Esther Introduction

Many other scholars are not nearly so skeptical about the book’s relationship to history. They note that Vashti may well be the Hebrew name for the cruel and self-willed queen Amestris, Ahasuerus’s wife during this time. The difference in spelling has been attributed to the lack of certain vocalizations in Hebrew, making it difficult to pronounce the Greek name. Certainly Vashti’s character appears similar to the character of the historical Amestris.

In addition, the historical situation in Persia during this time tracks closely with the events described in Esther. With the help of such important Greek historians as Herodotus and Ctesias, and Persian records discovered during archaeological digs, it is possible to reconstruct a history of this period without reference to the biblical record. These records enable scholars to piece together the following order of events.

Revolts in the empire toward the end of Darius’s life (Egypt in 486–484 BC and Babylon in 484 BC) required a crushing response from his son Ahasuerus in 484. Following these victories, Ahasuerus held a banquet in Susa for the leading people in his kingdom as preparation for his planned invasion of Greece. This may coincide with the banquet mentioned in 1:5. Ahasuerus failed in his attempt to defeat Greece, assured by his naval defeat at Salamis in 480 BC. He returned home in defeat and engaged in a series of harem intrigues. The search for a new queen described in chapter 2 fits well within this time period. (Many other supposed historical inaccuracies are refuted in the study notes.)

There is no doubt that the book of Esther intends the reader to believe the events actually happened as they are described. The author located them within the reign of a specific king, Ahasuerus/Xerxes (1:1). He associated events with specific dates (e.g., the “third year” of Ahasuerus’s reign, 1:3; “the tenth month, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year” of Ahasuerus’s reign, 2:16; “the first month, the month of Nisan, in King Ahasuerus’s twelfth year,” 3:7). And he tied the establishment of the Festival of Purim to the events in the book (9:26). It is difficult to imagine that the author would fabricate a story to explain the origin of Purim.

D. Clines has noted that many details of Persian life recorded in Esther are confirmed by sources beyond the Bible. These confirmed details include the extent of the empire under Ahasuerus from India to Ethiopia (1:1), the council of seven nobles (1:14), the efficient postal system (3:13; 8:10), the keeping of official diaries including records of the king’s benefactors (2:23), the use of gallows as a form of capital punishment (2:23; 5:14; 7:10), the practice of obeisance to kings and nobles (3:2), belief in lucky days (3:7), setting crowns on the heads of royal horses (6:8), and reclining on couches at meals (7:8).

Dating the composition of Esther is made more difficult by the existence of several versions of the story. Three principal Esther texts exist. These are the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) and two Greek texts: the Septuagint and another Greek text referred to as the “alternative Alpha Text” (AT). The Alpha Text is a Greek translation of an earlier Hebrew text. It is shorter than the Masoretic Text, omitting a number of episodes and the concluding legislation regarding Purim. The Septuagint text is a translation of the Masoretic Text, with some additions. It is likely that the Alpha Text represents an early account of the events described in Esther, before Purim was well established. Once Purim became a prominent festival in the life of the Jewish people, the relationship between its observance and the events that led to it was explained, resulting in the Masoretic Text.

There is some textual evidence for this conjecture. Esther 9:20 states that Mordecai recorded what had transpired and sent letters to the Jewish people instructing them to observe the Festival of Purim. This might be the Alpha Text. What follows after 9:20 is an accounting of how things developed after this, which is the Masoretic Text. It is likely that Mordecai first recorded the events shortly after the first celebration (9:17; ca 473 BC). If we allow at least a generation to pass for the festival to become an integral part of life in the Jewish communities, we should expect the text preserved in the Masoretic Text to have been written some time after 433 BC.