Justification of Violence in Esther 8–9?
The Book of Esther: Between Fiction and History
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/BPTh.2026.008Keywords
Book of Esther, violence, self-defense, Purim, annihilationAbstract
This article examines the portrayal of violence in Esther 8–9 as a literary and ideological construction rather than a historical record. It focuses on the close symmetry between Haman’s decree (Esth 3) and Mordecai’s counter-decree (Esth 8), where identical formulae of destruction are reframed through legal language of self-defense and vengeance. A comparison with the Septuagint highlights early interpretive reworking of the Hebrew text, especially in its attenuation of exterminatory language. Situating Esther within wider scholarly discussions of diaspora literature and Persian literary conventions, the article argues that its depiction of violence reflects ideological concerns about identity, survival, and collective memory rather than historiographical reporting.
References
Assmann, Jan. 2007. Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. 6th ed. Beck.
Berlin, Adele. 2001. Esther: The Traditional Hebrew text with the New JPS Translation. Jewish Publication Society.
Bezold, Helge. 2023. “Fighting Annihilation: The Justification of Collective Violence in the Book of Esther and in Its Cultural Context.” In Collective Violence and Memory in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Sonja Ammann, Helge Bezold, Stephen Germany, and Julia Rhyder. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 135. Brill.
Bezold, Helge. 2024. “Esther’s Power Play: Negotiating Power and Violence in the Ancient Esther Tradition.” Judaica: Neue Digitale Folge 5 (1). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36950/jndf.2024.1.16.
Calduch-Benages, Nuria. 2010. “War, Violence and Revenge in the Book of Esther.” In Visions of Peace and Tales of War, edited by Jan Liesen and Pancratius C. Beentjes, Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook 2010. De Gruyter.
Chalupa, Petr. 2015. “Przemoc w Księdze Estery jako problem hermeneutyczny.” Ruch Biblijny i Liturgiczny 68 (2): 125–136.
Clines, David J. A. 1984. The Esther Scroll. The Story of the Story. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 30. JSOT.
Craig, Kenneth. 1995. Reading Esther. A Case for the Literary Carnivalesque. Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation. Westminster John Knox.
Crawford, Sidnie White, and Leonard Jay Greenspoon, eds. 2003. The Book of Esther in Modern Research, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series. T&T Clark.
Day, Linda M. 2005. Esther. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Abingdon.
Elgvin, Torleif. 2016. “Violence, Apologetics, and Resistance: Hasmonaean Ideology and Yaḥad Texts in Dialogue.” In The War Scroll, Violence, War and Peace in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature: Essays in Honour of Martin G. Abegg on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, edited by Kipp Davis, Kyung S. Baek, Peter W. Flint, and Dorothy M. Peters. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 115. Brill.
Elliger, Karl, Wilhelm Rudolph, Rudolf Kittel, and Hans Peter Rüger, eds. 1997. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. 5th ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
Fox, Michael Vass. 2001. Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther. 2nd ed. Eerdmans.
Frankel, David. 2023. “Masking Revenge as Self-Defense: Domesticating the Book of Esther.” TheTorah.com. https://doi.org/thetorah.com/article/masking-revenge-as-self-defense-domesticating-the-book-of-esther.
Greenstein, Edward L. 1987. “A Jewish Reading of Esther.” In Judaic Perspectives on Ancient Israel, edited by Jacob Neusner, Baruch A. Levine, and Ernest S. Frerichs. Fortress Press.
Grys, Łukasz. 2015. “Struktura i styl Księgi Estery. Przyczynek do tematu.” Studia Bydgoskie 9: 7–24.
Heinemann, Isaac. 1954. Darkhe ha-agadah / The Methods of the Aggadah. 2nd ed. Magnes Press, The Hebrew University.
Kaspi, Joseph Ibn. 1902. “Gelilei Kesef.” In ‘Asarah kelei Kesef, edited by Isaac Last. Alkalay.
Kugler, Gili. 2019. When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move. Beihefte zur Zeitschriftfür die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 515. De Gruyter.
Lee, Lydia. 2020. “Reflections on the Scholarly Imaginations of Good and Evil in the Book of Esther.” Biblical Interpretation 28 (3): 273–302.
Levenson, Jon Douglas. 1997. Esther. A Commentary. The Old Testament Library. Westminster John Knox.
Macchi, Jean-Daniel. 2009. “The Book of Esther: A Persian Story in Greek Style.” In A Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Ideology, Stylistics, and Language Relating to Persian Israel, edited by Ehud Ben Zvi, Diana Edelman, and Frank Polak. Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts 5. Gorgias Press.
Macchi, Jean-Daniel. 2013. “Instituting through Writing: The Letters of Mordecai in Esther 9:20–28.” In Writing the Bible: Scribes, Scribalism and Script, edited by Philip R. Davies and Thomas Römer. Routledge.
Moore, Carey Armstrong. 1974. Esther. Introduction, Translation, and Notes. The Anchor Bible 7. Doubleday.
Niditch, Susan. 1993. War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence. Oxford University Press.
Rahlfs, Alfred, and Robert Hanhart, eds. 2006. Septuaginta. Id est Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX Interpretes. Editio altera quam recognovit et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
Ruiz-Ortiz, Francisco-Javier. 2017. The Dynamics of Violence and Revenge in the Hebrew Book of Esther. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 175. Brill.
Torrey, Charles C. 1944. “The Older Book of Esther.” Harvard Theological Review 37 (1): 1–40.
Walfish, Barry Dov. 1993. Esther in Medieval Garb: Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Esther in the Middle Ages. State University of New York Press.
Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook. 2005. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. 2nd ed. HarperCollins.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Marcin Chrostowski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.
- The Licensor grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work/related rights item specified in § 1 within the following fields: a) recording of Work/related rights item; b) reproduction (multiplication) of Work/related rights item in print and digital technology (e-book, audiobook); c) placing the copies of the multiplied Work/related rights item on the market; d) entering the Work/related rights item to computer memory; e) distribution of the work in electronic version in the open access form on the basis of Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 3.0) via the digital platform of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press and file repository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
- Usage of the recorded Work by the Licensee within the above fields is not restricted by time, numbers or territory.
- The Licensor grants the license for the Work/related rights item to the Licensee free of charge and for an unspecified period of time.
FULL TEXT License Agreement
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 33
Number of citations: 0
