John Appelt

The standard chronology adds some 80 years to the time from the end of the captivity to the edict to return to the land of Israel. This would make Mordecai along with others, Nehemiah 7:7, to be very ancient. So, this could raise doubts of him being the same individual in the book of Esther. But the two individuals are the same as will be shown. 

Esther 2:5, 6 relates Mordecai, age unknown, had been carried away captive from Jerusalem into Babylon. (Some versions have ‘Kish,’ but ‘who’ refers to Mordecai.) After the 70-year captivity, he is listed as one of those returning to Jerusalem, Ezra 2:2 and Nehemiah 7:7. 

Next, he is seen back in Persia in the city of Shushan, likely because Esther’s parents had died and Mordecai her uncle returned to be her guardian. She would be one of the young women brought to the King Ahasuerus’ palace as a candidate for a new wife for him. When the Jews later became the target of Haman’s anti-Semitic plot, Queen Esther valiantly intervened. Mordecai became an honored official, Esther 10:2, 3. For all this to happen meant Mordecai was old but not as ancient as some chronologies would present.

The edict to return is on the heels of the end of the captivity. There is no gap. This is clear from Daniel’s understanding of Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10. Drawing on the revelation of God that the captivity of Babylon and the desolations of Jerusalem was for 70 years, and knowing the 70 years were over, Daniel prays in the very first year of Persian rule, Daniel 9:1, 2. He prays specifically that God would not delay the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple, Daniel 9:16-19. The answer is granted and the vision of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24-27, unfolds from that time forward, not 80 years later. 

As prophesied, Babylon lost its power, literally overnight, and Persia became the world power. Cyrus, who was a Mede, Daniel 9:1, became the king over the kingdom of Chaldea, likely the same as “Darius the Mede who received the kingdom…” Daniel 5:30, 31. In his first year, Cyrus issued the edict, allowing the Jews to return, Ezra 1:1. Isaiah 44:28 records the words of the Lord about Cyrus and his role in the building of Jerusalem and its temple. 

Daniel’s seventy weeks links the edict with the Messiah the Prince, exactly 483 years later, Daniel 9:25. Because of these facts, it has to be recognized the wrong king has been deemed to be the one who issued the decree, and the year has to be wrong. It could not have been Artaxerxes’ decree of 445 BC, but Cyrus’ decree of 457 BC. Also, this would link the 483 years from the edict, not to the Palm Sunday entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem of AD 32, but to His baptism in AD 27. 

With the corrections, Mordecai is the same individual of both Nehemiah 7 and the book of Esther.

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Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Great question, Keith Clark!

No, as far as I know there were only 2 Mordecai's in the Bible:

1. A Jew who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2; Neh. 7:7).

2. A Benjamite, son or descendant of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish. He brought up Esther, his uncle’s daughter, and adopted her as his own daughter after the death of her parents (Esther 2:5, 7).

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/all-men-bible/Mordecai

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