On a surface level, the book of Esther reads more like a modern-day adventure romance than an ancient biblical narrative, but when we look below the surface, we find the layered depths that are characteristic throughout scripture.  As with all historical parts of the Bible, the accuracy of the account gives evidence of its authenticity.  The complexity of the characters and their interactions with each other provide plenty of food for thought about our own life choices.  Most of all, contrary to being a human love story, Esther is the story of God’s love and care for His people in difficult times.  In other words, like all scripture, this book is the story of God’s faithfulness even when humans are treacherous and cruel.

Author:

No one knows who wrote the book of Esther, but there is some information about the author that can be inferred from the content.  First of all, the author’s focus on the fate of the Jews in exile rather than those in Jerusalem and Judea indicates that he was also one of the Jews residing outside of the land of Israel.   In fact, the area of residence can probably be narrowed down even further to Persia itself rather than an outer province belonging to the Persian Empire because of the amount of Persian vocabulary included in the book and the author’s intimate knowledge of the politics, regulations, and customs of the Persian court.  (I say “he” simply for convenience and because the other identified authors of the Bible are male.)  Either the author was attached to the Persian court near to the time that the events took place, or he had a source who could provide these details.  Some scholars have further speculated that the author was from the tribe of Benjamin based on the fact that it was important for the author to specify that Mordecai was a Benjamite.  This inference has less to support it than the previously mentioned characteristics of the author. 

The top three contenders for authorship are Ezra, Nehemiah, and Mordecai.  Ezra is a candidate because he was close enough to the court to have gained the confidence of King Artaxerxes (son of Esther’s husband King Ahaseurus), he was an excellent scribe, and the events of Esther probably took place about sixteen or seventeen years before he left for Jerusalem.  Nehemiah and Mordecai have similar qualifications.  Mordecai, as one of the central characters in the book, had intimate knowledge of the events that took place and may have been a source of information even if he did not write the book himself.

Background:

The Jews had become so degraded and evil that the only hope of purifying them was to take them out of their land and into exile, so God allowed Babylon to conquer Jerusalem and carry off the best and brightest (and most faithful) of the people into captivity.  Jeremiah prophesied that after about 70 years, the children of Israel would return home to Jerusalem.  Sure enough, right on time, the Persians conquered Babylon and eventually gave permission for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which began under Zerubbabel.  The story of Esther takes place between the building of Zerubbabel’s temple and the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah.  Thus, there were still many Jews living in exile at the time.

King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther is also known as King Xerxes.  Outside sources give quite a bit of information about him.  From the Bible and other sources, scholars have put together a timeline of events.  The great feast at the beginning of the book probably took place in the third year of King Ahasuerus’ reign about the year 481/482 B.C.  Shortly after the command to gather new candidates for marriage was issued, King Ahasuerus left his capital of Shushan, or Susa, to fight against the Greeks.  The campaign was not a success.  It would have taken months to gather the young women together while the king was away fighting.  Upon his return to court, King Ahasuerus diverted his mind from his military defeats by focusing on choosing a new wife.  Thus, Esther became the queen of Persia not long after Persia’s major defeat by a Greek named Salamis and soon after that, Persia abandoned any military excursions in Europe.

At the end of the book, Mordecai is made second in command of Persia.  We may have actual archaeological evidence of Mordecai’s position as prime minister in ancient Persia.  A tablet written in cuneiform was discovered that speaks of a counselor in King Ahasurus’ court (Xerxes) named “Marduka,” which is the way Babylonians would have transliterated the Hebrew name “Mordecai.” According to the tablet this high official, called a “sipir,” lived in Susa.

Time: 

The book of Esther seems to have been written after the death of King Ahasuerus since Esther 10:2 refers to a chronicle of the kings of Media and Persia, as if the king was already a past historical figure.  One of the details that provides authenticity to the book of Esther pertains to the idea of assassination plots.  Mordecai is honored for thwarting an assassination plot against the king.  History tells us that King Ahasuerus was eventually assassinated by one of his courtiers named Artabanus.  While the book was written after the death of the king, the Persians were still in power according to the last chapter.  Thus, the book can be dated sometime before the fall of Persia in 331 B.C.  However, the many specific details pertaining to the time of King Ahasuerus’ reign suggest that the time was closer to his death in 465 B.C.  It is interesting that the book of Esther seems to fill in information between Ezra chapters 6 and 7, which deal with King Ahasuerus’ father and son but do not mention him.

A Possible timeline is:  (Remember that B.C. dates run backwards.)

• The Great Feast (Between April 483 to April 482 B.C.)
• Esther taken to court (January 479 B.C.)
• Esther becomes queen (December 479 to January 478 B.C.)
• Haman casts lots to kill Mordecai (April-May 474 B.C.)
• Haman’s decree to kill the Jews (June 25, 474 B.C.)
• The establishment of the Feast of Purim (March 6, 473 B.C.)

Characters:

The book of Esther is a historical narrative, whose main character is a Jewish girl named Hadassah, which means myrtle.  She also had the Persian name of Esther meaning “star.”  While she may have received the Persian name at the king’s court, it is more reasonable to assume that Mordecai gave her the name either as a child growing up in Persia or shortly before she went to the court since he commanded her not to reveal her Jewish heritage there.  Esther starts out as a powerless victim of circumstances who rises above the limitations imposed by fate to courageously serve God even at the risk of her own life.  She truly becomes a queen in all ways by the end of the story.  Mordecai was both Esther’s cousin and her guardian after her parents died. He was loyal to God and to his Jewish people.  The book of Esther portrays Mordecai as inconsistent in several ways.  For example, he wears his own ethnicity on his sleeve while commanding Esther to hide her ethnicity.  He is also inconsistent in his relationship to authority figures. Problems arise because he refuses to bow to Haman, yet he willingly serves as prime minister to the king at the end of the story. This was a position where bowing to another human would be a frequent occurrence.  The character who plays the villain of the story is Haman, who has been promoted to a position second to the king.  He is prideful and jealous of his position, so he begins plotting Mordecai’s downfall when Mordecai refuses to give him the respect that everyone else does.  Finally, the central figure that these players revolve around is King Ahasuerus, who is presented as both loyal and capricious.  This is a king who seems to be easily fooled by those he trusts while valuing and rewarding true loyalty.  He seems dependent upon his advisors at some points in the story, yet the advisors seem to fear his moods at other points.  He can be both kind and cruel.  In some ways, the king is the enigma in the story. Is he a spoiled petulant boy-man, or is he a person of integrity and sensitivity trying to navigate through the powerplays of a treacherous court?

Style and Organization:

I cannot read the original language, but the commentaries all agree that the book of Esther is masterfully written literature that uses word play in the original Hebrew.  The humor is apparent in English, but evidently even more obvious in Hebrew.

The book is organized chiastically. This means that the beginning and end have a symmetry and the main focus of the book is in the middle. The center for the chiasm is the night of the king’s sleeplessness, which results in the rewarding of Mordecai. This is the turning point of the book. In addition to the basic chiastic structure, there are other chiastic repetitions. For example, there are three banquets before Esther 6:1 and three feasts after this turning point. Key words appear the same number of times before the turning point as after Esther 6:1. Finally, there are three royal chronicle references. One is at the beginning (Esther 2:23); one is in the middle (Esther 6:1), and one is at the end of the story (Esther 10:2).

Themes:

The primary purpose of the book of Esther seems to be to explain the origin of the feast of Purim.  The Jewish people recounted this story every year during this festival.  A second theme is the idea of hidden identity and intentions.  First, Esther hides her Jewish heritage.  Next, the king hides the identity of the one he wants to reward.  Mordecai hides his relationship to Esther.  Haman hides the identity of the ethnic group that he wishes to obliterate.  Finally, Esther hides her motivation for holding banquets for the king and Haman.  This withholding of information results in irony after irony.  For example, Hamen thinks he will receive honor but ends up having to provide the honor he wanted to his enemy Mordecai.  Later, Hamen receives the punishment that he had planned for Mordecai. 

There are many spiritual lessons in the book of Esther.  Although God is not mentioned, He is always present.  One of the spiritual themes is that while information is hidden from humans, God is not hampered by a lack of information, so He has planned and set up salvation long before humans realized that they needed it.  A corollary to this theme is that through God, even the cursed become blessed.  Another major spiritual theme is the folly of relying on earthly power.  Power and prosperity that come from force are transitory while those people who depend upon God for their needs have security.  Finally, God’s providence works hand-in-hand with human effort to achieve salvation.  Mordecai summarizes these lessons in his famous statement to Esther.  “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’”  (Esther 4:13-14).

Note: Information about dates was taken from Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 3, pages 457-461.