Editing Book of Esther (section)

===Contents===
These additions are:<ref>See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Greek+Esther+1&version=NRSV the NRSV online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220429001428/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Greek+Esther+1&version=NRSV |date=2022-04-29 }} for the additions</ref>
* an opening prologue that describes a dream had by Mordecai, printed ahead of chapter 1 in RSVCE
* the contents of the decree against the Jews, included within chapter 3 in RSVCE
* an extension to the dialogue between Hathach and Mordecai, placed after 4:8 in RSVCE
* prayers for God's intervention offered by Mordecai and by Esther, both in chapter in RSVCE
* an expansion of the scene in which Esther appears before the king, with a mention of God's intervention, included in chapter 5 in RSVCE
* a copy of the decree in favor of the Jews, added to chapter 8 in RSVCE
* a passage in which Mordecai interprets his dream (from the prologue) in terms of the events that followed, added to chapter 10 in RSVCE
* a colophon appended to the end of chapter 10, also referenced as 11:1, which reads:
{{blockquote|text=In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought to Egypt the preceding Letter about Purim, which they said was authentic and had been translated by Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, one of the residents of Jerusalem.|source=(NRSV)}}
It is unclear to which version of Greek Esther this colophon refers, and who exactly are the figures mentioned in it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Angiolillo|first=Patrick|date=2019|title=Lysimachus|journal=Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception|volume=17|pages=273|doi=10.1515/ebr.lysimachus|doi-access=free}}</ref>

By the time the Greek version of Esther was written, the foreign power visible on the horizon as a future threat to Judah was the kingdom of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] under [[Alexander the Great]], who defeated the Persian empire about 150 years after the time of the story of Esther; the [[Septuagint]] version noticeably calls Haman a "Bougaion" ({{langx|grc|βουγαῖον}}), possibly in the Homeric sense of "bully" or "braggart",<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bougaean – Encyclopedia of The Bible – Bible Gateway|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Bougaean|access-date=2021-03-01|website=www.biblegateway.com|language=en|archive-date=2021-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316003952/https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Bougaean|url-status=live}}</ref> whereas the Hebrew text describes him as an [[Agagite]].