Commentaria in Esther
Esther.—So called by the Persians, as I have already shown, who was previously called in Hebrew Hadassah, that is, myrtle. For the Chaldeans and Persians were wont, when foreigners, and especially Hebrews, were admitted into a city or court, to change their names and give them names of their own nation, as they gave to Daniel and his companions, chapter i.
Furthermore “Esther” in Hebrew is the same as hidden, says Pagninus, from the root Satar, that is, he hid. Serarius adds at the beginning of the Prolegomena: Esther is the same as one demolishing hidden things, or the exploration and contemplation of medicine, or the medicine of the turtle-dove, or fair as the moon, or Venus. Hence Esther is said to be from Aster, that is, star, which the Germans from this call sterre.
Sterre. For Esther was a star brighter than the other royal virgins; nay, the sun of Israel as of Persia. Hence again the name Esther alludes to Astarte, the goddess of the Syrians, whom Cicero, book III On the Nature of the Gods, reports to have been the most beautiful Venus of the goddesses; and to Asteria, the daughter of Coeus, son of a Titan, by whom Jupiter begot Hercules, as the poets say and feign. Again “Esther” in Hebrew is the same as hidden fire: for es is fire, satar to hide; or the fire of the turtle-dove, or fire investigating and searching; for es is fire, tor is a turtle-dove, or investigating and searching.
But because Esther is a Persian name, its etymology must be sought from the Arabs and Persians (whose tongue is near, and both descend from the Hebrew). “Esther,” therefore, in Arabic and Persian is the same as receiver and protectress, namely of the Jews appointed by Aman for slaughter: for satar is to receive, to conceal, to hide, and to protect. Hence satir in Arabic is protector; satar is a receiver, who receives and hides fugitive slaves. Again, in Chaldee and Syriac satar signifies to oppose, to contradict, to destroy, as Esther did, who opposed Aman, and destroyed and crucified him. Lastly Pagninus: Esther, he says, in Chaldee is the same as gladness; and so “Esther” in Persian is the same as the Hebrew Hadassah, that is, myrtle: for this is the symbol of joy and gladness, which Esther brought to Israel by freeing it from Aman and from death.
Allegorically, Esther is the Blessed Virgin, for she receives and protects under her wings sinners, and the just and afflicted who flee to her; she is the gladness of saints and of the faithful. Hence by her help St. Hilaria, mother of the martyr St. Afra, praying at the tomb of her daughter, who had been thrown into the fire by the Gentiles, gladly met martyrdom, as did St. Hilaria, wife of the tribune and martyr Claudius, who, praying at the tomb of Jason and Maurus her martyred sons, was seized by the pagans, and having received holy communion, joyfully gave up her spirit, as Ado relates in the Martyrology on the 12th of August and the 3rd of December. Wherefore the Church daily sings: “Hail, Queen, mother of mercy, our life, sweetness and hope.” And elsewhere: “Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, do thou protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death.” And: “Hail, star of the sea, kind mother of God,” etc. “Fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array.” Hear St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Assumption: “Let him be silent about thy mercy, O blessed Virgin, if there be any who remembers that he called upon thee in his needs and that thou failedst him; we thy little servants rejoice with thee in thy other virtues, but in this rather for ourselves; we praise thy virginity, we admire thy humility, but mercy tastes sweeter to the wretched, we embrace mercy more dearly, we remember it oftener, we call upon it more frequently.”
Mardochai adopted her for his daughter.—Hence it is plain, first, that Esther was of the tribe of Benjamin, and of the royal stock of Saul; for Mardochai, her uncle, nay her adoptive father, was of it; second, that she was an orphan; third, that she was piously and holily brought up by the pious and holy Mardochai, who breathed into her, as into a daughter, his own spirit of virtue and piety. Hence St. Jerome, epistle 140: “Ruth, Esther and Judith were of such glory that they gave their names to the sacred volumes.” Furthermore the letters of the name Judith and of the name Esther, taken as numerals, make the same number, namely 161, as Serarius shows at the beginning of the Prolegomena.
9. And she pleased him,—Egeus the eunuch, who sought out beautiful virgins for Ahasuerus.
And he commanded—Egeus the prefect of eunuchs—the eunuch (his inferior and subject) to hasten the women’s ornaments (that is, adornment), and to deliver her her part, that is, the measured and appointed portion of food and feasts: for manoth in Hebrew are the dishes which are set before each singly, such portions as Elcana gave to Anna his wife, I Kings i; and Samuel to King Saul, I Kings ix. Furthermore there is no doubt that Esther, a religious woman, abstained from the foods forbidden her by the law of Moses, as she herself professes that she abstained from things offered to idols, chapter xiv, verse 17.
And seven of the most beautiful maidens,—as honorary companions and attendants.
12. The twelfth month.—For a whole year, then, each of the virgins was adorned and set off before they went in to Ahasuerus; for the first six months they were anointed with oil of myrrh, that is, made of myrrh, and for the other six used spices, delicate aromatics and perfumes, and especially those made of Heliocallis: “For with this,” says Pliny, book XXIV, chapter xvii, “boiled with lion’s fat, with saffron and palm wine added, the Magi and the kings of the Persians are anointed, that the body may be pleasing to the sight, and therefore they call it Heliocallis.”
The reason was that Jewish women, as well as Persian, on account of the heat of the country, smell strongly and exhale a goatish odour from the armpits, which had to be wiped away by ointments gradually absorbed by the body, that they might exhale the sweet odour with which they were imbued. Hence Pliny, book XIII, chapter i, ascribes the use and origin of ointment and anointing to the Persians: “The ointment,” he says, “ought to be of the Persian nation; they are steeped in it, and by a recommendation brought from afar they extinguish the stench born of gluttony. The first thing, as far as I can find, is that when the camp of King Darius was stormed, Alexander took among the rest of his equipment a casket of ointments; afterwards the pleasure of it was admitted by our people also among the most praised and honourable goods of life.” Indeed Scripture, Canticles iv, assigns to them ointments of myrrh, saffron, spikenard, etc. So Lyranus, Sanchez and others.
If Esther was so anointed and adorned that she might please a mortal man, how anointed and adorned with grace and virtues was the Blessed Virgin, that she might become the spouse of God and the mother of Christ! Furthermore, women are fond of ornament and studious of adornment, hence the Comic poet: “How much trouble,” he says, “there is in one woman! who night and day, at every age, are always being adorned, washed, polished.” And again: “While they are dressing their hair, while they are polishing themselves, a year passes.” Athenaeus adds, book I: “Persian women are more studious of adornment than is fitting.”
16. So she was brought to the chamber of king Ahasuerus.
In the tenth month (which corresponds partly to our December, partly to January), in the seventh year of his reign.—Esther therefore waited four years, on account of the multitude of virgins that were brought in, before she herself was led to Ahasuerus; for in the third year of his reign, Vasthi having been repudiated, he took care to have other beautiful women sought, among whom was Esther.