ESTHER. The book of Esther relates how a Jewish maiden, cousin and foster-daughter of Mordecai, became the queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes, see AHASUERUS) ; how Esther and Mordecai frustrated Haman's endeavour to extirpate the Jews; how Haman, the grand vizier, fell, and Mordecai succeeded him ; how Esther obtained the king's permission for the Jews to destroy all who might attack them on the day which Haman had appointed by lot for their destruction; and, lastly, how the feast of Purim (Lots?) was instituted to commemorate their deliv erance.
The story of Esther is the work of a skilled narrator. The principal characters are well drawn, the style is simple, the interest sustained. There are two very conspicuous blemishes: the lack of any religious element and the apparent delight in the wholesale slaughter of gentiles. There is no allusion to a divine being, no mention of religious feeling or observance (except fast ing). The plane of exaggeration on which the whole narrative is based must be taken into account (a banquet lasting 18o days, the I 2 months perfuming of each maiden before her presentation to the king, Esther's preparation lasting four years, Haman's gal lows 5o cubits high, a year's warning to the victims of the plot, etc.) was doubtless designed to weaken the impression of reality. The book aims to paint a stirring picture of the supposed events which led to the institution of the festival of Purim, celebrated on the 14th and 15th of Adar (see PURIM), and thus to help ensure its perpetual observance; but historical verity is disclaimed at the outset (precisely as is the case in the book of Judith).
The true origin of the feast remains obscure, and even the name has not been satisfactorily explained. Since the names Esther and Mordecai are derived from Ishtar and Marduk, some scholars (notably Zimmern and Jensen) have sought to find the basis of the story in Babylonian, Persian or Elamite mythology. (See Paton, Comm., pp. 76-94.) No one of these attempts is convinc ing, however.
Esther is one of the latest books of the Old Testament. This appears plainly in the character of the Hebrew in which it is written (Driver, Introd.; Paton, p. 59). Kuenen's conjectured date of its composition, c. 13o B.C., seems to have the best sup port, and has found favour with many scholars. We first hear of the feast of Purim in 2 Macc. xv. 36 (1st century B.c.). The re markable subscription to the standard Greek recension gives the date, 114-113 B.C., at which the Greek translation (of our He brew, or of an expanded text?) was brought to Egypt. The book enjoyed great popularity among the Jews, as shown by the many recensions and by the distinction of a special scroll (megil lah). Our Hebrew seems to give the oldest and best version. The standard Greek renders a somewhat longer text, besides contain ing extensive additions (see below). Another Greek recension, abbreviated and differing in other respects, was published by Lagarde (Libr. Vet. Test pars prior). The Old Latin, Jerome's Vulgate, two Targums (from the Gaonic period), and a late and unimportant Syriac version, are also to be mentioned. The varia tion in the principal texts (Hebrew, Greek and Latin) seems to be due mainly to reproduction from memory. Although much read, the book was not easily ranked as sacred scripture. The Jews gave it admission to the canon only after much controversy, and among the early Christians it was often rejected; the Nestorian Church, especially, continued to ignore it.
(T. K. C. ; C. C. T.) Additions to Book of Esther.—This term designates the six long passages which are found in the standard Greek version, and now have a place in the O.T. Apocrypha. They are the following : A (preceding Heb. chap. i. ) : Mordecai's dream, and his discovery of a conspiracy. B (following Heb. iii. 13) : the letter of the king, ordering the extermination of "a certain evilly disposed people." C (following Heb. chap. iv.) : prayers of Mordecai and Esther. D: an expanded narrative, 16 verses, replacing Heb. v. 1, 2. E (following Heb. viii. 12) : the letter of the king in favour of the Jews. F (following the last verse, x. 3, of Heb.) includes: (a) Mordecai's interpretation of his dream, and his declaration as to the institution of Purim; (b) the subscription giving a date (see above) .
The earliest sure attestation of the additions is given by Jose phus, Ant. xi. 6. The "Lucianic" Greek edited by Lagarde (see above) contains them; so also does the Old Latin, translated from still another Greek version and containing further expansions as well as omissions. Jerome, in the Vulgate, rendered the additions from the Greek, beginning with F at the close of his translation of the Hebrew book, and continuing with the others in their dis connected sequence. The meaningless disorder in the English Apocrypha is the result of translating Jerome's text without re arrangement or explanation.
The additions cannot have been present in the original Hebrew. Their character, both literary and religious, is markedly different, and their omission would be inexplicable. They testify, on the one hand, to the desire to introduce into the book the religious element which is so conspicuously lacking, and on the other hand to the lively circulation of the story, especially in the first decades of its popularity, in a variety of freely handled versions, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. The additions themselves, moreover, repre sent more than one original language and at least two distinct re censions. It is beyond question that B and E (see above) were composed in Greek, and that they never stood in other than Greek forms of the story. The style in which they are written is con clusive as to this, and they are doubtless the work of one and the same hand. It is equally capable of demonstration that the Greek of A, C, D and F(a) is the result of translation from He brew; these sections stood originally in a Hebrew book. The original language of F(b) (the subscription) was presumably Greek, though this can hardly be declared certain.