Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of Rest of Esther: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Anglican Article VI names the rest of Esther among the other books. Trent receives Esther entire with all its parts. This King James keeps the additions in their own book and keeps Esther on the Protestant list. Westminster Confession 1.3 , under Church Lists, refuses the books commonly called Apocrypha.

Rest of Esther 11:1 says that in the fourth year of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus and his son brought this epistle of Phurim, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, in Jerusalem, had interpreted it. The same verse says the Greek piece stood before chapter 1 of the Hebrew. A year for that Ptolemy and Cleopatra was not added. A writer of the narrative, beyond that colophon, was not added on this page.

At a Glance

Author	The book does not name its writer. Chapter 11 names Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, in Jerusalem, as the interpreter of the epistle.
Date	A composition year was not added. Chapter 11 names the fourth year of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra and does not give a year number.
Place	The additions name the court and a letter from India. A modern city was not added.
Genre	Additions to Esther: Mordecai’s words, a colophon, letters of Artexerxes, and Esther’s prayer.
Chapters	7
Verses	105 in this King James Apocrypha
Key verse	Rest of Esther 10:4 Apocrypha Not part of the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox churches accept these books as deuterocanonical. Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.Rest of Esther 10:4 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source

Setting

The Protestant Esther on this site ends at Esther 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.Esther 10:3 · King James VersionOpen source, where Mordecai is next unto king Ahasuerus. This book opens at Rest of Esther 10:4

Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.Rest of Esther 10:4 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source: “Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.” There is no verse 10:1, 10:2, or 10:3 in this book.

The Text

The King James prints these chapters apart from Esther, as Rest of Esther, beginning at chapter 10. Rest of Esther 11:1

In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, which they said was the same, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerusalem, had interpreted it. [PLACED IN THE GREEK BEFORE CHAP. 1.1 OF THE HEBREW]Rest of Esther 11:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says that in the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemeus his son, brought this epistle of Phurim, and that Lysimachus the son of Ptolemeus, in Jerusalem, had interpreted it. The same verse prints a bracket note: placed in the Greek before chapter 1:1 of the Hebrew. A year for that Ptolemy and Cleopatra was not added.

Structure and Themes

After Mordecai’s words, the chapters give the colophon, Mordecai in the court with the eunuchs Gabatha and Tharra (Rest of Esther 12:1

And Mardocheus took his rest in the court with Gabatha and Tharra, the two eunuchs of the king, and keepers of the palace.Rest of Esther 12:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source), a letter of the great king Artexerxes (Rest of Esther 13:1 The copy of the letters was this: The great king Artexerxes writeth these things to the princes and governours that are under him from India unto Ethiopia in an hundred and seven and twenty provinces.Rest of Esther 13:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source), Esther’s prayer (Rest of Esther 14:1 Queen Esther also, being in fear of death, resorted unto the Lord:Rest of Esther 14:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source), and a second royal letter.

Issues With This Book

Anglican Article VI names “the rest of Esther” among the other books. Trent’s decree, quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?, receives the books “entire with all their parts” and names Esther. This King James keeps the additions in their own book and keeps Esther on the Protestant list. Church Lists quotes the confessions.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha. The text and the history are on 1 Enoch.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.

Rest of Esther