In another thread I said Mordacai was the uncle of Esther. I was wrong. Robert Matthews was so kind as to provide the correct answer regarding Esther's relationship to Mordacai. I said Mordacai was Esther's uncle. That was incorrect. Below is the correct answered provided by Robert Matthews III.

Esther was Modecai's cousin, not her uncle. The Bible say her father was his uncle and he raised her because her parents had died.

Verse 2:7 (his uncle;s daughter)

Verse 2:15 (Esther, the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Modecai)

So being his uncle's daughter would make her is cousin.

Thank you so much Robert for providing accurate info. You are indeed a biblical scholar!

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2003

Answers

Genealogy drives me crazy. The NIV simplifies things....

Esther:7

"Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died." (NIV)

As to the passing part, read verse 10:

"Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so."(NIV)

So it appears that she could pass, but didn't want to, but had to because Mordecai requested it.....hmmmm......

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2003

Parson Harper - I would like to make an irreverent observation about Esther. Regardless of the Biblical translation, or the complex geneaology tree, ALL writers appear to agree that Esther was one phine and phat Sista to see :-) Note my blooming artistic talents combining hermeneutics and rap. I may just leave my day job and re-engineer myself as a gospel hip hop artist. What thinketh ye? QED

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2003