Esther 1:1
Ahasuerus, Xerxes or Artaxerxes?
The Hebrew names the king Ahasuerus (Ahashverosh = Persian Xšayāršā, Xerxes). The Old Greek calls him Artaxerxes; the Vulgate and KJV follow the Hebrew. The identification with Xerxes I is linguistic; the Greek's Artaxerxes reflects a different tradition.
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Uncertain connection
- Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions
- Greek Alpha TextMedieval manuscripts (19, 93, 108, 319); origin debatedUncertain relationship to a Hebrew text of Esther (perhaps different from the Masoretic)
Every witness, in order
Composed c. 400–150 BC (debated)
Original Esther
No original survives. No copy of Esther has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC
Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
il advint durant les jours d'Artaxerxès, qui régnait depuis l'Inde sur cent vingt-sept contrées
Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
In diebus Assueri, qui regnavit ab India usque Æthiopiam super centum viginti septem provincias
Medieval manuscripts (19, 93, 108, 319); origin debated
Greek Alpha Text
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Reported to read Assueros (Ahasuerus).
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וַיְהִי בִּימֵי אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ הוּא אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ הַמֹּלֵךְ מֵהֹדּוּ וְעַד־כּוּשׁ
and it was in the days of Ahasuerus, that Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Cush
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
What changed, and why
Old Persian Xšayāršā became Hebrew Ahashverosh and Greek Xerxes. The Greek translators, writing centuries later, used Artaxerxes, and Josephus follows them (Antiquities 11.184). Ezra 4:6–7 distinguishes Ahasuerus from Artaxerxes. The site follows the Hebrew and the majority identification with Xerxes I, and labels it an identification.
What the evidence shows
- Ahashverosh corresponds to Old Persian Xšayāršā (Xerxes).
- The Old Greek names the king Artaxerxes.
Sources
Related lessons
- Banquets, Royal Power and Vashti →Ahasuerus, who rules 127 provinces from India to Cush, displays his wealth for 180 days and then holds a seven-day banquet in Susa. Queen Vashti holds her own banquet for the women. On the seventh day the merry king orders seven eunuchs to bring Vashti in her royal crown to show her beauty. She refuses. His counselor Memucan turns her refusal into an empire-wide threat, and a decree removes her and declares every man master of his house.
- Esther's Three Texts →Esther exists in three main forms: the Hebrew (Masoretic) text; the Old Greek (Septuagint), a fairly free translation with six additions; and the Alpha Text, a shorter Greek version with the additions but a different, briefer ending. They are not copies of one another. Scholars debate whether the Alpha Text translates a different Hebrew original.