1 mar 483 ano antes da era comum - Festival of Purim Established

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Queen Esther wife of Xerxes Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence by Gerard Gertoux

In order to discredit the story of Esther some biblical scholars claim that the feast of Purim came from the resumption of the Persian feast of the New Year addressed to the deceased ones, or the implementation of the Babylonian feast of the New Year which was celebrating the victory of Marduk over its rivals99. These allegations are absurd for the following reasons100: 1) pagan rituals have nothing to do with the goal of Purim; 2) the feast of Purim was not celebrated at the vernal equinox, but 15 days before; 3) after their return from Babylon (538 BCE), the Jews definitely broke with all pagan rites (Persian or Babylonian). Consequently the existence of the feast of Purim101 (which is still celebrated today) depends on the existence of the Book of Esther, which reads: Mordecai recorded these events and sent official letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far. He instructed them to observe the 14th day of the month of Adar, as well as the 15th day, each and every year, because on those days the Jews rested from their enemies and in that month their grief was changed to rejoicing and their mourning to a day of celebration. They were to observe them as days of feasting and rejoicing and as a time to send portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor. And the Jews agreed to continue the celebration that they had started and to do what Mordecai wrote to them. For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast Pur, that is, the Lot, to throw them into a panic and to destroy them. But when Esther came in before the king, he gave orders in writing: Let his evil scheme against the Jews come back on his own head; and they hanged him and his sons on the stake. That is why they called these days Purim, after the name of the Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter and what they saw concerning this matter and what had come upon them, the Jews obligated themselves and their descendants and all those joining them to celebrate these two days without fail and to carry out what was written concerning them at the appointed time each and every year. These days were to be remembered and observed in every generation, by each family, each province, and each city; and these days of Purim should not cease among the Jews, and their commemoration should not come to an end among their descendants (Est 9:20-28). According to the Book of Maccabees, Purim was observed in March 161 BCE and the 14th of Adar was called the Day of Mordecai: Having collected the spoils and booty, they cut off Nicanor's head and the right hand he had stretched out in a display of insolence; these were taken and displayed within sight of Jerusalem. The people were overjoyed and kept that day as a great holiday: indeed they decided to celebrate it annually on the 13th of Adar (...) He hung Nicanor's head from the Citadel, a clear and evident sign to all of the help of the Lord. They all decreed by public vote never to let that day go by unobserved, but to celebrate the 13th day of the twelfth month, called Adar in Aramaic, the eve of what is called the Day of Mordecai (1M 7:47-49; 2M 15:35-36). At the end of the book of Esther translated into Greek, we
read: And they shall observe these days in the month Adar, on the 14th and on the 15th day of the month, with an assembly, and joy and gladness before God, throughout the generations for ever amongst his people Israel. In the 4th year of the reign of Ptolemeus [VIII?] and Cleopatra [in 112 BCE], Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, which they said was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerusalem, had interpreted. According to Flavius Josephus (37-100), there was a festival on 13 Adar, the Day of Nicanor, just before the feast of Purim on 14 and 15 Adar: he led them out to fight, and joining battle with Nicanor, which proved to be a severe one, he overcame the enemy, and slew many of them; and at last Nicanor himself, as he was fighting gloriously, fell (...) This victory happened to fall on the 13th day of that month which by the Jews is called Adar and by the Macedonians Dystrus; and the Jews thereon celebrate this victory every year, and esteem it as a festival day (Jewish Antiquities XII:409-412). Now when the royal decree was come to all the country that was subject to the king, it fell out that the Jews at Shushan slew 500 of their enemies; and when the king had told Esther the number of those that were slain in that city, but did not well know what had been done in the provinces, he asked her whether she would have any thing further done against them, for that it should be done accordingly: upon which she desired that the Jews might be permitted to treat their remaining enemies in the same manner the next day; as also that they might hang the ten sons of Haman upon the gallows. So the king permitted the Jews so to do, as desirous not to contradict Esther. So they gathered themselves together again on the 14th day of the month Dystrus, and slew about 300 of their enemies, but touched nothing of what riches they had. Now there were slain by the Jews that were in the country, and in the other cities, 75,000 of their enemies, and these were slain on the 13th day of the month, and the next day they kept as a festival. In like manner the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together, and feasted on the 14th day, and that which followed it; whence it is that even now all the Jews that are in the habitable earth keep these days festival, and send portions to one another. Mordecai also wrote to the Jews that lived in the kingdom of Artaxerxes to observe these days (14 and 15 Adar), and celebrate them as festivals, and to deliver them down to posterity, that this festival might continue for all time to come, and that it might never be buried in oblivion; for since they were about to be destroyed on these days by Haman, they would do a right thing, upon escaping the danger in them, and on them inflicting punishment on their enemies, to observe those days, and give thanks to God on them; for which cause the Jews still keep the forementioned days, which they call Phruraioi (Purim), and Mordecai became a great and illustrious person with the king, and assisted him in the government of the people (Jewish Antiquities XI:289-295).

The Roll of Fasting (c. 117 CE) states that the Day of Nicanor on 13 Adar, being a festival, it was forbidden to fast on this day (Megillat Taanit 18b)102. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the observance of days of fasting became random103. The Mishna (Taanit 2:10; Rosh Hashana 1:3) states that there was no fasting at Purim in the month of
Adar and Maimonides said: even though the memory of the tragedies will fade, the days of Purim will not be rescinded (Hilkhot Megilla 2:18). The Book of Esther in Hebrew was not copied in the 1st century104, probably for not exacerbating patriotic sentiment against the Romans, but it was read105 from Adar 11 to 15 (Mishna Megilla 1:1). The feast of Purim is a historical proof of the book of Esther, in the same way as the modern celebration of the Olympic Games proves the antic existence of these games.

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