Prayers of Biblical Characters in Postbiblical Literature

Expansions of biblical stories from the Second Temple period frequently involved the addition of lengthy prayers, which provided opportunities for characters to demonstrate their piety and to explain and justify their actions. In some instances, the protagonist is depicted as interceding on behalf of the Israelite collective, as in the prayer of Daniel in Daniel 9:3–19 and the prayers of Moses in Jubilees, the writings of Josephus, and Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities. More often, however, the characters are praying on their own behalf, and their words are represented as the private prayers of individuals. These prayers share the features of genre and style typical of other prayers of the period, including hymns, petitions, and laments.

Even fictional prayers reveal cultural assumptions about the etiquette of prayer, such as which kinds of rhetoric, forms of address, and physical stances are appropriate when approaching the deity with a request. Some of this etiquette parallels depictions of prayer in the Bible. For example, petitionary prayer is modeled on human hierarchical social interaction between a subordinate (the petitioner) and his or her social superior (a ruler or parent). In this kind of interaction, it is considered inappropriate to make a request or demand without first articulating the prior relationship between the petitioner and the superior and recalling with gratitude past acts of beneficence that form the basis for the present request and justify the petitioner’s expectation that it will be granted. Similarly, physical stances of respect and subordination such as standing, bowing, and full prostration that were customary when approaching human authority figures are also employed when approaching the deity. Other fictive prayers reflect the pieties associated with Hellenistic culture. The author of the Greek additions to the book of Esther, for example, could not imagine that Esther and Mordecai would not utter prayers for divine assistance before undertaking their dangerous mission to save the Jews, and hence supplied them. In contrast to other literature of this period, rabbinic texts often portray biblical characters arguing with God and employing midrashic logic to defend their positions by supplying prooftexts from elsewhere in the Bible.