Whom did Esther marry?

Answer 1

In 478 B.C., Esther became the queen of Persia. Previously, she was a member of the harem of the Persian king Ahasuerus, who was also known as King Xerxes. But when the former queen, Vashti, fell into disfavor with her husband, Ahasuerus, the king chose Esther to be his wife and queen.

Answer 2

Jewish tradition states that Esther had no choice but to present herself when the women were called up in the king's search for a new queen (Talmud, Megillah 12b and 15a). It also states that God had something to do with Esther achieving the high post of Queen of the Persian Empire in order to save the Jewish people. Therefore God had a hand in either (or both) Esther entering the competition or Ahasuerus's preference towards Esther.

Answer 3

King Xerxes I ruled 486 – 465 BCE. The Book of Esther says that Xerxes held a feast in the third year of his reign and that soon afterwards he divorced Vashti and then some time later married Esther. This would place Xerxes' marriage to Esther at around 482 BCE - about 104 years after the Babylonian Exile began (although Mordecai was supposedly one of the exiled Jews).

This does not mean that Xerxes really married Queen Esther. Bruce Feiler says in Where God was Born that Queen Amestris was Xerxes' only known wife, and that she remained queen long after the third year of his reign. Leonard J Greenspoon, in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, 'Between Alexandria and Antioch: Jews and Judaism in the Hellenistic Period', says there was no known Jewish queen in Persia.

Answer 4

Traditional chronology places this event in 361 BCE. Non-traditional opinions place this at an earlier time. See also:

Archaeology

The reliability of the Hebrew Bible

Esther was the heroine and central figure in the Biblical book of Esther. She was crowned about 55 years after the destruction of the First Temple, and fifteen years before the Second Temple was built. The Jews were in the Babylonian exile. A few of them, such as Nehemiah, Mordecai and Daniel, rose to positions of prominence under the Babylonian kings.
The last of the Prophets of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) were still living.
King Cyrus had recently made his famous proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) allowing the Jews to resettle Judea (Israel), and some had gone up with Zerubavel, but the enemies of the Jews had then slandered them (Ezra ch.4), causing the Babylonian king to put a stop to the rebuilding and resettlement of Judea. This last event was around the same time that Esther became Queen.

When she became orphaned, she was adopted by her cousin Mordecai.

Later, when Queen Vashti refused to appear before Ahasuerus (in Esther ch.1), Memuchan, a Persian royal adviser, advised King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) 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. Esther was the best-looking woman, and Ahasuerus picked her to replace Vashti as Queen.

Esther and her cousin Mordecai (who had once saved the king's life) later persuaded the king to cancel an order for the extermination of the Jews in his vast realm, which had been 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 mid-4th century BCE, and was made part of the canon which was sealed a couple of decades after.

Esther was queen for about 11 years.
The name of Mordecai is the Judaised pronunciation of Marduka, which is attested in the Persepolis Texts as the name of officials in the Persian court during the period of Xerxes I. One of these officials was 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."

For the name of Esther, a number of etymologies are possible.
1) Esther comes from the Persian "setareh," meaning "star".
2) Esther comes from the Aramaic "istahar," meaning "moon." Beautiful as the moon (Talmud, Megillah 13a).
3) Esther comes from the Semitic root ath-tar, "morning star." There is support for this too in the Talmud (Yoma 29a).
4) Esther comes from the Median "astra," meaning "myrtle." The book of Esther (2:7) states that she had both names, Esther and Myrtle (Hadassah in Hebrew).

See also:

Why was Esther chosen as Queen?

More about the Hebrew Bible

Jewish history timeline

Answer 5

Jewish tradition states that Esther had no choice but to present herself when the women were called up in the king's search for a new queen (Talmud, Megillah 12b and 15a).See also the Related Link.

More about Esther

Answer 6

Yes. Xerxes is the Greek name for King Ahasuerus, whom Esther was married to.

Answer 7

Neither.

The King who is referred to in The Bible as Ahasueros (Hebrew Achashverosh) is usually equated with Artaxerxes.