Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Some of the Old Testament tobit, Judith and additions to Esther written by Bart Ehrman, read by Mike Johnson.
[00:00:11] In my previous post, I began to describe the Old Testament apocrypha deuterocanonical books. In the several posts that follow, I will describe the ones commonly accepted by roman catholic and eastern orthodox churches. These are very interesting books, well worth reading and, as ive said, canonical scripture for some parts of the christian church. My summaries here are taken from my book the A historical and literary introduction Oxford, 2018 Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction, by which I mean it is a fictional tale set within a real historical context. Originally, the book was written in Aramaic, either in the late third century BCE or the early second. The narrative is set in the 8th century BCE in the city of Nineveh, where the hero of the story, Tobit, has been exiled from his town in Galilee during the conquests of the assyrian king Shalmaneser. In other words, the account is allegedly taking place after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. The story involves two subplots that eventually come to be woven together. The first is about Tobit himself, who is very righteous and does great works of jewish piety, but runs into serious misfortune as he is blinded in a rather unusual way when bird droppings fall into his eyes. This makes his life miserable. The second is about his distant relative Sarah, living in media, who has had the equally great misfortune of having had seven marriages, each of them ending on her wedding night when a demon killed her husband. The two plots are woven together through a journey of Tobit's son Tobias to media to collect a fortune his father had left there. Accompanied by an angel, Tobias captures a large fish whose internal organs have magical powers. If burned, they can drive away demons, and they can be used to heal the blind. By a fluke, Tobias meets Sarah. They fall in love, they marry. He uses his magical fish parts to drive away the demon intent on killing him. On their wedding night, they return home with the treasure to Tobit, and the remaining fish parts are used to make his father see again. They then all live to a ripe old age and die happy. It's a great tale about the need to stay faithful in adverse circumstances and the power of God to turn a truly lousy human experience into good.
[00:02:45] Judith Judith is another work of historical fiction, in this case set during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the Assyrians, as we are told in the books opening verse, this is not a great start for anyone who knows history, since Nebuchadnezzar was not the king of Assyria but of Babylonia. This is historical fiction with a stress on the word fiction. It was probably written in Hebrew originally, possibly during the maccabean period, when national hopes were on the rise and a story such as this would have resonated with its hearers. The main character is one of the great heroes of jewish tradition, Judith, who saves her nation from certain annihilation by a foreign power. Think of the analogous situation under Antiochus Epiphanes. The first half of the book is a setup. Nebuchadnezzar has gone on military conquest, requesting nations en route to provide their support, and Israel refuses to help. After his victory, he turns to attack the recalcitrant nation by sending his general, Holofernes and an enormous number of troops who gather at a mountain pass in Israel near the village of Bethulia, in preparation for destroying the israelite resistance. The second half of the book is about how Judith, an inhabitant of the village, intervenes in the affair. A widow who is both very beautiful and very pious, she is dismayed that the leaders of Bethulia refuse to trust God for their deliverance, and so she takes matters into her own hands. Leaving the village dressed in her most attractive clothes, she is taken into the assyrian camp and welcomed by Holofernes, who eventually tries unsuccessfully to seduce her. After a night of too much wine, as he lies sprawled out in a drunken torpor, Judith takes advantage of the situation. Drawing his sword, she decapitates him, returns to her camp with the head, and the next day the Assyrians are thrown into confusion by the sudden death of their headless leader. A route is on, and Israel is saved.
[00:04:51] Additions to Esther the version of Esther in the Septuagint is markedly different from that in the Hebrew Bible. It includes six editions, which add another 105 verses to the story. These editions represent attempts to fill in the story in places where the greek redactor felt that some more information would help round out what could otherwise be found in the tale. The editions not only explain parts of the plot that interested readers may have had questions about, they make the story far more religious. If you will recall, there is nothing about God directly, at least in the hebrew version of Esther, his name is never even mentioned. But in these editions God is all over the place, and it is clear that he is the one directing the action. The terms God and lord now occur over 50 times in the book. Probably these additions were made in the second century BCE, or even the first. These additions are as a description of the dream of the jewish hero Mordecai. It is a bizarre dream about two dragons, which will be interpreted in final edition.
[00:05:59] The edict that Haman sent out announcing the date when all Jews in the empire were to be attacked. Prayers by Mordecai and Esther. Esther's appearance in gut wrenching fear before the king, who luckily welcomes her with open arms. This is a climatic moment in the narrative, the edict of Mordecai, which serves to nullify the earlier edict of Hamanda, an interpretation of the opening dream of Mordecai.
