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Journey of a Passage

Esther 6:8

A crown on the king's head, or on the horse?

"The horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head." "His" may be the king or the horse. The library's Greek (Giguet) has no crown at all.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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
Hebrew
  1. Original EstherComposed c. 400–150 BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Esther
Greek
  1. Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions
Latin
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Composed c. 400–150 BC (debated)

      Original Esther

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. No copy of Esther has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

    2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

      Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      la robe de fin lin dont il se revêt, et le cheval qu'il monte.

      No crown. Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Esther

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      וְסוּס אֲשֶׁר רָכַב עָלָיו הַמֶּלֶךְ וַאֲשֶׁר נִתַּן כֶּתֶר מַלְכוּת בְּרֹאשׁוֹ

      and a horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown was set

      The relative clause most naturally continues "horse."

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head

    What changed, and why

    Assyrian and Persian reliefs show royal horses with crest ornaments on their heads, and Persian sources describe the king's own horses as sacred. The Hebrew may describe a horse marked with a royal crest. The KJV's reading puts the crown on the honoree.

    What the evidence shows

    • Plausible, not confirmedThe Hebrew may place the crown on the horse.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • The King's Sleepless Night →That night the king cannot sleep and has the chronicles read to him. He hears how Mordecai saved his life and learns nothing was done for him. Haman, arriving early to ask for Mordecai's death, is asked what should be done for the man the king delights to honor. Thinking it is himself, he proposes royal robes, the king's horse and a crown, and a herald. The king orders him to do it all for Mordecai the Jew. Haman goes home in mourning; Zeresh and his wise men say: if Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, you will surely fall before him.