The Greatest Revelation of All

I am certainly going to publish this theory regarding the origins of Lent in an academic article. But before I show my readers the ultimate evidence for arguing that (a) Alexandrian Jews identified Purim as the 'day of vengeance' AND 'the day of recompense' and moreover that (b) this tradition was passed on to Christians owing to a unique set of circumstances let me give a personal anecdote.

I have to confess that I always thought Purim was a silly holiday. This isn't me the scholar talking. It is just a prejudice that I took into my studies as a Jew living in the modern world.

So it was that I came home today after shopping and had one of those fateful 'ideas' that just popped into my head as I had to consider what household chore I would decide to undertake. I said to myself, 'why don't I investigate what the LXX version of Esther has to say?'

I think the real purpose was getting out of doing some work around the house. But in any case I opened up Brenton's Septuagint with Apocrypha and found - much to my surprise - that the Greek not only adds two whole additional sections to the conclusion of the Book of Esther.

It makes ABSOLUTELY EXPLICIT that the Book of Esther was translated in Egypt during the early Ptolemaic dynasty and was an important part of the Alexandrian Jewish community's liturgy.

I can't tell you how much of a shocker that was. As I said, I always thought that Purim was essentially a stupid holiday. Now I am starting to see how it was absolutely central to the later Alexandrian communities struggle with the Greek population.

Just think - a day on which proselytism AND the ritual slaughter of infidels was sanctified.

No wonder Philo avoids discussing its contents.

In any event let me transcribe the two 'additions' to the later sections of the Book of Esther. The first immediately follows Esther 8:13. The evil Haman has just been hanged during Passover and Persian scribes gather on the twenty third of Nisan to write a decree sanctifying the pending slaughter of all enemies of Judaism the next year. So we read in the LXX:

"So the scribes were called in the first month, which is Nisan, on the three and twentieth day of the same year; and orders were written to the Jews, whatever the king had commanded the local governors and chiefs of the satraps, from India even to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven satraps, according to the several provinces, according to their dialects.

And they were written by order of the kind, and sealed with his ring, and they sent the letter by the posts: wherein he charged them to use their own laws in every city, and to help each other, and to treat their adversaries, and those who attacked them, as they pleased, on one day in all the kingdom of Artaxerxes on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar.

And the following is the copy of the letter of the orders:

The great king Artaxerxes sends greeting to the rulers of the provinces in a hundred and twenty seven satrapies, from India to Ethiopia, even to those who are faithful to our interests. Many who have been frequently honoured by the most abundant kindness of their benefactors have conceived ambitious designs, and not only endeavour to hurt our subjects, but moreover, not being able to bear prosperity, they also endeavour to plot against their own benefactors. And they not only would utterly abolish gratitude from among men, but also, elated by the boastings of men who are strangers to all that is good, they suppose that they shall escape the sin-hating vengeance of the ever-seeing God. And oftentimes evil exhortation has made partakers of the guilt and shedding innocent blood, and has involved in irremediable calamities, many of those who were appointed to offices of authority, who had been entrusted with the management of their friends' affairs; while men, by these false sophistry of an evil disposition, have deceived the simple candour of these ruling powers. And it is possible to see this, not so much from more ancient traditionary accounts, as it is immediately in your power to see it by examining what things have been wickedly contrived by the baseness of men unworthily holding power. And it is right to take heed with regard to the future, that we may maintain the government in undisturbed peace for all men, adopting needful changes, and ever judging those cases which come under our notice, with truly equitable decision.

For whereas Aman (Haman), a Macedonian, the son of Amadathes, in reality an alien from the blood of the Persians, and differing widely from our mild course of government, having been hospitably entertained by us, obtained so large a share of our universal kindness, as to be called our father, and to continue the person next to the royal throne, reverenced by all; he however, overcome by pride of his station, endeavoured to deprive us of our dominion, and our life; having by various and subtle artifices demanded for destruction both Mardochaeus our deliverer and perpetual benefactor, and Esther the blameless consort of our kingdom, with their whole nation. For by these methods he thought, having surprised us in a defenseless state, to transfer the dominion of the Persians to the Macedonians.

But we find that the Jews, who have been consigned to destruction by the most abominable of men, are not malefactors, but living according to the justest laws, and being the sons of the living God, the most high and mighty, who maintains the kingdom to us as well as to our forefathers, in the most excellent order.

Ye will therefore do well in refusing to obey the letter sent by Aman the son of Amadathes because he that has done these things, has been hanged with his whole family at the gates of Susa. Almighty God having swiftly returned to him a worthy recompense [apodontos]. We enjoin you then, having openly published a copy of this letter in every place, to give the Jews permission to use their own law and customs, and to strengthen them, that on the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar, on the self-same day, they may defend themselves against those who attacked them in a time of affliction. For in the place of destruction of the chosen race, Almighty God has granted them this time of gladness.

Do ye therefore also among your notable feasts, keep a distinct day with all festivity, that both now and hereafter it may be a day of deliverance [soteria] to us and those who are well disposed towards the Persians but to those that plotted against us a memorial of destruction. And every city and province shall be consumed with vengeance by spear and fire: it shall be made not only inaccessible to men, but also most hateful to wild beasts and birds forever.

And let the copies be posted in conspicuous places throughout the kingdom, and let all the Jews be ready against this day, to fight against their enemies."

Clearly then the understanding that Purim was the 'day of vengeance' was established long before Christianity. Notice however that the Greek text further portrays it as a 'day of recompense,' the words found in Isa 61.2. This is obviously very important for our theory. Indeed the second addition is even more important as it further clarifies the meaning of Purim but ties the Book of Esther directly to an Alexandrian provenance.

After explaining that the name 'Purim' comes from the Hebrew word for 'lots' the original author goes on to say at the very conclusion:

And Mardochaeus was viceroy to king Artaxerxes and was a great man in the kingdom, and honoured by the Jews and passed his life beloved by all his nation.

And Mardocaeus said, These things have been done of God. For I remember the dream I had concerning these matters: for not one particular of them has failed. There was the little fountain, which became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water. The river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen. And the two serpents are I and Aman. And the nations are those nations which combined to destroy the name of the Jews. But as for my nation, this is Israel, even they that cried to God and were delivered; for the Lord delivered his people, and the Lord rescued us out of all these calamities; and God wrought such signs and great wonders as have not been done among the nations. Therefore did he ordain two lots, one for the people of God and one for all the other nations. And these two lots came for an appointed season, and for a day of judgment (hemeran kriseos), before God, and for all the nations. And God remembered his people and vindicated his inheritance. And they shall observe these days, in the month Adar on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth of the month, with an assembly (synagoges), and joy and gladness before God, throughout the generations for ever among his people Israel.

In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and Ptolemy his son, brought in the published letter of Phrurae, which they said existed, and which Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy who was in Jerusalem, had interpreted.

So it is that we have clear evidence that the Alexandrian community not only used the Book of Esther but identified the fourteenth of Adar as not only the day of vengeance but also undoubtedly 'the day of recompense.'

I think I see the 'redemption' and its 'day of recompense' already present in the Alexandrian Epistle of Barnabas:

Learn now how we have received it. Moses, as a servant, Hebrews 3:5 received it; but the Lord himself, having suffered in our behalf, has given it to us, that we should be the people of inheritance. But He was manifested, in order that they might be perfected in their iniquities, and that we, being constituted heirs through Him, might receive the testament of the Lord Jesus, who was prepared for this end, that by His personal manifestation, redeeming our hearts (which were already wasted by death, and given over to the iniquity of error) from darkness, He might by His word enter into a covenant with us. For it is written how the Father, about to redeem us from darkness, commanded Him to prepare a holy people for Himself. The prophet therefore declares, I, the Lord Your God, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will strengthen You; and I have given You for a covenant to the people, for a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring forth from fetters them that are bound, and those that sit in darkness out of the prison-house. Isaiah 42:6-7 You perceive, then, whence we have been redeemed. And again, the prophet says, Behold, I have appointed You as a light to the nations, that You might be for salvation even to the ends of the earth, says the Lord God that redeems you. And again, the prophet says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the humble: He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to announce the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense; to comfort all that mourn. [Epistle of Barnabas 14]

We can be also one hundred percent certain that the very same idea of a 'day of recompense' was connected with Passover in Alexandria as a reference to Isa. 61.2 LXX STILL appears in the seventeenth Patriarch Peter I's Easter Canons:

But in the case of those who, after that they were thrown into prison, and in the dungeon, as in a place besieged, endured afflictions and nauseous odours, bill afterwards, without the conflict of torments, were led captive, being broken in spirit by poverty of strength, and a certain blindness of the understanding, a year in addition to the foregoing time will suffice; for they gave themselves up to be afflicted for the name of Christ, even though in their dungeon they enjoyed much consolation from their brethren; which, indeed, they shall return many fold, desiring to be set free from that most bitter captivity of the devil, especially remembering Him who said: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense unto our God.[Canon 2]

Do I have to point out to my readers that Peter I IS NOT quoting from the Gospel of Luke. The last words do not appear in our canonical text. But then look carefully. Peter IS CITING words said by Jesus in the gospel - viz. 'desiring to be set free ... remembering Him (i.e. Jesus) who said ...'

A mistake or a slip up on Peter I's part? I don't think so. Peter is witnessing how the fast before Easter was STILL identified as 'the redemption' in Alexandria in the period and was connected with a 'day of recompense' thirty days before Easter.

More to follow ...