Hanging/Crucifixion
The verb “to
hang” (תלה) occurs twenty-six times in the Hebrew Bible, twenty times of a
person’s being hanged. Of these, almost half (nine) occur in Esther. Aside from
Ahasuerus’ order to hang the rebels Bigthan and Teresh in 2:23, the term is
used exclusively of Haman’s plan to kill Mordecai, which is then reversed. The
evil advisor of the king, along with his ten sons, is hanged on the same “gallows”
(עץ: “tree,” “wood”) intended for Mordecai, the Jew from Jerusalem (2:6).
In the LXX of Esther, the Hebrew תלה is translated by κρεμαννυμι, to hang.” Of these two LXX occurrences of “to crucify” (σταυροω), both are found in Esther, once in 7:9 translating תלה and once in the addition at 8:12r, the act located (outside) the gates of Susa. The gallows is called σταυροω, “cross,” does not occur.
In the “A”
Greek text GK is also employed with the exception of 7:14 (6:11), which employs
ανασκολοπιζω, “to impale,” and σταυροω in the addition at 8:28.
Josephus uses κρεμαννυμι in his retelling of the Esther narrative with the exception of GK at Ant.
11.208, 246, and 280. For him, the tree (ξυλον) on which Haman
plans to hang Mordecai is not fifty cubits (ca. 22 meters or 73 feet) high, as
in Est 5:14, but sixty cubits, a typically haggadic expansion (11:246). At
11.261, 266 and 267 it is called a cross, σταυρος.
In the above
sources, especially the latter, a tendency to adapt the Esther account to later
contemporary times is observable. Impalement on a stake was considered to have
first been a Persian mode of execution. Crucifixion with a cross-beam was typically
Roman. The latter emphasis is sown in Est. Rab. 10/5 on Est 6:10-11, where
Haman tells Mordecai regarding his intention to hang him: yesterday “I was
preparing for you ropes and nails, and God prepares for you royal apparel.” (Soncino
English 9.117)
Legendary
material regarding this gallows/cross grew rapidly, including the association with
Deut 21:23 in 2 Targ Est 9:24. This Pentateuch prohibition of letting the body
of a hanged person remain on the tree overnight is reflected in the removal of
Jesus’ body from the Cross in Mark 15:42-43 par. and John 19:31, and is quoted
by Paul of Jesus’ crucifixion in Gal 3:13. In Est. Rab. 9/2 on Est 5:14 all the
trees of creation offer themselves as the wood for Haman’s tree/cross, the
winner being the thorn. (Soncino English 9.111-112) Finally, Pirq. R. El 50 has
Elijah state that the tree on which Haman is to be hanged derives from the Holy
of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple.
In light of
the above development of legendary materials regarding Hama’s
gallows/tree/cross, it is understandable that early Jewish Christians could
transfer hanging and tree imagery from the redeeming situation of the Scroll of
Esther to another, for them redemptive event: the crucifixion and Cross of Jesus.
(Roger David Aus, “The Release of Barabbas (Mark 15:6-15 par.; John 18:39-40),
and Judaic Traditions on the Book of Esther,” in Barabbas and Esther and
Other Studies in the Judaic Illumination of Earliest Christianity [Studies
in the History of Judaism; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992], 10-11)
