Did Esther sleep with Ahasuerus before beoming the Queen?

[Guest]

I was teaching Sunday School the other day and got to this point of the story. I stated that Esther, as a young virgin, prepared for the meeting with King Ahasuerus, went in and slept with the King, as did all the virgin girls. That this is why they went from the "house of the women" to the "evening with the King" to the "house of the concubines".

I stated that you don't go from the house of the women to the house of the concubines without first compromising yourself in some way.

This was concurrent with all the commentaries I made use of and I listened to a few things (including Steve's commentaries on it ...though I can't recall if he went into depth in arguing the point), but there was a man in my Sunday School class that made the point that the Bible never says she slept with him and we must just assume that. He said that he doesn't believe we should assume from silence. He also made the point that they were again called 'virgins' after they were regathered. This is supposedly after their night with the king.

I was just wondering if I could have any comments on how and if I can be sure enough to state that this did occur from the Bible itself. Am I missing something?

Thank you

[Guest]

After reflecting on the man in the class' comment, it occurred to me, that although they are again called "virgins" after the fact of their night with the king, it is not necessary that they are virgins.

If I asked the average person who Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg are, they might say "Baseball Players" when, in fact, they are not. They are former baseball players, but have been known all their celebrated life as 'baseball players' and so we still call them that.

Throughout the narrative of the story, this group of women are called "the virgins" and so when they are re-gathered after they are no longer virgins, the author, for the simple reason of making them recognizable to the reader, calls them 'the virgins'. Is this a plausable theory?

[Guest]

Your theory seems to be consistent with the words of Paul in I Tim 1:15

Faithful the saying and worthy of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost.

I don't think Paul was saying that he was, at the time he wrote this, sinning worse than all other people. Rather he meant that in the past, he had done worse that any other sinner by persecuting the disciples of Christ and having put them to death.

[Guest]

Thanks Paidion. I'd forgot about that. I'll use that also to help explain this.

This was one of those things that was kind of a sticking point in the class. Sure it's an important note in the story, but it really is something that I wish we'd have just been able to get through since it has very little relevance to the whole point of what the story is getting at.
Thanks again, Paidion....
Hey - by the way....Are all these new profile pics pictures of you throughout your life?

[Guest]

Hey - by the way....Are all these new profile pics pictures of you throughout your life?

Yep. I'm growing up now ------ 19 years old.