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Ahasuerus

Xerxes

Mordechai Rides King Ahasuerus’ Horse, but Who Wears the Crown?

Is it Ahasuerus, Mordechai, or the horse?

Dr.

Shani Tzoref

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But Queen Vashti Refused: Consent and Agency in the Book of Esther

Personal agency and consent—granted or withheld—pervade the book of Esther, and are inextricably related to pre-existing power structures such as gender and social status.

Dr.

Jason Gaines

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Why Does Mordechai Not Report the Assassination Plot Directly to Ahasuerus?

The protocols of ancient Near Eastern courts shed light on the danger Mordechai faces in reporting a conspiracy. A case in point: An Assyrian official, who tried to save Sennacherib from being assassinated by his son Arda-Mullisi, ends up being killed by the assassins himself.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Ahasuerus, the Son of a Stable-Master

Vashti insults Ahasuerus by calling him “the son of my father’s stable master” (b. Megillah 12b). Persian sources, including the story of King Ardashir I, shed light on the origin and significance of this calumny.

Prof.

Geoffrey Herman

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Ahasuerus and Vashti: The Story Megillat Esther Does Not Tell You

Why the rabbis came to imagine Ahasuerus as a usurper who halted the rebuilding of the Temple and his wife Vashti as a wicked and grotesque Babylonian princess, who lived as a libertine and persecuted Jews.

Dr.

Malka Z. Simkovich

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Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Rabbi

David D. Steinberg

The 220-Year History of the Achaemenid Persian Empire

An overview of Persian history starting from Cyrus the Great’s conquest of Media (549 B.C.E.) until Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia (334-329 B.C.E.), including related biblical references and Jewish texts.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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If Achashverosh Is Xerxes, Is Esther His Wife Amestris?

How do the names in the book of Esther correlate with those we know from Persian history? Do some of them refer to the historical personages described in the Greek sources of Herodotus and Ctesias?

Mitchell First

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