Monday, April 1, 2019

Mordecai represented as a Dragon


Lilian Broca’s glistening <em>Queen Esther With Mordechai</em> reveals the Vancouver artist’s painstaking process.

 



 by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

A reader writes (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]

 

Historically, some think that Mordecai may have been a Persian official of the name, Marduka.

See e.g. my article on this:

 


 


 

Now, if the highly pious Jew, Mordecai, had actually borne the name of the pagan god, Marduk, then those (e.g. Creationists) seeking to identify other biblical characters (like Joseph, Egypt) in foreign lands may be wrong in thinking that these pious souls could not possibly have had names that included pagan gods.

  

According to Wikipedia (article “Mordecai”), though, there are various possibilities to account for the name, “Mordecai”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai

 

The name "Mordecai" is of uncertain origin but is considered identical to the name Marduka or Marduku (Akkadian: 𒀫𒌓), attested as the name of officials in the Persian court in thirty texts (the Persepolis Administrative Archives) from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals, one of which might have served as the prototype for the biblical Mordecai.

The Talmud (Menachot 64b and 65a) relates that his full name was "Mordechai Bilshan" (which occurs in Ezra 2:2 and Nehemiah 7:7). Hoschander interpreted this as the Babylonian "Marduk Belshunu" (… dMarduk-Bel-šu-nu, meaning "Marduk is their lord") "Mordecai" being thus a hypocorism.

Another interpretation of the name is that it is of Persian origin meaning "little boy". Other suggested meanings of "contrition" (Hebrew root m-r-d), "bitter" (Hebrew root m-r), or "bruising" (Hebrew root r-d-d) are listed in Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary of the late 19th century. There is also speculation that the name is derived from Aramaic mar dochi; mar being a title address for a gentleman, and dochi meaning "one who incurs merit" (cf. Hebrew zoche).

The Talmud provides a Midrashic interpretation of the name Mordechai Bilshan as mara dachia ("pure myrrh") alluding to Exodus 30:23 and ba'al lashon [4] ("master of languages") reminding us that as a member of the Great Assembly he was familiar with many foreign languages.

[End of quote]

 

Biblically, I have identified Mordecai with Joakim, the husband of Susanna:

 

Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Two: As Joakim, Husband of Susanna

 


 

and:


 

Susanna, for her part, is Queen Esther herself according to e.g. my article:

 

Well-Respected Mordecai. Part Five (a): Susanna and Esther identified as one

 


 

Some have gone so far as to connect: https://ononion.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/161/

 


 


 

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 was 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 dames of those two deities.

 

I decided to do some investigation into this Babylonian drinking holiday, and was lead 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.

 

 

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.[6]  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:[7] 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.[8] ….

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