Esther's Role In The Bible

Traditionally, within Hebrew, Greek and Roman patriarchal societies, women were often viewed as second class citizens (1). However, throughout the Bible, God uses many people to do extraordinary tasks that often seemed unimaginable, especially women. Specifically, within the Bible it appears that God often chooses the lowliest of individuals to perform his deeds on Earth. Many times, within both the Old and New testament books, God used women to do great things for His kingdom. This use of women in the Bible, is representative of God’s love for all mankind and acknowledges the importance of women in society. The Bible provides numerous accounts of instances in biblical times, where the work of the Lord was manifest in the world by way of woman. In parallel, these biblical stories also represent God’s steadfast and unwavering love for his chosen people. Of all the biblical canons, there are only three books that are named after women and honor their Christian actions. Within the apocryphal books, there are two books, Esther and Ruth, and within the Deuterocanonical books there is one book, Judith.
As a result of this tragedy, Esther, was cared for by her cousin Mordecai, in the capital city of Susa of Elam (3). During her life, Esther’s beauty constantly won her favor in the eyes of many, yet her identity as a Jew was largely kept secret. Specifically, Esther underwent a name change from Hadassah, a Hebrew name, which would have revealed her Jewish descent (3).
The divine intervention of God in Esther life largely comes in the days of King Xerxes and is recounted in the Book of Esther. The story of Esther largely takes place in fourth century BCE (2). During this time, King Xerxes was recently divorced and in search of a queen. Esther 2:2-4, states:
“Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king…And let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of