The book of Esther, explained simply

Who wrote it

No one knows. The book does not name its author. An old Jewish tradition credits a group of leaders known as the Men of the Great Assembly, and some have guessed Mordecai, a main character. Most modern scholars see the writer as an unknown Jewish author living in the Persian or early Greek period.

When

The story is set in Susa, a capital city of the Persian Empire, during the reign of King Ahasuerus, usually identified with Xerxes I, who ruled from about 486 to 465 BC. This was after Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and taken many Jews away, and Persia had later taken over Babylon's empire. Scholars suggest the book was written sometime between about 400 and 200 BC, and they debate how closely it reflects actual events. Some read it as history; many read it as a story set in real history rather than a precise record.

Who it was written to

Jewish communities living scattered across foreign lands, far from Jerusalem, especially to explain the origin of Purim, a yearly festival of celebration.

Why it was written

The book explains why Jews celebrate Purim, a festival named after the pur, a kind of lot or dice that the villain Haman casts to choose the day of the attack. It shows a people with no army or homeland surviving a deadly threat through the courage and cleverness of ordinary people inside a foreign empire. Unusually, the Hebrew text never mentions God, and many readers see this as a deliberate way of hinting at a God who works quietly behind ordinary events, though that is an interpretation.

Big themes

Courage when speaking up is dangerous · A people's survival in a foreign land · Dramatic reversals of fortune · God's possible hidden hand in ordinary events

How it is laid out

Esther becomes queen (1-2)

Haman's plot against the Jews (3-4)

Esther's banquets and Haman's downfall (5-7)

The tables turn and Purim begins (8-9)

Mordecai's honor (10)

A tip for reading it

Read it like a well-crafted story, and watch for irony and reversals, such as the scene in chapter 6 where Haman ends up honoring the very man he wants to kill. Be ready for chapter 9, where the Jews, permitted by a new royal decree to defend themselves, kill tens of thousands of their enemies along with Haman's ten sons; the book reports this plainly without explaining it. Some Bibles also include extra Greek chapters that add prayers and mention God, which are not part of the Hebrew text.