Esther

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I want to move you, if God the Holy Ghost shall help me, so that you will say within yourselves, like Queen Esther, “I will go in unto the King, and if I perish, I perish;”1

For the figure, see Queen Esther.

Famously, God's name is absent in this book, and there is certainly no direct claim like "the word of the LORD came to Esther." I wonder if this reflects the blind faith in which Esther and her uncle followed the LORD and Scripture, or if God's voice was omitted to emphasize God's ever-present guiding of history.2

However, this omission has caused some scholars to go as far as to call the book secular, far removed from the spirit of the gospel, and without any redeeming feature for its spirit of vengeance and hatred. Heinrich Ewald described passing to Esther from other books as if we "fall from heaven to earth."3 Martin Luther calls himself "so great an enemy ... to Esther" for its "heathen unnaturalities" and the disproportionate esteem in which the Jews hold it.4

Some of this discomfort is due to the wholesale destruction of the Amalekites, which is one of the most divisive topics of Scripture and caused Christian celebrities like the Hillsong leader and Rhett (Good Mythical Morning) to leave the faith. I mean, is God not holy and ultimately going to punish unrepentant sin? (And after immense patience, too -- the Amalekites were marked for destruction in King Saul's day.) Is vengeance not the Lord's? Does God not deliver His people from evil and turn mourning to joy?2

Basics

  • Author: Anonymous. It's possible the author was someone like Mordecai who had access to official court records and edicts and keen interest in Jewish affairs. His familiarity with Persian customs of the time suggest he lived not long after the events described.5
  • Date: Matches the time period of Ahasuerus's reign (485-464 B.C.), so likely during or soon after that.5
  • Length: 10 (16 when Apocrypha is added)8
  • Order: Nehemiah > Esther > Job
  • Tradition: Jews were forbidden to read it before age 30 by reason of the mystic matters it contains.4

Canonicity

Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria excluded Esther from the Old Testament canon, merely including it as a book appointed by the Church Fathers to be read by new Christians and those who wish for instruction in the word of godliness.6

According to rabbinical literature, the first few centuries of the Christian era, certain sages disputed on internal evidence, the canonicity of Ezekiel, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Even so, Jewish tradition recognized Esther long before Christ's day. Josephus says the Jewish Scriptures were written from the time of Moses until Artaxerxes (Against Apion 1.40-41) and identifies Artaxerxes as Ahasuerus (Jewish Antiquities 11.184). The Mishnah has an entire tractate (Megillah) that discusses the time and manner of reading Esther publicly on the Feast of Purim. Aquila includes Esther in his Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible around A.D. 130. The Council of Carthage included Esther in canon in A.D. 397, but the Western church widely accepted it before that time while Eastern retained doubts.7

Esther Summary & Esther Timeline

A Benjamite and his adoptive orphan daughter become rulers of the second greatest empire after Babylon and finally defeat Israel's ancient enemy, the Amalekites, through prayer, fasting, and obedience even when it could mean death. This completion of the original task given to Benjamite King Saul is one of the last things to happen in the Old Testament timeline.

The Feast of Purim, inspired by the Agagite's monkeypawed use of Pur to defeat the Jews, is celebrated every year in the spring. Mordecai wants part of the festivities to include charity to the poor.

Apocryphal Additions to Esther

Esther ends at Chapter 10 for Jerome-supporting Protestants. For the Augustine-supporting Roman Catholics, chapter 10 is extended, and the book continues until Chapter 16.

The additions include the dream of Mordecai, the edict of Artaxerxes, prayers of Mordecai and Esther, Esther before the king, the counter-edict, and an epilogue. These sections were meant to be interpolated into the text of the canonical book, and were probably originally written in Greek.8

Literary Form

The literary structure is some kind of poetry form that involves symmetry, so there is a lot of Feast of Esther & Fast of Esther, Mordecai can't enter the castle in sackcloth & Mordecai leaves the castle in the King's robe, etc.2

Esther's story also resembles a hero story, portraying the courage of a national and religious heroine.9

Citations, since they got ridiculously long and cluttered the text

Eventually, I'll add a real citation system.

  • 1 Spurgeon's Sermons on Prayer by Charles H. Spurgeon (2007). Page 18., https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-ravens-cry/#flipbook/
  • 2 Me
  • 3 An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament by S. R. Driver, 1960. Page 485-486 @ https://archive.org/details/introductiontoli00drivrich/page/n11/mode/2up, accessed July 19, 2023
  • also 3 (then Heinrich Ewald's name is given in full here but without further attribution. Him being German, it's probably a translation, too. -->) But Did They Live Happily Ever After? The Eschatology of the Book of Esther by Iain Duguid in the Wesleyan Theological Journal, Spring 2006, Page 85 @ https://faculty.wts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2006-Spring-ButDidTheyLive.pdf, accessed July 19, 2023
  • 4 The Table-Talk of Martin Luther by Martin Luther, translated by William Hazlitt, esq, 1566. Page 27 @ https://www.ccel.org/ccel/l/luther/tabletalk/cache/tabletalk.pdf, accessed July 19, 2023
  • 5 The ESV Study BibleTM, English Standard Version (ESV) by Crossway Bibles, 2007. Page 849
  • 6 Festal Letter by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, point 7; New Advent, LLC - From Letter 39 @ https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2806039.htm, accessed June 6, 2023.
  • 7The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Page 51.
  • also 7 The ESV Study BibleTM, English Standard Version (ESV) by Crossway Bibles, 2007. Page 849.
  • 8 The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Old Testament and New Testament Apocrypha by R. K. Harrison, Page 87.
  • 9 The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Bible as Literature by Leland Ryken, Page 131-132

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