The Jewish Quarterly Review (Volume 10) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920. Excerpt: ... THE BOOK OF ESTHER IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY By Jacou Hoschander, Dropsie College. CHAPTER IV Ahasuerus' identity with Artaxerxcs II, Mnemon--Plutarch's Life of Artaxerxes--Plutarch's sources and their reliability--Artaxerxes' character--His relations to the Greeks--The Peace of Antalcidas--The rebellion of Cyrus the Younger--The date of the battle of Cunaxa--Artaxerxes' celebration of his victory--His domestic life--Quarrels between his queen and his mother--The rule of the harem--The queen's disobedience--Her degradation and murder--Her name--Artaxerxes' concubines--Artaxerxes' suspicions against his grandees--His palace at Susa--The name Ahasuerus in the Hebrew version--A comparison between Xerxes and Artaxerxes II--The resurrection of the Persian empire--The Arsacides alleged descendants of Artaxerxes II--His proper name--The uniformity of the Scriptures--The name Artaxerxes in the Greek version. The veracity of a story has to be judged by the facts narrated therein, and these facts on their own merits, independently of the names of the dramatis personae, which may have been changed for some reason. The modern exegetes of the Book of Esther evidently do not grant these premisses. Having identified Ahasuerus with Xerxes, an identification that etymologically cannot be doubted, and finding that historically the events of this Book could not have occurred under the reign of the latter, they conclude that the story is fictitious. This conclusion is erroneous. We readily concede that an assumption that these events actually happened under Xerxes' reign is beyond the limits of consideration, as we have shown in the preceding chapter. But this fact does not prove that these events are unhistorical. They might have occurred under a ruler whose name was not Ahas...