What was the nationality and history of Esther?

Answer 1

The Book of Esther says that Esther was a Jewess living in Babylon. When King Ahasuerus divorced his first wife, Vashti, the book says that the king slept with all the virgins in the kingdom until he found Esther to satisfy him the most, making her his queen. The book goes on to describe how she helped save the Jews from a dastardly plot and then petitioned the king to be allowed more time to kill as many enemies as possible.

King Ahasuerus would seem to be the Hebrew name for King Xerxes of Persia. Much of the rest of the story conflicts with what we know of King Xerxes. His first wife was really named Amestris, and she continued in her role well beyond his third year as king (the date the text suggests Vashti was deposed). Other problems in the story call into question the story's reliability. For example Esther's cousin, Mordecai, is identified as having been sent into exile by Nebuchadnezzar - an event that must have place over a century before Xerxes assumed power.

The Book of Esther can not really be considered to be based on actual history.

Answer:

According to tradition, Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was a beautiful Jewish woman, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). She and her cousin Mordecai persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his wide realm, plotted by the king's chief minister, Haman. Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews were given permission to destroy their enemies. The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates this event. According to tradition, the book of Esther was written in the 4th century BCE.

Additional facts: Esther was a Jewess, who lived during the Babylonian exile. When Queen Vashti refused to go to Ahasuerus (in Chapter 1), Memucan, a Persian wise man, advised King Ahasuerus to remove Vashti from being Queen of Persia, and King Ahasuerus agreed to his advice. In Esther Chapter 2, royal eunuchs advised Ahasuerus to look for a new queen, a virgin. Esther was the best looking one, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti. When Esther was orphaned, she was then adopted by her cousin Mordecai, who became her foster father.

Esther was queen for about 11 years.

The Book of Esther makes it clear that this was not in the early part of Xerxes's reign.

The name of Mordechai is considered identical to the name Marduka, which is attested as the name of officials in the Persian court in the Persepolis Texts from the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials might very well be the biblical Mordecai.

The grave of Mordecai and Esther still stands in Hamadan; and the Jews of Iran, to this day, are referred to as "the children of Esther."