Isaac Kalimi. The Book of Esther between Judaism and Christianity: The Biblical Story, Self-identification, and Antisemitic Interpretation

This volume is an ambitious project that combines detailed textual discussion of Esther with a consideration of its “afterlife” (Nachleben) in the Jewish and Christian traditions. It is not a systematic exegetical commentary but rather considers selective issues raised by the biblical text, which are then brought into dialogue with their impact on these respective readerships. This pairing of interpretation and interpretive history is rare among the existing studies of the book of Esther. This “interdisciplinary” (p. 5) approach makes for very stimulating reading, though given the ambitious scope of the work, some parts are more convincing than others.Following a brief introduction, Part I addresses some standard textual issues involved in the study of Esther: its date and provenance, distinct textual traditions, characterization, literary features, central theological themes, historical setting and historicity, and ancient parallels to Haman’s accusation against the Jews. The author accepts the MT over the LXX or Alpha Text (AT) as the starting point for his analysis, though these alternate traditions are addressed when relevant. Chapter 4 discusses the book’s theological message of Esther and addresses the perennial question of God’s apparent absence in it. It highlights the “traumatic fear of [the Israelites’] complete annihilation” as a central theological motif (p. 66). The discussion of the book’s historicity in chapter 5 is noteworthy in that it accords a greater degree of historical value to the book than one encounters in many other works. Despite containing “many implausible elements,” Kalimi affirms that it presents “substantial reliable historical data” (p. 130), and in the end he prefers to classify the book as “novelistic history” rather than an “historical novella.” More explicit statements regarding the book’s historical core are also found in the book’s concluding chapter.Part II looks at Jewish reception history, beginning in chapter 7 with Esther’s conspicuous absence among the biblical manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This should not be taken as representative of the Jewish reading tradition, which as a whole is warmly receptive to the book. This point is amply demonstrated in the two following chapters, which survey Josephus and the early, medieval, and modern rabbinic tradition, along with the development of later Purim celebrations. Its enthusiastic acceptance, the author opines, is partly because it addresses the fear of national annihilation and in part because of its role in Jewish self-definition (p. 183). In chapter 9, the author provides a wealth of historical examples of how Jewish readers identified later opponents with Haman and his followers, beginning with the LXX’s identification of Haman as a “Macedonian” (Esth 9.24). The continuous historical stream of new “Hamans” also led to the celebration of new “Purims,” recorded in new “Megillot” (remembrance documents of one kind or another). The chapter concludes, as might be expected, with an extensive discussion of the book’s application to Nazi Germany and the Shoah.Part III examines Christian interpretation of the book of Esther, and as the book’s subtitle intimates, anti-Semitic readings feature prominently (though not exclusively) in it. Without denying the reality of the phenomenon, the presentation leaves a misleading impression that anti-Semitism is typical of the Christian tradition as a whole, and at times the evidence is rather forced into the author’s conclusions. For example, chapter 10 returns to the renderings of the LXX and AT along with their various “Additions,” arguing that these display anti-Jewish sentiments. The fact that these occur in Hellenistic Jewish productions (as the author acknowledges on p. 238) leads him to speculate that these are “perhaps” the work of a later Christian glossator—but no evidence is given to support such a hypothesis. The discussion of the Additions is unsatisfactory in other respects; little is said, for example, of their absence in Peshitta manuscripts or of Jerome’s explicit statements regarding their secondary origin. The end result is the unhelpful assertion that “Jews and most Christians each read a very different version of the Esther story” (p. 237)—even though he is well aware that Protestants deny any canonical status to the Additions, and his chief examples of anti-Semitic Christian interpretation in later chapters are German Protestants whose readings were based on the MT! The chapter proceeds to discuss the early medieval commentary of Rabanus Maurus, which, in keeping with its historical and theological context, is often allegorical in nature. The book’s use in art and music is briefly mentioned. This is a fairly thin Christian interpretive history that could have been enriched by interacting with some of the patristic citations of Esther and especially the Demonstrations of Aphrahat, who is not mentioned at all in the volume.The author has previously published on Luther’s views concerning Esther, so these receive detailed attention in chapter 11. He notes Luther’s positive comments regarding the characters of Mordecai and Esther, while also examining his negative statements about Jewish love for the book, his comments to Erasmus that appear to question the book’s place within the biblical canon, and some of his clearly racist views pertaining to the Jews. This conundrum is perhaps to be explained as a developing antipathy on Luther’s part toward the Jews, in contrast to a more congenial and tolerant stance earlier in his life (p. 287). Regardless of the reason, one finds similarly negative views in later German Protestants (the subject of chapter 12, along with a few British and American scholars).More positive Christian interpretations of Esther, both before and after the Holocaust, are discussed in chapter 13; special attention is given to the Swiss scholar Wilhelm Vischer, who was expelled from Germany in 1933 because of his resistance to Hitler. Not surprisingly, Vischer saw obvious parallels between Haman’s plot and the Third Reich’s treatment of the Jews. A concluding chapter summarizes the volume.This is an informative and stimulating work that will be of use to Esther studies. The attempt to link textual interpretation and interpretive history is commendable and at least partly successful, though as noted above, the section on Christian interpretation is lacking in some crucial areas and leaves an imbalanced perception. Even so, the volume provides a cautionary tale for how badly Esther can be misread when one is guided by anti-Semitic ideology.