A Persian Parody
Emperor Cyrus, because he put an end to the Babylonian Captivity and ordered the rebuilding of the Temple, receives nothing but praise and positive comment in Holy Scripture. His successors, however, the later lords of Persia, are obliged to make it on their own. And sometimes, frankly, they don’t.
Take Ahasuerus, for example, as he appears in the Book of Esther. Arguably this emperor could have been any Persian king from Cambyses II to Artaxerxes II, but his identification is not important, because the Book of Esther is an exercise in satire, and Ahasuerus is a joke. Indeed, his pretension makes him a parody of the Almighty. In a sense he replaces God; so much so that, in the Hebrew text, the real God is not even mentioned!
Ahasuerus is the very type of a political god, the sort that Tertullian declared to be most dangerous. He is all-powerful, his personal will is the source of all law, and everyone else on earth is dependent on his favor. The borders of his rule are vast: “This was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia.” Such a Persian may grow too big for his pantaloons.
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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