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Journey of a Passage

Additions to Esther A–F (Vulgate and KJV Apocrypha 10:4–16:24)

The six Greek additions, and where they sit

The Greek Esther has six blocks absent from the Hebrew: A (Mordecai's dream), B (Haman's decree), C (prayers), D (Esther before the king), E (the counter-decree), F (the dream explained) and a colophon. Greek Bibles place them in the story; Jerome placed them at the end, numbered 10:4–16:24.

Read Additions to Esther A–F (Vulgate and KJV Apocrypha 10:4–16:24) in every edition

Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not

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.

✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Uncertain connection
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
  2. Greek Alpha TextMedieval manuscripts (19, 93, 108, 319); origin debatedUncertain relationship to a Hebrew text of Esther (perhaps different from the Masoretic)
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day (additions from Greek, appended)
English
  1. King James Apocrypha, "The rest of Esther"1611Translated from Greek Esther (via the Vulgate's order)

Where each addition goes

A
Before 1:1. Mordecai's dream; first discovery of the plot. (Vulgate 11:2–12:6)
B
After 3:13. Text of Haman's decree in the king's name. (13:1–7)
C
After 4:17. Prayers of Mordecai and Esther. (13:8–14:19)
D
Replaces 5:1–2. Esther faints; God changes the king's spirit. (15:1–16)
E
After 8:12. Text of the counter-decree; Haman a Macedonian. (16:1–24)
F
After 10:3. The dream explained; colophon. (10:4–11:1)

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 passage (the disputed words)Translated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions

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

    The library's digital Giguet contains D (its 5:1–2) and F (its 10:4–13) and the colophon (its 11:1), and only a one-line trace of C (its 4:16). A, B and E are missing from the digital source (data gap).

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day (additions from Greek, appended)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    (11:2) Anno secundo, regnante Artaxerxe maximo, prima die mensis Nisan, vidit somnium Mardochæus

    All six, appended as 10:4–16:24 with Jerome's notes.

  4. Medieval manuscripts (19, 93, 108, 319); origin debated

    Greek Alpha Text

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedUncertain relationship to a Hebrew text of Esther (perhaps different from the Masoretic)

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Contains all six additions in different wording; F is shorter; no colophon (reported).

    Source: NETS, Esther (Old Greek and Alpha Text, tr. K. H. Jobes, after Hanhart's Göttingen edition 1966/1983) ↗

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✕ Passage not in this witness (the disputed words)Descends, 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.

    None of the additions.

  6. 1611

    King James Apocrypha, "The rest of Esther"

    ✓ Contains this passage (the disputed words)Translated from Greek Esther (via the Vulgate's order)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text.

    (14:3) O my Lord, thou only art our King: help me, desolate woman, which have no helper but thee

    "The rest of the chapters of the Book of Esther, which are found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee."

What changed, and why

The additions make the story explicitly religious and supply the documents and prayers the Hebrew mentions without quoting. Catholics and Orthodox read them as Scripture; Protestants as Apocrypha; Jewish Bibles do not include them. Because the order and numbering differ, a reference like "Esther 13" means different text in different Bibles.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Hebrew Esther contains none of the additions.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Giguet lacks Additions A, B and E. A gap in the digital source.

Sources

Related lessons

  • The Greek Additions A–F →Six blocks of text in the Greek Esther, labeled A to F: Mordecai's dream (A) and its interpretation (F); the texts of Haman's decree (B) and the counter-decree (E); Mordecai's and Esther's prayers (C); and Esther's dramatic approach to the king (D). They make God the actor in the story. Catholics and Orthodox read them as Scripture; Protestants place them in the Apocrypha. Jerome moved them to the end, creating the chapter numbers 10:4–16:24.
  • Mourning, Fasting and a Decision →Mordecai tears his clothes and cries loudly in sackcloth before the king's gate; the Jews in every province fast and weep. Esther sends Hathach to learn why. Mordecai sends the decree and asks her to plead with the king. She answers that anyone who goes to the king uninvited dies unless he holds out the golden sceptre, and she has not been called for thirty days. Mordecai replies: if you keep silent, deliverance will arise from another place, but you and your father's house will perish; who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther calls a three-day fast: "If I perish, I perish."
  • Counter-Edict, Self-Defense and Power →The king gives Haman's house to Esther and his ring to Mordecai. Esther falls at the king's feet weeping and begs him to reverse Haman's letters. He says a decree sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked, but they may write another. On 23 Sivan the scribes write in every script and language: the Jews may gather and defend themselves on 13 Adar, "to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish" any armed force that attacks them, "both little ones and women," and take their spoil. Mordecai goes out in royal robes; the Jews have light and joy; many of the peoples of the land "became Jews."
  • 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.
  • How Esther Came to Us →Esther's story is set under Xerxes (5th century BC); its composition date is uncertain, probably late Persian or Hellenistic. No copy has been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the only Hebrew Bible book so absent. The Hebrew text survives in medieval manuscripts and countless Purim scrolls; the Greek in two forms with six additions. Its place in Scripture was debated by both Jews and Christians.
  • Mordecai's Greatness and the Ending →The Hebrew book ends in three verses: the king lays a tribute on the land and the islands; his deeds and Mordecai's greatness are written in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia; Mordecai is second to the king, great among the Jews, "seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed." The Greek continues: Mordecai interprets his dream, God is named, and a colophon says the letter of Purim was brought to Egypt in the fourth year of Ptolemy and Cleopatra.