What happened to the Essenes after the first Jewish revolt? The answer to this seemingly simple question has proven elusive. Prior to the war, the Essenes stood alongside the Pharisees and Sadducees as one of the most prominent social factions in Judaea. Josephus and Philo allege that they numbered in the thousands and that they could be found in cities and towns throughout the country.

The current study analyzes evidence of the reception of the book of Esther by Greek-speaking Jewish audiences of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. The author argues that the book of Esther lent itself to a common mode of cultural recontextualization suggestive of a documented medieval phenomenon known as the Special Purim. The book's inherent appeal to the social mentality of ancient Jewish civilization is demonstrated by tracing the roots of this trend back from the composition of the Hebrew Esther through its later manifestations in Judaea/Palestine and in the Greco-Roman Diaspora.

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