~purim (273).docx

Copyright 2006 - By Jerome Cameron Goodwin – All Rights Reserved

~PURIM (273)
(Pu'rim)
·· Commemoration Of Deliverance
·· Purpose
The festival celebrated on the 14th and 15th of Adar, the last
month of the Jewish year, corresponding to late February and early
March, also called the Festival of Lot’s.
To impose upon them the obligation to be regularly holding the
fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of it in
each and every year. (Esther 9:21)
The name comes from the act of Haman in casting pur or lot, to
determine the auspicious day to carry out an extermination plot
against the Jews. Being an Agagite, perhaps a royal Amalekite, and a
worshiper of pagan deities, he was resorting to this as a species of
divination.
In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of
King Ahasuerus, someone cast Pur, that is, the Lot, before Haman
from day to day and from month to month, to the twelfth, that is,
the month Adar. (Esther 3:7) Footnote
In King Ahasuerus, or Xerxes I, 12th year, on Nisan 13,
apparently in the spring of 484 B.C.E, the official extermination decree
that Haman had induced the king to approve was prepared for all the
Persian provinces, commanding the destruction of the Jews.

See Also DIVINATION
See Also LOT 1
See Also PUR

·· Commemoration Of Deliverance
The festival commemorates the Jews deliverance from
destruction through Haman’s plot. Consequently, the name Purim was
probably given by the Jews in irony.
For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the one
showing hostility to all the Jews, had himself schemed against
the Jews to destroy them, and he had had Pur, that is, the Lot,
cast, to disquiet them and destroy them. (Esther 9:24)
But when Esther came in before the king he said with the written
document. Let his bad scheme that he has schemed against the
Jews come back upon his own head, and they hanged him and
his sons upon the stake. (Esther 9:25)
That is why they called these days Purim, by the name of the Pur.
That is why, according to all the words of this letter and what
they had seen as to this and what had come upon them. (Esther
Through the efforts of Queen Esther, at the risk of her life and as
directed by her older cousin Mordecai, the Jews were delivered. Esther
fasted for three days before seeking an audience with the king to invite
him to a banquet, and then to a second banquet where her petition
could be presented.
So Hathach went out to Mordecai into the public square of the
city that was before the king’s gate. (Esther 4:6)
If I have found favor in the kings eyes and if to the king it does
seem good to grant my petition and to act on my request, let the
king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall hold for them
tomorrow, and tomorrow I shall do according to the kings word.
(Esther 5:8)
The petition was favorably heard, and since the original decree
could not be changed on account of the unchangeable Law of the
Medes and Persians
Now, O king, may you establish the statute and sign the writing,
in order for it not to be changed, according to the Law of the
Medes and the Persians, which is not annulled. (Daniel 6:8)
Another decree was issued on the 23rd day of Sivan. This
document granted the Jews the right to defend themselves and
enabled them to prepare.
It was written by Mordecai and translated into many languages
for various districts of the Persian Empire. The Jews fought with the
help of the princes, satraps, and governor’s and turned the tables on
the anti-Jewish enemies.
A great slaughter took place on Adar 13, not of the Jews, but of
their enemies. It continued in the royal city of Shushan through the
14th. On the 14th day of Adar the Jews in the jurisdictional districts
rested, and those in Shushan on the 15th day, with banqueting and
rejoicing.
Moreover, Esther spoke again before the king and fell down
before his feet and wept and implored favor of him to turn away
the badness of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had
schemed against the Jews. (Esther 8:3)
That is why the country Jews, inhabiting the cities of the outlying
districts, were making the fourteenth day of the month Adar a
rejoicing and a banqueting and a good day and a sending of
portions to one another. (Esther 9:19)
To commemorate this deliverance, Mordecai imposed upon the
Jews the obligation to observe Adar 14 and 15 each year with
banqueting and rejoicing and sending portions to one another and gifts
to the poor people.
And Mordecai proceeded to write these things and send written
documents to all the Jews that were in all the jurisdictional
districts of King Ahasuerus, the nearby and the distant ones.
(Esther 9:20)
To impose upon them the obligation to be regularly holding the
fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of it in
each and every year. (Esther 9:21)
According to the days on which the Jews had rested from their
enemies and the month that was changed for them from grief to
rejoicing and from mourning to a good day, to hold them as days
of banqueting and rejoicing and sending of portions to one
another and of gifts to the poor people. (Esther 9:22)
Later, another letter was written with the confirmation of Esther
the queen commanding this festival. It was to be held in each
generation, in each family, jurisdictional district, and city at the
appointed time each year.
And these days were to be remembered and held in each and
every generation, each family, each jurisdictional district and
each city, and these days of Purim themselves should not pass
away from the midst of the Jews and the commemoration itself
of them not come to an end among their offspring. (Esther 9:28)
And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the
Jew proceeded to write with all forcefulness to confirm this
second letter concerning Purim. (Esther 9:29)
Then he sent written documents to all the Jews in the one
hundred and twenty-seven jurisdictional districts, the realm of
Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth. (Esther 9:30)
To confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as
Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had imposed upon them,
and just as they had imposed upon their own soul and upon their
offspring, the matters of the fasts and their cry for aid. (Esther

See Also ESTHER, BOOK OF
The festival is celebrated by the Jews to this day in a detailed
way, with many additions. One of the traditional enlargements that
came in the process of time was the setting aside of the 13th day of
Adar as a day of fasting, called the Fast of Esther. Trade or labor is not
prohibited during this festival.
A Question on;
After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1)
There is no direct mention of the Festival of Purim in the Christian
Greek Scriptures. Some have claimed that there is a reference to it at;
After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1) NW Footnote
After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. However, the application of this verse to the
Festival of Purim is unsubstantiated. Certain manuscripts have the
definite article, reading, the festival of the Jews. This would indicate
that it must have been one of the three solemn seasonal festivals listed
Three times in the year every male of yours should appear before
Yehowah your God in the place that he will choose: in the festival
of the unfermented cakes and in the festival of weeks and in the
festival of booths, and none should appear before Yehowah
empty-handed. (Deuteronomy 16:16)
Especially when we note that Jesus went up to Jerusalem, which
he would not be required to do to keep the Festival of Purim. Purim
was connected more with the local synagogue and the local area than
with the temple, the festival was to be kept in the city of ones
residence.
It is also improbable that Jesus would travel on foot all the way
to Jerusalem and then leave again for Galilee, with Passover only a
month away. Furthermore, if one adopts the view that;
After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1)
Refers to Purim and,
Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. (John 6:4)
To Passover a month later, it would crowd an impossible number
of events into this short space of time, for it would include the ministry
of Jesus in Capernaum, travels in Galilee, and a return to Capernaum
and to Judea and Jerusalem. There is reason to believe, then, that the
festival of the Jews at;
After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1)
Was actually the Passover festival of 31 C.E.

See Also JESUS CHRIST (Evidence For Three-And-A-Half-Year Ministry)
See Also JESUS CHRIST (Chart of Main Events of Jesus Earthly Life)

·· Purpose
While it is said by some commentators that the Festival of Purim
as celebrated by the Jews in the present day has more of a secular than
a religious nature and is sometimes accompanied by excesses, this was
not so at the time of its institution and early celebration. Both
Mordecai and Esther were servants of the true God Yehowah, and the
festival was established to honor Him.
The deliverance of the Jews at that time can be attributed to
Yehowah God, because the issue arose by reason of Mordecai’s
integrity in his course of exclusive worship of Yehowah.
Haman was probably an Amalekite, whose nation Yehowah had
specifically cursed and condemned to destruction. Mordecai respected
God’s decree and refused to bow to Haman.
And all the kings servants that were in the kings gate were
bowing low and prostrating themselves to Haman, for so the king
had commanded respecting him. But as for Mordecai, he would
neither bow low nor prostrate himself. (Esther 3:2)
Now Haman kept seeing that Mordecai was not bowing low and
prostrating himself to him, and Haman became filled with rage.
(Esther 3:5)
Yehowah now said to Moses; Write this as a memorial in the
book and propound it in Joshua’s ears, I shall completely wipe
out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens.
(Exodus 17:14)
And Moses proceeded to build an altar and to call its name
Yehowah-nissi. (Exodus 17:15)
Saying; Because a hand is against the throne of Yah, Yehowah
will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
(Exodus 17:16)
Also, the words of Mordecai to Esther.
For if you are altogether silent at this time, relief and deliverance
themselves will stand up for the Jews from another place, but as
for you and your father’s house, you people will perish. And who
is there knowing whether it is for a time like this that you have
attained to royal dignity? (Esther 4:14)
Indicate that he looked to a higher power for deliverance for the
Jews, and Esther’s fasting before entering the kings presence with her
original petition, a banquet invitation, indicated her appeal to God for
Go, gather all the Jews that are to be found in Shushan and fast
in my behalf and neither eat nor drink for three days, night and
day. I too with my young women, I shall fast likewise, and upon
that I shall come in to the king, which is not according to the law,
and in case I must perish, I must perish. (Esther 4:16)

Source: http://www.knowthetruth.biz/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/PURIM_273.270102929.pdf