Esther in rabbinic literature R. Shimon b. Yohai said that it was because, unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar's idol. However, he explained that since they did not mean to show devotion, but acted only for appearances sake, so God decreed only the apparent destruction of the Jews, but would not permit Haman to carry it out. A second reason draws a distinction between Daniel, who abstained from Nebuchadnezzar's table and the Jews (with the exception of Mordecai), who attended Ahasuerus' banquet in Chapter 1. Mordecai called upon her to pray for her people and then intercede with the
Names and titles of God in the New Testament of whether to rescue section of the "sifre minim" (Hebrew language texts of Jewish Christians) containing the tetragrammata from a house fire. Daniel Boyarin includes "even their books of Torah" in this quote. The New Testament contains statements attributed to individuals quoting the Old Testament. George Howard concludes, because extant copies of the Septuagint from as late as the 3rd century CE contain the tetragrammaton or related forms (e.g. 4Q120 (1st century BCE), P Oxy. 3522 (1st century CE), P Oxy 5101 (50 and 150 CE), P Oxy 1007 (3rd century CE), Q (6th century CE)), that New Testament writers