Coming to pass, in the time of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) whose kingdom, India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces. Those days King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) had his abode, sovereign power, throne, palace in Shushan.
Please notice that we are continuing to use the Word for Word translation, where, in this case, the Hebrew is translated Word for Word, with no additional words added or taken away.
The Book of Esther plays out, with the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which was found by Cyrus the Great, as its background. This empire had its eastern border at India and it stretched all the way to the land of Cush, which is the land on both the east and west side of the Red Sea, which included modern day Ethiopia and stretching up to the land of Greece, as seen in the following map.
It's interesting to note that there were 117 provinces or mini-kingdoms, within the Persian Empire, each with a prince to rule over them, all under the divine rule of the King. Keep this in mind, as we get into the next few verses about the Feast and Banquet.
In our story, the King's throne or center of power was in Susa, as seen in the map above. However, further investigation reveals that it was just one of seven palaces. Susa is considered the Winter Palace.
In the Book of Esther, the king was Ahasuerus, known by his famous Greek name, Xerxes the Great. Esther is the Hebrew name of our heroine, while in history, she is known as Amestris. It should be noted that history has not been so kind to the memory of Esther. To her credit, most scholars take the Greek histories with a grain of salt, because they tend to skew the image of their enemies. It has been found that the Greek historians out and out lied about their adversaries, showing them in a very bad and false light.
The Achaemenid Persian Empire existed between 550 to 330 BC. To give you a timeline, Adam and Eve was about 4000 BC. Noah and the flood was about 2500 BC. Abraham was about 2100 BC, David was about 1000 BC. Daniel lived 620–538 B.C. and our story begins around 483 BC.
In the Book of Esther, the king was Ahasuerus, known by his famous Greek name, Xerxes the Great. Esther is the Hebrew name of our heroine, while in history, she is known as Amestris. It should be noted that history has not been so kind to the memory of Esther. To her credit, most scholars take the Greek histories with a grain of salt, because they tend to skew the image of their enemies. It has been found that the Greek historians out and out lied about their adversaries, showing them in a very bad and false light.
The Achaemenid Persian Empire existed between 550 to 330 BC. To give you a timeline, Adam and Eve was about 4000 BC. Noah and the flood was about 2500 BC. Abraham was about 2100 BC, David was about 1000 BC. Daniel lived 620–538 B.C. and our story begins around 483 BC.
Hi Keith,
ReplyDeletethe story of Esther in the Bible is a beautiful analogy of how those who are humble in the Lord (God's Spiritual Israel)can be used by the Lord to defeat the Spiritual enemy. It is a lovely book and I am encouraged by your post to go back and read it. There is a time for everything eh?
God bless you and yours
Hey Brenda, Yes, it is. As the basis for Purim, which is coming up soon, and the parallels in history.
ReplyDeleteI love the ironies that occur in the book of Esther. God has a wonderful sense of humour! Also, your post bringsto my mind the fact that there are usually at least two versions of a story. We see the news and accept what they present as God’s truth, but as we see from the over reporting of violence against Muslims and non-reporting of violence against Christians, can we really truly trust anything they tell us?
ReplyDeleteHey Susan. You comment made me smile. I think about God's sense of humor all the time. He is such a cool God.
ReplyDeleteAs for the media and how they report the "news", I'm sorry to say that the media will be the source of propaganda, used by Satan and the antichrist, in the end times. You can see it happening now. Sad, but also, uplifting because the Messiah's return is just around the corner. Amen!