Behind | Workbook: Editions (and Additions) of Esther

Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

There are two very different biblical Esther stories. The Protestant Church uses the same Hebrew account that we have been studying. The Orthodox and Catholic Churches preserve the Septuagint’s Greek form of the story, which has several deuterocanonical additions that explicitly mention God’s name and religious activity. These Greek additions existed prior to the Christian era; they were written by Jews. Here is a summary of the content of the six additions to Esther.

1. A preface to the whole story with a dream that Mordecai has, providing a premonition of what will follow.
2. A draft of Haman’s decree mentioned in chapter 2.
3. Prayers by Esther and Mordecai prior to Esther’s appeal to the king in chapter 5. 
4. An elaboration of Esther’s preparation to go before the king.
5. A copy of the royal decree that cancelled Haman’s first decree. 
6. An interpretation of Mordecai’s initial dream to close the book. 

There is also a colophon (final note) that locates the writing of the book in the fourth year of King Ptolemy.

These Greek additions all make sense as later attempts to fill in gaps in a book that might otherwise appear to be non-theological. 

There is another interesting piece of the Esther puzzle. An old Greek version of Esther, the Alpha Text, exists without the additions but with explicit mention of God. This gives rise to the question, which Esther is the original Esther? Would it have more likely been written first with references to God (and “sanitized” for public use later) or without references to God (and conformed to more typical biblical language later)? 

We can’t be sure which was written first, but presumably it was the version in the Hebrew Bible (even if the Alpha Text was translated from an original Hebrew version). 

The question of which one belongs in our Bible is answered by each tradition differently. The Protestant Bible matches the Hebrew Bible in content, even while using a different order in some cases. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches follow the Septuagint for content and order. This is one case where the difference is significant. Of course, the inclusion of deutero-canonical books in the Bible is a topic with centuries of debate. We are only introducing you to some differences here.

7. Identify your canonical tradition (Jewish, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant) in the space below. Then comment on whether or not you have any questions about which portions are inspired Scripture and which ones aren’t.