Scriptures & Texts
Additions to Esther
Deuterocanonical Books
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Six passages, over a hundred verses in all, present in the Greek text of Esther but absent from the Hebrew: the dream of Mordecai and its interpretation, the texts of the two royal decrees, and the prayers of Mordecai and of Esther. Their chief effect is to supply the religious dimension the Hebrew book conspicuously lacks, for the Hebrew Esther never once names God. Jerome, translating the Vulgate from the Hebrew, gathered these Greek passages and set them at the end of the book, which is why they are numbered discontinuously. Catholic and Orthodox churches receive them as deuterocanonical, woven into the book; Judaism recognises only the Hebrew text; Protestant Bibles separate the additions into the Apocrypha under the heading The Rest of Esther.
Facts
Origins
Era of Composition Attributed Author / CompilerGreek expansions by an anonymous Hellenistic Jewish author (critical) 1 Attributed Author / CompilerTraditionally part of Esther 1 Status
Canonical StatusSourced to the subject's own accountDeuterocanonical 2Tradition: Roman Catholicism Canonical StatusSourced to the subject's own accountDeuterocanonical 3Tradition: Eastern Orthodoxy Canonical StatusNon-canonical 1Tradition: Judaism Text
Literary FormDidactic narrative / novella 1 Structure
StructureExpanding the Hebrew Book of Esther with prayers and explicit references to God 1 StructureSix Greek passages (107 verses) 1 Learn More
Bringing God into the Story of Esther
The Additions to Esther are six passages, preserved in the Greek version of the book, that are absent from the shorter Hebrew text of Esther in the Jewish and Protestant Bibles. The Hebrew book of Esther is famous for a striking peculiarity: it never once mentions God. The Greek additions decisively change that character. They supply a dream of Mordecai foreshadowing the events and its interpretation; the texts of the royal edicts, first against and then for the Jews; and, most importantly, fervent prayers of Mordecai and of Esther, in which the deliverance of the Jews is explicitly attributed to God and Esther expresses her horror at her position in a pagan court. The effect is to transform a book that could be read as a secular tale of court intrigue and national survival into an overtly religious narrative of divine providence. The additions were composed in Greek, probably in the second or first century BCE, as part of the Hellenistic Jewish reception of the Esther story.
Text, Canon and Value
In the Greek manuscripts the additions are woven into the narrative at their appropriate places, but when Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate he translated the Hebrew Esther and gathered the extra Greek material together at the end of the book, an arrangement that has shaped how they are printed since. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches receive the additions as deuterocanonical parts of Esther; Judaism and the Protestant tradition, following the Hebrew text, treat them as Apocrypha, and Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha print them separately. Their chief interest lies precisely in the way they theologise the book of Esther, making explicit the providential reading that the Hebrew text leaves implicit, and in what they reveal about the discomfort some ancient readers felt at a scriptural book without a word about God. Scholars study the additions both as a case study in the growth and translation of biblical books and as evidence of the piety of Greek-speaking Judaism, which sought to frame even the most secular-seeming narratives of national deliverance within the language of prayer and divine action.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Attests
The six Greek passages absent from the Hebrew give her a prayer and make the divine intervention explicit, so she exists in two versions of her own story.
Held Differently
Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.
Anglicanism, Denominations Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571 (as "the rest of the Book of Esther"), among the books the Church of England reads for example of life and instruction of manners, but does not apply to establish doctrine.
Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.
Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.
Named in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571, among the books the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners but does not apply to establish any doctrine. Printed and appointed to be read, at a status deliberately short of the canon affirmed at Trent in 1546.
Church of Sweden, Denominations Not canonized, but retained. Luther gathered the deuterocanonical books into a separate Apocrypha section of his 1534 Bible, headed as not equal to Holy Scripture yet good and useful to read, and Lutheran Bibles have printed and read them there since.
Not canonized, but retained. Luther gathered the deuterocanonical books into a separate Apocrypha section of his 1534 Bible, headed as not equal to Holy Scripture yet good and useful to read, and Lutheran Bibles have printed and read them there since.
Lutheranism, Denominations Lutheranism does not canonize Additions to Esther. Luther placed the deuterocanonical books in a separate section of his 1534 Bible as good and useful to read, but not equal to scripture.
Belongs to Tradition
Held as canonical scripture in the Eastern Orthodox Old Testament, affirmed at the Synod of Jerusalem, 1672, as part of the Greek additions to Esther.
Declared canonical scripture for the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, Session IV, 1546, as part of the Greek additions to Esther.
Excluded from Canon
Anabaptism, Denominations This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
Baptist, Denominations This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
Protestantism, Denominations The Protestant confessional consensus holds a thirty-nine-book Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, against the wider canon affirmed at Trent in 1546 and at Jerusalem in 1672. Lutheran and Anglican practice retains several of these books as edifying reading while denying them authority to establish doctrine.
This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
This tradition holds the standard thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament and does not canonize Additions to Esther, following the confessional consensus among Protestant bodies against the wider Trent and Synod of Jerusalem deuterocanon.
Related To
Sources
1. An Introduction to the Apocrypha
Bruce M. Metzger, Oxford University Press, 1957The chapter on the Additions to Esther and the absence of God from the HebrewView the Source 2. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent
Council of Trent, 1563Fourth Session (1546), receiving Esther together with its Greek additionsthe holders' own accountView the Source 3. The Confession of Dositheus (Synod of Jerusalem, 1672)
Synod of Jerusalem, Eastern Orthodox Church, 1672Vol. I, on Critopulus' Confession and the canonQuote, Vol. I, on Critopulus' Confession and the canon
mentions only twenty-two canonical books of the Old Test., and excludes from them the Apocrypha, mentioning Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Baruch, and the Maccabees.
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
Church of England, 1571Page descriptionQuote, Page description
The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion outline the doctrinal foundation of the Church of England. They address key theological issues such as the nature of God, the role of the Holy Scriptures, and the sacraments.
The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority
The Holy Bible
Anonymous (multiple authors), Robert Barker, 1611Esther (Greek additions)View the Source The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Belgic Confession
Guido de Bres, 1561Article 6Quote, Article 6
We distinguish between these holy books and the apocryphal ones, which are the third and fourth books of Esdras; the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Sirach, Baruch; what was added to the Story of Esther; the Song of the Three Children in the Furnace; the Story of Susannah; the Story of Bel and the Dragon; the Prayer of Manasseh; and the two books of Maccabees.
Prologus Galeatus and the Vulgate Prefaces
Jerome, 391On Jerome gathering the Greek additions to Esther at the end of the book
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
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