Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

Whatever Josephuses origin of the information, it goes to show that he 
understood the passage to be passive.

As for Yah telling Mordecai about the plot, I don't think that's what 
the author intended us to understand. However, it seems clear that the 
author intended us to understand that this act of salvation came about 
through Yah's blessing to his glory and praise. And I would agree that 
the story is very upbuilding indeed.


-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Luke Buckler
Sent: Mon 10/17/2005 8:33 PM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Passive sentences in Esther?
 
> Yes, it's passive.

Thanks for the replies.

>Josephus said that a certain Jewish man named Barnabasus overheard
> the plot, told Mordecai and Mordecai told the king; hence, Mordecai became
> registered as the one who exposed it.  Where Josephus got that part of the
> story is anybody's guess, as far as I can tell.

The studies I heard on Sat. didn't mention Josephus or Barnabasus,
although the point to do with the grammar was to suggest that the
information about the plot did come to Mordecai from some source other
than himself. If you are interested, this is kind of what was
suggested at the study day: -

The book of Esther is well known for being a book in the Bible that
doesn't mention the God of the Bible. Throughout the book man is in
control: the king of Persia rules the whole world; what he says goes
(his word must be obeyed) - there is no mention of God. Man is in
charge ...  or so it seems.

At lot of "coincidence" happens in the book which may point to someone
other than man (i.e. God) really being in control. And even the
grammar of sentences like in Est. 2:22 may also point to an unnamed
character in the story, just as 'The ball was kicked' points to an
unnamed person who kicked the ball: 'The matter was made known to
Mordecai ... '.

The passive structure of the sentence might be there to leave a space
in the narrative for an unnamed character. The structure leaves you
with questions like, 'How did Mordecai find out the information?',
'Did someone tell Mordecai?' It all points to an unnamed character,
and the unnamed character is God, who, in various ways, works behind
the seen.

I thought that was was pretty tops: interesting and encouraging.

Thanks again.
luke



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Peter wrote:-

> I think we can make a good argument that, although this was tolerated by
> God, it was not his original purpose, which seems to have been
> mongamous, as in Genesis 2:24 which mentions only one wife.

I think this is projecting later beliefs on to the text. As a number
of list members have pointed out polygamous marriages are just accepted
in the texts as being a normal part of life. Whether than be wives or
some combination of wife, wives, concubine or concubines. Beyond that
there is 2 Sam 12:8 KJV:-

``And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy
bosom...''

If you are going to make the case that the writer(s) thought God's ideal
was monogamous marriages why would they include a verse which portrays
God as actively taking Saul's wives away from him and giving them
to David? Monogamy came to us from the Romans, not from either the
Jews or the Christians.

For purely numerical reasons I expect monogamy was the more common
form of marriage, there appears to be nothing in the texts which
elevates that above polygamous marriages.

Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz               </   New
Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax  64-3-364-2332       /)  Zealand
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