A new perspective on essential aspects of Esther’s plot and characters for students and scholars Empire and Gender in LXX Esther foregrounds and highlights empire as the central lens in this provocative new reading of Esther. This book provides a unique synchronic reading of LXX Esther with the Additions, allowing the presence and negotiation of imperial power to be further illuminated throughout the story’s plot. Stone explores and demonstrates how performances of gender are inextricably intertwined with the exertion and negotiation of imperial power portrayed in LXX Esther and offers examples of connections to the range of imperial power experienced by Jewish people during the late Second Temple period. Features: An exploration of the tenets and methodology of imperial-critical approaches Focused attention to the final form of LXX Esther Construction of early audiences for LXX Esther in first-century BCE Ptolemaic Alexandria and Hasmonean Judea

This dissertation is a synchronic reading of the Septuagint version of Esther utilizing an imperial-critical approach which foregrounds the exertion and negotiation of Persian imperial power with attention to the performance of gender within the interplay of power. I argue that in light of the gendered exertions and gendered negotiations of power I observe throughout the book, LXX Esther can be read as a contest for hegemonic masculinity between Artaxerxes and God which is prefigured in Mordecai's dream, and waged by the claimants' representatives - Haman for Artaxerxes, and Mordecai and Esther for God. Chapter 3 offers interpretation of Addition A's framing of LXX Esther by introducing Mordecai and reading Mordecai's dream as establishing the subsequent narrative as a contest for hegemonic masculinity between Artaxerxes and God waged by their representatives. Chapter 4 considers the initial depiction of Artaxerxes as the center of earthly power and hegemonic male on earth, as well as Vashti's negotiation of defiance and the subsequent oppressive imperial responses which also provide opportunities for further negotiation. Chapter 5 examines Mordecai's shifting methodology of imperial negotiation as he moves to overt defiance, the imperial response to his defiance in the form of the edict of annihilation of Jews, and Esther's progression in agency to negotiate on behalf of her people as a representative of God. Finally, chapter 6 discusses Esther's three acts of negotiation with Artaxerxes which result in the deliverance of her people and a victory for God, though in mimicry and ambivalence. Throughout the dissertation, I also posit intertextual connections with constructions of early readers of LXX Esther in the early 1st century BCE. These include Alexandrian Jews living under Ptolemaic rulers and Jews living under the Hasmonean dynasty. The circumstances of these early readers reveal numerous connections that may have been made by readers who both confirmed and contested their imperial locations and performed varied and complex means of negotiation.

This volume presents original research on the historical context, narrative and wisdom books, anthropology, theology, language, and reception of the Septuagint, as well as comparisons of the Greek translations with other ancient versions and texts.

Widely praised as a seminal contribution to the study of the Old Testament when it first appeared, Michael V. Fox's Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther is now available in a second edition, complete with an up-to-date critical review of recent Esther scholarship. Fox's commentary, based on his own translation of the Hebrew text, captures the meaning and artistry of Esther's inspiring story. After laying out the background information essential for properly reading Esther, Fox offers commentary on the text that clearly unpacks its message and relevance. Fox also looks in depth at each character in the story of Esther, showing how they were carefully shaped by the book's author to teach readers a new view of how to live as Jews in foreign lands.

Antonios Finitsis and contributors continue their examination of dress and clothing in the Hebrew Bible in this collection of illuminating essays. Straddling the divide between the material and the ideological, this book lends shape and texture to topics including social standing, agency, and the motif of cloth and clothing in Esther. Essays also explore the function of dress metaphors in imprecatory Psalms, the symbolic function of headdresses, and the divine clothing of Adam and Eve and the hermeneutics of trauma recovery. Together, the contributors continue to shape scholarly discourse on a growing body of scholarship on dress in the Bible. By turning their analytical gaze to this primary evidence, the contributors are able to reveal the social, psychological, aesthetic, ideological and symbolic meanings of dress in the Hebrew Bible, thereby producing insights into the literature and cultural world of the ancient Near East.

In Uncovering Jewish Creativity in Book III of the Sibylline Oracles, Ashley L. Bacchi reclaims the importance of the Sibyl as a female voice of prophecy, revealing intertextual references and political commentary on second-century events in Ptolemaic Egypt.

The Academy of Parish Clergy 2020 Reference Book of the Year 2020 Association of Catholic Publishers first place award in Scripture 2020 Catholic Press Association third place award for best new religious book series This reading of Mark's Gospel engages this ancient text from the perspective of contemporary feminist concerns to expose and resist all forms of domination that prevent the full flourishing of all humans and all creation. Accordingly, it foregrounds the Gospel's constructions of gender in intersectionality with the visions, structures, practices, and personnel of Roman imperial power. This reading embraces a rich tradition of feminist scholarship on the Gospel, as well as masculinity studies, particularly pervasive hegemonic masculinity. Its politically engaged discussion of Mark's Gospel provides a resource for clergy, students, and laity concerned with contemporary constructions of gender, power, and a world in which all might experience fullness of life.