-Jay-

This is an important point. In a real sense, when we try to interpret the Christian interprtation of a Jewish text, we run a risk of being doubly out of context.

Would you be as kind as to suggest a good version with a commentary for those who might be inclined to seek one out?

regards,

NinJay

Anat

Why complain about Christians distorting a Jewish work when the Jews probably distorted a paganic celebration for their own purpose? A common view is that the whole story of Esther was composed in order to give a Jews a reason to celebrate around that time, which was originally a paganic spring festival.

-Jay-

The only reason I would seek to constrain the discussion to Christian interpretations and/or distortions is that the OP introduced the discussion from the perspective of the interpretation of singing Christian vegetables.¹

The discussion of other perspectives is certainly OK, although they could conceivably be split to a different thread.

regards,

NinJay

¹ The phrase "singing Christian vegetables" is one that I didn't expect to type this morning...

HaRaAYaH

The Soncino series is a really good place to start as you will get the Hebrew text and the english text side by side and a verse by verse (not each one) commentary. It's a pretty traditional Jewish commentary.

Casper

I thought it was a way to humanize asherah worship and therefore remove the "goddess" aspect, Asherah becoming Esther and subsequently removing veneration of the evening star as a religious symbol, making it simply a reminder? Similar to the symbolism of the golden calf in the evolution of Yahweh to supremacy.

Cesc

Interesting thesis. I love the ancient morning star/evening star themes. So Asherah can possibly be connected with the evening star as I understand your post?

I've read that in Canaan the evening star was called "Star of the Evening", Kochav-ha-'Erev. And the morning star, the fallen Lucifer, was named Helel, "Bright One" son of the dawn goddess Shachar (Helel ben Shachar).

James Brown

Allow me to expand on this. My fourth-grade class (at a conservative Christian school) put on a play of Esther. I played the role of Haaman. There were no orgies of any kind, but the selection of Esther was presented as a beauty pageant. Haaman wanted to be the number two man in the kingdom and wanted first Mordecai killed for not bowing to him, then all Jews killed after Haaman got snookered into showering Mordecai with blessings. There was also no retaliatory killing by the Jews other than Haaman himself, hung on his own petard.

I'll wager that most Christians are completely unaware of the more barbaric elements of this book. Esther doesn't exactly compare to the Gospels when it comes to sermon source notes.

arnoldo

There is nothing barbaric in the book of Esther. . . The king issues an edict to exterminate the jews and this law cannot be changed according to the text. Thus the only alternative the king has is to declare another edict allowing the jews to defend themselves which they do once they are attacked.

-Jay-

Thank-you for the suggestion, HaRaAYaH.

-Jay-

This is essentially the point I was looking to make. In my opinion, portraying Esther (or for that matter, any other story) in a manner like this, where significant story elements are changed or elided may well distort whatever meaning the story has.

(HaRaAYaH - I'm going to deliberately leave aside traditional Jewish interpretations and messages of Esther and strictly focus on how I've seen it portrayed by conservative Christians, just so I can keep my train of thought on the rails. )

I grew up Catholic, and I cannot recall ever hearing a reading from Esther during Mass. (In point of fact, the only bits from Esther that turn up in Catholic lectionary cycles are Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25, which come from one of the later additions and are not part of the original Hebrew version, and are read once a year on a weekday Mass during Lent. The passages are Esther's prayer for strength.)

A close friend of mine, a conservative Christian woman, was the first one to use the "Esther/beauty pageant" interpretation, and she considers the story to be one of female empowerment. (Considering that many conservative Christians take a "women should be subservient" view, this is interesting in and of itself.) I have a lot of difficulty seeing how she could take that out of the story if she actually read it, as opposed to having it interpretted by, say, singing vegetables or (and not to pick on JamesABrown) fourth graders.

What that leads me to is the rather unsurprising conclusion that a lot of conservative Christians, who would defend every word in the Bible, really have no clue what the Bible actually contains. That's just unconscionable to me.

regards,

NinJay