“AND THE LOWLY DEVOURED THOSE HELD IN HONOR:” EMPIRE AND GENDER IN GREEK ESTHER by Meredith J. Stone Bachelor of Arts, 2001 Hardin-Simmons University Abilene, TX Master of Arts, 2006 Hardin-Simmons University Abilene, TX Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Brite Divinity School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Interpretation Fort Worth, TX December 2016 “AND THE LOWLY DEVOURED THOSE HELD IN HONOR:” EMPIRE AND GENDER IN GREEK ESTHER APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE: _Warren Carter________________________________ Dissertation Director _Timothy Sandoval_____________________________ Reader _Ariel Feldman________________________________ Reader _Jeffery Williams______________________________ Associate Dean for Academic Affairs _Joretta Marshall________________________________ Dean CONTENTS Chapter 1 – Locating the Argument in the History of Scholarship on the Book of Esther ........................................................................................................1 Textual History ....................................................................................................................4 Dating and Provenance ......................................................................................................12 Ptolemaic and Hasmonean Audiences in the 1st Century BCE..........................................15 Genre ..................................................................................................................................27 Previous Esther Scholarship Considering Empire and Gender..........................................33 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................48 Chapter 2 – Methodology of Imperial-Critical Approaches and Intersections with Gender Studies ..................................................................................50 Toward a Definition of Imperial-Critical Approaches .......................................................51 Methodology of Imperial-Critical Approaches ..................................................................57 Gender Studies ...................................................................................................................80 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................94 Chapter 3 – Dreams, Dragons, Deference, and the Cosmic Contest for Hegemonic Masculinity (11:2-12:6) .........................................................................95 Mordecai’s Dream (11:2-12) .............................................................................................96 A Plot Uncovered (12:1-6)...............................................................................................125 Addition A as a Masculinizing of Esther? .......................................................................129 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................132 Chapter 4 – Breaking the Surface of Consent: Vashti’s Act of Defiance to Masculine Imperial Power and Imperial Attempts at Restablization (1:1-2:20) .........................................................................................................................133 Artaxerxes: Ruler Over All the World (1:1-8) .................................................................134 Vashti’s Negotiation Through an Act of Defiance (1:9-12a) ..........................................152 Imperial Responses to Vashti’s Defiance (1:12b-2:20) ...................................................168 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................199 Chapter 5 – Negotiating as God’s Representative: Mordecai and Esther’s Differing Negotiation Methodology in the Face of Severe Imperial Responses (2:21-3:13; 13:1-7; 3:14-4:17; 13:8-14:19) ...................................................................202 Mordecai and the Eunuchs, Round Two – A Negotiation of Deference (2:21-23) .........203 Mordecai’s Negotiation of Defiance (3:1-4)....................................................................206 iii Imperial Response to Mordecai’s Defiance (3:5-13; 13:1-7; 3:14) .................................218 Subordinate Transcripts of Negotiation (3:15-4:17; 13:8-14:19) ....................................236 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................274 Chapter 6 – Esther and the Results of Complex Means of Disguised Negotiation (15:1-16; 5:3-8:12; 16:1-24; 8:13-11:1).........................................................................276 Esther’s Negotiation of Artaxerxes, Part 1: Approaching Artaxerxes, Requesting and Hosting a First Banquet (15:1-16; 5:3-6:13) ..............................278 Esther’s Negotiation of Artaxerxes, Part 2: The Second Banquet and Request for Deliverance (6:14-8:2) .....................................................................315 Esther’s Negotiation of Artaxerxes, Part 3: Esther’s Plea to Alter an Irrevocable Decree (8:3-12; 16:1-24; 8:13-14) ....................................................329 Aftermath, Reversal, and Concluding Events (8:15-11:1) ...............................................347 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................356 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................358 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................367 iv CHAPTER 1: LOCATING THE ARGUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER In this study, I read Greek Esther1 by utilizing an imperial-critical approach which foregrounds the exertion and negotiation of Persian imperial power with attention to the performance of gender within the interplay of power. This reading of Greek Esther (hereafter referred to as LXX Esther) will foreground the imperial context of the Persian empire as it is portrayed in the narrative of the book, and place it in dialogue with James C. Scott’s framework for understanding domination and the various strategies of negotiation which the dominated employ.2 By also exploring the gendered aspects of imperial power and of the diverse strategies of its negotiation within the narrative portrayal, I seek to contribute to the conversation surrounding the intersection of empire and gender in biblical texts.3 I also argue in this study that the negotiation with the Persian empire literarily present in LXX Esther has multiple points of intertextual connection with the range of imperial power experienced by Jewish people in the late Second Temple period. As is discussed in this chapter, dating the translation/compilation/writing of LXX Esther is difficult. However, I establish two 1 By “Greek Esther,” I am referring specifically to the Septuagint version of Esther, not the Greek Alpha Text of Esther. 2 James C. Scott, Weapons of Weak (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987); and Domination and the Arts of Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990). 3 For example, Joseph A. Marchal, The Politics of Heaven: Women, Gender, and Empire in the Study of Paul (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008); and Davina C. Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010). 1 2 potential reading locations for the earliest readers of LXX Esther - Egyptian Diaspora Jews under the Ptolemaic empire, and Jews living under the Hasmonean dynasty who had a collective memory of the Seleucid oppression and Maccabean revolt. These locations provide settings for intertextual connections with this reading of LXX Esther through the lenses of empire and gender. I have chosen to focus my reading on LXX Esther because I find that when the Additions to Esther are read in their original locations in the Septuagint version, they provide added focus on the imperial presence and its negotiation. Additions B and E are copies of imperial edicts which give further voice to imperial power. Additions C and D offer internal reflections from the characters of Mordecai and Esther which reveal the motivations behind their actions of negotiation. Additions A and F contain apocalyptic themes similar to the apocalyptic literature of the late Second Temple period which has been demonstrated to reflect imperial negotiation.4 The same case may be made for reading the Greek Alpha text of Esther (hereafter referred to as AT Esther) through the same lenses. However, manuscript evidence for AT Esther, only surviving in four manuscripts, is scant when compared to the more widely known LXX Esther which survives in thirty-six manuscripts.5 Because I seek to offer a reading of LXX Esther which would have been plausible for historical contexts shaped by imperial power, I choose to focus on the more widely known and evidenced text. Additionally, while AT Esther has been the subject of significant work, contemporary scholarly attention to LXX Esther has been negligible. Emanuel 4 Anathea Portier-Young, Apocalypse Against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011); Richard A. Horsley, Scribes, Visionaries, and the Politics of Second