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At a glance
- Traditional author
- Not named; received with Esther in the Greek Old Testament
- Traditional date
- Hellenistic period (medium confidence)
- Traditional audience
- Readers of Corpus Witness’s Canon & Books shelves
Listed in: KJV 1611 with Apocrypha (80), Septuagint (LXX).
Meaning of Additions to Esther
Greek additions transmitted with Esther in the Septuagint and Catholic/Orthodox Bibles.
Traditional understanding
The Catholic and Orthodox churches receive the Greek additions to Esther, including the prayers of Mordecai and Esther, as part of Scripture; Protestants place them in the Apocrypha. They make explicit the prayer and providence behind the Hebrew account.
Historical context
The Hebrew Esther in the Tanakh does not include these expansions.
Setting of the writing
The Hebrew Esther in the Tanakh does not include these expansions.
Literary shape
deuterocanonical work curated for historical study.
Themes
- deuterocanonical
- Greek Esther additions
Additions to Esther chapter by chapter
Addition A
Additions to Esther 1 — Mordecai’s dream and the eunuchs’ plot
Greek Esther opens with Mordecai’s symbolic dream of dragons, nations, and a little spring that becomes a river, then narrates his discovery of a plot against the king. The dream frames the coming conflict as cosmic as well as courtly.
Meaning: Providence is signaled before the palace intrigue unfolds. What looks like Persian politics is read as a struggle God already foresaw.
Addition B
Additions to Esther 2 — The king’s decree against the Jews
A formal royal letter expands Haman’s genocidal decree in bureaucratic language, accusing the Jewish people of hostility to all nations. The addition makes the legal machinery of persecution explicit.
Meaning: Hatred here wears administrative prose. The text shows how empire can baptize violence as public order.
Addition C
Additions to Esther 3 — Prayers of Mordecai and Esther
Mordecai and Esther pray at length: he defends his refusal to bow as loyalty to God, not arrogance; she asks for eloquence and courage before the lion-like king, confessing Israel’s sins and her dread.
Meaning: Deliverance is sought first in prayer. Court courage is preceded by confession and dependence.
Addition D
Additions to Esther 4 — Esther before the king
Esther’s entrance is dramatized: she faints before the king’s glory, then is revived as God changes the king’s spirit to gentleness. Fear and divine help share the same scene.
Meaning: The heroine’s bravery includes trembling. God, not nerve alone, turns the audience that decides a people’s life.
Addition E
Additions to Esther 5 — The counter-decree
Another royal letter reverses Haman’s policy, exposing him as a Macedonian traitor in this telling and granting Jews the right to defend themselves. Official language now protects what it earlier condemned.
Meaning: Empire’s paperwork can wound or heal. The addition insists the same throne that threatened Israel can be turned to their defense.
Addition F
Additions to Esther 6 — Mordecai’s dream interpreted
The closing addition interprets Mordecai’s opening dream: the springs, dragons, and sun are mapped onto persons and events of the story, and the people cry out in praise for salvation.
Meaning: History is reread as answered vision. The community’s survival is narrated as God’s readable faithfulness, not accident.