ADDITIONS TO BOOK OF ESTHER

This article appears in Volume V09, Page 797 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ADA-AIZ

ADDITIONS TO BOOK OF ESTHER . These "additions " were written originally in Greek and subsequently interpolated in the Greek

translation

TRANSLATION

of the Book of Esther. Here the principle of

interpolation

INTERPOLATION (from Lat. interpolare, to alter, or insert something fresh, connected with pollee, a polish)

has reached its maximum. Of 270 verses, 107 are not to he found in the Hebrew text. These additions are distributed throughout the book in the Greek, but in the Latin Bible they were relegated to the end of the canonical book by Jeromean action that has rendered them meaningless. In the Greek the additions form with the canonical text a consecutive history. They were made probably in the time of the Maccabees, and their aim was to

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

the religious

element

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

which is so completely lacking in the canonical

work

WORK

. The first, which gives the dream of Mordecai and the events which led to his

advancement

ADVANCEMENT

at the

court

of Artaxerxes, precedes chap. i. of the canonical text: the second and fifth, which follow iii. 13 and viii. 12, furnish copies of the letters of Artaxerxes referred to in these verses; the third and fourth, which are inserted after chap. iv., consist of the prayers of Mordecai and Esther, with an account of Esther's approach to the king. The last, which closes the book, tells of the institution of the feast of Purim. The Greek text appears in two widely-differing recensions. Theeone is supported by ABs, and the othera revision of the firstby codices 19, 93a, io8b. The latter is believed to have been the

work

WORK

of Lucian. Swete, Old Test. in Greek, ii. 755, has given the former, while Lagarde has published both texts with

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

annotations in his Librorum Vet eris Testamenti Canonicorum, i. 504-541 (1883), and Scholz in his Kommentar fiber das Buck Esther (1892).
For an account of the Latin and Syriac versions, the Targums, and the later Rabbinic literature connected with this subject, and other questions relating to these additions, see Fritzsche, Exeget. Hand-buck zu den Apok. (1851), i. 67-108; Schiirer(3), iii. 330-332; Fuller in

Speaker

SPEAKER

's Apocr. i. 360-402; Ryssel in Kautzsch's Apok. u. Pseud. i. 193-212; Siegfried in Jewish Encyc. v. 237 sqq. ; Swete, Introd. to the Old Test. in Greek, 257 seq. ; L. B. Paton, " A Text-

Critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

Apparatus to the Book of Esther " in O.T. and Semitic Studies in Memory of W. R. Harper (Chicago, 1908). (R. H. C.)

End of Article: ADDITIONS TO BOOK OF ESTHER

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/ADA_AIZ/ADDITIONS_TO_BOOK_OF_ESTHER.html">
ADDITIONS TO BOOK OF ESTHER
</a>

(Previous)
ADDITIONAL AUTHORITIES

(Next)
ADDITIONS TO DANIEL

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email