'Wisdom' in the Book of Esther

Abstract

Tradition intended the Book of Esther to be accepted as an accurate and reliable account of which befell the Jewish exiles in the Persian empire under the reign of King Ahasuerus, who was identified with Xerxes I (486-465)1). The purported historiographical nature of the book is underlined by its concluding passage, Esth. x 1-3. Here the author deliberately employs technical terminology which is widely used in biblical historiography, especially in the Books of Kings and in Chronicles. However, modern biblical scholarship has severely doubted the accuracy of the account given in the Esther story and most scholars nowadays agree that the book in its present form does not relate real historical events 2). It is a widely, though not universally, held opinion, first propagated by T. D. MICHAELIS in 1783, that the 'chronistic' finale (Esth. x 1-3), which refers the reader to the 'Chronicles of the Kings of Mede and Persia for further information on Ahasuerus and Mordecai, is to be judged a late apposition to the original compilation. Although there is no marked difference in style between the core of the book and the concluding passage 3), certain discrepancies of contents often are deemed sufficient to warrant their separation 4). The same has been said of the section immediately preceding the