Time Covered: 493-c. 475 B.C.E.

6. (a) What time period is indicated for the book of Esther? (b) What does the evidence suggest as to the writer, as well as the place and the time of writing?

⁶ It is thought that the events of Esther are set in the days when the mighty Persian empire was at its peak and that they cover about 18 years of the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). The time period, extending down to about 475 B.C.E., is indicated by testimony from Greek, Persian, and Babylonian sources.b