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Dear Father Angelo,

I wanted to ask: Is Esther, from the biblical book of the same name, a historically existent person for Catholics?

Is the story of Esther only a theological teaching or is it also historical?

Thank you.


Answer by the priest

Dearest, 

1. we have no grounds to deny a priori the historicity of Esther because in Israel there was the feast of Purim which was traced precisely to a historical event in which the people of Israel felt the providential hand of God for the sudden reversal of a situation of extreme danger.

2. The Jerusalem Bible about this book writes: “The book of Esther has a definite historical picture: the city of Susa is accurately described; some Persian customs are well portrayed; Ahasuerus, the Hebrew transcript of Xerxes is a well-known character; and the moral portrait of the king harmonizes with what Herodotus says about him.”

Herodotus is the great Greek pagan historian.

3. However, according to the Jerusalem Bible, “Xerxes’ decree committing the extermination of the Jews, which he agrees to sign, hardly accords with the tolerant policy of the Achaemenids; even more implausible is his authorizing the sacred slaughter of his own subjects and the fact that 75,000 Persians allowed themselves to be killed without resistance.”

4. Marco Sales confidently refutes these objections.

He writes: “The Church was always persuaded that the book of Esther tells an objectively true and real story as much in the whole as in the details. 

No Catholic until recent times has ever doubted this truth, which, moreover, is also admitted by several Protestants.

Example: Ahasuerus ruled from India to Ethiopia is confirmed by Herodotus (VII, 9, 97- 98) (…).

Or the Persian kings published their decrees in various languages is shown by the cuneiform inscriptions of Naksh i Rusten and Bisutun, etc..

In the Hebrew text the author makes a clear distinction between the acropolis of Susa, where the king lived with his court, and the city where the people lived; he speaks competently of the throne room, the king’s palace, the women’s palace, the separation that existed between the royal residence and the harem, the various inner and outer courtyards, the walls that surrounded them, the gardens, etc., all of which excavations have confirmed.

Let it be added again that the Jews celebrated the feast of Purim annually, in memory of the escape of danger, and that this feast since the second century B.C. was called the day of Mordecai (2 Mac 15:37). Now all this supposes the reality of the events narrated in the book of Esther. (…).

Some Protestants and rationalists say that it is impossible for the Jews to have killed 75,000 Persians in one day without being prevented by the magistrates, indeed with their concurrence, etc. Yet Mithridates in a kingdom much less extensive than the Persian empire had 80,000 Romans killed in one day (Plutarch, Scylla 10). Such general massacres were not uncommon in the East, nor can it cause any wonder that a king like Ahasuerus allowed such a massacre to please his favorite. 

The circumstances that accompanied the massacre find their natural explanation in Persian customs and superstitions, as per notes.

5. Marco Sales, concerning the aim of the book of Esther, writes: “The book of Esther taken all together with the written additions from the Greek has for its purpose to show God’s special providence toward Israel.

Even in the gravest dangers and in the most desperate cases God saves his people who humble themselves and confidently resort to his help.  

This end is clearly indicated chapter 10:l2-13 and coincides with that of the book of Judith.

The two books were in fact primarily intended for the Jews dispersed among the pagans to animate them to remain faithful in the observance of the law, showing them that God had not forgotten his promises.

Regardless of the written additions, however, the book can have no other intent than to explain the origin and reason for the feast of Purim.

I wish you well, bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo