To keep the previous posts to a manageable size, I left out some intriguing details. These are just trivial so some might find this a little nerdy, but I find it fun. Here goes.
To start at the beginning, the first addition to the book of Esther tells of Mordecai’s dream. It says that Mordecai had the dream in the second year of the king, a full year before the king had the banquet. But more importantly, it says that Mordecai was one of the exiles from Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar took while Jeconiah was king of Judea. That would have been in 597 BC. The second year of Xerxes would have been in 483 BC, meaning 114 years had passed when he had the dream and 124 years when he was given Hamam’s position next to the king. We have no way of knowing how old Mordecai was when he was taken into exile. And it gets more interesting than that.
Some translations from the Greek manuscripts say that the king in the book of Esther is Artaxerxes the Great. Artaxerxes was the third son of Xerxes I and succeeded his father as king in 465 BC. The second year of his reign would be 463 BC, which is 134 years from the time Mordecai was taken into captivity. More curious is the footnote in The New Oxford Annotated Bible with The Apocrypha that says the time from Mordecai’s capture to his dream was 112 years. That, of course, is close to the 114 years calculated above and makes it impossible for Artaxerxes the Great to be the king of Esther. Strong’s entry H783 of Artaxerxes says that Artaxerxes was a title rather than a name of several Persian kings. While it is true that several kings were named Artaxerxes, Artaxerxes the Great was the first with that name and clearly the son of Xerxes I. His mother was named Amestris which has connections to the name Esther. Here’s a link to an article on that topic. Is Esther Artemis? While the article is not conclusive, it is very enlightening (and jaw-dropping), especially on how history is recorded by the victors.
Also to note, the book of Esther in most English translations identifies the king as Ahasuerus, which is Xerxes I. Strong’s entry H325 says, “Achashverosh (that is, Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes, but in this case Xerxes), the title (rather than name) of a Persian king: – Ahasuerus.” And while Esther identifies the king as Ahasuerus, Nehemiah identifies the king of his time as Artaxerxes. It should be understood that the two books are talking about two different kings and events that took place at different places in time.
Aside from all of that, what about Mordecai? Even if he was an infant when taken from Jerusalem, Mordecai would have been over 112 years old when he had the dream and older than 120 years when he was given a position of authority second only to the king of Persia. There is no historical confirmation of Mordecai living to that age other than what is written in the Apocrypha.
For the next bit of trivia, we’ll look again at some more timeline details. The story of Esther seems to flow from one event to the next as though all of these things happened in a couple of years’ time. But we know that Esther became queen in the seventh year and wrote the second decree of the king in the twelfth year. As we saw in the last post, that would only have been a four-year span. But what about Mordecai and Haman? The king marries Esther in the 12th month of the seventh year, and the end of the chapter says that Mordecai overheard a plot to kill the king around the same time. The marriage feast lasted for a week, so let’s just say it was the beginning of the eighth year. Chapter three begins with “After these events” the king promoted Haman. Can we assume that this also happened at the beginning of the eighth year? Because in the middle of chapter three, it says that Haman came to the decision in the twelfth year to destroy all the peoples of Mordecai. Did Haman’s hatred of Mordecai span a four-year period in the course of half a chapter? That’s a long time to hold a grudge against one man, but it explains why his hatred spread to the whole nation group of Judeans.
From there, things speed up a bit. Haman wrote his letter with the scribes making copies on the 13th day of the first month in the twelfth year of the king’s reign. Esther’s letter was copied by the scribes on the 23rd day of the first month of the same year. So, in a 10-day span, Esther had all of the Jews fast for three days, she went to the king and invited him and Haman to dinner, the king was reminded of Mordecai’s valor in stopping the plot to kill him, the king has Haman honor Mordecai in public, Haman has a 50-foot high gallows constructed to hang Mordecai, the king and Haman return for a second dinner with Esther, Esther reveals Haman’s plot to kill all of the Jews, the king has Haman killed for his treachery, and Esther is given permission to write another decree in the king’s name. That’s a very busy week and a half.
I’ll also note that some translations say that Haman had a gallows constructed while other translations say it was a pole or poles., From the images, you can decide. Though one is a drawing and the other is an inscription from antiquity.
The last tidbit of information relates to the cross once again. The first decree set the destruction of the Jews on the 14th day of the twelfth month. The second decree said that the Jews should prepare to defend themselves on the 13th day of the month. I find it interesting that Christ was crucified as a substitute death on the 14th day of the first month, which is the Passover, and the 13th day of the first month is the preparation day for the Passover. It is the day when you are to remove all of the leaven (representing sin) from your house before preparing for the Passover meal, which would be eaten in the evening that starts the 15th day and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Do you see the timing? In the original Passover in Egypt, they were to prepare for the Passover on the 13th, kill the lamb on the 14th, and leave their homes on the 15th safe from any death as long as the blood was properly applied to the doorposts. Likewise, we are to prepare ourselves the day before death is to come. (After death, it’s too late.) Death comes on the 14th but is taken by one man to save those who have prepared (accepted Him), and the next day (the prophetic 8th day) we will feast with Him in eternity. Purim is a prophetic timing of salvation at the end of the age. Are you prepared? Today is the day for salvation.
