What are the Additions to Esther?
Question: What is the only book of the Bible that never mentions God?
Answer: The Book of Esther.
It could be argued (and I do) that God is implicit throughout the book even if he is never mentioned. But that does not mean that there is no temptation to fix what may seem as troubling absence.
The opportunity came when Esther was translated into Greek. Here was the perfect time to put God back in his place, so to speak.
Within the apocrypha is found six additions to Esther. These include:
- Addition A – Mordecai’s dream and his discovery of a plot against the king.
- Addition B – The royal edict dictated by Haman, decreeing the extermination of the Jews.
- Addition C – The prayers of Mordecai and Esther.
- Addition D – Esther’s appearing unsummoned, before the king.
- Addition E – The royal edict dictated by Mordecai, counteracting the edict sent by Haman.
- Addition F – The interpretation of Mordecai’s dream and the colophon to the Greek version.
In some versions of the apocrypha, only the additions are included and it does not read well. But when inserted into the rest of Esther, it gives a fresh reading of a familiar story.
You can find the text for additions online but I’m using the one found in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible.
