03:55
@AdithiaKusno As mentioned, it is not a problem to find scholars who agree and disagree with the text and with other scholars. The problem IMO is how a supposed non-virgin, a married woman, would be presented to the king who requested virgins. There are a couple ways around this. 1) The king really didn't mean virgins. 2) The chamberlain and king didn't know how to determine if a woman was a virgin. 3) It's unimportant to the bigger picture, so scholars ignore this obvious problem. Best -
04:18
@AdithiaKusno Here's a thought. Perhaps Mordecai was in fact bringing her up to be a wife for himself, but before they actually became married, consummating it, the king called for virgins. Esther was one and had to go. And we know the rest of the story. In a sense, this is, after all, the story of Mary as well.
14 hours later…
17:52
@SLM Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox do share your second comment. But I see no difficulty even if Esther has consummated her marriage.
This support the tradition that Esther and Mordecai were married when Esther was taken by force to the king. This is why in Esther 2:10 we find that she was charged by Mordecai to remain silent. If supposed she told the king of her lowly origin there shouldn't be any difficulty, because the king guards who forcibly kidnap her knew of her origin. The only crucial information that she kept from the king is her betrothal status to Mordecai.
Mordecai in the Greek text is described as a prophet of God who received revelation of the coming plot of assassination. In Esther 2:11 we find how Mordecai as a faithful husband walked in front of the court of the harem daily to keep in contact with Esther his faithful and lawful wife, who was forced into unlawful marriage to the king.
"the king guards who forcibly kidnap her knew of her origin" the guards took her from Jewish village
Is it possible for the king not to know her marital status? Even he didn't know her origin. In the Jewish tradition there is a discussion on whether she is a virgin or not. Their tradition says she is not a virgin. While if hymen is in tact that might be an evident for virginity, it can also be broken through physical abuse such as being taken forcibly to the King's quarter by the guards. So there is no conclusive evidence for the King to check.
2 hours later…
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Aug16
Aug '1717
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Discussion between Adithia Kusno and SLM
Imported from a comment discussion on christianity.stackexchan...