Hey, Oscar! I know; I haven't been on LJ too much.
Let's not confuse the Biblical book of Esther with actual history. First of all, we don't know that it happened at all--some think the entire thing was completely made up, the way someone would write a novel. And if it did happen, we don't know for sure that the king who is called "Ahasuerus" in Esther is actually Xerses I, the invader of Greece of 480BC. That's only a theory. But if it's true, the Greek view of him is very different from the Persian view of him.
For example, as a comparison, think of the way a patriotic German might have written a great praise of Hitler in the early 1940s and then contrast that with a contemporary view of Hitler--you would think they were talking about two different people because the points of view are so widely different.
But this is all a maybe, maybe, maybe because of so few records that have survived from the period of 5 centuries before Christ.
The Biblical book of Esther tells a story about Jews and about a king who at first was indifferent to them and then eventually sympathized with them because he found out that his queen was a secret Jew. There is no mention, whatsoever, of Greeks or any other political, domestic, or international issues that this king had to deal with. Esther was written by a Jew and is only interested in Jewish issues.
The book and movie "One Night with the King," in filling in the missing gaps to embellish and elaborate, from a contemporary perspective, imagines that Ahasuerus was Xerxes and, among other things, had to decide whether or not to invade Greece. It gives more depth to the Esther story, from a literary point-of-view, but should not be confused with real history.
Let's not confuse the Biblical book of Esther with actual history. First of all, we don't know that it happened at all--some think the entire thing was completely made up, the way someone would write a novel. And if it did happen, we don't know for sure that the king who is called "Ahasuerus" in Esther is actually Xerses I, the invader of Greece of 480BC. That's only a theory. But if it's true, the Greek view of him is very different from the Persian view of him.
For example, as a comparison, think of the way a patriotic German might have written a great praise of Hitler in the early 1940s and then contrast that with a contemporary view of Hitler--you would think they were talking about two different people because the points of view are so widely different.
But this is all a maybe, maybe, maybe because of so few records that have survived from the period of 5 centuries before Christ.
The Biblical book of Esther tells a story about Jews and about a king who at first was indifferent to them and then eventually sympathized with them because he found out that his queen was a secret Jew. There is no mention, whatsoever, of Greeks or any other political, domestic, or international issues that this king had to deal with. Esther was written by a Jew and is only interested in Jewish issues.
The book and movie "One Night with the King," in filling in the missing gaps to embellish and elaborate, from a contemporary perspective, imagines that Ahasuerus was Xerxes and, among other things, had to decide whether or not to invade Greece. It gives more depth to the Esther story, from a literary point-of-view, but should not be confused with real history.
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