Unmasking Esther
Author: Edith Sher
Messiah’s People Publications
ISBN no is 978-0-620-41423-4
The book is 190 pages, soft cover only.
Costs R150 (excl postage) and is only available in/from South Africa.
About the Author
Edith Sher is a Jewish believer working with CMJ South Africa who has had a
fascination with Esther for the past 30 years and has studied the book in depth.
About the Book
Esther is arguably the book most loved by Jewish people. Yet spiritual
luminaries such as Martin Luther have openly declared their hostility to its
alleged Jewish nationalism. Others have gone so far as to dispute its inclusion
in the canon of Scripture. These extreme views aside, most Christians either
ignore Esther or reduce it to an allegory of Jesus and the Church. This approach
tends to hopelessly romanticise the story’s realities. At the other extreme are
the scholars who dissect Esther with a theological scalpel - not as a surgeon
operating on a live patient, but with the grim dedication of a pathologist
examining a corpse. In “Unmasking Esther”
Edith Sher looks at this familiar Biblical story from a Messianic Jewish
perspective. She explores the book’s fascinating structure and presents insights
from the Jewish sages. Esther is history, parody and prophecy rolled into one.
On the surface its plot is the stuff of fairy tales yet at a deeper level
Messianic symbolism is hidden throughout the narrative. The world it describes
is a microcosm of the human condition: of our rebellion against God, of our
exile from His presence, and of our universal need of redemption.
Edith describes her aims in writing “Unmasking Esther” as being twofold:
- to lift Esther out of Biblical isolation and link it to the rest of Scripture;
- to peel back its multidimensional layers and reveal the marvellous
interconnectedness of God’s Word.
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