Anagignoskomena - Deuterocanonical Books, Book of Esther, Letter of Jeremiah, Sirach, Book of Judith, 2 Esdras, Book of Wisdom, Book of Baruch (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 28. Chapters: Deuterocanonical books, Book of Esther, Letter of Jeremiah, Sirach, Book of Judith, 2 Esdras, Book of Wisdom, Book of Baruch, 2 Maccabees, Book of Tobit, 1 Maccabees, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Esdras, Psalm 151, 3 Maccabees, Prayer of Manasseh, The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children, Additions to Daniel, Book of Odes. Excerpt: The Book of Esther is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim. Its full text is read aloud twice during the celebration, in the evening and again the following morning. The biblical Book of Esther is set in the third year of Ahasuerus, a king of Persia. The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to Xerxes, both deriving from the Persian Khashayarsha, thus Ahasuerus is usually identified as Xerxes I (486-465 BCE), though Ahasuerus is identified as Artaxerxes in the later Greek version of Esther (as well as by Josephus, the Jewish commentary Esther Rabbah, the Ethiopic translation and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus who identified him more precisely as Artaxerxes II ). The Book of Esther tells a story of palace intrigue and genocide thwarted by a Jewish queen of Persia. Ahasuerus, ruler of a massive Persian empire, holds a lavish party, initially for his court and dignitaries and afterwards for all inhabitants of the capital city Shushan. Ahasuerus orders the queen Vashti to display her beauty before the guests. She refuses. Worried all women will learn from this, Ahasuerus removes her as queen and has a royal decree sent across the empire that men should be the ruler of their households and should speak their own native tongue. Ahasuerus then orders all "beautiful young girls to be presented to him, so he can choose a new queen to replace Vashti. One of these is Esther, who had no parents and i...