Esther and the Politics of Negotiation

Download or read book Esther and the Politics of Negotiation written by Rebecca S. Hancock and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Esther unique—an anomaly in patriarchal society? Conventionally, scholars see ancient Israelite and Jewish women as excluded from the public world, their power concentrated instead in the domestic realm and exercised through familial structures. Rebecca S. Hancock demonstrates, in contrast, that because of the patrimonial character of ancient Jewish society, the state was often organized along familial lines. The presence of women in roles of queen consort or queen is therefore a key political, and not simply domestic, feature.