Joachimsen & Bezold/Esther, 13. In and Out of the Jewish Heavenly Archive: Esther and Imagined Canon

Recent work on canon in early Jewish thought has shifted from a Biblecentric model to an expansive and flexible model, one that takes texts often relegated to “pseudepigrapha” and emphasizes their vital role. In particular, Eva Mroczek has suggested the heavenly archive as a model for how early Jewish authors imagined their compositions as part of an ongoing process of divine revelation. Yet how does the book of Esther relate to this archive? Did it reveal heavenly knowledge or participate in a living tradition of sacred wisdom? In this chapter, I argue that the model of the heavenly archive, which insightfully explains so much of the Jewish literary tradition, may not be the most useful paradigm for analyzing the book of Esther. To the contrary, Esther deliberately differentiates itself from that archive: it avoids religious practices or mentions of God, it eschews genres of prophecy or prayer, and it tells a clearly fictionalized and hyperbolic tale. In the language of modern fan studies, Esther casts itself as “fan fiction” rather than “expanded canon.” This chapter explores how Esther self-consciously distinguishes itself from more “sacred” texts, positioning itself as literature that is both profoundly Jewish and unexpectedly earthly.