{"id":108,"date":"2012-09-23T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T09:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecrimsonroad.com\/?p=108"},"modified":"2018-06-24T14:08:09","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T14:08:09","slug":"historicity-of-queen-esther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/23\/historicity-of-queen-esther\/","title":{"rendered":"Historicity of Queen Esther"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I had some troubling questions about how the biblical book of Esther fits with secular history, and so I spent a few hours researching this in the public library as well as online, and gleaned a wealth of information, which strengthened my confidence in the inerrancy of the Bible. I would like to share some of these discoveries, in case there is anyone else who would like more information on the historicity of Queen Esther.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\"><strong>The Problems<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is no mention of Esther at all in secular history (Herodotus is our primary, if not only source), even though according to the Biblical record, she was Queen for at least 6 years. The only Queen of Xerxes mentioned by Herodotus is Amestris, and she is not Jewish so she cannot be identified with the Biblical Esther. This queen is recorded to have had at least 6 children, and had considerable power when Xerxes son Ataxerxes I took over the throne after Xerxes. To add to the confusion, there are writings about Vashti and Esther in Jewish tradition, according to which Vashti was beheaded after her deposition (which if true would imply that Amestris cannot be Vashti). These lead to serious questions, which are quite alarming, because if history proves the biblical record wrong, then the Bible is not inspired and innerrant, and we will never know what we can really trust in the Bible. So I dug a little deeper, and am sharing my findings on this matter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In order to resolve these difficulties, I used the following guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Assume that the biblical record is 100% accurate, since the Bible is inspired by God. Given the Bible\u2019s claims and its track record in amazing historical accuracy, the Bible should always get the \u201cbenefit of the doubt\u201d when there is a difficulty.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Assume that the main facts recorded in secular history are accurate, but allow for names to be different, and for facts to possibly be biased.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Give low credence to Jewish historical records from non-biblical sources whenever anything contradicts conclusions from the above two considerations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\"><strong>Working Hypothesis<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">With this, here is a working hypothesis:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is likely that Amestris is the same as the Bible\u2019s Vashti. Apparently this can also be justified on linguistic grounds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ataxerxes I \u2013 the king who succeeded Xerxes is the son of Xerxes and Amestris. We don\u2019t know when he was born, but if he was over 13 years old when he took over the throne of Persia, then he could not have been born of Esther, and thus it is consistent if he was Vashti\u2019s son. That Vashti had at least 6 children of Xerxes is possible even though she was queen only for 3 years, because according to secular history Amestris was Xerxes\u2019 wife even before he became king in 586 BC.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If Esther and Xerxes had any children, they would have been less than 13 years old when Xerxes died. Secular history records at least 5 children of Xerxes whose mother is unknown.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We don\u2019t know when Herodotus wrote about King Xerxes, but he would have been only 18 years old when Xerxes died, and his writings about Xerxes are in books VII, VIII and IX. Thus the earliest he could have written about Xerxes was during the rule of Xerxes\u2019 son Ataxerxes I. Since Ataxerxes I is really the son of Vashti, it is entirely reasonable to expect that he would not have encouraged any record of Vashti\u2019s humiliation or of Esther being queen (add to the embarrassing fact that Esther was of Jewish origin), which would explain the silence about Esther in Herodotus\u2019s writings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Although Jewish history says Vashti was beheaded, the only statement in the Bible is that Vashti was \u201cto come no more before\u201d Xerxes. Vashti may not have been banished from the kingdom, but just demoted from Queen to a place in Xerxes\u2019 harem. She could have easily returned to a significant position of influence after the death of Xerxes and the rise of her son Artaxerxes I as Persia\u2019s new ruler.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\"><strong>Historical Reconstruction and Harmony with the Biblical Narrative<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">With the above in mind, the following is a reconstruction of Xerxes\u2019 life, harmonized with Herodotus\u2019s account. Not having access to Herodotus\u2019 writings, I have taken a lot of the material that follows, from an <a style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"informative article by Professor William Shea\" href=\"http:\/\/www.andrews.edu\/sem\/inministry\/uploads\/2014coursesyllabi\/esther_and_history-shea.pdf\">informative article by Professor William Shea<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">While at his winter quarters in Sardis in 480-479 B.C, Xerxes turned his attention from making war to affairs of the heart. Herodotus reports that during that time the Persian king fell in love with the wife of Masistes, his brother, and endeavored unsuccessfully to carry on an affair with her. Out of unusual respect for his brother, Xerxes did not force himself on her, but instead arranged for his son to marry her daughter Artaynte, hoping this would make the seduction of her mother easier.\u00a0 In connection with this incident, we should note that Greek sources indicate that Amestris was not with him in Sardis during the winter of 480-479 B.C, which is <strong>consistent with the biblical record of Vashti\u2019s deposition in 483 BC<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Upon returning to Susa from his Greek campaign after his historic defeat at Thermopylae, Xerxes unexpectedly finds himself getting attracted to his daughter-in-law Artaynte, and the seduction of her is successful. This matter came to a crisis when he promised Artaynte the desire of her heart. She chose Xerxes\u2019 coat of many colors, which Amestris herself had woven for him. Heroditus tells us that Xerxes tried to distract her by offering her cities or unlimited gold, or even and army, for one reason alone \u2013 that he feared lest Amestris previously suspecting what was going on might find out this way and react violantly. However,\u00a0Artaynte insisted on getting the robe, which Xerxes gave her. Amestris was furious when she found out, and felt that the real blame lay with Artaynte\u2019s mother, and got revenge when the time came to celebrate the king\u2019s birthday. On that occasion she, like Salome, asked Xerxes to give her Masistes\u2019 wife, and according to the custom of the day he was obliged to comply with her request, and Amestris promptly had her killed. We don\u2019t know exactly what happened to Artaynte, but Heroditus mentions that \u201cshe and her whole household were fated to die\u201d. In this incident, <strong>we here see two occasions where Xerxes made sweeping promises to women he loved, just as he did in Esther 5:6 and 7:2<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If Amestris is the same person as Vashti, and the verdict on Vashti was that she was \u201cto come no more before\u201d Xerxes (Esther 1:19), then what was Vashti\u00a0 doing at the birthday banquet described by Herodotus three years later? It appears that Xerxes\u2019 advisers recommended not divorce in the modem sense of the word, but rather demotion from being the chief royal wife and bestowal of that position upon someone else. Connected with this demotion was the prohibition upon her coming before Xerxes, which probably exiled her to a considerably less important position in the royal harem. To interpret this phrase too literally\u2014to mean that Vashti never could come within eyesight of Xerxes again\u2014probably is pushing its significance too far. As an idiom, it probably could be paraphrased to mean that she could not appear again with Xerxes in her official capacity as queen. The reverse of this occurs in the case of the seven princes who \u201csaw the king\u2019s face\u201d (verse 14), which may be interpreted to mean that they could converse personally with the king, i.e., they could minister to him personally in matters of state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In essence, Herodotus breaks off his account of Xerxes\u2019 reign after describing these events of the king\u2019s seventh year following his return from the Greek campaign.\u00a0We have no further information about Amestris until the time her son Artaxerxes I occupied the Persian throne. In view of this silence, we have no specific evidence to indicate whether or not Amestris was Xerxes\u2019 chief wife from his seventh year to the end of his reign. This silence at least allows a place in Persian history for Esther, and in harmony with the Bible.\u00a0<strong><em>We can go further, and say that the fact that there is this gap in the secular record of Xerxes life that begins exactly at the time of Esther in the Bible \u2013 and that there is no random event recorded in secular history that could contradict the biblical record \u2013 actually points toward the accuracy of the biblical record<\/em><\/strong>, though it falls short of actually verifying it. About this time, Xerxes\u2019 advisers must have suggested that the most beautiful girls of the land be brought before him, and the biblical story of Esther picks up again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Although there is no direct reliable external evidence about the existence of Queen Esther, it is possible to completely harmonize what we know of ancient Persian history, with the biblical record of Esther.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\"><strong>Timeline of Events in the Babylonian and Persian Empires within Biblical History<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is not a complete timeline, but attempts to cover the major events that are relevant to our study of the book of Esther. I have also sprinkled this with some informative comments.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>609 BC<\/strong>: Babylon becomes a world power:\u00a0609 BC<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>605 BC<\/strong>: Nebuchadnezzar becomes king of Babylon, and Daniel is deported to Babylon. The rise of Nebuchadnezzar was prophesied in Ezekiel 26:7<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>587 BC.<\/strong>\u00a0The fall of Jerusalem and Judah, the Southern Kingdom is taken into Babylonian captivity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>562 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Death of Nebuchadnezzar. His son Amel Marduk takes throne of Babylon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>560 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Amel Marduk was assasinated by Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s son-in-law\u00a0Nergal-shar-usur\u00a0(Nergal-sharezer\/Neriglissar), who takes throne<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>555 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Nergal-shar-usur\u00a0was assassinated by Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s grandson Nabonidus who takes throne<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>550 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Cyrus becomes King of Persia. Thus begins\u00a0a rule that eventually made Persia into a world empire. Also,\u00a0Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus becomes co-regent and becomes the effective king of Babylon. During this period, Nabonidus was an absentee ruler, and there were rumors that he was mad.\u00a0Daniel refers to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar\u2019s \u201cfather\u201d (Daniel 5:18, 22) which can also mean ancestor. He is in fact Belshazzer\u2019s great grandfather.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>539 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Cyrus captures Babylon. This marked the end of Babylonian supremacy. The eventual destruction of Babylon was prophesied several times in Scripture, e.g.\u00a0Isa 43:14. This also marked the fulfillment of Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy of Babylon having only 70 years of glory (609 BC to 539 BC), before being subdued by other nations (Jer 25:9-12, Jer 29:10, 2 Chron 36:20-23). This event spurs Daniel to pray for the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem in Daniel 9:2, to complete God\u2019s promise..Apparently at this time, \u201cDarius the Mede\u201d is made king of Babylon. There is no secular historical reference to this man. But Daniel says he \u201creceived the kingdom\u201d (Daniel 5:30) was \u201cmade\u201d king of Babylon (Daniel 9:1), which is consistent with Cyrus appointing him as ruler of Babylon. He is described by Daniel as the \u201cson of Ahasuerus\u201d (though clearly having nothing to do with the to the king of Persia in Esther\u2019s time), and that he was 62 years old.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>538 BC<\/strong>; Cyrus issues a decree that the Jews can return to Jerusalem (Ezra 1.1). This was in fulfillment of Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy that after the 70 years the Jews would return from exile. This is less than a year after Daniel\u2019s passionate prayer in Daniel 9:3-19.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>537\/6 BC<\/strong>: The last vision of Daniel recorded in Daniel 10-12, during the third year of Cyrus\u2019 reign (Daniel 10:1).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>530 BC<\/strong>: Cambysis I becomes king of Persia after the death of Cyrus<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>522 BC<\/strong>: Darius I becomes King of Persia (Note: The study notes in the ESV Study Bible correctly observes that this Darius is different to the \u201cDarius the Mede\u201d of Daniel chapters 5 and 9, but mistakingly references this king in one of its tables).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>486 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Xerxes I becomes King of Persia. He was spoken about in prophecy by Daniel over 50 years earlier. &#8220;Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece&#8221;. (Daniel 11:2).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>484 BC<\/strong>: Birth of Historian Heroditus<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>483 BC<\/strong>: Queen Vashti is deposed on the third year of Xerxes reign (Esther 1:3).\u00a0Heroditus mentons only one queen of Xerxes called Amestris. This is probably Queen Vashti. This incident is mentioned in Esther chapter 1.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>480 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Historic defeat of Xerxes against Greece at Thermopylae.\u00a0This was a \u201cbattle that changed the world\u201d, in that without this defeat the overall outcome of the conflict between Persia and Greece could have ended differently \u2013 and Greece may never have had the same impact on Western civilization.\u00a0This was the first of a series of battles over the next several decades that Persia lost to Greece, eventually losing its superpower status a little over 150 years later, to Alexander the Great in 322 BC. After this defeat, Xerxes handed over command of the army to his cousin Mardonius so that he could return to Susa. Mardonius continued his campaign against Greece until he was killed in the decisive battle of Plataea, a year later.Meanwhile back home,\u00a0Xerxes had a secret affair with his daughter-in-law which led to Amestris destroying her entire family in revenge.\u00a0After this, the secular historical record is silent for the rest of Xerxes reign, but the biblical record picks up again (Esther 2:1).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>479\/8 BC<\/strong>: Esther is crowned Queen. This was in the seventh year of Xerxes reign (Esther 2:16)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>474 BC<\/strong>: Haman plots against the Jews. This was on the first\u00a0month, of the twelfth\u00a0year of Xerxes reign (Esther 3:7, 3:12). Two months later,\u00a0Mordecai was able to neutralize that decree by issuing a new decree that the\u00a0Jews could defend themselves (this was on the third day of the third month according to Esther 8:9)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>473 BC<\/strong>: The Jews destroy their attackers on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (Esther 3:12, 8:12, 9:1).\u00a0The event is celebrated during the Jewish feast of Purim.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>466\/5 BC<\/strong>:\u00a0Xerxes is killed, and his son Ataxerxes I becomes king. Ataxerxes I cannot be Esther&#8217;s son because he was 13 years old, so he must have been Vashti&#8217;s son. Since the secular record says that his mother was Amestris, this\u00a0is probably another name for Vashti.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>458 BC<\/strong>: Ataxerxes I issues a decree to rebuild the Temple. Ezra and a contingent journey back to Jerusalem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>445\/4 BC<\/strong>: Ataxerxes I commissions Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem\u2019s walls<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had some troubling questions about how the biblical book of Esther fits with secular history, and so I spent a few hours researching this in the public library as well as online, and gleaned a wealth of information, which strengthened my confidence in the inerrancy of the Bible. I would like to share some&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/23\/historicity-of-queen-esther\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Historicity of Queen Esther<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-history","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1988,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ourauthenticfamily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}