Parallels between Mark 6.14-29 and the Esther traditions.

[Secret Alias]

And 114 BCE can't certain to be the date of the composition of the Book of Esther. This is said over and over again in the literature but it is built around lazy logic. The person recording the date and the involvement of 'Dositheus' in the transcription process doesn't even know if Dositheus is a priest and a Levite as is claimed by someone else or a tradition. He is just reporting a story about Dositheus producing an epistle related to the story which no longer exists. I've always thought this Dositheus is the Samaritan heretic who is said to have arisen at this time. But that's just a guess.

[iskander]

Esther and Mordechai Albert Henry Payne


Was Mordechai Esther’s Husband?
Esther 2
Esther 2:7 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
Mordechai as Esther’s Husband
http://thetorah.com/what-was-esthers-re ... mordechai/

[Secret Alias]

The marriage of cousins was a feature of Jewish marriage throughout the ages. It's also one of the parallels with Marduk and Ishtar. It is also related to the question at the heart of Mark 6.14 - 29 (the OP in the thread) interestingly. Samaritans do not share the (strange) Jewish attitudes toward marriage of cousins. If the two become one flesh, then - if taken literally - the man who marries his brother's wife is marrying his sister. This not a joke. Note the cause of the dispute between Herod and John the Baptist (from Pseudo-Hegesippus):

For if Herod, who handed over John to be killed, paid the price for his treachery and cruelty (by being) thrown out from the royal power and given into exile, by how much more headlong fury is the action to be understood given (against) him who killed Christ? What was the cause of death for John I shall set forth briefly. Philippus and Herod who was previously called Antipas we showed above to have been brothers; the wife of Philippus (had been) Herodias whom Herodes unlawfully and wickedly associated to himself by right of marriage. John did not tolerate this and said to him: "it is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother."

There is a great deal of ambiguity in the historical account. But there is something lurking here which needs to be examined in more detail.

[iskander]

How Many Esther Stories are there?


"The story of Esther has been told countless times in the course of Jewish history. Many of these tellings were never recorded in writing so they are lost to us. Many of them, however, were written down and have been preserved over the centuries. We have at least five versions from antiquity: the Hebrew version that made it in to the Hebrew Bible
(composed sometime between the 5th-3rd cent. BCE): two Greek versions (probably composed around the 1st cent. BCE-1st cent. CE) and two Aramaic versions that date to the rabbinic period (3rd-6th cent. CE).[1]

Scholarly opinions differ on the relationship of these versions to one another. Some assert that the Greek versions are translations of Hebrew versions that either pre-dated or were contemporaries of, the version that eventually became part of the Hebrew Bible. Other scholars think that the Greek versions, like the Aramaic versions, are interpretive translations/versions of the Hebrew text known to us.


The version in the Hebrew Bible however tells a different story: In this version, Mordechai and Esther are the stuff of assimilationist nightmares: Jewish residents of diaspora who follow no particularist Jewish practices and are, subsequently, unidentifiable as Jews. In the world of these characters, God is not an actor (visible or not) who guides the destiny of the Jews. Rather, their destiny depends on a fragile series of consequences, unguided by any divine hand."
http://thetorah.com/megillat-esther-a-g ... -diaspora/

[Secret Alias]

The story is a myth. There is no question about this. It's all made up. There was no Jewish Queen named Ishtar nor this 'Marduk' fellow.

[iskander]

The triumph of Mordecai
Destroying Amalek
" Esther 8:11 That the king has permitted the Jews of every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province attacks them, they may destroy, kill, and exterminate its armed force together with women and children, and plunder their possessions (NJPS with adjustments)

On the whole, the verses seem to indicate that the Jews attacked their enemies without immediate provocation. It sounds as if they went out looking to kill, looking to engage. We hear nothing about Jews being attacked at all; we hear nothing of any casualties among the Jews. From this reading, it seems that the Jews engaged in a wholesale slaughter of a portion of the population that was totally cowed and defenceless."

http://thetorah.com/the-megillat-esther-massacre/

http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/ ... sacre.html

[Secret Alias]

As I noted earlier the place to start making sense of Esther is to figure out what it is. Step one is to acknowledge that it is a wholly fictitious story developed from the names of pagan gods. No mention is made of the Tetragrammaton. So it isn't a religious text per se. The Samaritans don't celebrate this holiday. The holiday has nothing to do with the land of Israel. It isn't an epistle. The holiday is basically a month before Passover. The fact that 'pure Hebrew' is used in the Hebrew text is more a reflection of the class of people transcribing the text than anything related to the date of the text.

[Secret Alias]

Early (relatively) Aramaic testimony as to the parallels between Esther and the gospel(s). http://www.haaretz.com/the-crucifixion- ... n-1.115948

[Secret Alias]

The investiture in royal garb that Haman seeks for himself and that Mordecai actually receives is reminiscent of the ancient Mesopotamian institution of the substitute king, of which echoes were still heard in the time of Xerxes." The problem is that the substitute king was essentially a scapegoat, dying in place of the real king, whereas Haman seeks the role of king but meets his demise, and Mordecai goes on to glory. https://books.google.com/books?id=SaR1B ... 22&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Maybe Jesus is being depicted as a 'substitute king' in the Mesopotamian tradtion https://books.google.com/books?id=z6YAp ... ia&f=false