ESTHER (es'ter), BOOR OF, one of the eleven hooks styled lief/thine (see HAG lOGRAPHA), and of the five Alegi/loth (see CANTICLES).
(1) Name. It is called by the Jews Megillah Esther. and sometimes simply Mcgilloh, as it forms by itself a distinct roll. In the Christian Church it has been also called Ahasuerus, which name it bears in some copies and printed editions of the Vulgate. In the Hebrew it is placed with the other Megilloth, after the Pentateuch, between the books of Joshua and Ecclesiastes, and some times among the Hagiographa, between Ecclesias tes and Daniel. In the Vulgate, Tobit and Judith are placed between Nehemiah and Esther. Luther placed it immediately after Nehemiah, so as to make it the last among the historical books, although the book of Nehemiah was supposed to refer to a later history. His design in this ar rangement was to prevent the books of Nehemiah and Ezra from being disunited. It has continued to retain this position in the Reformed versions. The Jews hold this book in veneration next to the books of Moses (see Carpzov's and Eichhorn's Introductions). Aside from the subject of this book, which has been treated under AHASUERUS, the book of Esther has this peculiarity among the historical books, that although the author, a Per sian Jew, records a remarkable preservation from destruction of that portion of his countrymen which remained in Persia after the exile, he does not refer their deliverance to the act of God, whose name is not even once mentioned. This has been explained by supposing that the author wished to avoid giving offense to the Persians, or that the whole was taken from the Persian annals, to which an appeal is made (chap. x :2). (See Pareau's Principles of Interpretation and Hottinger's Thes. Phil., p. 488.) (2) Date. Esther was written in the late reign of Xerxes or in the first years of Artaxerxes Longimanus.
(3) Author. Of the author nothing is known, nor have we any data on which to form a reason able conjecture. Augustine (De Civitate Del) ascribes the book to Ezra. Eusebius (Chronic. xlvii. d. a), who observes that the facts of the history are posterior to the time of Ezra, ascribes it to some later but unknown author. Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromata, lib. i. p. 329) assigns it, and the book of Nlaccabees to 'Mordecai. The pseudo-Philo (Chronographia) and Rabbi Azarias maintain that it was written at the desire of Mor decai by Jehoiakim, son of Joshua, who was high priest in the twelfth year of the reign of Ar taxerxes. The minute details given of the ban
quet, the customs and regulations of the palace, and the names of people connected with the court, indicate that the author lived at Shushan, and probably at the court. The intimate knowledge of the private affairs of Esther and Mordecai bear out the hypothesis that the writer was Nlordecai himself, and, like Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, who wrote an account of the affairs of their nation, so he wrote of the events recorded in Esther.
(4) Relations of the King with Esther. The King Ahasuerus is probably Xerxes, son of Darius Hystaspis (see AHASUERUS), and Esther, a cap tive, one of the king's harem, was certainly not of the highest rank of wives, because it is known that the Persian king's chose their wives not from among the concubines, but from the noblest Per sian families. The title of wife or queen may have been given to her, as to Vashti before her, as the favorite concubine, whose children, how ever, would never have succeeded to the throne.
This view of the relations of Esther and Ahasuerus removes all difficulty in reconciling the history of Esther with the scanty accounts left us by profane authors of the reign of Xerxes.
(5) Canonical Authority. doubts been thrown on the canonical authority of this book from the fact that it is never referred to in the New Testament, that it is not cited by Philo, and that it is omitted in several of the ancient catalogues, some ul which expressly exclude it front tile canon. As to the New Testament, there are several other Is iks whose authority is unques tioned which are never once referred to therein, viz. the books of Ruth, Ezra. Nehemiah, Canticles, Lamentations, and Ezekiel ; and the same may be said of Philo, who, although he mentions or refers to all the other books of the Jewish Canon, makes no reference to Ruth, Chronicles, Nehe miah, Esther, Lamentations, Daniel, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles. Carpzov (Introduction) maintains that it is referred to in Matt. i:11. Its omission by Melito. A. D. 170 DEUTERO-CANONICAL BOOKS) has been accounted for by supposing that lie included it, as well as the book of Nehemiah, under the name of Ezra, and there are, in fact, sonic manuscripts of the Vulgate extant, in which Esther is called the sixth book of Ezra ( \\*his ton's Josephus, b. xi, chap. 6, note).