Esther

[Goodbook]

i have a question on Esther, how was it that nobody could really tell she was hebrew or jewish? Dont jewish people have distinctive features, like many have curly hair and flat or large noses? Or is it middle eastern people all have those features?


For example just by looking at me people can see i look asian and most people can accurately guess chinese is my heritage. Would it be like the differences among asian people, who can be korean, japanese, thai etc. but among these groups usually you can tell by their features if they are chinese, japanese, thai, korean etc.

Was Esther of mixed heritage?

 

[brinny]

I've never thought of that.

Good question.

 

[Dave-W]

how was it that nobody could really tell she was hebrew or jewish? Dont jewish people have distinctive features, like many have curly hair and flat or large noses? Or is it middle eastern people all have those features?

The Persians and Medes who took over the Babylonian empire during the time of Daniel were of Semitic stock the same as the Jews and modern day Arabs.

Besides, that empire stretched from Egypt and Turkey to India and Afghanistan. So the pool of young women ranged greatly in ethnicity.

Susa was the winter capital. Babylon was the summer home.

 

[brinny]

The Persians and Medes who took over the Babylonian empire during the time of Daniel were of Semitic stock the same as the Jews and modern day Arabs.

Besides, that empire stretched from Egypt and Turkey to India and Afghanistan. So the pool of young women ranged greatly in ethnicity.

Susa was the winter capital. Babylon was the summer home.

Thank you for this very rich post.

I learned a lot.

 

[Dave-W]

Thank you for this very rich post.
I learned a lot.

You are welcome.

It is one of the advantages of celebrating Purim every year. You tend to pick up a lot of the history.

 

[brinny]

You are welcome.

It is one of the advantages of celebrating Purim every year. You tend to pick up a lot of the history.

i sooooo need to study it.

History is a treasure.

it's tragic that many do not realize it.

 

[Goodbook]

I really don't understand what is meant by 'semitic stock'.

 

[Dave-W]

I really don't understand what is meant by 'semitic stock'.

Descendants of Shem, Noah's son.

 

[alex2165]

Goodbook wrote:
i have a question on Esther, how was it that nobody could really tell she was hebrew or jewish? Dont jewish people have distinctive features, like many have curly hair and flat or large noses? Or is it middle eastern people all have those features?


Ahasuerus. "mighty man." Scholars generally agree that Ahasuerus is the same person as Xerxes I (485-464 B.C.) (Ezra 4.6).

It seems to me that the king did not care much of what kind ethnic group his next queen will be. He gave order to find the most beautiful girl among many of his subjects and that very much was his request.

Esther on the other hand did not revealed her true Hebrew identity until the moment when she revealed the plan of Haman to the king.

Esther actually a Persian name which means “Star.” Her true Hebrew name was *“Hadassah”

*(Esther 2.7. Hadassah: Ester's Hebrew name was Hadassah which means "myrtle." "Ester" probably comes from the Persian word for "star", though some scholars have made a connection between it and the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. It appears that Ester had been orphaned and subsequently adopted by her cousin, Mordecai.)

KSB, Spiros Zodhiates. P-660.



Furthermore, Hebrews or Jews as they called today, have quite a variety of different physical looks from the very beginning.

Description of David revealed that he was “ruddy” means red head or even blond

1Sanuel 16.12

12.”he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes, and a handsome appearance”

Blue eyes? Also very possible. It never surprises me to see a Jew with red hair and blue eyes. In Russia for example if a person have red hair with blue eyes, he or she 99% Jew. Among Russians as far as I know, no read heads, any other color but not reds. But Scotts and Irish have many red heads.

But in majority Jews indeed look very Middle-Eastern and it is impossible sometimes to differentiate between the Arabs and the Jews.

So stereotypes of races not always tell the truth about their true identity, it is also due to assimilation of one race into another.

But then it comes to Jews, starting from David, we can clearly see that Jews can look completely different from the general stereotype of his race.

 

[Goodbook]

can someone post a picture of what Esther might have looked like, maybe there's some artist depictions in paintings and book illustrations?

 

[Goodbook]

In the Bible it says Sarah was 'fair' and I take it to mean she was blonde. Or it could just mean she was very good looking.

 

[brinny]

In the Bible it says Sarah was 'fair' and I take it to mean she was blonde. Or it could just mean she was very good looking.

i think it means that she was beautiful.

 

[John Hyperspace]

i have a question on Esther, how was it that nobody could really tell she was hebrew or jewish? Dont jewish people have distinctive features, like many have curly hair and flat or large noses? Or is it middle eastern people all have those features?


For example just by looking at me people can see i look asian and most people can accurately guess chinese is my heritage. Would it be like the differences among asian people, who can be korean, japanese, thai etc. but among these groups usually you can tell by their features if they are chinese, japanese, thai, korean etc.

Was Esther of mixed heritage?

Going by the modern classification (which is circular), Jews can be of virtually any appearance. Years ago I was into studying bloodlines, and came to the conclusion that it is entirely impossible to know whose bloodlines are true, and, not true. It's impossible to know what ancient Israelites looked like, and equally as impossible to know what Esther, or, Jesus looked like. It seems that God has hidden these truths in a manner which cannot be evidentially revealed. This lead to the conclusion that any and all fleshly boasts or promises in light of bloodlines are irrelevant to truth.

 

[Goodbook]

But bloodlines ARE important, that was why isaac was different from Ishmael and esau was again different from jacob.
Jesus of course had a kingly bloodline on his mothers side and a heavenly dna from his Fathers.

And Jesus appearance IS described in revelation. That he was not handsome of especially attractive in the fleshly sense is actually important for the historical record of his life on earth.

 

[Goodbook]

We know Esther was a beauty, the bible actually says she was 'fair and beautiful'
We know the lady in song of solomon was dark. We know Moses wife had dark skin.
We know David as ruddy, and esau was hairy. We know samson had long hair and davids son adijonah had curly hair. We know sarah was fair.

If we read the bible that is. If you dont then of course you wouldnt know this.
So we can have some sort of idea. That esther was 'fair' i.e blonde is saying a lot.

 

[Goodbook]

So she could pass for not being jewish with her fair hair or pale skin.
Sarah being fair was before the tribes came to be so you cant say she was jewish.

 

[Goodbook]

I googled pictures of jewish women. The majority had dark brown hair, there were a few blondes, maybe they had dyed their hair. All had dark eyes, and all had large noses. I think with Esther because she was blonde/fair she could pass. Vashti was also fair.

I couldnt pass for european/causcasian unless I dyed my hair and maybe got eyelid surgery. Sometimes people could mix me up with korean or japanese but there are distinctive features within each ethnicity. The jewish people, like all people groups, were tribal and resemble each other, tending to marry amongst themselves as they speak the same language bUT theres also room for people like moabite Ruth who gave up her ancestry and gods she worshiped to become Jewish.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

I really don't understand what is meant by 'semitic stock'.

Frankly the phrase comes across as being rather racialist, so your inability to parse it is probably for the best.

 

[alex2165]

GoodBook read this:

Click on the blue link

Semitic people - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_people

1. Cached

2. Similar

Semitic people or Semitic cultures (from the biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם‎‎) was a term for people or cultures who speak or spoke the Semitic languages.

 

[Archie the Preacher]

I really don't understand what is meant by 'semitic stock'.

The term 'stock' applied to humans - and probably most other mammals - refer to background genetics.

The Jews of the Biblical period (from the time of Abram until the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. and the forced Diaspora by the Romans) were typically - not universally - of a type. The Semitic peoples - descendant from Shem - were and are typically dark skinned, dark haired, small to medium height with large noses and curly haired (ranging from 'wavy' to 'kinky').

Much like all Asian peoples are 'similar'. Not identical, but 'similar'. For that matter, all white people are 'similar' - especially for someone who grew up not seeing them much. (My family began in Scandinavia, migrated to Northern France and then rather abruptly immigrated to Britannia in 1066; we've lived in what is now the United States since prior to the American Revolution. Most people, not anthropologists, would probably make me for "Northern European Stock". But I don't look particularly German.

However, most people (nationality) are identified by their habits in dress and actions. No doubt the Babylonians could tell the Medo-Persians from the Jews from the Egyptians from the people who are now the Arabs more by their accent, clothing and mannerisms than by simple 'sight'.

I rather Esther had lived in the area for most of her life. Since the book of Esther mentions the Medo-Persian Army, this indicates the Jewish people had been already exiled and held in the Babylonian Empire for some time. So I'm betting Esther by and large dressed and acted like a Babylonian-Medo-Perian woman; and looked rather similar as well.

As of now, there are numerous Jewish people who have 'red' hair. Some have 'light' hair. I'm not sure how much intermarriage has occurred since the Romans threw them out of Israel, but that's a possibility.

Esther was 'fair'. I doubt she was blonde, but she was very attractive in the cultural tastes of the day.