Esther Online, and An Interview with Barry Webb

The last full-book sample from the ESV Study Bible, the Book of Esther.

The introduction and notes are by Barry Webb, Senior Research Fellow in Old Testament, Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia.

Gordon Cheng of Matthias Media’s Sola Panel blog recently interviewed Dr. Webb about his work on Esther. Here are the questions:

• Barry, how long have you been a student of the Old Testament?
• What’s the book of Esther about?
• Tell us a bit about the flawed heroes of the story, Esther and Mordecai.
• You’ve said in your ESV Study Bible notes on Esther that it is a humorous book. Can you give some examples of what you mean?
• You also said in your notes on Esther 6:1–13, “Events now move so tellingly in favor of Esther and Mordecai that a presumption of God’s providential involvement becomes unavoidable”. Can you say more about that? Can we read providence in our own circumstances of life?
• What tips would you give for someone who is trying to preach through the book of Esther for the first time?

When working on editing this material, one of the most helpful things for me was putting together a timeline, which is fairly straightforward in Esther, given that many of the events are explicitly dated. I hadn't realized before that the events of Esther unfold over an entire decade.

Here's a version of the chart that's included on the bottom of p. 855 (though go to the PDF to see a prettier version):

Chronology in Esther

The events of Esther unfold over a period of 10 years.

Reference	Event	Month	Day	Year of Reign	Year
1:3	Ahasuerus holds his banquets			3	483
2:16	Esther goes to Ahasuerus	10		7	479
3:7	Haman casts his lots	1		12	474
3:12	Haman issues his decree	1	13	13	474
3:13	Date planned for annihilation of the Jews	12	13	13	473
8:9	Mordecai issues his decree	3	23	13	474
8:12; 9:1	Day upon which Jews could defend themselves from attack	12	13	13	473
9:6–10, 20–22	Ten sons of Haman executed; Feast of Purim celebrated	12	14, 15	13	473