Bible Review

R. Zadok, The Jews in Babylonia during the Chaldean and Achaemenian Periods (Haifa: Haifa Univ. Press, 1979) (in Hebrew).

Attested in a mid-fifth century B.C.E. text. Aû ceûrtain Mar-du-ka, who was a se-pi-rzu (Hebrew sofer), “scribe (on parchment or papyrus),” visited (maµt) Su-sa-nu “the (land) Susa.” The personal name Marduka by itself appears in a large number of texts. See Ungnad, “Keilinschriftliche Beiträge” ZAW 58, pp. 242–243.

A. Ungnad, “Keilinschriftliche Beiträge zum Buch Esra und Esther,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) 58 (1940/1941), pp. 240–244; “Keilinschriftliche Beiträge zum Buch Esra und Esther,” ZAW 59 (1942/1943), p. 219.

J. Perrot, “Shoshan Ha-birah,” Eretz-Israel 20 (1989), pp. 155–160.

A. S. Yahuda, “The Meaning of the Name Esther, ” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1946, pp. 174–178.

The name “Bethusians” is often suspected of being a reference to the Essenes.

See the discussion in Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), p. 220.

Josephus reports that Herod favored the Essenes (Antiquities of the Jews 15.372). See Yigael Yadin, “The Temple Scroll—The Longest and Most Recently Discovered Dead Sea Scroll,” BAR 10:05.

Emile Puech, “Les Esséniens et la vie future,” Le Monde de la Bible 4 (1978), pp. 38–40: The quotation is my translation of his French rendering (p. 40). The text in question is apparently 4Q521 (according to Garcia Martinez, “Lista de MSS procedentes de Qumran,” p. 210).