RTW 2024

“If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14

So the Jewish elders continued their work, and they were greatly encouraged by the preaching of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. The Temple was finally finished, as had been commanded by the God of Israel and decreed by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, the kings of Persia. The Temple was completed on March 12, during the sixth year of King Darius’s reign.
Ezra 6:14-15

• Scholars consider the earliest date of authorship to be around 460 BC, shortly after the narrated events occurred, and before Ezra returned to Jerusalem. The latest date suggested is around 350 BC just before Greece conquered the Persian Empire in 331 BC.
• The Greek historian Herodotus explained that the Persians drank as they deliberated matters of state, believing that intoxication put them closer in touch with the spiritual world.
• Persian protocol dictated that no one but the king could be left alone with a woman of the royal harem.
• Purim is still celebrated today. The entire Book of Esther is read in the synagogue on the holiday during which noise makers are used. People cheer at the sound of Mordecai's name and boo and hiss the mention of Haman.
• Susa was the Persian winter capital. One of Daniel's visions was set in Susa and Nehemiah also served there.
• Xerxes (Ahashuerus) was the Persian king in Book of Esther. He planned an invasion of Greece but was driven from Greece after they were decisively beaten at Plataea in 479 BC. 
• Xerxes was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes I. It was during this reign that Ezra and Nehemiah did their work in Jerusalem.
• “Persian Royal women could not only attend banquets but also accompanied the king on hunts and even on military campaigns.” Archaeological Study Bible
• “Women in ancient Persia were not only highly respected but, in many cases, considered the equals of males. Women could own land, conduct business, receive equal pay, could travel freely on their own, and in the case of royal women, hold their own council meetings on policy.…  Persian women would continue to enjoy this high status in ancient Persian culture until the fall of the Sassanian Empire to the invading Arab Muslims in 651 CE (I said BC in the video, but it’s CE, sorry!). Afterwards, the long-standing recognition of women as autonomous individuals, capable of deciding their own fate, was replaced by the concept of women as second-class citizens, inherently sinful, and requiring male guidance and control.” Women in Ancient Persia-World History Encyclopedia

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