Purim

A Jewish festival of whose origin and institution we have an account in the Book of Esther. There we are informed that the festival had its rise in the resting and rejoicing of the Jews in Persia after their slaughter of their enemies on 13th Adar, in the 12th year of king Ahasuerus {i.e. Xerxes, B.C. 473). "That was the day which Haman, the grand vizier, had chosen by lot (=pur. Est 3') for the extermination of the Jews throughout the Pers. empire. Owing to the fact that in Susa the conflict was renewed on 14th Adar, the ' day of feasting and gladness ' in that city fell on the 15th. It was therefore enacted, as ■we learn from what appears to be an interpolation (9^"'-), by an ordinance of Mordecai, the successor of Haman, confirmed by Esther the queen (who were chiefly instrumental in procuring the deliver- ance), tliat there should be an annual celebration of the feast in all time coming, among the Jews and their seed, both on 14th and 15th Adar; 'that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.' No religious services were enjoined, and the observance seems to have been at first merely of a convivial and charitable nature ; but ultimately it was accompanied ^vith the reading of the Uk. of Esther in the synagogue, the whole con- gregation joining enthusiastically in the closing passages relating to Mordecai's triumph, and, at the mention of Haman, hissing, stamping, gesticulating and crying out, ' Let his name oe blotted out ; let the name of the wicked perish,' while the reader pronounced the names of Haman's ten sons all in one breath to indicate that they expired at the same moment. This reading of ' the Megilla,' pre- ceded and followed by a special benediction, com- mencing in each case with the words, ' Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe,' takes place both on the evening of the 13th of Adar, which is observed as a fast day (called ' the Fast of Esther,' traceable from the 9th cent. ; cf. 9" 4"), and on the inorninn; of the 14th, which along with the loth is devoted to celebrations of a festive and social character, as enjoined in Scrip- ture, but without any prohibition of labour. To the inllueneeof theBlc. of Esther the festival seema to have largely owed its popularity (Buxtorf, Sijn. Jud. 24, and Ginsburg in Kitto's Cycl.). Apart from that book, the following are the only allusions to the subject that have been discovered in ancient literature. Referring to the commemoration of the victory over the Syrian general Nicanor on 13th Adar (B.C. 161), 2 Mac (15), which was prob- ably written a little before the beginning ot the Christian era, mentions that the anniversary fell on the day before ' Mordecai's day.' 1 Mac (about a century earlier) is silent on the point, although it mentions (7^") the institution of ' riicanor's day.' Josephus, WTiting about the close of the 1st cent. A.D., gives an account of the feast (Ant XI. \\. 13), and mentions that in his day it was observed by the Jews throughout the world on the 14th and 15th Adar, which days they called ^povpaiov^. In the Meg. Taanith (xii. 31), which existed in the 2nd cent. A.D., these two days are also mentioned as ' the days of Purim,' when ' mourning is for- bidden.' By some 'the Feast of the Jews' (Jn 5', cf. 4^' 6^) is identitied with Purim ; but the inference is questionable, as the latter never had any special connexion with Jems., and was not likely, as actually celebrated, to be very attractive to the Saviour (but see Milligan-Moulton on Jn 5')- With regard to the historical origin of Purim, there has been during the last half-century a growing tendency to reject the narrative in theBk. of Esther, largely owing to the difficulty of finding any Persian word with which the name Pur can be identified. Various theories have been advanced to show that the festival had quite a diflerent origin. 1. According to Reuss(Ge^cA..4 T, § 473), following J. D. Micbaelifl iGesch. A T), it may have ^own out of the Nicanor-festival on 13th Adar, the latter losing its historical significance in the course of an eventful century or two, and thus becoming a pre- paratorj- fast to Mordecai's day, whose strong hold upon the popular milid (notwithstanding the misgiving of the Great Synagogue, itejj. Lxx. 4) was due to the popularity of the Bk. of Esther, with which it was so closely connected. This theorj-, how- ever, leaves the Purim mystery unsolved, and it is negatived by the fact that even so late as in the Meg. Taanith (xii. 30) the 13th Adar is spoken of as Nicanor's day.' 2. J. Fiirst (Kanon AT) and E. Meier {Btb. Wrtb.) trace Purim directly to a Pere. spring-festival (adopted by the Jews in Susa), and suppose the name to be connected with Pers. 6aAar= spring. Z\iT\z\ZDMG xxvii.) takes a similar view, regartling the Bk. of Esther as designed to invest the festival with a Jewish character when it could no longer be got rid of ; while Meyboom gives the idea a practical form by supposing Haman to be an emblem of ninter overcome by the sun (Esther) and the moon (Mordecai). 3. Hitzig (Gtgch. ler.) obsen-es that PhuT in mod. Arabic= New Year (cf. pilrva=the first), and argues for a New Year's festival of Parthian origin which the Bk. of Esther (after B.C. 238) was designed to commend to the Jewish nation generally, itfl historical elements, such as they are, being derived from the early Arsacid, not the Achiemenid period. 4. A more remarkable theory is that which was originated by von Hammer in 1827 (iriVn. Jahrbuch Lit.), and elabo- rated and developed by Lagarde in his ' Purim,' Ein Beitrag zur (iexch. der Relifji&n 0880. according to which the feast ie a Judaic transformation ot the old Zoroastrian Farwanligin (Festival of the Dead), obser^'ed on the last ten days of the year, including five intercalary days. Lagarde (while also ascribing an influence to the juaycjov/ of Herod, iii. 79, and to a Fe»t deg Unbarti(]m) endeavours to make out a linguistic connexion between the Pers. name just mentioned and the various phases of the Greek name by which Purim is represented in the Soptuagint (viz. fpovfixi, ^ci/pi'x, cofOfAxia, f/toupxiei^, finding in these the elements of New-Pers. PCrdigdn, which he idcnl ities with the ^evfi^tyav, mentioned by the Byz. Menander as a I'ers. feast in the 6th cent., and inferring the original Gr. form to have been ^ptiixii = Heb. Purdaia («;Tn!E), while he explains aw»y the Heb. "US by supposing that the original reading (37) may have been, not Nin ■na, but r.iC-iS (phannanah)= Pers. firman (edict). Renan takesa similar view (Livre iv. Hist, du P. d'l8r.\ tracing the name to Pere. FourrH (.\ram. Pourdai, Heb. Phour- durt=PAtnirim), and supposes the festival to have acquired ite halo of Jewish romance in the time of the Maccabees. The ety- mological argument, however, is very precarious, popular usage in such a case being little inlluenced by corruptioiu of tex^ PUKBl rUElTY 175 wid the varioM Or. readings being too easily accounted for by the trrors of Alexandrian copyisU to justilv us in using them to correct such a good Hcb. text, even i( tlie dcrivatiou from /•an«ir>/l-;,in were better^ sui.i>orted than it l» ((or oljjections Kc U^ilti V in the litv. dft^twJtt Juivrt, 1887, who denves the LXX forms from the Gr. ;«!./>« = 9i«in/). j -.k „ 6 Another theory which has been recently advanced with no leuaoonfldence is that of iir..tz(J/u.ia(.c/m/( Gai. v. n us. d. Jvd. XXXV. 10-12). He traces Furim to Heb. n-iiEO)firaA) = wine-press, Bupposing the (east to have been due to the adoption by the JewT in Palestine (in the rei-n of Ptolemy iv. Ph.lupator B.O. J->i, 'lJi ihruuL-h the Ikllenizing influence o( Joseph the tribute- collector,— Jos. AM. xil. iv.) of the Or. fi'htival n,0.,5... = jur- opening, corresponding to the Vinalia of the Uomans, alleging In supiort of his theory the riotous mirth and the making of presents of wine which characterized that Bacchanalian seiison. The linguistic argument, liowevtr. is seen to be more apparent than rial when it is noticed that iriiu-preas suggests, not ej^ng (when the AnthesU-ria were held, of which the J'ldiuiyui (orincd part) butou/iimii, and that tlie J n(A<".<'.-rui lasted for Hirer days. Moreover, it is scarcely conceivable that such a Gr. institution could have gained in the course of a generation or two such a «rong hold on the affections of the Jews as to resist the anti- Hellenic reaction which set in tjnder the Maccabees within half a century" afterwards. , , . , ^,^ 6. Still more recently Zimmem (ZATW, 1891) has derived the Feast of Puriin from the Bab. ZaymiilM (otherwise Akttu). an ancient New Year's festival, celebrated with great TOnip and mirth in the opening days of Nisan (cf. Est 37). This was remarkable chiefly for an aticmbln (Assyr. pufiru, easily passing into the meaning of feast, cf. wi.r and ama, connmim)of the gods which was held under the presidency of the Bab. tutelar deity ilarduk, itendach (cf. NordecaC). in a chamber forming part of s. larger room {Ubixtyina = room, of the puhni) in his tcraiile B-Sagila, (or the purpose of settUng the fates of the king and the whole nation for the coming year (cf. the (of of Lsl 37 9»») Thiscelebration represented a similar mjthical assembly of the gods, supposed to be held in a mysterious spot in the far East, ivhich, again, had iU prototype in a convi\nal assembly of the gods on the eve of the creation (see art Babvlosia, vol. l. E17"5, at which Marduk was appointed to overcome the rival power Tidtiiat. and carry out the work of creation. In this connexion Manluk is signilicantly called 'the arranger of the ptiAru of the gods.' In Tidmat Zimmem thinks we may And the original of Hainan (as in Marduk of Mordecai); and in the story of the Bk. of Esther he sees a Jewish transformation of the liab. legend (Bel and the Dragon), the change of d.ile from Nisan to Adar being due to the desire to keep it a month earlier than the solemn Passover. Conliriiiation of this theorv in a modified form is offered by Jen^cn ( ir/A'J/ vi. 471!. 2u9il. ; see also his communication to '^ildeboer, quoted by the latter in his (Jomm. on 'Esther' in Marti's KuTlrr Udcomm. p. 173), who suggests the identification of Haman with an Elamite god Huinba-ba=//uwinam (cor- responding to the Bab. .Marduk), of Uaman's wife Zereeh with Hummams consort Kiriia, and of Vatldi with an Elamite divinity WaMi, while at the same time pointing out that Kslher -Bab. Iitar, and that Iladaxxa in Hab.^bridf. He also makes out /«((ir to be a cousin of Marduk, as Esther of Mordecii. With this mythology he connects the Bab. New Year's epic which celebrates, in twelve parts, the changing fortunes of Eabani (.Marduk), and he finds in the Bk. of Esther a combina- tion of these and other elements of a more popular character relating to the Babvlonian conquest of the Elamites, the whole being wrought up b'v Jewish fancy amid Pers. surroundings. Wildebocr, while accepting this theory^^ combines with it the Idea of a festival of the dead (AU-Souls'-Day), as suggested by Lagarde above, and applied bySchwally (Leien nach dem Tode, 42 rt.). Hence the fcastings and fastings and sending of gifts- repasts and offerings for the dead being a usual accompaniment of such commemorations in Persia and elsewhere ; hence, too, the absence of the name of God from a story intended for such semiheathenish rites, as its introduction in such a connexion would have given offence to the religious authorities and pre- vented its admission to the synagogue. A different version of the same theory is given by Br. Meissner (ZD.MU, 1896). He traces back the Jewish festival through its Persian medium to the festivities referred to by Berosus under the name of !.««.«, which he identifle8(on doubtful etimoloRical ipxiunds) with the Bab. Zagmuk, as popularly understood and abser\'c<l. In the celebration of this festival, which was of so merry a character that Istar, the goildcss of love, naturally acquired a more prominent place in it than Marduk, it was usual for a slave, arrayed In royal apparel, to rule over the nobles for five days, and something like a reversal of the onlinary social relations took place. Meissner supiMses the Jews to have become acquainted with It In Susa, and to have appreciated it »0 much in their state of Bubleclion as to per- petuate it In a form that was specially fitted to glorify their own nation. In thu Kxpotitor, Aug. 1898, Mr. 0. H. W. Johns calls atten- tion to the fact, as brought out by Peiser in the Keilimchr\fllicht Bilddil. vol. iv. p. 107, that the As«yr. word ptiru means 'term of olllce,' ' turn,' and holds I'urim to be dcrivol from Puru, which is free from the ineffaceahlc guttural in ;/riArw, as the common designation of the New Year's fca«t on its nfruiar sklc (In connexion with the accession of olllclals), as <liBtingul8hed tmni Its sacrcd names and associations, with which the Jews •ould have no sympathy. According to a conleotora of U. J. da Ooeje't, favoured by Kuerien, the storv of Esther is derived from the same Perslao tradition as the "tale of Tlie Thnuyand and On< A>j//its, which has a similar heroine in Scheherazade. The word Pur has sometimes been supiiosed to belong to the same root as Pers. p&re and Lat. ^«ri, Ijut Hal6vy traces it to a lost Aram, word .Ti?s, from root its = to break in pieces, after the analogy of other Semitic tongues, in which the idea of 'lot' is closely related to that of fraction, or partition, with which he connects the distribution of gifts at the feast. Another suggestion is that it may have denoted some object (cf. urn, dice, cards) used, in casting lots,— such as Dieulafoy (Itev. dcs Et. Juives, 1888) claims to have dis- covered in the excavations of the Memnonium at Susa, in the shape of a tjuadrangular nrism, bearing ditl'ercnt numbers on its four faces, which he thinks may have been used for casting lots, the name cur (like Sanskrit »t<r 'fulness,' Pers. pur ' fiiU,' Lat. ptenus, Fr. plcin) having reference to its solid form. But Jensen (quoted by Wildeboer as above) derives the word from Assyr. puru or buru=stone, used in a metaphorical sense analogous to that of S-iia and \j/ri(poi. In subsequent times the Feast of Ptirim has often been the means of sustaining the faith of Jewish communities when in imminent danger of destruc- tion at the hands of their enemies, of which we are reminded by the Cairene Purim (Furin al-Miz- rayim) and the Purim-Vincent, designed to com- memorate the deliverance of the Jews in Cairo and Frankfort in 1524 and 1616. It may be added that the distinction between ' Great f urim ' and ' Little Purim,' referring to the two celebrations that used to take place in leap- year, in Adar and Ve-Adar respectively, cannot be traced to an earlier period than the 2nd cent. A. D. Literature. —Besides the authorities cited above, sec the literature referred to in art. Esther, and, further, Derenbourg, IIM de la Pal. 442 ff. ; W. E. Smith, OTJC^, 184 n. J. A. M'Clymokt.