The Book of Esther

I posted some brief thoughts on my "Virtual Soapbox" blog, and I thought I'd post something about it here as well. You can follow this link to read it, but I'll talk about it briefly here as well (here's the link: http://colekingdom.blogspot.com/2007/12/esther-grossly-misconstrued-character.html). This is an essay written by one of my former professors at BIOLA, Dr. Ron Pierce, who specializes in teaching and researching Old Testament scriptures. In this essay Dr. Pierce asserts that the book of Esther has been grossly misconstrued in its interpretation and that commonly held beliefs about Esther and Mordecai could not be further from the truth. He convinced me of this view when I was in college. Perhaps his essay would at least challenge you to reexamine what you currently believe and why you believe it, even if you are not pursuaded by his arguments (although, personally, I find it hard not to be pursuaded). Here is also the direct link to Dr. Pierce's essay: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/esther_pierce.pdf