Queen Esther's husband
Publius
Who was Esther's husband? "Xerxes, of course." Most people would
respond quickly, for that's what most commentaries say. The other day
I was reading the bedtime Bible story to my youngest child, the Bible
story book even mentions "King Zerxes" by name. But upon close
examination, the evidence for supporting this is very slim indeed. My
own opinion is that Esther's husband was King Artaxerxes, who was the
king mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah. If I am right, then Nehemiah
2:6 would be very interesting. Here is the verse.
"The the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, 'How long
will your journey take, and when will you get back?' It pleased the
king to send me, so I set a time."
Is the queen in this verse none other than Esther? Here I submit the
question to the wise and the learned in this newsgroup. Please don't
respond by saying my commentary or my study Bible say this or that. I
already know what they would say. But please come up with the reasons
and evidences behind your answers.
Publius
((( s.r.c.b-s is a moderated group. All posts are approved by a moderator. )))
((( See http://www.enteract.com/~bible for details about this group. )))
P.B. Austin
Publius <pcc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a9p7ck$mf9$1...@bob.news.rcn.net
> Who was Esther's husband?
According to Esther 2:17, Esther was chosen to be the Queen
to King Ahasuerus (ruler of Persia from 486-465 BC) instead
of Vashti. 'Xerxes I' is the Greek rendering of 'Ahasuerus' (Heb.
'Achashverosh).
> "Xerxes, of course." Most people would
> respond quickly, for that's what most commentaries say. The other day
> I was reading the bedtime Bible story to my youngest child, the Bible
> story book even mentions "King Zerxes" by name. But upon close
> examination, the evidence for supporting this is very slim indeed.
What supporting evidence do you find 'slim'?
> My
> own opinion is that Esther's husband was King Artaxerxes, who was the
> king mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.
How did you arrive at that opinion?
> If I am right, then Nehemiah
> 2:6 would be very interesting. Here is the verse.
>
> "The the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, 'How long
> will your journey take, and when will you get back?' It pleased the
> king to send me, so I set a time."
>
> Is the queen in this verse none other than Esther?
Artaxerxes I, son of Xerxes I, ruled Persia from 465-424 BC. His wife
was Queen Damaspia, according to Ctesias of Cnidus. See article at
http://www.iranica.com/articles/search/searchpdf.isc
[snip]
P.B. Austin
Publius
"P.B. Austin" <pbau...@sfsu.edu> wrote in message news:<aa18u7$bor$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>...
> Publius <pcc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:a9p7ck$mf9$1...@bob.news.rcn.net
> > "Xerxes, of course." Most people would
> > respond quickly, for that's what most commentaries say. The other day
> > I was reading the bedtime Bible story to my youngest child, the Bible
> > story book even mentions "King Zerxes" by name. But upon close
> > examination, the evidence for supporting this is very slim indeed.
>
> What supporting evidence do you find 'slim'?
What evidence is there anyway to support the notion that Esther's
husband was Xerxes? It was not mentioned in the Bible. It was
mentioned only in some commentaries and Children's Bible story books
chiefly based on speculations.
> > My
> > own opinion is that Esther's husband was King Artaxerxes, who was the
> > king mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.
>
> How did you arrive at that opinion?
Josephus.
> > If I am right, then Nehemiah
> > 2:6 would be very interesting. Here is the verse.
> >
> > "The the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, 'How long
> > will your journey take, and when will you get back?' It pleased the
> > king to send me, so I set a time."
> >
> > Is the queen in this verse none other than Esther?
>
> Artaxerxes I, son of Xerxes I, ruled Persia from 465-424 BC. His wife
> was Queen Damaspia, according to Ctesias of Cnidus.
But Ctesias of Cnidus is known to be one of the most unreliable
writers of the ancient time, and Queen Damaspia's name can not be
found any where else except by Ctesias of Cnidus in the context of the
successor of Artaxerxes I. Between Josephus and Ctesias, I would
choose to believe Josephus any day.
Publius
P.B. Austin
Publius <pcc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:aa3oot$6i7$1...@bob.news.rcn.net
> "P.B. Austin" <pbau...@sfsu.edu> wrote in message news:<aa18u7$bor$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>...
> > Publius <pcc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:a9p7ck$mf9$1...@bob.news.rcn.net
> [snip]
>
> What evidence is there anyway to support the notion that Esther's
> husband was Xerxes?
> It was not mentioned in the Bible. It was
> mentioned only in some commentaries and Children's Bible story books
> chiefly based on speculations.
The name of Esther's husband is given in the Bible as 'Ahasuerus'
at Esther 2:16-17.
> > > My
> > > own opinion is that Esther's husband was King Artaxerxes, who was the
> > > king mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.
> >
> > How did you arrive at that opinion?
>
> Josephus.
The order of Persian rulers according to secular history:
Cyrus the Great
Darius I
Xerxes I
Artaxerxes I
The order of Persian rulers according to Ezra 4:5-7:
Cyrus
Darius
Ahasuerus
Artaxerxes
[snip]
P.B. Austin
Sarah Kanary
"Publius" <pcc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a9p7ck$mf9$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
>
>
> Who was Esther's husband? "Xerxes, of course." Most people would
> respond quickly, for that's what most commentaries say. The other day
> I was reading the bedtime Bible story to my youngest child, the Bible
> story book even mentions "King Zerxes" by name. But upon close
> examination, the evidence for supporting this is very slim indeed. My
> own opinion is that Esther's husband was King Artaxerxes, who was the
> king mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah. If I am right, then Nehemiah
> 2:6 would be very interesting. Here is the verse.
>
> "The the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, 'How long
> will your journey take, and when will you get back?' It pleased the
> king to send me, so I set a time."
>
> Is the queen in this verse none other than Esther? Here I submit the
> question to the wise and the learned in this newsgroup. Please don't
> respond by saying my commentary or my study Bible say this or that. I
> already know what they would say. But please come up with the reasons
> and evidences behind your answers.
I don't know how "wise and learned" I am, but I'll give it a shot:
Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes I, is the king referred to at Ezra
7:1-28 and Nehemiah 2:1-18; 13:6. Whereas most reference works give his
accession year as 465 B.C.E., there is sound reason for placing it in 475
B.C.E. This evidence is threefold: from Greek sources, from Persian
sources, and from Babylonian sources.
Evidence from Greek sources: An event in Greek history can help us
determine when Artaxerxes began ruling. Greek statesman and military hero
Themistocles fell into disfavor with his countrymen and fled for safety to
Persia. According to Greek historian Thucydides (I, CXXXVII, 3), who has
gained fame for his accuracy, at that time Themistocles “sent on a letter to
King Artaxerxes son of Xerxes, who had lately come to the throne.” Plutarch’
s Lives (Themistocles, XXVII, 1) gives the information that “Thucydides and
Charon of Lampsacus relate that Xerxes was dead, and that it was his son
Artaxerxes with whom Themistocles had his interview.” Charon was a Persian
subject who lived through the change of rulership from Xerxes to Artaxerxes.
From the testimonies of Thucydides and of Charon of Lampsacus, we can see
that when Themistocles arrived in Persia, Artaxerxes had recently begun
ruling.
We can establish the time when Artaxerxes began ruling by calculating back
from when Themistocles died. Not all reference books give the same date for
his death. However, historian Diodorus Siculus (Diodorus of Sicily, XI, 54,
1; XI, 58, 3) relates his death in an account of things that happened “when
Praxiergus was archon in Athens.” Praxiergus was archon in Athens in 471/470
B.C.E. (Greek and Roman Chronology, by Alan E. Samuel, Munich, 1972, p. 206)
According to Thucydides, Themistocles’ arrival in Persia was followed by a
year of language study in preparation for an audience with Artaxerxes.
Thereafter the king granted him settlement in Persia with many honors. If
Themistocles died in 471/470 B.C.E., his settlement in Persia must have been
not later than 472 B.C.E. and his arrival a year earlier, in 473 B.C.E. At
that time Artaxerxes “had lately come to the throne.”
Concerning the time when Xerxes died and Artaxerxes ascended the throne, M.
de Koutorga wrote: “We have seen that, according to the chronology of
Thucydides, Xerxes died towards the end of the year 475 B.C.E., and that,
according to the same historian, Themistocles arrived in Asia Minor shortly
after the coming to the throne of Artaxerxes Longimanus.”—Mémoires présentés
par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de l’
Institut Impérial de France, first series, Vol. VI, second part, Paris,
1864, p. 147.
As further support of this, E. Levesque noted the following: “Therefore it
is necessary, according to the Alexandrian Chronicle, to place Xerxes’ death
in 475 B.C.E., after eleven years of reign. The historian Justin, III, 1,
confirms this chronicle and the assertions of Thucydides. According to him,
at the time of Xerxes’ murder, Artaxerxes, his son, was but a child, puer [a
boy], which is true if Xerxes died in 475. Artaxerxes was then 16 years old,
whereas in 465 he would have been twenty-six years old, which would not
justify anymore Justin’s expression. According to this chronology, since
Artaxerxes began to reign in 475, the 20th year of his reign proves to be in
455 and not in 445 as it is said quite commonly.”—Revue apologétique, Paris,
Vol. 68, 1939, p. 94.
If Darius died in 486 B.C.E. and Xerxes died in 475 B.C.E., how could it be
explained that some ancient documents allot to Xerxes a reign of 21 years?
It is well known that a king and his son might rule together in a double
kingship, or coregency. If this was the case with Darius and Xerxes,
historians could count the years of Xerxes’ reign either from the start of a
coregency with his father or from his father’s death. If Xerxes ruled 10
years with his father and 11 years by himself, some sources could attribute
to him 21 years of rulership, while others might give him 11 years.
There is solid evidence for a coregency of Xerxes with his father Darius.
The Greek historian Herodotus (VII, 3) says: “Darius judged his [Xerxes’]
plea [for kingship] to be just and declared him king. But to my thinking
Xerxes would have been made king even without this advice.” This indicates
that Xerxes was made king during the reign of his father Darius.
Evidence from Persian sources: A coregency of Xerxes with Darius can be seen
especially from Persian bas-reliefs that have come to light. In Persepolis
several bas-reliefs have been found that represent Xerxes standing behind
his father’s throne, dressed in clothing identical to his father’s and with
his head on the same level. This is unusual, since ordinarily the king’s
head would be higher than all others. In A New Inscription of Xerxes From
Persepolis (by Ernst E. Herzfeld, 1932) it is noted that both inscriptions
and buildings found in Persepolis imply a coregency of Xerxes with his
father Darius. On page 8 of his work Herzfeld wrote: “The peculiar tenor of
Xerxes’ inscriptions at Persepolis, most of which do not distinguish between
his own activity and that of his father, and the relation, just as peculiar,
of their buildings, which it is impossible to allocate to either Darius or
Xerxes individually, have always implied a kind of coregency of Xerxes.
Moreover, two sculptures at Persepolis illustrate that relation.” With
reference to one of these sculptures, Herzfeld pointed out: “Darius is
represented, wearing all the royal attributes, enthroned on a high
couch-platform supported by representatives of the various nations of his
empire. Behind him in the relief, that is, in reality at his right, stands
Xerxes with the same royal attributes, his left hand resting on the high
back of the throne. That is a gesture that speaks clearly of more than mere
successorship; it means coregency.”
As to a date for reliefs depicting Darius and Xerxes in that way, in
Achaemenid Sculpture (Istanbul, 1974, p. 53), Ann Farkas states that “the
reliefs might have been installed in the Treasury sometime during the
building of the first addition, 494/493–492/491 B.C.; this certainly would
have been the most convenient time to move such unwieldy pieces of stone.
But whatever their date of removal to the Treasury, the sculptures were
perhaps carved in the 490’s.”
Evidence from Babylonian sources: Evidence for Xerxes beginning a coregency
with his father during the 490’s B.C.E. has been found at Babylon.
Excavations there have unearthed a palace for Xerxes completed in 496 B.C.E.
In this regard, A. T. Olmstead wrote in History of the Persian Empire (p.
215): “By October 23, 498, we learn that the house of the king’s son [that
is, of Darius’ son, Xerxes] was in process of erection at Babylon; no doubt
this is the Darius palace in the central section that we have already
described. Two years later [in 496 B.C.E.], in a business document from
near-by Borsippa, we have reference to the ‘new palace’ as already
completed.”
Two unusual clay tablets may bear additional testimony to the coregency of
Xerxes with Darius. One is a business text about hire of a building in the
accession year of Xerxes. The tablet is dated in the first month of the
year, Nisan. (A Catalogue of the Late Babylonian Tablets in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, by R. Campbell Thompson, London, 1927, p. 13, tablet
designated A. 124) Another tablet bears the date “month of Ab(?), accession
year of Xerxes.” Remarkably, this latter tablet does not attribute to Xerxes
the title “king of Babylon, king of lands,” which was usual at that
time.—Neubabylonische Rechts- und Verwaltungsurkunden übersetzt und
erläutert, by M. San Nicolò and A. Ungnad, Leipzig, 1934, Vol. I, part 4, p.
544, tablet No. 634, designated VAT 4397.
These two tablets are puzzling. Ordinarily a king’s accession year begins
after the death of his predecessor. However, there is evidence that Xerxes’
predecessor (Darius) lived until the seventh month of his final year,
whereas these two documents from the accession year of Xerxes bear dates
prior to the seventh month (one has the first month, the other the fifth).
Therefore these documents do not relate to an accession period of Xerxes
following the death of his father but indicate an accession year during his
coregency with Darius. If that accession year was in 496 B.C.E., when the
palace at Babylon for Xerxes had been completed, his first year as coregent
would begin the following Nisan, in 495 B.C.E., and his 21st and final year
would start in 475 B.C.E. In that case, Xerxes’ reign included 10 years of
rule with Darius (from 496 to 486 B.C.E.) and 11 years of kingship by
himself (from 486 to 475 B.C.E.).
On the other hand, historians are unanimous that the first regnal year of
Darius II began in spring of 423 B.C.E. One Babylonian tablet indicates that
in his accession year Darius II was already on the throne by the 4th day of
the 11th month, that is, February 13, 423 B.C.E. (Babylonian Chronology, 626
B.C.–A.D. 75, by R. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, 1971, p. 18) However, two
tablets show that Artaxerxes continued to rule after the 11th month, the 4th
day, of his 41st year. One is dated to the 11th month, the 17th day, of his
41st year. (p. 18) The other one is dated to the 12th month of his 41st
year. (Old Testament and Semitic Studies, edited by Harper, Brown, and
Moore, 1908, Vol. 1, p. 304, tablet No. 12, designated CBM, 5505) Therefore
Artaxerxes was not succeeded in his 41st regnal year but ruled through its
entirety. This indicates that Artaxerxes must have ruled more than 41 years
and that his first regnal year therefore should not be counted as beginning
in 464 B.C.E.
Evidence that Artaxerxes Longimanus ruled beyond his 41st year is found in a
business document from Borsippa that is dated to the 50th year of
Artaxerxes. (Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Vol.
VII: Tablets From Sippar 2, by E. Leichty and A. K. Grayson, 1987, p. 153;
tablet designated B. M. 65494) One of the tablets connecting the end of
Artaxerxes’ reign and the beginning of the reign of Darius II has the
following date: “51st year, accession year, 12th month, day 20, Darius, king
of lands.” (The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania,
Series A: Cuneiform Texts, Vol. VIII, Part I, by Albert T. Clay, 1908, pp.
34, 83, and Plate 57, Tablet No. 127, designated CBM 12803) Since the first
regnal year of Darius II was in 423 B.C.E., it means that the 51st year of
Artaxerxes was in 424 B.C.E. and his first regnal year was in 474 B.C.E.
Therefore, testimonies from Greek, Persian, and Babylonian sources agree
that Artaxerxes’ accession year was 475 B.C.E. and his first regnal year was
474 B.C.E. That places the 20th year of Artaxerxes, when the 70 weeks of
Daniel 9:24 begin to count, in 455 B.C.E. If on the basis of Daniel 9:25 we
reckon 69 weeks of years (483 years) from 455 B.C.E., we come to a
significant year for the arrival of Messiah the Leader.
Counting from 455 B.C.E. to 1 C.E. is a full 455 years. Adding the remaining
28 years (to make up 483 years) brings us to 29 C.E., the exact year when
Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in water, anointed with holy spirit, and
began his public ministry as Messiah, or Christ.—Lu 3:1, 2, 21, 22.
Down to the Fall and Division of the Empire. Regarding the successors of
Artaxerxes Longimanus on the throne of Persia, Diodorus Siculus gives the
following information: “In Asia King Xerxes died after a reign of one year,
or, as some record, two months; and his brother Sogdianus succeeded to the
throne and ruled for seven months. He was slain by Darius, who reigned
nineteen years.” (Diodorus of Sicily, XII, 71, 1) The original name of this
Darius (known as Darius II) was Ochus, but he adopted the name Darius upon
becoming king. He appears to be the “Darius” referred to at Nehemiah 12:22.
Following Darius II came Artaxerxes II (called Mnemon), during whose reign
Egypt revolted and relations with Greece deteriorated. His reign (dated as
from 404 to 359 B.C.E.) was followed by that of his son Artaxerxes III (also
called Ochus), who is credited with some 21 years of rule (358-338 B.C.E.)
and is said to have been the most bloodthirsty of all the Persian rulers.
His major feat was the reconquest of Egypt. Secular history then gives a
two-year rule for Arses and a five-year rule for Darius III (Codomannus),
during whose reign Philip of Macedonia was murdered (336 B.C.E.) and was
succeeded by his son Alexander. In 334 B.C.E. Alexander began his attack on
the Persian Empire, defeating the Persian forces first at Granicus in the NW
corner of Asia Minor and again at Issus at the opposite corner of Asia Minor
(333 B.C.E.). Finally, after the Greeks had conquered Phoenicia and Egypt,
the Persians’ last stand, at Gaugamela in 331 B.C.E., was crushed, and the
Persian Empire came to its end.