Esther 2:5-8, 15-23

5 Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite. 6 Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. 7 Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. 8 So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. (Esther 2:5-8, NRSV)

15 When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her. 16 When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers--“Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holiday to the provinces, and gave gifts with royal liberality.

Mordecai Discovers a Plot

19 When the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20 Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him. 21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus. 22 But the matter came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai. 23 When the affair was investigated and found to be so, both the men were hanged on the gallows. It was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king. (Ester 2:15-23, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with minor editing from September 23, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 14, Year Two):

In the transition to today’s reading, we learn that King Ahasuerus, on the advice of his officials (Esth. 1:20), ordered letters to be sent “to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house” (v. 22). This chauvinistic move, ironically, serves to emphasize the fact that the king was not master in the palace. According to Mary Joan Winn Leith, “By decreeing that all women must give honor to their husbands the king succeeds in drawing attention to his own inability to rule his wife” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Esth. 1:20). This background sets in bold relief the fact that the heroine of the story is a woman, Esther. Leith adds that, “in further irony, his [i.e. the king’s] next wife, Esther, will ultimately rule him” (ibid.).

After the king’s anger “abated” (Esth. 2:1), perhaps, suggests Leith, “regretting his treatment of Vashti or missing her companionship” (op. cit., on 2:1), he orders a kind of beauty contest to find the next queen (vv. 2-4). Sidnie Ann White summarizes this matter: “After a time, the king regrets losing his queen, and his nobles suggest that he hold an empire-wide search for a new queen. Ahasuerus agrees, and all the eligible virgins in the kingdom are gathered into his harem. . . . When her turn with the king arrives, Esther [who ‘wins the regard of all who know her’] also gains the admiration of Ahasuerus, who makes her his queen” (The Women’s Bible Commentary, 1992, p. 124).

As today’s reading begins, we are introduced to Mordecai, a descendant of “Kish [who] had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah [Jehoiachin] of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away” (vv. 5-6). The reference to that deportation emphasizes Mordecai’s family heritage, for the leading people were taken, “all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land” (2 Kgs. 24:14). As a “cousin” of Esther (Hadassah), who had lost her parents, he had brought her up and “adopted her as his own daughter” (Esth. 2:7). When taken to the king’s harem, Esther pleased Hegai, “who had charge of the women” (v. 8, cf. v. 9), but, on the advice of Mordecai, did not reveal her Jewish identity (v. 10). Soon, Esther’s turn comes to go “in to the king” (v. 13, cf. vv. 12-14). White says of Esther’s submitting and entering the harem, “The text gives no judgment on the matter and seems to take her obedience to the king’s command for granted. To disobey would be suicidal,” and of her going in to the king, “When Esther’s turn with the king arrives (again it must be emphasized that the text does not give a negative judgment on this process), she wins the love of Ahasuerus and becomes the queen” (ibid., on Esth. 2:1-23). The king celebrates by holding a banquet for her, “Esther’s banquet,” proclaiming a holiday in the provinces, and giving gifts “with royal liberality” (v. 18).

The narrator stresses Esther’s loyalty to cousin Mordecai. “Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him” (v. 20). Mordecai follows the events, Esther being taken into the harem, her selection as queen, and plans for the banquet. He, of course is very interested, and, while sitting at the king’s gate (v. 19), he overhears the discussion by “two of the king’s eunuchs” of a conspiracy “to assassinate King Ahasuerus” (v. 21). He informs Esther, who informs the king “in the name of Mordecai” (v. 22), which in turn leads to the hanging of the conspirators and a record the incident (v. 23), which will serve Mordecai well, as it will cause the king to honor Mordecai (6:2, cf. 6:1-11).

Judith 5:1-21

Council against the Israelites

5:1 It was reported to Holofernes, the general of the Assyrian army, that the people of Israel had prepared for war and had closed the mountain passes and fortified all the high hilltops and set up barricades in the plains. 2 In great anger he called together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland, 3 and said to them, “Tell me, you Canaanites, what people is this that lives in the hill country? What towns do they inhabit? How large is their army, and in what does their power and strength consist? Who rules over them as king and leads their army? 4 And why have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?”

Achior’s Report (Gen 11.27-12.5; Ex 7.1-12.46; 14.21-22)

5 Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, “May my lord please listen to a report from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that lives in the mountain district near you. No falsehood shall come from your servant’s mouth. 6 These people are descended from the Chaldeans. 7 At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because they did not wish to follow the gods of their ancestors who were in Chaldea. 8 Since they had abandoned the ways of their ancestors, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God they had come to know, their ancestors drove them out from the presence of their gods. So they fled to Mesopotamia, and lived there for a long time. 9 Then their God commanded them to leave the place where they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and grew very prosperous in gold and silver and very much livestock. 10 When a famine spread over the land of Canaan they went down to Egypt and lived there as long as they had food. There they became so great a multitude that their race could not be counted. 11 So the king of Egypt became hostile to them; he exploited them and forced them to make bricks. 12 They cried out to their God, and he afflicted the whole land of Egypt with incurable plagues. So the Egyptians drove them out of their sight. 13 Then God dried up the Red Sea before them, 14 and he led them by the way of Sinai and Kadesh-barnea. They drove out all the people of the desert, 15 and took up residence in the land of the Amorites, and by their might destroyed all the inhabitants of Heshbon; and crossing over the Jordan they took possession of all the hill country. 16 They drove out before them the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites, and lived there a long time.

17 “As long as they did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. 18 But when they departed from the way he had prescribed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign land. The temple of their God was razed to the ground, and their towns were occupied by their enemies. 19 But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places where they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was uninhabited.

20 “So now, my master and lord, if there is any oversight in this people and they sin against their God and we find out their offense, then we can go up and defeat them. 21 But if they are not a guilty nation, then let my lord pass them by; for their Lord and God will defend them, and we shall become the laughingstock of the whole world.” (Judith 5:1-21, NRSV).

The following comments are repeated here from September 23, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 14, Year Two):

When the Assyrian general Holofernes is informed about the resistance of the Israelites and their preparations for war, he inquires about them of their neighbors, calling “together all the princes of Moab and the commanders of Ammon and all the governors of the coastland” (Judith 5:2). Both Moab and Ammon “were traditional enemies of Israel (Judg. 3:12-30; 2 Sam. 10-12)” (Linda Day, NOAB, 3^rd ed, 2001, on Judith 5:2). Holofernes asks questions about the kind of military resistance he will be facing when he attacks (v. 3). “Why,” he asks, “have they alone, of all who live in the west, refused to come out and meet me?” (v. 4). The answer comes first from Achior, “the leader of all the Ammonites” (v. 5), in the form of a history of Israel’s origins from the Chaldeans (vv. 6-7), their move to Mesopotamia, termed here a flight (v. 8, cf. Gen. 11:31). Abraham’s further move from Haran to Canaan in response to the call of God (Gen. 12:1-5) is interpreted as God’s command (Judith 5:9a). Achior’s story continues with prosperity in Canaan (v. 9b), but the need to seek refuge in Egypt from the famine, where “they became a great multitude” (v. 10), and faced the hostility and exploitation of Pharaoh (v. 11), until, in response to their cry to God, and the plagues, “the Egyptians drove them out of their sight” (v. 12). Achior briefly refers to the Exodus and conquest as they “took up residence in the land of the Amorites” (v. 15a), and the Israelites conquest, destruction or expulsion of “the inhabitants of Heshbon” (v. 15b), “the Canaanites, the Perizites, the Jebusites, the Shechemites, and all the Gergesites” (v. 16).

So far the review of Israelite history reflects the perspective of an outsider, but the next paragraph reflects the view of Deuteronomy that Israelite obedience to God’s laws brings blessing and prosperity, but that their sin and rebellion brings punishment and suffering. “As long as they did not sin against their God they prospered, for the God who hates iniquity is with them. But when they departed from the way he had prescribed for them, they were utterly defeated in many battles and were led away captive to a foreign land” (vv. 17-18a). The Babylonian catastrophe is briefly reported (v. 18b)–to the Assyrian, no less--but Achior moves quickly to their return from exile. “But now they have returned to their God, and have come back from the places where they were scattered, and have occupied Jerusalem, where their sanctuary is, and have settled in the hill country, because it was uninhabited” (v. 19). So Achior warns Holofernes that the possibility of his conquering the Israelites will depend, not on his own military prowess and strength, but on whether “they sin against their God” (v. 20), or “they are not a guilty nation,” in which case “their Lord and God will defend them, and we shall become the laughingstock of the whole world” (v. 21). As the continuing narrative will clearly demonstrate, this advice was most displeasing to Holofernes.

Acts 17:16-34

Paul in Athens

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him-though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we too are his offspring.’

29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. (Acts 17:16-34, NRSV)

On August 4, 2007 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 27, Year One), comments were repeated from September 23, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 14, Year Two); they are repeated again here with some editing and supplement:

Alone in Athens, Paul, “distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16), argues “in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there” (v. 17). While this approach generally continues his approach in other cities, Luke reports an unusual aspect, when “some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)” (v. 18). Luke’s parenthetical comment here anticipates the fact that Paul’s speech will be interrupted when he introduces the topic of resurrection (vv. 31-32). But after these philosophers bring Paul to the Areopagus they ask about his new teaching: “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means” (vv. 19b, 20). Luke explains how people were there with time for such discussion. “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new” (v. 21).

Paul makes a good beginning by establishing rapport. He comments on “how extremely religious you are in every way” (v. 22), because he has seen evidence of that. “For as I went through the city,” he says, “and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (v. 23). This he relates to his God, “the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth” (v. 24a). Paul’s God “does not live in shrines made by human hands” (v. 24b), and does not need the continuing stream of sacrifices of pagan cults, “as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things” (v. 25). This critique of pagan idolatry and the corresponding emphasis on the one God as creator ;and sustainer of the world echoes typical Jewish propaganda within the Greco-Roman world. Paul would later decry the pagan world, saying “they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles” (Rom. 1:23). But his tone at Athens, as presented by Luke, is less polemic. According to Christopher R. Matthews, “God as the creator ([Acts] 14:15) is an idea common to Jews (Gen. 1:1) and Greeks (e.g. Plato, Timaeus)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Acts 17:24-25). As Paul elaborates this theme, God’s starting “from one ancestor [Adam, from whom] he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth” which he sustains in their times and places (v. 26), with a view toward their searching for him, perhaps groping and finding him, “though indeed he is not far from each one of us” (v. 27). This last point is supported by two quotations, “In him we live and move and have our being” (v. 28a) and “For we too are his offspring” (v. 28b). According to Matthews, “Although the first quotation is sometimes attributed to Epimenides, its language is probably to be associated with Posidonius (based on Plato); the second quotation is from Aratus (Phanomena 5), a Greek poet of Cilicia educated as a Stoic. In Paul’s usage the original pantheistic sense of both ‘quotations’ is reinterpreted” (ibid., on v. 28). This is the clearest example of Paul’s quotation from non-Judeo-Christian literature in the New Testament; but compare his citation of a Cretan proverb (Titus 1:12). Paul points out that God should not be understood as any form of material object. “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals” (v. 29). Paul explains that in the past “God has overlooked the times of human ignorance” (v. 30a), but “now,” says Paul, “he [i.e., God] commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (vv. 30b, 31).

In his reference to resurrection, God’s raising Christ from the dead (v. 31), Paul comes to a significant difference between the conception of life after death in Hebrew thought, resurrection of the body, and that of the Greeks, who tended to think of a separation of the soul from the body. Plato, for example, has Socrates say:

Let us consider in another way also how good reason there is to hope that it is a good thing. For the state of death is one of two things: either it is virtually nothingness, so that the dead has no consciousness of anything, or it is, as people say, a change and migration of the soul from this to another place. (Apology, 40c, on the Internet, the Perseus web site, at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Apol.+40c, accessed Sept. 18, 2008; copy and paste the URL)

And so, at Paul’s mention of resurrection, he is interrupted. “When they [i.e., his ‘audience’ at the Areopagus] heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this’ ” (v. 32). So, “at that point Paul left them” (v. 33). And Luke sums up the results, which, in comparison with Paul’s success in other cities, seem rather meagre. “But some of them [the Athenians] joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them” (v. 34).

John 12:44-50

Summary of Jesus’ Teaching

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me. (John 12:44-50, NRSV)

On February 10, 2008 (the First Sunday of Lent, Year Two), comments were repeated from September 23, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 14, Year Two), when comments were repeated from March 5, 2006 (the First Sunday in Lent, Year Two); the comments are repeated again here:

In John’s narrative, the public ministry of Jesus comes to an end in chapter 12; the remainder is devoted to the Last Supper (chaps. 13-17), the Passion Narrative (chaps. 18-19) and the Resurrection (chaps. 20-21). Chapter 12 leads up to the summary paragraph, today’s reading, by noting that “Although he [Jesus] had performed so many signs [= miracles pointing to his divine identity] in their presence [i.e. the presence of his opponents, usually called ‘the Jews’], they did not believe in him” (Jn. 12:37). This is explained by references to Isaiah, a prophet whose message was apparently rejected by contemporaries. Verse 38 quotes Isaiah 53:1, “Lord, who has believed our message,/and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Verse 40 quotes Isaiah 6:10, about their blind eyes and hardened heart, “so that they might not look with their eyes,/and understand with their heart and turn–and I would heal them.” John notes some exceptions, “Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue” (v. 42), “for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God” (v. 43).

So Jesus sums up his ministry. The one who believes in him believes in the one, God, who sent him (v. 44). One who sees Jesus, he says, “sees him who sent me” (v. 45). Raymond E. Brown compares a later statement to the disciples, in response to Philip’s question, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9; The Gospel according to John I-XII, Anchor Bible 29, 1966, on Jn. 12:45). Jesus has “come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in [him] should not remain in the darkness” (v. 46), and he did not come to judge the world, but to save the world (v. 47; cf. 3:17-21). However, the one who rejects him will be judged “on the last day” by “the word that I have spoken” (v. 48). The word that Jesus has spoken is that of the Father, who “has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak” (v. 49). Jesus has faithfully spoken “just as the Father has told me,” and the Father’s commandment is “eternal life” (v. 50). “In John,” says Brown, “it is very clear that the command of God that means eternal life is more than any OT commandment. It is the word of God spoken through Jesus that now sums up the covenant obligations of the believer” (ibid., on Jn. 12:44-50). “In its own way,” says Brown, “this short discourse of Jesus . . . is the Christian form of what Moses proclaimed ‘when he had finished speaking all these words to Israel’ (Deut. xxxii 45-47):

Take to heart all the words which I have now given you . . .

that your children may be careful to do all the words of this Law;

for this is no trivial matter for you,

but it means your very life. (ibid., p. 493)

There is an emphasis here on “eternal life,” as in other Johannine contexts (e.g. 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39 etc.), including this summary, and the later statement of the books purpose, “that you may have life in his name” (20:31).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net