[Avodah] Relationship Between Mordechai and Esther

[Prof. Levine]

I was under the impression that Mordechai was 
Esther's uncle.  However, the following is from http://tinyurl.com/4g6xh7q

Misconception: Mordechai and Esther, the Purim heroes, were uncle and niece.[1]

Fact: According to Megillat Esther, Mordechai and Esther were first cousins.

Background: This is a widespread misconception, 
even found in the renowned midrashic compilation 
of Louis Ginzberg. For example, in Legends of the 
Jews Vol. IV, page 387 he writes: “This lively 
interest displayed by Mordechai in Esther’s 
physical and spiritual welfare is not wholly 
attributable to an uncle’s and guardian’s 
solicitude in behalf of an orphaned niece.”[2]

Yet, the relationship between Mordechai and 
Esther is explicitly described twice in the book 
of Esther. In Esther 2:7 the characters of 
Mordechai and Esther are introduced, and Esther 
is described as Mordechai’s bat dodo [3] ­ his 
uncle’s daughter, i.e., Mordechai’s first cousin. 
In Esther 2:15, when Esther is called to the 
king’s palace, her lineage is given as: Esther, 
the daughter of Avichayil, Mordechai’s uncle, 
i.e., she was Mordechai’s first cousin. The 
Targum Sheni elaborates further by specifying 
that it was Mordechai’s father and Esther’s father who were brothers.

There is an additional relationship found in the 
midrash. Rashi (on Esther 2:7) cites the Talmudic 
(Megillah 13a) exegesis that Mordechai not only 
raised, but later married, Esther.[4] The Talmud 
(Megillah 13b) further derives from Esther 2:20 
that they actually lived as husband and wife even 
subsequent to Esther’s being taken to the royal 
residence, up until the time she voluntarily went 
to Achashverosh.[5] However, these rabbinic 
interpretations supplement the straightforward 
meaning of the text, and do not contradict it. In 
contrast, I have been unable to find any 
traditional source that says that Mordechai was 
Esther’s uncle, for to say so would contradict the text.

A possible source for this common misconception 
may be that two old, non-Jewish, translations, 
the Old Latin (3rd-5th century) and the Vulgate 
(ca 390-405 CE) actually have the uncle-niece 
relationship. In the Vulgate, verse 2:7 states 
that Mordechai raised the daughter of his 
brother, and in 2:15 it identifies Esther as the 
daughter of Avichayil, the brother of Mordechai!

This error may have crept into these translations 
because the even older Greek Septuagint uses the 
phrase “father’s brother” instead of a single 
word “uncle” as used in the Hebrew. If this was 
then the source text used for the Vulgate, it is 
possible that the translators accidentally left 
off the word “father’s” and ended up with Esther 
being Mordechai’s niece ­ daughter of his 
brother. The Catholic tradition was then based on 
the faulty Vulgate, and it is possible that the 
common Jewish misperception was influenced by that belief.[6]

An alternate, simpler source is also possible. It 
may be that because Mordechai adopted and raised 
Esther as his daughter, he is perceived as having 
been much older. Hence the uncle-niece rather 
than the first cousin relationship comes to mind. 
In addition, the phrase “dod Mordechai,” used to 
describe Avichayil, Esther’s father, could 
actually trigger the association of the way one 
would call their “uncle Mordechai” as “dod 
Mordechai,” a nickname Queen Esther would 
technically not have used for her cousin Mordechai!

______________________
Notes

1. I would like to thank Michael Segal for 
assistance with researching this topic.
2. In IV: 384, Ginzberg wrote: “In Hebrew it 
means ‘she who conceals,’ a fitting name for the 
niece of Mordechai...She herself had been kept 
concealed for years in the house of her 
uncle....” In IV: 388 he wrote, “At the advice of 
her uncle, Esther....” There are no supporting 
footnotes for the relationship given.
3. A scriptural proof that “dod” is father’s 
brother can be found from Leviticus 18:14.
4. This exegesis is already found in the 
Septuagint (Esther 2:7) which reads: “When her 
parents were dead, he [Mordechai] brought her up 
as a wife for himself ...” Some modern 
commentators suggest that the Greek translator 
may have misread “bayit” instead of “bat,” a 
difference of a small yud. It is more likely he 
was familiar with the already well-known oral 
tradition that was later recorded in the Talmud.
5. They were originally permitted to remain 
together because a woman, other than the wife of 
a Kohain, who is forced to have relations with 
another man remains permitted to her husband 
(Ketubot 51b; Shulchan Aruch, EH 6:10-11). 
Esther’s living with Achashverosh was considered 
to be under duress (see Tosafot Ketubot 51b s.v. 
asurah . See also Tosafot Megillah 13b s.v. 
v’tovelet, about what Esther did to avoid 
ambiguous paternity). The Talmud (Megillah 15a, 
based on Esther 4:16) explains that from that 
fateful day when she voluntarily offered herself 
to Achashverosh as part of her plan to save the 
Jews, she was no longer permitted to return to 
Mordechai, and that was a personal sacrifice she made for her people.
6. See for example The Catholic 
Encyclopedia(5:556) that gives the relationship as “uncle (or cousin).”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20110320/cad7998d/attachment.htm>