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Esther 10 · a question people ask

Is Mordecai a picture of Jesus?

In the text

The New Testament never names Mordecai, and never quotes the book of Esther (see the introduction), so it never draws that link. These notes draw only the links the New Testament draws, so they don't call Mordecai a picture of Jesus; that is a limit these notes keep, not a judgement on anyone who reads the two side by side. What Esther says of him is plain: he "was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants" (10:3). This chapter's line to Jesus sets Jesus' own words on peace beside 10:3 as a reading, not as a link the New Testament makes.

The verses

“For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants.”
Esther 10:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Esther 10

Esther 10: Next to the king

Esther ends the way Kings closes a king's story, asking if it isn't "written in the book of the chronicles of the kings" (10:2). But beside the king's acts, that record holds "the full account of the greatness of Mordecai" (10:2): the man from the king's gate, now "next to King Ahasuerus", "seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants" (10:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions