Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther

by Michael V. Fox, James L. Crenshaw (Editor)

Widely praised as a seminal contribution to the study of the Old Testament when it was first published, Michael 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

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

317 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Christina Bohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands-down one of the best commentaries/analyses of Esther out there. Written from a Jewish, feminist perspective (very mindful of gender power dynamics and their reversals all throughout narrative). I love Fox!

[Ben Fike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for an upcoming sermon series over the book of Esther. It's the most fun I've had reading a textual study in quite a while. Fox offers an explicit focus on how the book of Esther's portrayal of its character can help us understand the message of the book. Fox contends that by paying close attention to the characters described in Esther, we can discern the ideological and theological messages of the book. As I close Fox's book, I'm leaving with a sense of "knowing" the characters presented in Esther in a much deeper way than I did before I picked it up. Coincidently, by paying such close attention to the particularities of Esther, it also helps us get in touch with the broader and more universal themes to which it points us. This has enhanced my understanding and appreciation of the odd and wonderful little book of Esther, and (I hope) will make me a more informed interpreter as I enter into the task of preaching from it.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I typically find new reading material in other books i have read. This is the case here; Michael V. Fox's two books on Esther were often referenced in Frederic Bush's excellent commentary on Esther. I thought i would hold off on reviewing this book until I read Fox's other book on Esther, The Redaction of the Books of Esther: On Reading Composite Texts. My recollection was that Bush referenced Redaction more than Character, but that cannot be right. The material in Character is much more relevant to Bush's work than is Redaction.

Having fought my way through some very dense academic books, it was very refreshing to read such a clearly articulated work by an academic. The author makes it clear from the outset that his target audience is the general population whose interest in Esther may be more casual than the academic audience, though he expresses his hope that academics will benefit from his work as well. The book is divided into two main sections. The first is a verse-by-verse commentary on the text of Esther. Bush's commentary is more in depth, and I would recommend it over Fox's if all you are looking for is commentary. But the main part of this book is devoted to character analysis, and this is where it really shines. It reminded me of Kristin Moen Saxegaard's book Character Complexity in the Book of Ruth, which was a commentary organized by character, not by chapter and verse. One thing I found particularly interesting in both Saxegaard's and Fox's book was the analyses of God as a character. In both Ruth and Esther God is silent and hence a kind of non-character, but God lurks in the background in both books (perhaps further in the background of Esther and Ruth!)

One thing I appreciated about Fox's book, especially in distinction to Bush's commentary, was that he relegated notes on the Hebrew text to a short section after the general commentary. That makes it possible for someone with no knowledge of Hebrew to just skip over that part without missing much. I did skim that section but my knowledge of Hebrew is so minimal that I didn’t get much out of it.

[Cameron Barham]

“When we scrutinize the text of Esther for traces of God’s activity, we are doing what the author made us do. The author would have us probe the events we witness in our own lives in the same way. He is teaching us a theology of possibility. The willingness to face history with an openness to the possibility of providence—even when history seems to weigh against its likelihood, as it did in the dark days after the issuance of Haman’s decree—this is a stance of profound faith.”, p. 247