"Mordekai", or Mordhekhai with Aramaic aspiration, is noted in Ezra-Nehemiah. To him was held a festival in Alexandria. Aaron Koller wrote a book about how this festival inspired the book Esther over in the Babylonian-Susan oriental side of Diaspora. Jacob Wright reviewed it, and now I'm finding out about the review.
Esther is assuredly a postMaccabean production if only because its Jews are following "laws" - on their own, and not enforced by their priests. Because out in the boonies, Esther is unaware of priests. Boonie Jews of old like in Elephantine island at Aswan were attending religious services, but not following day-to-day laws outside the sacrifice. The friction in Elephantine came about due to the Jewish priests' sacrifice of taboo (to Egyptians) rams. Esther inhabited a different world than Elephantine.
Esther's book is famously absent from Qumran, in a way the other book-length absence - Nehemiah - is not. The Christian movement... is a little more questionable. Jesus Himself ignored the story, as did the Apostles. The Evangelists however may have reacted to it: in the John/Salome cycle, which perhaps predates their work. Salome is the anti-Esther.
One tidbit I didn't know is that the Genesis Apocryphon may be reacting to Esther, too. That would mean Qumran was aware of the story. They simply didn't want it: compare, Judith, or 3 Maccabees, or even Kiddushin 66. But you know who did want it: the Iraqis, and they're the Jews (Kiddushin 66 notwithstanding) who compiled Talmud for us.
Koller/Wright are saying that Esther should be viewed as a latter Torah. The Torah imposed the Babylonian week upon the old lunar sabbaths, and built an Exodus story around Pascha. Likewise, Esther imposed an Arabian-nights, or anyway Elymaean-nights, tale upon the Day of Mordecai.
BACKDATE 11/21
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