Esther, Empire, and the Emergence of Jewish Ethnicity

Bibliographic Data

ID10908458
AuthorsAton M Holzer (0000-0001-9852-3958, 28 Binyamin Beit Shemesh Israel, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume56
Issue4-5
Pages371-395
Publication date2025-07-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Study of Judaism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2212 • E-ISSN: 1570-0631
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700631-bja10107
OpenAlexW4412772880
LanguageEN
References cited17

Recent research has suggested that the Teispid-Achaemenid empire, which held sway at the height of the period known as the Axial Age, did not attempt to change the archaic social conditions of their governed polities. The Persians innovated governance through the creation of a synthetic ethnic class, which reflected a prearchaic structure. The Persian imperial ideology of a universal kingship clearly opposed a Jewish theological and monotheistic worldview, which was more in consonance with the thought of the Axial Age, so conflict arose with the Jewish diaspora. This conflict is addressed differently in Biblical writings. While Haggai and Zechariah outline an eschatological model, Ezra and Nehemiah present Jerusalem as a spiritual center. The Masoretic text of Esther elucidates this transition to an “axialized” tribal/ethnic group within the Persian Empire. The book hints at a concomitant transformation to “axiality” within the Achaemenid empire itself, after which its policy shifts from conquest to consolidation

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Empire · Ethnic group · Jewish studies · Judaism · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Development, Ethics, and Society · History · Philosophy · Religious studies

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