While I studied reconstruction of Akkadian pronunciation in grad school, I’m not an expert in it myself. I can connect OP with Assyriologists who are, if need be.

So go out and do some damage, friends. Empathize radically and deeply. Love your neighbor as yourself. Sow wildflowers in the dung of his legacy. Water them with your tears, whether of sorrow or relief. Tend the rainbow blossoms as they grow.

Aww, thank you so much! That means a lot.

WHAT. MY FANDOMS ARE COLLIDING. ::goes back to comb through banter::

I've written elsewhere about fanfic and the book of Esther! The first article is the most accessible; the others are more academic.
theconversation.com/purims-origi...
bibleandcriticaltheory.com/vol-19-no-1-...
www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-ch...

Curious? @tdbiii.bsky.social writes brilliantly on fanfic and early Christian writings, and @annapwilson.bsky.social does amazing work on fanfic and premodern writing.
podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/i...
journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/tw...

Tl;dr: Not all scripture uses the mode of fanfic, but some of it does—and recognizing those parallels helps us to understand the goals of the biblical authors better.

Reading these texts through the lens of fanfic helps us understand how emotional attachment, entertainment, and the desire to "fix" canon all motivated ancient authors and readers of scripture, just like they motivate modern fanfic authors and readers.

Sometimes, the texts that made it into the Bible seem firmly rooted in the mode of fan fiction! Examples include the books of Esther (which seems to reimagine the goddess Ishtar as a nice Jewish girl) and Ruth (which tells the untold story of King David's immigrant ancestress).

Less simple: what is fanfic? It's a modern phenomenon, a genre, an exchange of gifts—but for our purposes, it's a mode. Fanfic is a mode of writing fictional texts that respond to preexisting texts, a mode that really emphasizes inspiration, passion, creativity, and community.

Let's start simple: what is the Bible? It's a library: a set of conversations preserved in dozens of texts that respond to each other and build upon each other. (And it's just one fragment of the broader conversations that took place in the ancient world.)

… While it certainly hooks onto the fascination/frustration model, I wonder if there’s a specific parallel to the way that slash imagines “what if these characters, but with an erotic aspect to their bond.” Something connected to an erotics of devotion to Jesus. Idk, just spitballing.