Here’s a story on Queen Esther from the Bible. Esther was a Jewish woman who married King Ahasuerus of Persia during the 480 BC - 465 BC.

To set the base of the story, Persia was incredibly powerful at that time. Remember Gerard Butler, his 8 pack abs and “This is Spartaaaa!!” ?

The movie 300 was the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC between King Xerxes of Persia and King Leonidas of Sparta, Greece. Persia had 30,000 people, Sparta had 300. Persia won.

Persia continued being so powerful that during the Peloponnesian War during 430 BC - 401 BC between the Athens and Sparta of Greece, Athens sought after Persia’s assistance. The Peloponnesian war also marked the start of democracy from Greece - and it took democracy 2000 years to get here.

Persia then practiced Zoroastrianism until the founding of Islam in the 7th century. King Xerxes ruled from India to Cush (South Sudan) and had his citadel in Susa for summer and Persepolis in winter.

Persia, in today’s world, is Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Back to the story of Queen Esther. In the 3rd year of the King’s reign, one of the nights of wild partying, pissed drunk as he was, he asked his first wife Queen Vashti to strip naked for his friends. She said no, and got banished or executed for it. Queen Vashti unfortunately was portrayed by some interpretations as vile, and refused to “show her beauty” at the king’s request.

So now that the King was lonely, he had several women lined up in his harem at citadel Susa for a beauty contest. Esther’s cousin Modecai, who raised her and works as a palace guard, linked her up for the competition.

Modecai was also a member of a Jewish Community during the Exilic Period (this is another time Jews were exiled from Jerusalem during the Babylon war and settled in what is now known as Israel, Syria, Lebanon).

Esther has strict orders by Modecai to focus only on the King and not be distracted by the wealth and luxury surrounding her and to hide her Jewish background. She eventually won his affection and he made her his Queen. She won more favors with the king when she prevented a murder plot against the king, thanks to a tip off by Modecai.

Modecai took pride in his connection with Esther and considered himself Queen Esther’s advisor. The King however selected someone else as his second line in command called Haman (not Hamas, but close enough).

Modecai, who was already pissed at Persians from the Babylon war, refused to bow when he saw Haman. It also didn’t help that Jews then only recognised themselves and everyone else were called the Gentiles. And so Haman got angry for not getting his bow and decided to annihilate all Jews in Persia.

You’d think there’s be bigger reasons for genocide but nope. Ego is all you need. Quite an anti climax but it is what it is. Side track a little, fast forward to Hitler’s time, this separation of Jews and Gentiles bugged Hitler so much, that he pushed for the Aryans to be the superior race instead. You know what happened there.

Back to Queen Esther’s story with Haman being so pissed and wanted to mass murder all Jews.

Here’s where the story gets more funky.

All this while, the King had no idea Esther, whose real name Hadassah, was a Jewish woman. He was hopelessly in love with her. Modecai asked Esther to tell the King the truth so that the King would spare all of Jew’s lives. Esther was too afraid to. So she got all the Jewish people to fast for 3 days and 3 nights (likely total fast or absolute fast, abstaining from food and water for 3 whole days).

On the 3rd day of the fasting and prayer, the king saw Esther and somehow decided to offer her anything she pleased, even half the kingdom. But she said no thanks.

Instead she invited the King for a party she was throwing (in polite terms, this would be called the banquet) and invited Haman too.

On the first day of the banquet, the king again offered her half the kingdom. And again she said no thanks - and invited the king to another banquet the second day.

That night, the King could not sleep and wanted the Annals of the Kingdom to be read to him so that he could fall asleep. Likely it made a great bedtime story or was boring AF. And in it he came across Mordecai saving his life and told Haman to publicly reward Mordecai.

Quite a bummer for Haman who built a gallows for Mordecai and was looking forward to chopping off his head instead. But he did what the king asked and paraded Mordecai as a hero all day.

On the second banquet night, the king again offered Esther whatever she pleased, even half the kingdom. Here’s where the power pack lines come in. Esther says, spare her life and of her people. The King was confused and puzzled. Esther points to Haman and says he was trying to kill her.

Needless to say, Haman’s head got chopped off in the gallows. Modecai became the King’s advisor.

Moral of the story - rock a man’s boat a couple of days before asking for something or keep him waiting and wanting. Ok ok - this is not the moral of the story - but really though - given the king’s extensive carnal desires and the long list of concubines..anyway

I’ve heard some pretty nice interpretations from the pulpit all my life - Be wise when you are asking for something, fast and pray, be gentle and kind, always understand your surroundings and the situation you are in to get what you want - in that sense, Queen Esther was an incredibly wise woman. There’s also a Jewish holiday - Purim - which was the day the Jews fought. So while the king had Haman out of the picture, he could not call off the war so he let them fight, and the Jews won.

There are many versions of Queen Esther - the Hebrew version in the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah, the Greek version in the Catholic Bible and the Eastern Orthodox. Some parts here are from the the Bible, Concordance, cross references to some interpretations of history and the wild debaucheries, and romantic pursuits were from the book below. If you have read this far and are convinced that this story should be written differently, feel free to add your version. Scholars however cannot proof the historical evidence of Queen Esther or her existence.

Note : There are 3 main Christian branches - Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox i.e.. And all of this has its own denomination based on the countries and culture that originally shaped it i.e Lutheran from Switzerland, Methodist from Anglican from England, Pentecostal from LA. The Roman and Latin rite of Catholicism. The Greek and Russian orthodox version.

Like it or not, religion has been heavily intertwined with nationalism and governance at least in the past 3000 years. Separation of church and state is as simple and complex as trying to break a really old habit.