Esther and the Politics of Diaspora

While the biblical book of Esther is often identified as a diaspora text that addresses the experience and concerns of diaspora Jews in the late Persian or early Hellenistic periods, its diasporic identity has been assumed rather than proven. This article makes a case for reading Esther as an anti-diaspora text written in Judea for a Judean audience. According to the Hebrew version of Esther, Jewish life in the Persian heartland is portrayed as the parodic opposite of the fantasy of life in the land of Israel that is articulated in other Judean literature that became part of the biblical canon. This reading accounts both for the differences between the Hebrew and Greek versions of Esther and for the theological and ideological anomalies that necessarily arise in the more common, pro-diasporic, readings of the text.