“What Honor or Dignity?”
When Xerxes (Ahasuerus) heard again of how Mordecai the Jew had saved his life, he asked, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” (Est 6:3). The answer, of course, was that nothing had been done, an embarrassing situation for the king. From the tablets preserved in the Persepolis Fortification Archive, we know that daily events were initially recorded on small tablets that could easily be held in one hand. The tablets of this kind are shaped something like a capital D, with one end rounded and the other......
The King’s Chronicles – What Language?
Esther 6:1 records that Xerxes (Ahasuerus) could not sleep, so he called for the court records to be brought and read before him. What exactly did they bring, and in what language were such records kept? There are several places in the book of Esther where proclamations are made throughout the Persian empire, and it seems to have been standard procedure that they were issued “to every people according to their language” (Esth 1:22; cf. 3:12, 8:9). But what language and script was used in the royal palace for the official records?......
