There are two works attributed to Athanasius, in both of which the book of Esther is excluded from the canon, the Festal Epistle, and the Sy nopsis Scripturcr. It is, however, held in great veneration in the Greek Church, and holds the same place in the authorized Bibles of that com munion which Jerome's prefaces do in the Latin Vulgate.
It has been questioned whether Josephus consid ered the book of Esther as written before or after the close of the canon. All other ancient writers and catalogues include Esther among the books of the Jewish canon. Jerome expressly names it as the ninth book of the Hagiographa (Prologus Galeatus). It has, however, been classed by Sixtus of Sienna, Bellarmine, and others of the Roman church, in the second order of sacred books, or as dcutero-canonical; that is. according to these writ ers, among those prophetical and apostolical books whose authority has not been always equally cer tain, in opposition to those of the first class re specting whose authority there has never been any dispute. Eichhorn considers as conclusive of Esther's having formed part of the Jewish canon, the fact of its having been translated by the Sev enty, under the reign of Ptolemy Philometor. about the middle of the second century before Christ, before the time usually assigned to the translation of the prophets. For this date we have the authority of the subscription to the Sep tuagint Version. So whatever doubts may have existed among some of the Christian fathers as to the authenticity of Esther, it does not appear that it was ever doubted by the Jews, or by the Christian Church in its collective capacity. The objections which have been advanced against the book of Esther on the ground of the follies, wickedness and cruelties narrated in it, have been ably refuted by Jahn and other critics, who have shown that these things are not recorded with ap probation, but simply as facts of history, illustra tive of the operations of the providence of God, with a view to effect the deliverance of his peo ple (Henderson, On Inspiration, p. 48).
W. W.
(6) Apocryphal Additions To. In the ver sion of the Seventy the book of Esther, besides other variations, is enriched with several detached fragments which are not found in the Hebrew. These were also contained in the old Latin, which was translated from the Greek, and were retained in his own version by Jerome, who removed them to the end of the book, in which position they are still found in all manuscripts and printed editions of the Vulgate. forming the last seven chapters
according to Cardinal 1 lugo's division. Luther proceeded still further, and removed them to a separate place among the Apocrypha. They arc as follows: (1) The Greek version commences with what forms the t WI chapter in the \ ulgate, 'In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleo patra,* describing Mordecai's dream of the two dragons and the conspiracy of the two eunuchs (Vulg. xii).
(2) The king's letter for the destruction of the Jews (Vulg. xiii) follows in the Greek the 13th verse of chap. iii to verse i4.
(3) The Prayer of Esther (Vulg xiv), Septu agint iv, commencing after the t7th verse in the Vulgate.
(4) A detailed and embellished description of Esther's visit to the king (Vulg. xv), Septuagint v to verse 3.
(5) The king's letter in favor of the Jews (Vulg. xvi), Septuagint viii, after t3th verse.
(6) The whole concludes in the Septuagint with Mordecai's recollection of his dream of the great and little fountain and the two dragons (Vulg. i), after which is the subscription, pur porting that the letter concerning the feast of Purim was brought into Egypt by Dositheus and translated by Lysimachus in the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra (B. C. 165).
ETAM (e'tarn), (Heb. of wild beasts).
1. A town in the tribe of Judah, which was decorated by Solomon with gardens and streams of water, and fortified by Rehoboam along with Bethlehem and Tekoa (t Chron. iv:3; 2 Chron. xi:6; Joseph. A ntiq. 3). From this place, according to the Rabbins, water was carried by an aqueduct to Jerusalem. Josephus places it at fifty stadia (in some copies sixty) from Jerusalem (southward), and alleges that Solomon was in the habit of taking a morning drive to this favored spot in his chariot. Scholars are inclined to find Etam at a place about a mile and a half south of Bethlehem, where there is a ruined village called Urtas, at the bottom of a pleasant valley of the same name. Here there are traces of ancient ruins, and also a fountain, sending forth a copious supply of fine water, which forms a beautiful purl ing rill along the bottom of the valley.
2. A village of the tribe of Simeon (i Chron. iv :32). As the cities of Simeon were all in the extreme south this cannot be the same as I.
3. Etam the Rock. It is usually supposed that 'the rock Etam,' to which Samson withdrew (Judg. xv :8, it), was near the town of the same name now called Urtas, which seems to corre spond to the ancient Etam.