti believed in herself, she despised others. She could not
understand others’ hearts, and she did not have eyes to see others being hurt.
Believing herself is what made Vashti lose happiness, joy, pleasure, and
freedom. In Proverbs chapter 28, verse 26, it says, He that trusteth in his own
heart is a fool: . . . In Jeremiah chapter 17, it says, The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked: . . . Trusting oneself is so foolish,
and because of that trust in oneself, happiness and dreams all vanish.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">WHEN THE HEART TO TRUST IN ONESELF IS IMPLANTED </span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">As the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 lived in his
father’s house, he did one or two things well due to his father’s shadow. Satan
has used that as bait to implant in his heart trust in himself. When this heart
of trusting himself has taken root, this heart made the younger son to walk the
prodigal path. Satan is still working until now to do the same thing in our
hearts.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
A professional gambler has a way to get money from the people from the
countryside. They first approach farmers to gamble, and they lose to them on
purpose. Then, the heart “I can gamble well,” forms in the farmers’ hearts, and
as the gamblers lose a couple more times, they think, “I guess I am pretty
good.” When the gamblers lose to them a little more, then they think, “I can
gamble at a gambling house. I can gamble with anyone and still earn some
money!” The heart of completely trusting themselves is established in their
hearts. This is when the professional gamblers start to earn money from them,
and because the farmers cannot forsake the heart that they are good, they will
gamble until they lose all of their possessions. As a result, the happiness of
their family comes to an end, and the misery of their wives and children in the
streets comes to reality.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
Just like the professional gamblers, if Satan implants the heart into people,
“You are gentle,” then they think that they are gentle. If Satan implants in
them the thought that they are doing well, then they think that they are the
people who can do well. It is not hard at all for Satan to implant the heart to
trust themselves. When Satan had given that heart to the prodigal son, he
thought, “I guess I am really good.” Everything was due to the grace of the
father while he lived under the father’s shadow, but because there were some
things he had done well, he felt sure that he was a good person. That was why
he was able to request his portion.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">“Father, give me my portion of goods! I want to earn
as much as you have now!” </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
The prodigal son had confidently left his father. As the heart of trusting
himself had formed due to some things he had done well, he gave pain and sorrow
to the people around him.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
“You are decent. You are good.” Once such hearts that Satan gives come into
someone’s hearts, he lives his life without feeling the pain although many
people are hurt and feel painful because of him. It is because the heart that
he is doing well and is decent grasps him. He lives being held with the heart
that Satan gave him. This is a truly scary thing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">PUTTING DOWN THE HEART TO TRUST IN MYSELF</span></strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Vashti in the book of Esther is the shadow of a person
who trusts in himself. Trusting in myself gives everybody pain and suffering.
When the prodigal son returned home and the first son was angry for the feast
made for the younger son, the father entreats him saying, “Let’s go home. Let’s
eat and be merry for your younger brother has returned alive.” Nevertheless,
the first son did not want to go in. The wedding feast of the king in Matthew
chapter 22 is very beautiful, but anyone who trusts in himself could not
partake in the feast. He could not be together with the happiness and joy that
flowed in the feast. People had refused to come to the wedding feast, although
the king had invited them. It would be joyous and happy to be at the feast, but
everyone had refused. Why is that? It was because they were all great. They
trusted themselves. Whosoever departs from the heart of trusting himself can be
happy and joyful as they participate at the feast and enjoy all the happiness
there.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br />
But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his
chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.
(Esther 1:12)<br />
If anyone has the heart to trust in himself as Vashti, then he cannot be loved
by anyone. He cannot obtain favor in anyone’s sight. However, when he departs
from trusting himself, then this person can receive the grace of God. When the
heart of being for myself, which devours happiness and dreams, and the heart of
trusting myself is put down, when he has Jesus in his heart and is guided by
that heart, then the blessing of God will be upon this man, and he will glorify
God. ….</span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">[End of quote]</span></div>
<div align="right" style="margin: 0in 19.45pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24pt;">Matthew 22:1-14 <b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 24pt;">The
Wedding Banquet</span></b></span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://thesongofsongsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/fabbi-fabbio-wedding-procession.jpg"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a></span><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">1 And again Jesus spoke to them in
parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who
gave a marriage feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those
who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. 4 Again
he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have
made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is
ready; come to the marriage feast.’ 5 But they made light of it and went
off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized
his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was
angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their
city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those
invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite
to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went
out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so
the wedding hall was filled with guests. ….</span></i></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-45706877500573739362019-07-22T16:34:00.002-07:002019-07-22T16:35:49.584-07:00Nebuchednezzar’s ‘grandson’, ‘Ahasuerus’ and queen Vashti<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <img alt="" class="lazy-loaded" height="360" scale="0" src="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Normand_Ernest_-_Queen_Vashti_deposed_-_1890.jpg" width="640" /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1d2936; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">by</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">‘Now
I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">king
of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> All nations </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">will
serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">then
many nations and great kings will subjugate him’.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jeremiah 27:6-7</span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Daniel 5 provides us with a straightforward sequence of kings for the
Chaldean to early Medo-Persian eras. These are: 1. </span></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Nebuchednezzar,</span></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> 2. his son </span></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Belshazzar,</span></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> and 3. </span></strong><strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext;">Darius
the Mede. </span></strong></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<strong><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Thus the prophet Daniel proclaims to Belshazzar (5:18): ‘</span></strong><span lang="EN-AU">O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar
thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour …’. And later we read (vv.
30-31): “</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In that night was
Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. </span><span style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And Darius the Median took
the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old”.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">That
King Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’ indeed had a son named Belshazzar is further
attested by Baruch 1:12: ‘</span><span lang="EN-AU">The Lord
will give us strength, and light to our eyes; we shall live under the
protection of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and under the protection of his
son Belshazzar, and we shall serve them many days and find favor in their
sight’.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Nebuchednezzar and his evil son Belshazzar (Daniel
5) find a parallel in my revision with: Nabonidus and his (known) son
Belshazzar.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">According to this revision, Nebuchednezzar =
Nabonidus, and Evil-merodach (known son and successor of Nebuchednezzar) =
Belshazzar (of Baruch, of Daniel, and son of Nabonidus). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">And so we have this clear sequence:</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: decimal;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Nebuchednezzar (= Nabonidus), his son</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Belshazzar (= Evil-merodach),</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Darius the Mede.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU">The enigmatic Darius the Mede I also consider to
have been both Cyrus ‘the Great’ and the ‘King Ahasuerus’ of the Book of
Esther.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xerxes_by_Ernest_Normand.jpg"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a></span><br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">But now a seeming complication
arises. The prophet Jeremiah adds to Nebuchednezzar’s lineage a ‘grandson’: “All
nations will serve him and his son and his grandson …”.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Was Darius (= Cyrus = ‘Ahasuerus’)
actually a ‘grandson’ (</span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">בֶּן-בְּנוֹ</span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">) of Nebuchednezzar’s? </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In a sense, yes he was, if Jewish
tradition is right here. For the (presumably young) wife of the 60+ year old
king ‘Ahasuerus’ is alleged to have been the daughter of Belshazzar. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Vashti was born to Babylonian royalty. Her grandfather
was Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and driven
the Jews into exile. Her father was Belshazzar, the last in a line of great
Babylonian kings whose dramatic death is described in the Book of Daniel”.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">This we read in an article by
Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller, entitled “The Villainy of Vashti” (2003): </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.aish.com/h/pur/t/dt/48951881.html"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.aish.com/h/pur/t/dt/48951881.html</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><br />
<hr align="center" size="1" width="100%" />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As the story of Purim in
the Book of Esther begins, King Achashverosh [Ahasuerus] of Persia is holding a
banquet.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the seventh day of the
festivities, the king summons Queen Vashti so that the ministers and guests can
admire her beauty. He commands that she come wearing only the royal crown.
Queen Vashti refuses and is executed.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The job vacancy brings
Esther to the palace where she is in position to save the Jewish people when
chief minister Haman hatches his plot for their total annihilation.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vashti, whose refusal to
obey the king sets the action in motion, is an interesting character in this
drama. In fact, in the first analysis she seems like a heroine -- a woman who
had too much dignity to be paraded naked before a drunken horde. There is only
one problem. Heroism is not determined from the outside in, but rather from the
inside out. From that perspective, Vashti, as we shall see, was a villain.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Judaism defines heroism
as an act of overcoming an obstacle that stands in the way of a spiritual
objective. Such obstacles are placed before all of us by God, but the level of
sacrifice demanded to overcome each such obstacle can vary widely. In the case
of one person, genuine heroism may go as far as sacrificing one's life for the
sake of another. For another person, genuine heroism may mean sacrificing ego
or pride.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Therefore, our question
when assessing Vashti's heroism or villainy is: what was she reaching towards
and what stood in the way of her achieving that goal?</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order for us to draw
conclusions, let us expand our picture of her.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">WHO WAS VASHTI?</span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vashti was born to
Babylonian royalty. Her grandfather was Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed
Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and driven the Jews into exile. Her father was
Belshazzar, the last in a line of great Babylonian kings whose dramatic death
is described in the Book of Daniel.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Belshazzar threw a party
and commanded that revelers drink from the holy vessels of the Temple and then
praise "the gods of gold and silver..."</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At that moment, a large
unattached finger appeared and started to write on the wall: "God has
numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end ... your kingdom has
been divided and given to the Medes and Persians." That very night
invading [hordes] of Persians and Medes attacked; Vashti was the only survivor.
But the spirit of conquest that had doomed her father lived on intact within
her.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We learn more about her
from the Talmud (in Megillah 12). It tells us Vashti would have Jewish women
brought before her, force them to undress and coerce them into working for her
on Shabbat. The Talmud then asks why did she refuse to come before Achashverosh
(not being known as a modest woman)? The Talmud gives two answers: 1) because
tzaraat (a skin ailment resembling leprosy) erupted on her body; or 2) because
she had grown a tail.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If an aggadic statement
in the Talmud doesn't make sense literally, the approach that we are meant to
take, according to the Maharal, is to try to grasp the underlying meaning of the
allegory. With this in mind we shall proceed, separating the literal from the
allegorical and analyzing the latter further.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is almost certain
given the social environment of ancient Persia, and the underlying hatred of
Jews that came to the surface soon after this episode, that the first part of
the statement is literal. Yes, she did have Jewish women abducted. Yes, she did
want to humiliate them. Yes, she was clever enough to figure out the most
efficient way to bring this about.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The second segment is not
literal. No, she did not sacrifice her life by disobeying a despot because of
bad skin. She did not have a terrible case of acne or anything resembling a
simple skin disease. No, she did not reverse evolution and grow a tail. The
second part is an allegory that demands interpretation.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A THREAT TO VASHTI</span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jewish women represented
a threat to Vashti because they were, in the most profound sense of the word,
unconquerable. By observing Shabbat, they demonstrated that there is a ruler
who is beyond the reach of any monarch. By maintaining their basic modesty they
proved that they define themselves internally rather than superficially. They
were untouchable.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was for that reason
that Vashti felt an almost compulsive desire to break them. By doing so she
sealed her own fate. In order to understand how, we can follow the allegory
that the Talmud presents.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The body-soul link is
stronger than many of us realize. While we all know that excitement can raise
blood pressure, and some of us can describe the process with great precision,
there is far more involved that we have as yet to explore. In earlier times,
God Himself would allow physical manifestations of an individual's spiritual
state to show. The best known of this phenomenon is tzaraat. It affected the skin,
the most external part of the body.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(The skin hides and
protects the inner organs. The word for skin in Hebrew is or. It is written
identically to the word iver, which means blind. The common denominator of the
two words is that they both convey the concept of not being able to see things
as they really are.)</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tzaraat was an eruption
similar to leprosy in that the skin became tough and insensitive. The
difference is that while in leprosy the entire effected area is insensate; in
the case of tzaraat there always remained at least a patch of living skin in
the midst of the dead skin. What this symbolized was that there was always a
possibility of redefining oneself.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Talmud tells that
tzaraat came about because of sins involving slander. Slander always has one
motivation -- arrogance.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is no cheaper high
for self-importance addicts (like Vashti) than trivializing and belittling
others. It gives such people the feeling of superiority without any need to
actually be superior. Blindness helps to silence the conscience, because then
the victim can't be seen as a fellow human. Therefore, to slander freely
without guilt, it helps to have thick skin and to be spiritually blind.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vashti had long ago
stopped seeing beyond the surface. Her punishment was that she had to face the
fact that she too was not flawless.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the process of
disparaging others, she lost something very precious -- her own humanity. What
she saw when she looked in the mirror was a parody of a human being -- the
tail. She saw a heartless egomaniac.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">WHY VASHTI REFUSED THE
KING</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We can now return to our
original question. Why didn't she come when Achashverosh called?</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Talmud (in Midrash
Rabba) provides us with the final piece of information that lets us put the
puzzle pieces together. It reveals to us the words that she used when she
refused him. "You were my father's stable boy. You had harlots parade in
front of you. Are you going back to where you came from?"</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Her intent was not to
build herself up or to preserve her integrity. She was aware of what she had
become, but had neither the will nor the courage to change. She had followed a
pattern that had typified her life from the beginning. Her intent was to cut
him down. There was no heroism here. There was only arrogance.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is easy for us to fool
ourselves. Heroism and egotism come unlabeled. The only key that we have is
truth. Purim is the holiday in which every thing was turned about. The inside,
the core of truth was revealed. Falsehood was shaken off. May we be worthy of
using this day to discover the part of ourselves that is genuinely heroic.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: left;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #212529; font-family: "segoe ui" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">[End of quote]</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 14.8pt 0pt 0.25in; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<div style="border-image: none;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Jewish
legends can prove to be very helpful here and there, as I found, for example,
in my search for the identity of the elusive Aman (Haman) of the Book of
Esther:</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">'Taking aim on' king
Amon - such a wicked king of Judah</span></b></a></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">Aman (Haman), a king
of Judah no less, King Amon!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">That was most
unexpected.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU">And
now, in the case of Jeremiah 27:7, we can say that (thanks again to Jewish tradition)
the Medo-Persian king who followed Belshazzar could<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>indeed be described as a ‘grandson’ of
Nebuchednezzar, a ‘grandson’ through marriage - he apparently having married
Nebuchednezzar’s grand-daughter.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 1.3pt 0pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"> </span></div>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-69501075817629916532019-07-22T16:20:00.002-07:002019-07-22T16:22:00.560-07:00Zeresh wife of Haman<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 36pt;"><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong> </strong><a href="http://samanthapfield.com/2018/05/01/what-white-women-can-learn-from-zeresh/"><img alt="" class="attachment-full-thumb size-full-thumb wp-post-image" src="http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh-1080x378.jpg" height="224" scale="0" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" srcset="http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh-1080x378.jpg 1080w, http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh-300x105.jpg 300w, http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh-768x269.jpg 768w, http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh-1024x358.jpg 1024w, http://samanthapfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/esther-and-zeresh.jpg 1440w" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><br />
</span></span><div class="post-header">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 36pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="cat"><a href="http://samanthapfield.com/category/feminism-2/" rel="category tag"></a></span></span></span><br /></div>
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</span></span><br />
</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi7ldzZ0cfjAhXIT30KHScFChUQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsamanthapfield.com%2F2018%2F05%2F01%2Fwhat-white-women-can-learn-from-zeresh%2F&psig=AOvVaw3lo-u7QYPyWywoMMK5NJ-P&ust=1563854370001497" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-image: none; border: 1pt currentColor; color: #660099; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a></span><br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">by</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“The
Rabbis apply to Haman, who heeded his wife’s counsel, the verse (Prov. 10:1): <br />
“a dull son is his mother’s sorrow.” Because he heeded her advice, he himself </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">was
hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai”.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tamar Kadari</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: blue; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: blue; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Haman, or Aman, was, as we have discovered (with
assistance from Jewish legend), a former king of Judah, namely, Amon, who was,
as further concluded, the exiled king Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah). Now,
this king had “wives” </span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">(2 Kings 24:15): “And [Nebuchednezzar] carried
away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and
his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from
Jerusalem to Babylon”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">As Haman, he also
had “ten sons” (Esther 9:10) – by one or more of his wives.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The however many
“wives” of the king who went into captivity with him may, or may not, have
perished by the time that (about four decades later) the king of Judah had been
freed from prison by the son of Nebuchednezzar (Jeremiah 52:31): “<span style="background: white; color: #001320;">In the thirty-seventh year of the exile
of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on
the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah
and freed him from prison”.</span> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A handful of years
later again (in the Medo-Persian era) he re-enters the scene as the
conspiratorial Haman, having then only the one wife of whom we are told,
Zeresh.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Emil G. Hirsch <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">et al.</i> tell of a tradition according to
which Jehoiachin was allowed to have his wife with him in prison. The
suggestion here that it was a “Queen Semiramis”, wife of Nebuchednezzar, who
enabled for this to happen would be, though, an anachronism. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And entirely
inaccurate, too, would be Jehoiachin’s ‘repentance’ in light of his being
Haman: <span style="color: #1f4e79; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 128;">http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8560-jehoiachin</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: large;">JEHOIACHIN.</span></span></h1>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">By: </span><a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/contribs/510"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">Emil G. Hirsch</span></a><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">, </span><a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/contribs/501"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">Bernhard Pick</span></a><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">, </span><a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/contribs/271"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">Solomon Schechter</span></a><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">, </span><a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/contribs/565"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;">Louis Ginzberg</span></a><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "calibri light"; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></h2>
<div style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
…. Jehoiachin's sad
experiences changed his nature entirely, and as he repented of the sins which
he had committed as king he was pardoned by God, who revoked the decree to the
effect that none of his descendants should ever become king (Jer. xxii. 30;
Pesiḳ., ed. Buber, xxv. 163a, b); he even became the ancestor of the Messiah (Tan.,
Toledot, 20 [ed. Buber, i. 140]). It was especially his firmness in fulfilling
the Law that restored him to God's favor. He was kept by Nebuchadnezzar in
solitary confinement, and as he was therefore separated from his wife, the
Sanhedrin, which had been expelled with him to Babylon, feared that at the
death of this queen the house of David would become extinct.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
They managed to gain the favor
of Queen Semiramis, who induced Nebuchadnezzar to ameliorate the lot of the
captive king by permitting his wife to share his prison. As he then manifested
great self-control and obedience to the Law, God forgave him his sins (Lev. R.
xix., end). Jehoiachin lived to see the death of his conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar,
which brought him liberty; for within two days of his father's death
Evil-merodach opened the prison in which Jehoiachin had languished for so many
years.</div>
<div align="right" style="margin: 0in 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: right;">
[End of quote]</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tamar Kadari provides further <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">midrashic </i>insight into the situation, telling that Haman’s wife,
Zeresh, was even more wicked than her husband. Included also in this colourful
account is the tragic death of a daughter of the couple, which incident does
not feature (at least explicitly) in the Esther narrative: </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zeresh-midrash-and-aggadah"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zeresh-midrash-and-aggadah</span></span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #393939; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<h1 style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="color: #393939; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Zeresh: Midrash and Aggadah</span></b></h1>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">by </span></i><a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/kadari-tamar"><i><span style="color: #007cbf; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Tamar Kadari</span></i></a></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The </span><span style="color: #007cbf; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">midrash</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> portrays Zeresh as being even more wicked than
her husband Haman (<i>Midrash le-Esther</i>, <i>Ozar ha-Midrashim</i> [ed.
Eisenstein], p. 51). Wise women are celebrated in Proverbs (14:1): “The wisest
of women builds her house,” while the end of this verse says of the wicked
Zeresh: “but folly tears it down with its own hand” (<i>Midrash Proverbs</i> 14:1).</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Book of Esther relates that Haman,
incensed after he saw that Mordecai did not prostrate himself before him,
returned home to consult with his friends and his wife Zeresh. The midrash
elaborates that Haman’s friends were his wife’s lovers and that Haman also had
mistresses, for all idolaters are licentious (<i>Midrash Panim A<u>h</u>erim</i> [ed.
Buber], version B, chapter 5).</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In another midrashic
account, Haman had 365 advisors, like the days of the year, but none could give
him advice as good as that of his wife Zeresh. She told him: “If this man of
whom you speak is of Jewish stock, you will not overcome him, but you must act
wisely against him. If you were to drop him into a fiery furnace, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah were already dropped down there and they were saved. If
you were to throw him into a lions’ den, Daniel was already thrown into a
lions’ den and he emerged unscathed. If you were to put him in prison, Joseph
was already incarcerated there and he left it. If you were to send him to the
wilderness, Israel already were in the wilderness, they were fruitful and
multiplied, they withstood all the tests, and they were saved. </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">If you were to blind him,
Samson killed many Philistines when he was blind. But hang him on the gallows,
for we have not found a single one of the Jews who was saved from hanging.” </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Immediately (Esth. 5:14)
“the proposal pleased Haman, and he had the gallows put up” (<i>Esth. Rabbah</i> 9:2; <i>Midrash
Abba Gurion</i> [ed. Buber], chapter 5).</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Rabbis apply to Haman,
who heeded his wife’s counsel, the verse (Prov. 10:1): “a dull son is his
mother’s sorrow.” Because he heeded her advice, he himself was hanged on the
gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The Rabbis ask why Haman was not
successful in using his riches to save himself from the scaffold. They reply
that the case of Haman teaches us that all of a wicked man’s riches will be of
no avail when his downfall is at hand (<i>Midrash Proverbs</i> 10:1).</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Haman’s downfall began
when Ahasuerus ordered him to parade Mordecai on horseback through the streets
of the city. According to the midrash, when Haman did so, their route led
through a lane that went past Haman’s house. Haman’s daughter looked down from
the roof and thought that the rider on horseback was her father and that
Mordecai was leading him. She took a full chamber pot and emptied it on his
head. Haman looked up; his daughter saw that this was her father, and in her great
amazement and distress she fell from the roof to her death. Therefore it is
said (Esth. 6:12): “Haman hurried home, his head covered in mourning”—he was
“in mourning” over his daughter’s death and “his head was covered” with filth
(BT </span><i><span style="color: #007cbf; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Megillah</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> 16a). This midrashic account accentuates Haman’s great
shame in the eyes of his household and those of the entire kingdom. The
daughter’s act symbolized what would befall her father. Haman sought to
maltreat Mordecai, but in the end he harmed himself. The daughter’s fall from
the roof was therefore a portent of her father’s imminent ruin.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Afterwards, Haman returned
home to once again take counsel with Zeresh and his confidants. According to
the midrash, they told him: If Mordecai is from one of the tribes of Israel,
you will prevail over him, but if he is from the tribe of Judah, or of
Benjamin, Ephraim or Manasseh, you will not overcome him. For it is written of
Judah (Gen. 49:8): “Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes”; and it is
said of Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh (Ps. 80:3): “at the head of Ephraim,
Benjamin, and Manasseh! Rouse Your might and come to our help!” These tribes
received a special blessing that they would triumph over their enemies;
Mordecai is a Benjaminite, and therefore you cannot harm him. They also told
him: The people of Israel are compared to the dust and the stars. When they
descend, they descend to the dust; and when they rise, they rise to the stars.
So now that Mordecai is in the ascent, you will no longer be able to harm him
(BT <i>Megillah</i> 16a).</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Rabbis prescribe that
on </span><span style="color: #007cbf; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Purim</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> everyone must say: “Cursed be Haman, cursed be his sons,
cursed be Zeresh his wife,” thereby fulfilling Prov. 10:7: “But the name of the
wicked rots” (<i>Esth. Rabbah</i> 10:9).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-79750005180287947352019-04-16T15:56:00.000-07:002019-04-16T15:57:37.991-07:00Some pointers towards a chronological revision<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">A budding revisionist wrote to me:</span></h3>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">….<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">It’s a joy to find your work. About seven months ago, I
became very interested in chronological revisionism, first concerning the
exodus from Egypt and conquest of Canaan, but then more radical revisionism so
that the Egyptian civilization (and others) might postdate the Flood (around
2274 BC in my estimation). I’ve read the work of David Rohl and Peter James,
who appear to be “soft revisionists”- reworking the chronology so that the
exodus and conquest make good sense, and I’m starting to read Donovan Courville
right now. The difficulty is that I, as a non-expert, have virtually no way of
evaluating the merits of these respective chronologies, especially where they
diverge (concerning whether the Old Kingdom ought to undergo a radical revision
and concerning the dates of the Amarna period on).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Do you have any recommendations as to where I should
begin, and what work I should read first?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Thanks much ….</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">To which I replied (modified and updated now):</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">….</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I can well appreciate how perplexing you must
find the whole thing to be. There is the conventional system of which one ought
to have a solid grasp, and then there are all of those quite different revised
systems, none fully agreeing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Peter James and David Rohl have been
important, inasmuch as they have corrected some of the mistakes made by Dr. I. Velikovsky
(who was a pioneer). </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Peter James’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Centuries of Darkness</i> is a classic, and ought to be read. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">But I would agree with you that their (Rohl’s
and James’s) revisions are “soft”, floating precariously as they do halfway
between Velikovsky and convention.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Martin Sieff is, to my thinking, the pick of
the revisionists writing in that quite productive period of the mid-late 70’s
and the 80’s. Amongst the following one will find some classics of his:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Velikovsky: The Score of Success”, SIS <i>Newsletter</i> 1, April 1975</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Velikovsky: The Open Minded Approach”, SIS <i>Newsletter</i> 2,
September 1975</span></div>
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<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“In Defence of the Revised Chronology”, Peter James & Martin Sieff, <i>SIS
Review</i> v1 No. 1, January 1976</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Diana at Ephesus”, Martin Sieff assisted by Peter James, <i>SIS Review</i>
v1 No. 2, Spring 1976</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Planets in the Bible: I — The Cosmology of Job”, <i>SIS Review</i> v1
No. 4, Spring 1977</span></div>
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<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Two Jehorams”, <i>SIS Review</i> v2 No. 3, Special Issue 1977/78</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Velikovsky and His Heroes”, <i>SIS Review</i> v5 No. 4, 1984</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Bible Through a King James Filter”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> no. 1,
March 1978</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Book Review”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> no. 4, February 1979</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Father of the Gods?”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> vol.3 No.2, October 1980</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Voyager: Questions and Answers”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> vol.3 No. 3,
January 1981</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Hittites in Israel”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> vol.4 No.1, July 1981</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Assyria and the End of the Late Bronze Age”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> vol.4
No. 2, September 1981</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Limited Fusion” and “Anode-Stars”, <i>SIS Workshop</i> vol.4 No. 3,
December 1981</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Emerging Revision of Ancient History: Recent Research”, <i>Velikovskian</i>
vol. 2 No. 1, 1994</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The History Of The Revisionist Debate: A Personal View”, <i>Velikovskian</i>
vol. 3 No. 4, 1997</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Road to Iron: 8th and 7th Century Metallurgy and the Decline of
Egyptian Power”, <i>Catastrophism & Ancient History</i>, Volume IV, Part 2,
July 1982</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Scarab in the Dust: Egypt in the Time of the Twenty-First Dynasty”, <i>Catastrophism
& Ancient History</i>, Volume VII, Part 2, July 1985</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Libyans in Egypt: Resolving the Third Intermediate Period”, <i>Catastrophism
& Ancient History</i>, Volume VIII, Part 1, January 1986</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Assyrians, Sodom, and Red Herrings”, <i>Catastrophism & Ancient
History</i>, Volume X, Part 1, January 1988</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Oracle of Cadmus”, <i>Catastrophism & Ancient History</i>,
Proceedings of the Second Seminar of Catastrophism and Ancient History (Held
Dec 1983)) 1985</span></div>
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<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Chaldeans of Sumer”, <i>Aeon</i> vol.1 No. 2, Feb 1988</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“The Hyksos Were Not Assyrians”, <i>Aeon</i> vol.1 No.4, Jul 1988</span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt left 14.0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Remembering Velikovsky”, <i>Aeon</i> vol.4 No. 2, Aug 1995</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dr. Courville is very good, systematic, but rather heavy
going. He, too, was a pioneer and stands in need of some modifications. </span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">But he will generally set you on quite a good path.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
There are some anchors that I personally would insist upon, and you will find
these within my articles at Academia.edu</span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">To summarise some to these:</span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bringing early
Egyptian history into line with the Bible,</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
especially using the perceptive stratigraphy of Dr. John Osgood for the period
of Abram (Abraham).</span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">See e.g. my article:</span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17.15pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Better archaeological model for Abraham</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31214563/Better_archaeological_model_for_Abraham"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/31214563/Better_archaeological_model_for_Abraham</span></span></a></div>
<div align="center" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Also, and most importantly, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the Middle Bronze I people as the Exodus
Israelites:</b></span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17.15pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
Bible Illuminates History and Philosophy. Part Seven: Middle Bronze I
Israelites</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/33877212/The_Bible_Illuminates_History_and_Philosophy._Part_Seven_Middle_Bronze_I_Israelites"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/33877212/The_Bible_Illuminates_History_and_Philosophy._Part_Seven_Middle_Bronze_I_Israelites</span></span></a></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Dr. Courville has missed the compelling <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">link between Joseph of Egypt and the genius
Vizier Imhotep.</b> See my attempt to correct this in my series:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Moses – may be staring revisionists right in the
face</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: text1;">beginning with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part One:</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36803416/Moses_may_be_staring_revisionists_right_in_the_face._Part_One_Historical_Moses_has_presented_quite_a_challenge"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/36803416/Moses_may_be_staring_revisionists_right_in_the_face._Part_One_Historical_Moses_has_presented_quite_a_challenge</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Velikovsky’s thesis that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the United Kingdom of Israel and Egypt’s 18th dynasty were
contemporaneous,</b> with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hatshepsut as
the Queen of Sheba</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thutmose III
as the biblical Shishak.</b> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">See e.g. my articles (for Hatshepsut):</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/34418620/The_vicissitudinous_life_of_Solomons_pulchritudinous_wife"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">The vicissitudinous life of Solomon's pulchritudinous wife</span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/34418620/The_vicissitudinous_life_of_Solomons_pulchritudinous_wife"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/34418620/The_vicissitudinous_life_of_Solomons_pulchritudinous_wife</span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">and (for Thutmose III):</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/38746225/Biblical_Shishak_king_of_Egypt_"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">Biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”</span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/38746225/Biblical_Shishak_king_of_Egypt_"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/38746225/Biblical_Shishak_king_of_Egypt_</span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Dr. Velikovsky’s vitally important connections of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">El Amarna’s kings of Amurru with biblical
kings of Syria</b> (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ages in Chaos, </i>I).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><br />
Peter James’s important correcting of El Amarna’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Abdi-hiba</i> of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urusalim</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>(Velikovsky’s king Jehoshaphat) to Jehoshaphat’s son, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jehoram,</b> instead. See e.g. my series on
this:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/7772239/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History</span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/7772239/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/7772239/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">and:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/30408905/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History._Part_Two_With_whom_was_Abdi-hiba_corresponding"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History.
Part Two: With whom was Abdi-hiba corresponding</span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">?</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/30408905/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History._Part_Two_With_whom_was_Abdi-hiba_corresponding"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/30408905/King_Abdi-Hiba_of_Jerusalem_Locked_in_as_a_Pillar_of_Revised_History._Part_Two_With_whom_was_Abdi-hiba_corresponding</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Another certain thing, the conventional view of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ramses II as a contemporary of Moses is
hopelessly wrong.</b> See e.g. my articles:</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Exodus in need of a realistic time-frame</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36795857/The_Exodus_in_need_of_a_realistic_time-frame"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/36795857/The_Exodus_in_need_of_a_realistic_time-frame</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">and:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">New Revision for Ramses II</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/37465568/New_Revision_for_Ramses_II"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/37465568/New_Revision_for_Ramses_II</span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Highly important (at least I think), too, is the
synchronisation of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">king Sennacherib’s
loss of his massive Assyrian army in Israel at the time of the heroine Judith,</b>
and narrated in the Book of Judith. See e.g. my article:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36576110/_Nadin_Nadab_of_Tobit_is_the_Holofernes_of_Judith"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 14pt;">"Nadin" (Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith</span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36576110/_Nadin_Nadab_of_Tobit_is_the_Holofernes_of_Judith"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/36576110/_Nadin_Nadab_of_Tobit_is_the_Holofernes_of_Judith</span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">I hope that this will be of some use to you ….</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">My best regards,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Damien.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Part Two: Supplementing
Pa<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">rt One</b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Dr. John Osgood appears to have nailed the archaeological period for</span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">the oppressor king, Cushan-rishathaim of Judges 3:8.</span></i></div>
<br />
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Patriarch Abram (Abraham), archaeologically, needs to be
located to the stratigraphical era of the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze I, and
not to Middle Bronze I (MBI) - as is generally thought - where he would
displace the Exodus Israelites, the true MBI people of half a millennium later.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The best fit for the “new king” of Exodus 1:8, early in
the life of Moses, is, I think, pharaoh Amenemhet (Amenemes) I, the founder of
the Twelfth Dynasty (Middle Kingdom, so-called). See e.g. my article: </span></div>
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<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Twelfth
Dynasty oppressed Israel</span></b></div>
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<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/38553314/Twelfth_Dynasty_oppressed_Israel"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/38553314/Twelfth_Dynasty_oppressed_Israel</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And see the following articles for the archaeology of: </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31535673/Joshuas_Jericho"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">Joshua's Jericho</span></span></a></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=mackey+joshua%27s+jericho"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=mackey+joshua%27s+jericho</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 14pt;">Eglon's Jericho</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31551008/Eglons_Jericho"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/31551008/Eglons_Jericho</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31551756/Hiels_Jericho._Part_One_Stratigraphical_level"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">Hiel's Jericho. Part One:
Stratigraphical level</span></span></a></div>
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<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31551756/Hiels_Jericho._Part_One_Stratigraphical_level"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/31551756/Hiels_Jericho._Part_One_Stratigraphical_level</span></span></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who was Hiel? For my preferred candidate see:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hiel's
Jericho. Part Two (a): Who was this “Hiel of Bethel”?</span></b></div>
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<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31553055/Hiels_Jericho._Part_Two_a_Who_was_this_Hiel_of_Bethel_"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/31553055/Hiels_Jericho._Part_Two_a_Who_was_this_Hiel_of_Bethel_</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dr. John Osgood appears to have nailed the archaeological
period for the oppressor king, Cushan Rishathaim of Judges 3:8. See his
important stratigraphical article on this:</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<h1 align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
Times of the Judges—The Archaeology:</span></b></h1>
<br />
<h2 align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></h2>
<br />
<h2 align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">(b) Settlement and Apostasy</span></b></h2>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://creation.com/the-time-of-the-judges-the-archaeology-b-settlement-and-apostasy"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://creation.com/the-time-of-the-judges-the-archaeology-b-settlement-and-apostasy</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Regarding Egypt, the United Kingdom of Israel’s kings, Saul,
David and Solomon synchronise with the early Eighteenth Dynasty, from Ahmose I down
to Thutmose III.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Regarding Mesopotamia, David and Solomon were contemporaneous
with Shamsi-Adad I of Assyria, Zimri-Lim of Mari, and Hammurabi of Babylon: See
my series:</span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hammurabi
and Zimri-Lim as Contemporaries of Solomon</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">commencing with:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/35404463/Hammurabi_and_Zimri-Lim_as_Contemporaries_of_Solomon"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/35404463/Hammurabi_and_Zimri-Lim_as_Contemporaries_of_Solomon</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most of these Mesopotamian and Syrian kings have biblical
identities.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dr. I. Velikovsky had re-located the era of the El Amarna
(EA) correspondence (pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV) to the time of the Divided Kingdom
of Israel, the time of Ben-Hadad I and Hazael of Syria, and King Ahab of
Israel. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">My choice for King Ahab in EA is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lab’ayu,</i> ruler of northern Israel:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">King Ahab in
El Amarna</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/34875766/King_Ahab_in_El_Amarna"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/34875766/King_Ahab_in_El_Amarna</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">See same article for my identification of the only female
EA correspondent, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baalat-neše, </i>with
the biblical Queen Jezebel.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have long held the view that the:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Assyrian
King Sargon II [was] Otherwise Known As Sennacherib</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/6708474/Assyrian_King_Sargon_II_Otherwise_Known_As_Sennacherib"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/6708474/Assyrian_King_Sargon_II_Otherwise_Known_As_Sennacherib</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">For a radical revision of the era of King Hezekiah of
Judah - the time of King Sennacherib’s demise - down to the Babylonian
Captivity, and on into the Medo-Persian period, see my article:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">'Taking aim on' king Amon
- such a wicked king of Judah</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/37575781/Taking_aim_on_king_Amon_-_such_a_wicked_king_of_Judah</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">This revision of the later kings of Judah ought to be
read in conjunction with my revision of the neo-Assyrian-Babylonian kings: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Aligning Neo
Babylonia with Book of Daniel. Part One: Shortening the Chaldean Dynasty</span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/38330231/Aligning_Neo_Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_One_Shortening_the_Chaldean_Dynasty"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/38330231/Aligning_Neo_Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_One_Shortening_the_Chaldean_Dynasty</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">and:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Aligning
Neo-Babylonia with Book of Daniel. Part Two: Merging late neo-Assyrians with
Chaldeans</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/38330399/Aligning_Neo-Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_Two_Merging_late_neo-Assyrians_with_Chaldeans"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.academia.edu/38330399/Aligning_Neo-Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_Two_Merging_late_neo-Assyrians_with_Chaldeans</span></span></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm -2.3pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></div>
</div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376048328085020268.post-53133763829496775012019-04-04T16:18:00.000-07:002019-04-04T16:19:03.446-07:00Well-respected Mordecai as Marduka?<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;"><img alt="" draggable="false" height="623" role="presentation" src="http://www.lilianbroca.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Queen-Esther-with-Mordechai.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 28pt;">Well-respected
Mordecai</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Part One: As ‘Marduka’?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222a35; font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.lilianbroca.com/portfolio-items/queen-esther-with-mordechai"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a><br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">by</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "bodoni mt black" , serif; font-size: 18pt;">Damien F. Mackey</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3"></a><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“And Mordecai
the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. He was a </span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7463"><span style="color: #0563c1;">man</span></a></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> held in
respect among the Jews, esteemed by thousands of his brothers, a </span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=7463"><span style="color: #0563c1;">man</span></a></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> who sought
the </span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=5257"><span style="color: #0563c1;">good</span></a></span></i><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> of his people
and cared for the welfare of his entire race”.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><i>Esther 10</i></b><b>:<i>3</i></b></div>
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</div>
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<i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></i></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
With the assistance
of a significantly revised Neo-Babylonian dynasty through to the early
Medo-Persian period, I have been able historically to identify the King
Belshazzar of Daniel 5 as King Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchednezzar II ‘the
Great’, and the un-named second ruler in Belshazzar’s kingdom as Jehoiachin (or
Coniah), whom Evil-Merodach had exalted over the other princes in Babylon (2
Kings 25:27-30).</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
These are all historically
verifiable kings.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Now, if Jehoiachin
(Coniah) is also, as I have identified him:</div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 17.15pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Haman
un-masked</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/37584041/Haman_un-masked"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.academia.edu/37584041/Haman_un-masked</span></a></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
then that leads us
into the Book of Esther, and to Mordecai, who, with Queen Esther herself, would
expose the machinations of Haman.</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Is there any
evidence that this Mordecai, too, was a real historical person? </div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
There may be. David
J. Clines, in his article “The Quest for the Historical Mordecai” (<span style="color: #0070c0;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/2454296/The_Quest_for_the_Historical_Mordecai"><span style="color: #0070c0;">https://www.academia.edu/2454296/The_Quest_for_the_Historical_Mordecai</span></a></span>), writes of one “Marduka” in Susa during
the Persian period whom various scholars have considered as a possible
candidate for Mordecai. I am interested here in what Clines writes about these
various opinions, since Clines himself seems pre-disposed to dismiss the Book
of Esther as merely “a romance”: </div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">…. it appears
to be necessary to insist that evidence for a Persian official at Susa named
Marduka, if that is really what we have, is next to useless in any debate about
a historical Mordecai. For if on other grounds it seems probable that the
book of Esther is a romance and not a historical record, it is quite irrelevant
to the larger question of the historicity of the writing to discover that
one of its characters bears a name attested for a historical person. Fictitious
characters usually do.</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Clines tells of these
other estimations of Marduka:</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the
standard works, commentaries, encyclopaedias and monographs, wherever the
historicity of the Book of Esther is discussed, there is usually to be found
some reference to the possible extra-biblical evidence for Mordecai. Here is an
extract from a typical encyclopaedia article in <i>The Interpreter’s Dictionary
of the Bible:</i></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Reference must be made to a single undated cuneiform document from the
Persian period, found at Borsippa, which refers to a certain Marduka who was a
finance officer of some sort in the Persian court at Susa during the reign of
Xerxes I. While a connection between such an individual and the Mordecai of the
book of Esther is in no sense established, the possibility of such a historical
event as is related in Esther cannot be dismissed out of hand. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Carey A.
Moore, the author of the Anchor Bible commentary on Esther, is a little more
positive about the implications of the reference to Marduka. This official, who
‘served as an accountant on an inspection tour from Susa’, could be, he
suggests, ‘the biblical Mordecai because, in all likelihood, Mordecai was an
official of the king prior to his being invested in [Est.] 8.2 with the powers
previously conferred on Haman’. To Moore, ‘at first glance all of this seems
rather persuasive, if not conclusive’. While he is indeed careful to point out
the uncertainties that surround the identification of Marduka with Mordecai, he
nevertheless concludes that</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">since the epigraphic evidence concerning Marduka certainly prevents us from
categorically ruling out as pure fiction the Mordecai episodes in the Book of
Esther, it is safest for us to conclude that the story of Mo[r]decai may
very well have to it a kernel of truth. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Robert Gordis,
rather more boldly, appears to have no reservations whatever about the
identification of Mordecai with Marduka. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">For him, the
attestation of the names Marduka and Mrdk … is ‘the strongest support thus far
for the historical character of the book’. …. He writes:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A Persian text dating from the last years of Darius I or the early years of Xerxes
I mentions a government official in Susa named Marduka, who served as an
inspector on an official tour … [T]he phrase </span><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">yōšēb<b> </b>bĕš<span style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt;">a‘ar<b> </b>hammelekh, </span></span></i><span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">‘sitting in the king’s gate,’ which is applied to Mordecai repeatedly in
the book, indicates his role as a judge or a minor official in the Persian court
before his elevation to the viziership. </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The conclusion
to be drawn is rather obvious:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That there were two officials with the same name at the same time in the
same place is scarcely likely. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">From Edwin M.
Yamauchi we even gain the impression that the identification of Marduka with
Mordecai has now become the consensus scholarly view:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mardukâ</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> is listed as
a <i>sipîr</i> <span style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt;">(‘an accountant’) who makes
an inspection tour of Susa during the last years of Darius or early years of
Xerxes. It is Ungnad’s conviction that ‘it is improbable that there were two
Mardukas serving as high officials in Susa.’ He therefore concludes that this
individual is none other than Esther’s uncle. This conclusion has been widely
accepted. ….</span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Siegfried H. Horn concurs:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The result of this disco[c]very has been a more favorable attitude toward
the historicity of the book of Esther in recent years, as attested by several
Bible dictionaries and commentaries published during the last decade. ….</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">So secure is
the identification of Mordecai with Marduka in his eyes that he can even invite
us to reconstruct the personal history of Mordecai on the basis of what we know
about Marduka:</span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 11.85pt 0pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 26.05pt 0pt 1cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is quite obvious that Mordecai, before he became gatekeeper of the
palace, must already have had a history of civil service in which he had proved
himself to be a trusted official </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">… <span style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt;">the trusted
councillor of [t]he mighty satrap U</span>š<span style="letter-spacing: -0.75pt;">tannu,
whom he accompanied on his official journeys.</span></span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Since my re-setting
of Mordecai’s engagement with Haman has it occurring far earlier than the
standard time for it, in the reign of “Xerxes” (C5th BC) - and nearer to the
return from Captivity - it thus becomes necessary to demonstrate a compatible
revised chronology of Marduka. </div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
AMAIChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14460852293132739396noreply@blogger.com0