Cornelius a Lapide
Esther, says St. Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, "in the type of the Church liberates the people from danger, and having slain Haman, who is interpreted as 'iniquity,' sends portions at feasts, and a celebrated day to posterity." The argument of the book, therefore, is the humiliation of the proud, namely Vashti and Haman, and the exaltation of the humble, namely Esther and Mordecai, and the liberation of the Jews. Allegorically, Ahasuerus represents Christ, Esther the Blessed Virgin and the Church, Mordecai the faithful and pious soul, while Haman and Vashti represent the devil, the flesh, and the world.
That this book is canonical is agreed by the Hebrews together with the Greeks and Latins. For it exists in Hebrew in the Canon of the Hebrews, at least up to chapter ten. See Bellarmine, book I, On the Word of God, chapter 7; Serarius here, Prolegomena 4; Sixtus of Siena, book I, section 2 on Esther. It was first written in Hebrew; whence from the Hebrew St. Jerome translated it into the Latin language, and the Seventy into Greek. Moreover, St. Jerome separated from the rest those parts he did not find in the Hebrew, and placed them at the end of the book, which previously had been inserted in their proper places in the Latin Vulgate in the order of time and history. The same sections exist in the same order in Greek in the Septuagint, from which St. Jerome translated them into Latin, but relegated them to the end of the book, as appendages to the Hebrew text, from which he had translated the rest into Latin.
The author of the book is uncertain: St. Augustine, XVIII, City of God 16; Eusebius in his Chronicle, year of the world 4734; Isidore, book VI; Origen, chapter 2, think it was Ezra; Philo Anianus thinks it was Joachim the High Priest; Rabbi David attributes it to the men of the Great Synagogue. More probably, Lyra, Dionysius, Bellarmine, Sixtus of Siena, Rabbi Abraham, Serarius, Sanchez and others think the author was Mordecai together with Esther, and this seems to be indicated in chapter 9, verse 20, and chapter 12, verse 4, where it says: "And Mordecai wrote all these things, and sent them contained in letters to the Jews;" and chapter 9, verse 29: "And Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote also a second letter." And who would doubt that in these letters the entire history was contained?
You may ask at what time the history of Esther occurred, or who was Ahasuerus, her husband. First, Serarius and Gordonus think he was Artaxerxes Ochus; but in that case Mordecai would have lived two hundred years and more; for that many years elapsed from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, when Mordecai was transferred with King Jeconiah to Babylon, as is said in chapter 11, verse 6, until Ochus. But such an age was unprecedented in that era: for no one is recorded to have lived so long at that time.
Second, Joseph Scaliger, book VI of De Emendatione Temporum, page 284, thinks he was Xerxes; because, he says, the wife of Xerxes was called Amestris, according to Herodotus, book VII: who seems to be the same person as Esther.
But that Amestris was Persian, not Hebrew, Herodotus sufficiently indicates when he says her father was Otanes, a Persian. Add that the cruel character of Amestris was foreign to the character of the benign and beneficent Esther. For Herodotus, in the same book VII, says "Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, already advanced in age, buried alive seven sons of illustrious Persians to render thanks on her behalf to the god who is said to be beneath the earth." And in book IX: "Amestris," he says, "having summoned her guards, mutilated the wife of Masistes (he was the brother of Xerxes and son of Darius), cut off her breasts, and threw them to the dogs: she cut off her nose, ears, lips, tongue, and thus sent her home mutilated." Would Esther have done such things?
Third, the Hebrews in Seder Olam, chapter 29, think the husband of Esther was Cambyses, son of Cyrus: for they hold that he is the one who in 1 Ezra 4:6-7 is called Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes. And they add that Esther was the mother of Darius Hystaspis, who succeeded Cambyses in the kingdom. Vatablus and Genebrard hold the same, but this seems improbable; for Cambyses was an enemy of the Jews, and he stopped the building of the temple that his father Cyrus had begun, as is clear from 1 Ezra chapter 4, verse 7; but Ahasuerus, Esther's husband, was benevolent and beneficent toward the Jews.
Fourth, Josephus, book XI, chapter 6; Nicephorus; Constantius in his Chronology; Cajetan; Bellarmine; Salian; Sanchez; and many others think Ahasuerus was Artaxerxes Longimanus, son of Xerxes, who sent Ezra and Nehemiah to Jerusalem to rebuild it; and he was so mild and merciful by nature, as Plutarch writes of him in his Apothegms: "He was the first to establish these penalties for generals who had offended: that instead of scourging their bodies, their garments should be stripped off and scourged; and instead of plucking out hair and shaving the head, the tiara should be removed and shaved."
But according to this opinion, Mordecai would have been 140 years old and more, and his niece Esther would have been an old woman of 70 years, and therefore unfit for marriage with Ahasuerus, as will be shown in chapter 11, verse 6.
Fifth, very probably Megasthenes, Annianus, Lyra, Rabbi Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Tevardeadius and others think that Ahasuerus, Esther's husband, was Darius Hystaspis, for which there are many conjectures:
First, because Ahasuerus in this book, chapter 1, verse 1, is stated to have instituted a solemn banquet, and to have ruled over 127 provinces: for the same is expressly stated about Darius Hystaspis in 3 Ezra 3:1-2, where it says: "King Darius made a great feast for all his servants, and for all the magistrates of Media and Persia, and for all the purple-clad officials and governors, and consuls, and prefects under him, from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces." These words are plainly the same as the first words of this book. Therefore, Ahasuerus was Darius Hystaspis. He also subjugated the Indians, according to Herodotus, book IV, page 114, which is likewise asserted of Ahasuerus here in chapter 1, verse 1.
Second, because in verse 2, it is said that Susan was the city that was the beginning of Ahasuerus's kingdom; hence he instituted this royal banquet there. For Pliny, book VI, chapter 27, writes that Susa, the royal city of the Persians, was founded by Darius Hystaspis, although Aelian and others would have it that it was expanded and adorned by him. Hence Cassiodorus, book VII of the Variae: "This city," he says, "Memnon, son of Tithonus, built with stones set in gold."
Third, because in chapter 2, verse 6: "Esther" was called Hadassa in Hebrew (our translator renders it Edissa), meaning myrtle: and the wife of Darius, according to Herodotus, was called Atossa, who seems to be the same as Hadassa. Even if Herodotus errs in calling Atossa the daughter of Cyrus, because she was so considered or claimed to be by the Persians -- for Esther herself, at the command of Mordecai, prudently kept silent about being Jewish. Add that the Gentiles were ignorant of, or corrupted, Jewish affairs. Hence also the Angel, in the second year of Darius Hystaspis, appeared to Zechariah the Prophet, chapter 1, verse 8, standing among the myrtle trees, that is, in the court of Esther, who was called Hadassa, meaning myrtle, as though promising good things to the Jews through her help and shelter; see what was said there.
Fourth, because Ahasuerus in the last chapter of this book, verse 46, acknowledges that the kingdom had been handed down to him and his ancestors, and preserved, by the favor of the God of Israel. This accords excellently with the vow that Darius Hystaspis made to the God of heaven, in order to obtain the kingdom of Persia, as narrated in 3 Ezra 3:43, and by Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter 4. Likewise with the edict of the same Darius concerning the restoration of the temple of the Jews, in 1 Ezra 6 and 3 Ezra 6.
Fifth, because the war and history of Judith occurred under Xerxes, as I showed there in the introduction. But Judith, when she killed Holofernes, is called a girl, and is said to have survived to the age of 105, and that no one disturbed Israel during her whole lifetime, and for many years after her death, Judith, last chapter, at the end. Therefore, Haman's plots to kill the Jews did not occur under Artaxerxes, who immediately succeeded his father Xerxes.
Sixth, this will be clearly evident from the age of Mordecai, chapter 2, verse 6. There seems to be an objection from the last chapter, verse 46, where it is said that Ahasuerus was descended from kings; but Darius was the son of Hystaspes, a prince, not a king. I respond that Hystaspes was descended from kings, as Herodotus, Justin, and others assert: about which more at the last chapter.
In the same age as Esther and Mordecai, there flourished Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Zerubbabel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, Haggai, Malachi, and Zechariah the prophets, who write at the beginning of their prophecy that they prophesied under Darius. Among the Gentiles there flourished the philosophers Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus; the poets Anacreon, Simonides, Aeschylus, and Euripides; the military commanders Themistocles, Miltiades, Conon, Leonidas, and Aristides; and among the Romans, Junius Brutus and L. Collatinus, who after expelling Tarquin and the kings were the first Consuls, together with Horatius Cocles, Mucius Scaevola, and the Vestal virgin Cloelia, who, fighting against Porsena, king of Etruria, performed heroic feats of Roman courage. Therefore this age was fruitful of illustrious men, and accordingly famous and glorious.
Those who have written commentaries on Esther include Lyra, Hugo, Dionysius, Serarius, Sanchez, and Francis Feuardent, who explains this entire book through moral lessons.