Introduction to the New
Testament: The Hebrew
Short Story
Jonah, Esther, Tobit,
Judith, Susanna
Popular stories
• The young boy
Jesus would have
been raised
listening to these
entertaining,
inspiring stories.
• Stories of
encouragement,
faith, and
goodness.
Jesus
Bed time stories
The book of Tobit
• It was written to
encourage faithful
Jews to be
righteous and
patient during the
difficult period of
Greek oppression.
A faithful Jew
• He was a faithful Jew
• He was discourage
and sad because he
became blind with
cataracts.
– Prays for death
At the same time……. Sarah ….
• In a faraway city,
grieves her
misfortune.
• Was praying for death
– She had been married
seven times, and each
husband was killed by
a jealous demon before
the marriage was
consummated, during
their wedding night.
God intervenes
• Both, Tobit and Sarah, mournful about their
respective situations, pray to God to end their
life- at the same moment, but separated by
many miles.
• God intervenes through the intervention of an
angel.
Raphael
• The angel is Raphael
• Appears as a man named Azariah
Tobias, Raphael, and the fish
• Tobit sends his son
Tobias to Media to
retrieve money owed.
• Tobias looks for a
man to go with him
and finds Raphaelhires the angel to with
him
• On their way to Media,
a large fish leaps out
to attack Tobias.
Medicine
• Raphael instructs
Tobias to open the
fish and take out
its gall, heart, and
liver
– and keep them as
medicines.
Fear
• Sarah is related to Tobit’s
family
– Aka the woman whose
husbands mysteriously
die on their wedding
night.
• Raphael urges Tobias to
seek her hand in marriage,
since he is her next of kin.
• Tobias knows about
Sarah’s previous
husbands and is wary, but
Raphael tells him that all
will be well.
The big day
• Tobias and Sarah are
married
– Sarah’s parents are so
sure that Tobias is
going to die that they
dig his grave
– Raphael tells him how
he can repel the
demon, using the fish’s
liver and heart.
– The husband-killing
demon is banished that
night with the help of
the angel.
Happily ever after
– Raphael instructs
Tobias to smear
the gall of the fish
on his father’s
eyes, his sigh is
restored.
– At the end,
Raphael reveals
his identity
The book of Judith
The story is set in
the Persian period
after the
Babylonian exile
The story tells of how a
young Israelite woman
saves her people from
destruction at the hands of
Holofernes,
Nebuchadnezzar's cruel
general.
The Israelite town of
Bethulia is located near the
mountain passes where
the Assyrians could enter
and over run Israel.
If Bethulia falls, all Israel
will be crushed.
Holofernes has control of
Bethulia’s water supply, so
he decides that rather than
attack the town, risking his
troops, he can simply let
Bethulia run out of water
and wait for the people to
die of thirst.
Weeks later, the
townspeople, who have
tried to ration their water
but are panicking, are on
the brink of surrender to
Holofernes.
Judith
Her name means
“woman of Judah” or
“Jewish woman.”
She is a widow
She insists the people
must not surrender or
else all Israel will fall
Jerusalem and the
Temple will be
destroyed, and the
people will be
enslaved.
Judith the Heroine
She has a plan:
she will get inside
Holofernes’ camp
And with God to
make her strong,
she will crush the
enemy
At the camp
She enters the camp
tells the soldiers that
she and her maid are
running away from
Bethulia before it falls
And that she has
information for
Holofernes about the
mountain passes to
use when he attacks.
She tells Holoferness
that the Jewish people
do not have any more
food and are willing to
eat forbidden food.
Holofernes is astonished
by Judith’s beauty and is
easily deceived
She tells him that to help
him, she must leave the
camp each night to pray to
her God
She is allowed to do so
By the fourth night,
Holofernes, beside himself
with desire, invites her to a
banquet- after which he
plans to seduce her.
But he gets drunk and falls
asleep.
The deed
Alone with him, she
prays to the Lord
for strength.
She takes his
sword, grabs him
by the hair, and
cuts off his head.
She rolls the head
into a sack, and
leaves the camp to
pray- as usual
Happily ever after
Judith and her maid go
straight to the city gates of
Bethulia where Judith
shouts, “Our God is with
us!”
She pulls the head of
Holofernes from her sack,
and the townspeople
rejoice.
When the Assyrians
doscover that Holofernes is
dead and Judith gone, they
panic and flee.
Israel is victorious!
Purposes of the book of Esther
1.
2.
To praise the
goodness of God who
saved the Jews from
annihilation
To explain the origin
of the feast called
Purim.
–
The festival celebrates
the triumph of the
Queen Esther – who is
Jewish- over the villain
Haman – who plotted
to slay all the Jews in
Persia
The story of Esther
The time of the story
is the reign of the
Persian king Xerxes
(Artaxerxes)- called
Ahasuerus in some
versions
 The place is Susa- a
Persian city

A New Queen

King Xerxes orders his
queen to step down from
the throne after an
incident when he feels
humiliated by her.
– Vashti- his wife
– Vanished from the city due
to disobedience

To replace Vashti, he
searches the kingdom for
the most beautiful
woman in the land.

Esther is encouraged
by her cousin
Mordecai to come
forward and “try out”
for the role of queen
without revealing that
she is Jewish
Esther
Hadassah is her
Jewish name
 Named Esther to keep
her background
secret
 Her loveliness and
simplicity immediately
win the king’s heart.



As a Queen, Esther gains
knowledge of the plot by
the prime minister,
Haman, to slaughter all
the Jews in the land
Haman has a grudge
against Mordecai- refused
to bow to him
– Haman wants to punish
him and all the Jewish
people
Haman’s plan



Haman convinces the king that
the Jews are treasonous
people and the king goes
along with Haman’s plan.
Mordecai asked Esther to go to
the king to intercede.
She agrees to help, but is
terrified to go to court without
the king’s summons
– Such an improper act could
risk her life.
– She decides to risk it for the
sake of the people.





Esther decided to finally
talk to the king about
Haman’s plan.
She tells the king that
someone wants to
murder her and her
people.
The king asked who
wanted to do that
She pointed to Haman.
Haman was hanged.
Purim



The Jewish feast of Purim
honors the courage of
Esther- overcame her
fears to save her people.
It gets its name from the
lot-the pur- that Haman
drew to determine the
date of the slaughter of
the Jews.
In the last century, a
“Haman” killed six million
Jews in Europe and
millions of other
Europeans. Who was he?
Readings

Noah

Susana
• Jonah
– Was a prophet of hope
• God asked him to go to
Niniveh
– He goes to Tarshish
(Spain) to flee from the
presence of the Lord
– When a storm rises at
sea, the sailors cry
• They resort to lots to
determine the cause of
the storm
• The lot falls on Johan,
who confesses that he
is fleeing from his God
• He urges the sailors to
cast him overboard, as
a human sacrifice to
appease the deity.
• The storm is calmed.
Jonah’s mission
– He does not die
• A large fish
swallows him,
and he
remains in its
belly for three
days and three
nights.
• While in the
belly of the
fish, Jonah
prays to the
Lord.
• The fish vomits
him out on the
dry land.
• The Lord speaks again to
Jonah
• He obeys and goes to
Niniveh.
• He delivers the message of
the coming doom
• After only one day of
Jonah’s preaching, the
people repent, fast, and call
loudly to God for mercy for
their past wickedness.
• God decided to not destroy
Niniveh when the people
repented.
Susanna (Daniel 13)

The story of Susanna,
even though is found
in the book of Daniel,
has much in common
with the tradition of
Jewish short stories
Susanna was married
 Daughter of Joakim

– He was very rich and
had a fine garden
adjoining his house
She was beautiful
 Her parents were
righteous, and had
trained their daughter
according to the law
of Moses.

That year two elders
from the people were
appointed as judges.
 They were frequently
at Joakim’s house
 When the people left
at noon, Susanna
would go into the
garden to walk.




Every day the two elders
used to see her, going in
and walking about, and
they began to lust for
her.
They suppressed their
consciences remembering
their duty to administer
justice.
Both were overwhelmed
with passion for her, but
they did not tell each
other of their distress
– for they were ashamed to
disclose their lustful desire
to seduce her.
Finally, they
confessed to each
other their lust.
 Then together they
arranged for a time
when they could find
her alone.
 They were watching
for an opportunity

One day she was
bathing, and the two
elders were watching.
 When the maids shot
the garden doors and
disappear, the two
men- that were
hiding- tried to
seduce Susanna.



When Susanna refuses
their advances, they
accuse her of fornication
with a young man.
Since they are judges and
people of standing in the
community, their
accusation is believed
and Susanna is
condemned to death.
Daniel comes to the
rescue by the simple
device of crossexamining the two
accusers.
 The judges are put to
death instead of
Susanna.
