THE CULTIC PROBLEM
Concerning the
origins of the Feast of Purim, there are a number of hypotheses, but no general
agreement. Four facts are clear: (1) The word pur is not a Hebrew word, nor
is it Persian; it is Akkadian, meaning “a lot” or “destiny.” (2) The casting of
lots does not play, in this story, a role sufficient to explain the meaning of
the feast. It is possible that casting lots was a custom among the Babylonian Jews,
thus giving a popular etymological explanation of the Persian name. (3) The
Purim feast contains some features connected with the New Year celebrations in
Persia, such as, for instance, the presenting of gifts, sham gifts, and the
casting of lots. (4) Herodotus informs us of a Persian feast called “Magophonia”
(i.e., “the killing of Magi”) which was celebrated in memory of Smerdes, a usurper
under Darius I. This report may have suggested a reason for the feast in the
book of Esther.
It is also possible
that the Jews in Persia or in Babylonia had accepted certain customs connected
with the Persian New Year. A Persian name, though of Akkadian origin, could
thus have been taken over from some legendary material of old. We cannot prove
that there was some connection between the persecutions of the Jews and the
celebration of the Persian New Year, but it is not impossible. Such feasts
could excite religious fanaticism and incite their participants to attack the “infidels,”
that is, those who held a different faith.
The religious
significance of the feast is, perhaps, not great. The Hebrew version avoids
even the use of the name of God. Yet it should be stressed that the author
considered its happenings as guided by the providence of God. Mordecai waited
for help from God only in case Esther should refuse her help (4:13). Thus the
name “Jew” is used here more in an ethnic sense than in a religious one (8:17).
The principal feature of the book is national rather than religious, though the
two conceptions were for the author inseparable.
The tractate Megillah
(the Hebrew name for “scroll”) in the Mishnah deals with the cultic side of
the Feast of Purim. This account is composed of different strata; Rabbi Meir’s
collection of material is based on that of his teacher, Rabbi Akiba (ca. A.D.
135). It states that “if the Megillah has been read in the first Adar and the
year has subsequently been prolonged [by the intercalation of a second Adar;
the Jews used the lunar year, and so at intervals had to correct it with their
solar year], it is rad again in the second Adar” (Megillah 6b).
Between the periods
when the Feast of Purim was celebrated in Persia, following the decrees of
Mordecai and Esther, and its acceptance by rabbinic sources there is a wide
gap. Yet an anonymous Baraitha (“comment”) on the Talmud shows that Purim was
already celebrated in the last decades of the temple; for it prescribes that
the priests should interrupt their service in the temple, and the Levites their
singing, and the representatives of the people their attendance at public
sacrifices, in order to go and listen to the reading of the Megillah. (S.
Paul Re’Emi, “The Faithfulness of God: A Commentary on the Book of Esther,” in Richard
J. Coggins and S. Paul Re'Emi, Nahum, Obadiah, Esther: Israel Among the
Nations [International Theological Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1985], 110-12)
