View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Vanderbilt Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive RELIGIOUS AND COMMUNAL PRACTICES IN THREE TRADITIONS OF ESTHER: PRACTICES IN TEXTS AND CONTEXTS By Kelly A. Whitcomb Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May 2013 Nashville, TN Approved: Douglas A. Knight Annalisa Azzoni Ted A. Smith Kathy L. Gaca Herbert Marbury Jack M. Sasson Copyright © Kelly A. Whitcomb All Rights Reserved To my late grandparents, Beverly D. Stewart, George T. Stewart, Edith L. Whitcomb and Wilson F. Whitcomb, who were unable to see me obtain my Ph.D. but who taught me life's most important lessons— Love one another and let kids be kids. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................... viii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Judeans and Jews .....................................................................................................3 Narrative Contexts and Socio-historical Contexts.................................................11 Methods and Approaches in This Study ................................................................13 Historical Criticism: Redaction and Textual Criticism of Esther .......................19 Literary Criticism................................................................................................33 Issues of Genre.................................................................................................35 The Masoretic Text.......................................................................................35 The Greek versions .......................................................................................38 Genre in MT, LXX and AT ..........................................................................38 Social Theory......................................................................................................43 Gender..............................................................................................................51 Ideology ...........................................................................................................53 Practice.............................................................................................................61 Outline of the Study...............................................................................................65 Conclusion .............................................................................................................67 II. TO FAST OR NOT TO FAST: THREE PERSPECTIVES ON FASTING IN ESTHER ...................................................69 Introduction............................................................................................................69 Fasting and Feasting ..............................................................................................70 Fasting in Antiquity ............................................................................................70 Conclusions......................................................................................................78 Feasting in Esther................................................................................................82 Fasting in Esther .................................................................................................88 Esther 4:3 (AT 4:1) ..........................................................................................90 Redaction and textual criticism.....................................................................90 Literary and ideological matters ...................................................................94 Esther 4:16 (AT 4:11) ......................................................................................95 Redaction and textual criticism.....................................................................95 iv Literary and ideological matters ...................................................................99 Esther 9:31 (LXX 9:30) .................................................................................104 Source, redaction and textual criticism.......................................................104 Literary and ideological matters .................................................................110 Fasting and Gender ........................................................................................111 Dietary Matters in Esther.....................................................................................114 Conclusions..........................................................................................................120 III. BESEECHING GOD AND KING: THE ROLES OF PRAYER IN THE JUDEAN DIASPORA..........................................124 Introduction..........................................................................................................124 Bourdieu and Prayer as Capital............................................................................125 MT and Prayer .....................................................................................................126 The Greek Versions and Prayer ...........................................................................133 Biblical Scholarship on Addition C ..................................................................140 LXX and AT and Prayer...................................................................................144 Prayer and Gender................................................................................................157 Conclusions..........................................................................................................160 IV. CAPITAL AND CIRCUMCISION: DEFINING JUDEANS AND JEWS IN THE MIDST OF EMPIRE..............................167 Introduction..........................................................................................................167 Circumcision in Antiquity....................................................................................168 Observations about MT Esther ............................................................................171 Observations about LXX Esther ..........................................................................186 Observations about AT Esther.............................................................................193 Circumcision and Gender ....................................................................................204 Conclusions..........................................................................................................206 V. CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................212 Historical and Ideological Matters in Review .....................................................213 Fasting, Prayer and Circumcision Revisited.....................................................217 Implications for Biblical Interpretation and Application.....................................223 Possibilities for Further Study ..........................................................................229 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................231 Afterword.............................................................................................................231 Appendix A. SOME SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO FASTING IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND APOCRYPHA/PSEUDEPIGRAPHA ...................................................................236 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................237 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my dissertation committee for their input and support. Professor Douglas A. Knight has offered encouragement and advice every step of the way concerning the struggles of writing a dissertation. Professor Annalisa Azzoni's engagement of questions of gender and identity in antiquity have shaped my approach to the texts in question. Professor Ted A. Smith's knowledge of social theory and passion for biblical texts have helped me to nuance how I understand biblical texts in antiquity with the aid of theory. Professor Kathy L. Gaca's engagement of social issues such as justice with regard to ancient texts has also formed my understanding of the types of questions I bring to the biblical texts. I would also like to thank Professor Jack M. Sasson for his detailed response and his insight from a Jewish perspective, a necessity when a Christian attempts to make claims about Judaism in any era. Finally, Professor Herbert Marbury also provided helpful feedback from the perspective of a biblical scholar attempting to engage the ancient texts with social theory. I would also like to thank my master's degree professors whose encouragement and support assisted me in preparing for doctoral studies and whose own scholarship and teaching have formed me in ways that have influenced this project as well. Professors Greg Carey and Julia O'Brien at Lancaster Theological Seminary, as well