Mr. Frazer is so far from holding by these arguments for the practice
of hanging a yearly victim at Purim, as to suggest a conjecture that
the victim was not killed at Purim at all, but a month later![39]
If he thinks this possible, what becomes of his 'positive grounds'
for holding that Purim was the date of the hanging? I have shown the
value of the positive grounds for maintaining a theory that the Jews,
before our era, annually hanged a mock-king as Haman at Purim. Mr.
Frazer himself is so far from being convinced that the Jews hanged a
man at Purim[40] as to suggest the supposition that they did not do
so.[41] If they did not, it gets him out of the difficulty caused by
the unlucky circumstance that our Lord was crucified, not at Purim,
but a month after Purim, as we read in the Gospels. But, alas! if the
Jews did not (on this theory) hang a Haman at Purim, what becomes of
all Mr. Frazer's proofs that they did hang a Haman at Purim? In the
total absence of all evidence to that effect, we may be sure that the
Jews did not borrow (unrebuked by prophets and legislators) a heathen
brutality in March from a heathen brutality occurring, if at all, in
July or September. And if they did not, Christ was not the Haman of a
year, which it is Mr. Frazer's contention that he may have been.