CHAPTER V

The Additions to the Book of Esther

[LITERATURE.—Josephus, _Antiq._, XI, vi.; Fritzsche, in _Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zu den Apokryphen des Alten Testamentes_ (1851); Schürer, _Op. cit._, II, iii., pp. 181-183 (1891); Scholz, _Kommentar über das Buch Esther mit seinen Zusätzen_ (1892); Cornill, _Op. cit._, pp. 261-263 (1896); Jacob, _Das Buch Esther bei den lxx._, in the “Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft” (1890), pp. 241 ff.; Swete, _Op. cit._, pp. 257-259 (1900); Ryssel, in Kautzsch, _Op. cit._, I, pp. 193 ff. (1900); Gregg, in Charles, _Op. cit._, I. pp. 665-684.]

I. THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF THE ADDITIONS

In the canonical Book of Esther the story is told of how Ahasuerus, king of Persia, dismissed his queen, Vashti, because she refused to obey his commandment to come and show her beauty to his assembled guests at a festival. In her place the king chose Esther, a Jewish maiden belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, to be his queen. Esther was of the Jewish exiles living in Persia, and was under the protection of her cousin Mordecai; but she “had not showed (it to) her people, nor her kindred; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it.” In consequence of the position now occupied by his cousin, Mordecai came to court every day in order to watch over her interests. On one occasion he was the means of saving the king, all unconscious, from assassination; this was duly told to the king by Esther. But Mordecai had the misfortune to offend Haman, the king’s chamberlain; in consequence of this Haman represented the Jews to the king as a turbulent and disloyal people. The result was that the king issued a proclamation according to which the Jews were to be plundered and massacred. The day for this Haman fixed by lot (“they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day,” iii. 7). Esther, persuaded by Mordecai, resolves to save her people. She invites the king and Haman to a banquet. On the night preceding the banquet, the king, being unable to sleep, orders the national records to be brought to him; in reading these he comes across the account of Mordecai’s service in saving the king from assassination; this the king had presumably forgotten, for Mordecai had never been rewarded. In the meantime, Haman, secure of favour, resolves upon the immediate death of Mordecai; he has a gallows made, fifty cubits high, on which he intends to hang Mordecai, and he goes to the king at once to get permission to do so. On entering into the king’s presence, Ahasuerus says to him: “What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour?” Haman, thinking that the king has him in mind, says that such a man should have royal apparel, and the king’s horse to ride upon, and should ride through the city, attended by one of the great nobles, to receive the people’s homage. Thereupon the king orders Haman to attend upon Mordecai in such a procession; this he has perforce to do. The next day Esther gives her banquet; Ahasuerus and Haman hear for the first time that she is a Jewess. She then asks the king that Haman may be hanged on the gallows he has prepared for Mordecai; her request is granted, and Mordecai becomes the king’s chamberlain in his stead. The king issues another proclamation, at Esther’s request, in which power is granted to the Jews to pillage and slay their enemies. Finally the feast of Purim is instituted “because Haman ... the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them....” (ix. 24-32).

It has been necessary to give this outline of the contents of the canonical Book of Esther in order to show the point of the additions in the Septuagint; for as found in the English Apocrypha the additions are taken together and treated as one whole; but by being thus separated from their contexts their _raison d’être_ is not seen. In the Septuagint the additions form elaborations of certain passages of the canonical Esther; so that in order to see the object of the additions each must be considered from the point of view of its original position.[425]

(1) The first addition is given in the English Apocrypha as xi. 2-xii. 6; in the Septuagint it precedes chapter i., and takes the form of an introduction to the whole story. It tells of how Mordecai had a dream, which he interpreted as a revelation of the fact that an attempt was going to be made upon the king’s life (see ii. 21-23 in the canonical Esther). He tells the king of the threatened danger; he watches those whom the dream has revealed as the culprits, and overhears them while making their plans; he then denounces them to the king, and the conspirators, having confessed their guilt, are executed. Mordecai is promoted to a place of honour at court.

The object of this addition is, therefore, to show how Mordecai first got advancement at the court of Artaxerxes (Ahasuerus).

(2) The second addition is given in the English Apocrypha as xiii. 1-7, which in the Septuagint comes between verses 13 and 14 of