Ahasuerus

Ahasuerus and Haman at Esther's Feast, by Rembrandt

Ahasuerus (Ancient Greek: Ξέρξης Xerxes; Old Persian: Xšayārša; Hebrew: אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ, Aẖashverosh ; ʼĂḥašwērôš; Greek: Ασουηρος in the Septuagint; or Latin: Assuerus in the Vulgate; commonly transliterated Achashverosh) is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible, as well as related legends and Apocrypha. This name (or title) is applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to three rulers. The same name is also applied uncertainly to a Babylonian official (or Median king) noted in the Book of Tobit.

Etymology

Aert de Gelder, The Banquet of Ahasuerus

The wrath of Ahasuerus (anonymous), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to the Greek name Xerxes, both deriving from the Old Persian language Xšayārša. The form Xerxes has not traditionally appeared in English Bibles,^[1] but has rather appeared as Ahasuerus. Many newer translations and paraphrases^[2] have used the name Xerxes.

The name Xerxes comes from the Greek Ξέρξης. The English name Ahasuerus is derived from a Latinized form of the Hebrew Akhashverosh (אחשורוש), which is a Hebrew rendering of the Babylonian Achshiyarshu: both this and the Greek Ξέρξης are renderings of the Old Persian Xšayāršā.^[3] Thus this literary change was created as the name moved across each of the language groups in a westerly direction from Persia until it entered English translations of the Bible.

Biblical references

Book of Esther

Ahasuerus is given as the name of the King of Persia in the Book of Esther.^[4] 19th century Bible commentaries generally identified him with Xerxes I of Persia.^[5] The Greek version (Septuagint) of the Book of Esther refers to him as Artaxerxes, and the historian Josephus relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks.^[6] Similarly, the Vulgate, the Midrash of Esther Rabba, I, 3 and the Josippon identify the King as Artaxerxes. The Ethiopic text calls him Arťeksis, usually the Ethiopic equivalent of Artaxerxes. John of Ephesus and Bar-Hebraeus identified him as Artaxerxes II, a view strongly supported by the 20th century scholar Jacob Hoschander.^[7] Masudi recorded the Persian view of events which affirms the identification and al-Tabari similarly placed the events during the time of Artaxerxes II despite being confused by the Hebrew name for the king. Esther Rabba and the Vulgate present "Ahasuerus" as a different name for the king to "Artaxerxes" rather than an equivalent in different languages, and the Septuagint distinguished between the two names using a Greek transliteration of Ahasuerus for occurrences outside the Book of Esther. Indeed an inscription from the time of Ataxerxes II records that he was also known as Arshu understood to be a shortening of the Babylonian form Achshiyarshu derived from the Persian Khshayarsha (Xerxes). The Greek historians Ctesias and Deinon noted that Artaxerxes II was also called Arsicas or Oarses respectively similarly understood to be derived from Khshayarsha, the former as the shortened form together with the Persian suffix -ke applied to such shortened names.^[7]

Book of Ezra

Ahasuerus is also given as the name of a King of Persia in the Book of Ezra.^[8] Jewish tradition regards him as the same Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther; the Ethiopic text calls him Arťeksis, as it does the above figure in Esther. Modern commentators associate him either with Cambyses II^[9] or with Bardiya (Greek Smerdis) who reigned (perhaps as an imposter) for seven months between Cambyses II and Darius I.^[10]

Book of Daniel

Ahasuerus is given as the name of the father of Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel.^[11] Josephus names Astyages as the father of Darius the Mede, and the description of the latter as uncle and father-in-law of Cyrus by mediaeval Jewish commentators matches that of Cyaxares II, who is said to be the son of Astyages by Xenophon. Thus this Ahasuerus is commonly identified with Astyages. He is alternatively identified, together with the Ahasuerus of the Book of Tobit, as Cyaxares I, said to be the father of Astyages. Views differ on how to reconcile the sources in this case. One view is that the description of Ahasuerus as the "father" of Darius the Mede should be understood in the broader sense of "forebear" or "ancestor." Another view notes that on the Behistun Inscription, "Cyaxares" is a family name, and thus considers the description as literal, viewing Astyages as an intermediate ruler wrongly placed in the family line in the Greek sources.

Book of Tobit

In some versions of the apocryphal or deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, Ahasuerus is given as the name of an associate of Nebuchadnezzar, who together with him, destroyed Nineveh just before Tobit's death.^[12] A traditional Catholic view is that he is identical to the Ahasuerus of Daniel 9:1^[13] In the Codex Sinaiticus Greek (LXX) edition, the two names in this verse appear instead as one name, Ahikar (also the name of another character in the story of Tobit). Other Septuagint texts have the name Achiachar. Western scholars have proposed that Achiachar is a variant form of the name "Cyaxares I of Media", who historically did destroy Nineveh, in 612 BC.

In legends

In some versions of the legend of the Wandering Jew, his true name is held to be "Ahasuerus."^[14] This is the name by which Immanuel Kant refers to the Wandering Jew in The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God.^[15]

See also

• Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther, painting by Rembrandt van Rijn
• Artaxerxes II
• Wandering Jew
• Xerxes I of Persia

Notes

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Assuerus". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ahasuerus.

•  "Assuerus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.