Apocryphal Additions to Esther refuted

[Richard Amiel McGough]

This article is from the Canon Studies section of the Bible Wheel site, found here. I repost it in this forum so people can comment on it.

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The Meaning of Esther and its Integration with the Bible Wheel

One of the most significant results derived from the Bible Wheel, which profoundly impacts all aspects of canonical studies, is the synergistic mutual confirmation of the content of Holy Scripture with its geometric form and integration with the Hebrew Alphabet.

The integration of the content of Esther with its position on the Bible Wheel is one of the most astounding examples of God's providential supervision over the formation of the Canon. The full explanation is given on pages 307-309 of the BW book, reproduced here online in the Spoke 17 article called Esther: The Hidden Face of God. The explanation is based on the nearly universal understanding of the real meaning of Esther propounded by both Christian and Jewish exegetes throughout the ages, the earliest witness being found in the Talmud (5th century). Here is how A. M. Hodgkin expressed it in his review of every Book of the Bible called Christ in All the Scriptures :

The Book of Esther is designed to show God's providential care of His people. Through the name of God is not mentioned, the hand of God, ruling and over-ruling the events for the preservation of His people, can be seen throughout. In the Talmud the question is asked: "Where do we get Esther in the Law?" The answer is Deuteronomy 31:18 "And I will surely hide my face, or presence." God was hiding His face from His people on account of their sins; they had deliberately chosen to continue in the land of their captivity among the heathen, instead of availing themselves of the opportunity of returning to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel.

The Jews use the phrase hester panim to refer to this "hiddenness" of God's "face" that characterizes the Book of Esther. It is based on a pun on the name "Esther" and the Pey KeyWord panim (face) which God used frequently in the corresponding Alphabetic Verses. We have therefore a direct and incontrovertible integration of the primary theme of the Seventeenth Book with the symbolic meaning of the Seventeenth Letter as established by God Himself in the Alphabetic Verses and which has been expounded by biblical exegetes throughout the ages! The Bible Wheel therefore confirms the inclusion of Esther in the Canon. Furthermore, the integration of its content with the symbolic meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter confirms the design of the whole Bible on the pattern of the Wheel. Yet there is more ....

The Apocryphal Additions to Esther
Having discovered how the primary theme of Esther integrates with its position on the Wheel and the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter, we have extremely strong evidence - indeed proof - for the validity of its inclusion in the Canon. The miracle of God is that exactly the same evidence that proves Esther belongs in the canon also proves that we most definitely must exclude the apocryphal additions because they expressly contradict the whole lesson the Book was designed to teach!

The apocryphal additions to Esther consist of 107 verses in seven short chapters interspersed throughout the Greek Septuagint version. They were not found in the Hebrew text that Jerome used when he produced the Latin Vulgate (5th century) and he did not recognize them as Scripture, so he moved them to an appendix at the end of his translation. The Roman Catholic Church still considers the Vulgate to be the authoritative Latin version of the Bible. Its content - including all the apocrypha - was canonized by the Council of Trent in 1545 in reaction to the Protestant Reformation which held only to the protocanonical Books accepted by the Jews.

As noted above, the additions to Esther consist of seven short chapters amounting to a total of 107 verses. Yet within these 107 verses, we find a total of twenty-five references to "God" and twenty-three references to "Lord" which yields an average of one such reference in almost every other verse! These additions therefore expressly contradict the primary message of the Book as explained at length above and in the article called Esther: The Hidden Face of God. It is good at this point to recall how Baxter explained it:

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the providential care of God over His people. It is vital to see this, for herein lies the living significance and permanent value of the book. ... It is this which explains why the name of God does not occur in the Book of Esther. This non-mention of God in the story has been a problem to many. Martin Luther, in one of his occasional lapses of self-restraint, went so far as to say that he wished the book did not exist! Others have contested its right to a place in the canon. Yet surely to find a problem in this non-mention of God is to miss that which above all else we are intended to see! We say it reverently, yet none the less unhesitatingly, that if God had been specifically mentioned in the story, or, still more, if the story had specifically explained, in so many words, that it was God who was bringing about all those happenings which are recorded, the dramatic force and moral impact of the story would have been reduced; for above all, we are meant to see, in the natural outworking of events, how without violating human free will, and without interrupting the ordinary ongoing of human affairs, a hidden Power unsuspectedly but infallibly controls all things. There may have been other reasons the anonymous author may have omitted any direct reference to God ... but we believe one main reason to be that which we have given, namely, the emphasizing of God's invisible activity in providence.

To see the complete divergence of the apocryphal additions from whole thrust of the truly canonical Book of Esther, we need only to quote the first chapter. Here we find seven references to "God", two to "Lord", and the express statement that "God hath done these things":
Additions to Esther, Chapter 10:4-13

1. Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.
2. For I remember a dream which I saw concerning these matters, and nothing thereof hath failed.
3. A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water: this river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen:
4. And the two dragons are I and Aman.
5. And the nations were those that were assembled to destroy the name of the Jews:
6. And my nation is this Israel, which cried to God, and were saved: for the Lord hath saved his people, and the Lord hath delivered us from all those evils, and God hath wrought signs and great wonders, which have not been done among the Gentiles.
7. Therefore hath he made two lots, one for the people of God, and another for all the Gentiles.
8. And these two lots came at the hour, and time, and day of judgment, before God among all nations.
9. So God remembered his people, and justified his inheritance.
10. Therefore those days shall be unto them in the month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with an assembly, and joy, and with gladness before God, according to the generations for ever among his people.

Obviously, the aprocryphal additions are the work of mere humans who felt a need to thrust God into the story in which He Himself had clearly chosen to "hide His face." There are many lessons to be learned here. We must never think to "improve" on the Word of God. Many aspects of its design are hidden from us. If we try to "force-fit" anything to conform to our limited human understanding, we most certainly will distort the Work of God.

These results demonstrate yet again the overwhelming power of the Bible Wheel. It truly is the Rosetta Stone of Biblical Hermeneutics. It confirms the canonical Books even as it proves (with the same evidence, no less!) that the apocryphal additions must be excluded. Note also that we have the mutual confirmation of the Canon and the Wheel. The Canon proves the Bible Wheel, and the Bible Wheel proves the Canon. This may appear to be circular reasoning, but it is not because there is a third element - an independent parameter - found in the sequence and symbolic meaning of the Hebrew Alphabet that unites the two.

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Comments?

[NumberX]

Esther means "I will hide myself", " I am hidden" or "I have hidden myself", it depends on how we place the vowels, which the Bible explicitely not knows. The vowels are our way of life has been said from old. Esther is (like) the hiding of God in the material world. In Deut. 31:18 the word Esther appears (Hasteer astir) "I will hide my panim completely" and 'disaster' will happen, like the Esther story goes about disaster. It is typical that the woman (mater, mattter is womanly) Esther hides her descent and God hides Himself here and in the Esther story too. The story goes about Purim: "via the fate, lot, coincidence". Wat can we say about coincidence? Two people can meet each other coincidentely in a train and become friends for life for example. When you try to causally analyse it, then you will find infinite factors which also will be coincidentally caused it to happen. So you can not prove it had to happen. So when God hides Himself, you can not prove He exists. The cause of the coincidence is hidden. When God said I will hide, a confusing complex of events started what we call coincidences. Esther and Purim. After Haman is hanged (meaning disconnected from the earth) the story tells us it is time for a party.

No coincidence:
The Torah with it's 5845 verses is exactly 35 times larger then the 167 verses of the Esther story.

Source: book no. 103 from this page. This book is written in Dutch. But! No. 202 "The amazing scroll of Esther" is an English publication!

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Esther means "I will hide myself", " I am hidden" or "I have hidden myself", it depends on how we place the vowels, which the Bible explicitely not knows. The vowels are our way of life has been said from old. Esther is (like) the hiding of God in the material world. In Deut. 31:18 the word Esther appears (Hasteer astir) "I will hide my panim completely" and disaster will happen, like the Esther story goes about disaster. It is typical that the woman Esther hides her descent and God hides Himself here and in the Esther story too. The story goes about Purim: "via the fate, lot, coincidence". Wat can we say about coincidence? Two people can meet each other coincidentely in a train and become friends for life for example. When you try to causally analyse it, then you will find infinite factors which also will be coincidentally caused it to happen.

Yes, that's a good application of the meaning of Esther. I find it to be one of the most amazing Spoke connections between the Hebrew letter and the book on the same Spoke.

No coincidence:
The Torah with it's 5845 verses is exactly 35 times larger then the 167 verses of the Esther story.

Hummm ... could you elaborate on the meaning you see here?

[NumberX]

I have to learn about the spokes too.

The factor 35 connects here the large with the small.
In the Bibletext we can find 35 at many locations in various ways:
- The seventh day in creation is expressed in 35 words. Because the seventh day is not concluded with the words as the other days are <it was evening and it was morning, the seventh day> it is said from old that we live our lives in the seventh day. Our whole life is like on a shabbath you see, on which pharisees don't want Jesus to cure people, where we read about in the N.T.
- Time, times and half a time
- The 350 years of Noah after the flood
- And there are wordvalues 350 like aphar 70-80-200 meaning.. (think dust is the closest)
1. stuff
2. cloth
3. drapery
4. fabric
5. matter
6. subject-matter
7. subject
8. substance
9. theme
10. food
11. dust
12. clay
- And the word for neck is 350 too (oref 70-200-80), your neck where a vampire wants to bite in and suck your blood, let's connect with Hollywood too (the story originally comes from an area full of mountains). Dracula in a coffin with aphar and necks..
Your neck connects your one with your four. So the 35 is not only in the Bible important and present, but also in creation itself, in our appearance.

[NumberX]

Thank you for the 5-star rating dear unknown reader! Think Richard will join me in this gratitude too!

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Thank you for the 5-star rating dear unknown reader! Think Richard will join me in this gratitude too!

Yep!