A book of the Bible, relating the history of a Jewish orphan girl named Edissa, later Esther, written probably not later than the time of Esdras, by an unknown author. Catholic scholars regard it as true history. It portrays Persian court life with great exactness of detail and apparently is based upon court annals and written Jewish sources. The Jews read it on the feast of Purim. The text of Esther has come down to us in two recensions; The Hebrew is shorter than the Greek. The Latin Bible follows the Hebrew, but the missing passages are supplied from the Greek version, as an appendix (10-16); they are necessary to complete the narrative. These so-called "deuterocanonical parts" were originally in Hebrew. Theodotian translated them from that language.