by
Damien F. Mackey
Can we find queens of a king of Persia appropriate to the biblical Vashti
and Esther?
Firstly
it was necessary to identify:
“King Ahasuerus” of Book of Esther
my
conclusion there being that: “ “King Ahasuerus” was Darius the Mede/Cyrus”.
Now, presuming that I am correct about the “Great
King” of the Book of Esther, “Ahasuerus”, being the well-respected Cyrus - but also
a Darius - it should not be too difficult to track a queen of his appropriate
to the biblical Queen Esther (and to Queen Vashti as well).
Some would argue that to attempt to do so is quite
a waste of time, because the Book of Esther is merely a wonderful fiction, and
not properly historical.
New World
Encyclopedia tells of the historically differing range of views about the
Book of Esther: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Esther,_Book_of
….
The historical
accuracy of the Book of Esther is disputed. For the last 150 years,
critical scholars have seen the Esther as a work of fiction, while
traditionalists argue in favor of the story being historical.
As early as the
eighteenth century, the lack of clear corroboration of the details of the story
with what was known of Persian history from classical sources led scholars to
doubt that the book was historically accurate. It was argued that the form of
the story—with its Cinderella-like plot—seems closer to that
of a romance than a work of history, and that many of the events depicted
therein are implausible and unlikely.
From the late
nineteenth century onwards, scholars explored the theory that the story is not
only a myth related to the festival of Purim, but may have been related to
older Mesopotamian legends. According to this interpretation the tale celebrates
the triumph of the Babylonian deities Marduk (Mordecai) and Ishtar (Esther) and/or the renewal of life
in the spring. Although this view is not widely held by the religious scholars
today, it remains well known. It is explored in depth in the works of Theodore
Gaster.
Traditionalists
argue that Esther derives from real history. They argue that because the feast
of Purim is integral to Jewish history, there is strong reason to believe this
story is indeed based upon a true, though obscure, historical event. Also,
parallels between Herodotus' account of
Xerxes 1 and the events in Esther have been noted.
Others have argued
for different identifications, particularly noting traditions referring to
Ahasuerus as "Artaxerxes" in Greek. In 1923, Jacob Hoschander wrote The
Book of Esther in the Light of History, in which he posited that the events
of the book occurred during the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon, in the context
of a struggle between adherents of the basically monotheistic Zoroastrianism
and those who wanted to bring back the Magian worship of Mithra and Anahita.
Some Christian readers
consider this story to contain an allegory, representing the interaction
between the church as 'bride' and God. This reading is related to the
allegorical reading of the Song of Solomon
and to the theme of the Bride of God, which in Jewish tradition manifests as
the Shekinah.
[End of quotes]
The problem facing such critical scholars as referred
to in the above quote, who have been unable to ‘corroborate the details of the story with what
was known of Persian history from classical sources’, is that - according to my
revision, at least - Chaldean to Medo-Persian history has been grossly
over-stretched. The name “Artaxerxes”, for instance, already a title of the King
Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther, has been duplicated and applied to invented “kings”
of supposedly later periods. Thus it may be possible that a religious struggle during
the reign of a so-called Artaxerxes II ‘Memnon’, as referred to above - he
being conventionally dated to c. 400 BC - is a reminiscence of a real situation
that had prevailed during the actual reign of Cyrus, i.e., during the reign of
Ahasuerus (= Artaxerxes), conventionally dated about two centuries earlier than
‘Memnon’.
Esther as
Atossa
Name-wise, the standout historical queen for the biblical
Esther is Atossa, wife of a Persian king.
The similarity between the name “Atossa” and the Hebrew name of Esther, “Hadassah”
(see my):
Well-Respected Mordecai.
Part Five (c): The Names, Susanna, Hadassah and Esther
has often been noted. However, since this Atossa is
considered to have been the daughter of the relevant king Cyrus, and the wife
of Darius, I have not previously felt inclined to attempt to integrate her into
my historical reconstructions of the Book of Esther.
That there were various queens “Atossa” in the classical
sources would not concern me considering the unwarranted multiplications of
kings “Artaxerxes”, and the fact that (according to my revision) king Cyrus was
also called “Darius”.
Anyway, some potential new light on the situation may have
been shed by Richard E. Tyrwhitt in his book,
Esther and Ahasuerus: An Identification of the
Persons So Named (p. 185, IV), when he writes:
To this
conjecture,
however, regarding the true significance of the
term Daughter of Cyrus, when applied
to Darius’s queen Atossa, it may be supposed to be an objection, that the
surname or description is applied equally to another of his wives, Artystonè by
name, whom he is said to have particularly loved and to have commemorated by a
golden image. But Akhshurush [Ahasuerus], that is, Darius, had two crowned
wives in succession, Vaśhti and Hadassah.
That the term, “king’s daughter”,
is properly applicable to a spouse is suggested in Matthew Poole's
Commentary on Psalm 45:13, at: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/psalms/45-13.htm
The king’s
daughter, i.e. the spouse; so called, either because she was the
daughter of one king, and the wife of another; or because the spouse or wife is
sometimes called the husband’s daughter; partly because she is supposed to be
younger than he; and partly because of that respect and subjection which she
oweth to him, and that fatherly care and affection which he oweth to her.
Queen Esther (“Hadassah”) was indeed “younger than” King Ahasuerus.
It was quite beyond the Greek writers, such as the so-called
“Father of History”, Herodotus, to sort out the complexities of Medo-Persian
history, the multiple names of its protagonists - just as it was beyond their ability
properly to recall the Egyptian, Mesopotamian or Syro-Palestinian histories.
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