Esther 2:7
Daughter or wife?
The Hebrew: Mordecai "took her for his own daughter." The Old Greek: he "brought her up to be his wife." The library's Greek (Giguet) has "to be his wife" and names her father Aminadab; the Vulgate and KJV read daughter.
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.
fille d'Aminadab, son oncle paternel… il l'avait élevée pour qu'elle fût sa femme
he had raised her so that she would be his wife
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).
Mardochæus sibi eam adoptavit in filiam
Mordecai adopted her as his daughter
Jerome writes "Edissa" for Hadassah.
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 share the "wife" reading.
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.
לְקָחָהּ מָרְדֳּכַי לוֹ לְבַת
Mordecai took her to himself for a daughter
Talmud Megillah 13a: "read not le-vat (for a daughter) but le-vayit (for a house, i.e. wife)."
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
whom Mordecai… took for his own daughter
What changed, and why
The Greek and a rabbinic tradition make Mordecai Esther's intended husband, raising the stakes when she is taken to the king. The Hebrew consonants (lbt) mean "for a daughter." Which is older is debated; the Greek may reflect the same interpretive tradition as the Talmud.
What the evidence shows
- The Hebrew reads "daughter"; the library's Greek reads "wife." Via Giguet.
- Mordecai intended to marry Esther.
Sources
Related lessons
- Esther Enters the Court; Mordecai Saves the King →Young women from every province are gathered into the house of the women at Susa under Hegai. Among them is Hadassah, Esther, an orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, a Benjaminite whose ancestor was exiled with Jeconiah. On Mordecai's instruction she hides her people. After twelve months of preparation, she is taken to the king in his seventh year, in Tebeth, and he makes her queen. Mordecai, sitting in the king's gate, uncovers a plot by two eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh; it is recorded in the chronicles.
- 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.