Bigthan

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Persian and Sanskrit, Βagadana , "gift of fortune" (Esther 2:21; Esther 6:2). "Wroth," because degraded at the same time as Queen Vashti, and a keeper of the door, Bigthan with Teresh "sought to lay bands on Ahasuerus." Detected by Mordecai, he was hanged. The Septuagint states that the conspirators' cause of wrath was Mordecai's advancement; but Mordecai was not advanced until subsequently, in reward for detecting the conspiracy (Esther 6).

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Big'than. (gift of God). A eunuch, (Authorized Version, "chamberlain"), in the court of Ahasuerus, one of those "who kept the door," and conspired with Teresh, against the king's life. Esther 2:21. (B.C. 479).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

BIGTHAN ( Esther 2:21 ), or BIGTHANA ( Esther 6:2 ). One of the two eunuchs whose plot against the life of Ahasuerus was discovered and foiled by Mordecai.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A eunuch at the court of Ahasuerus, whose conspiracy against that king was frustrated by the vigilance of Mordecai, Esther 2:21 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

Esther 2:21Esther 6:1-12

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Esther 2:21-236:1-3

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Bigthan', " בַּגְתָן, on the signif. (See Bigtha); Esther 2:21; Sept. omits; Vulg. Bagathan) or Big'thana (Heb. Bigtha'na, בַּגְתָנָא, prob. the full form: Gesenius here well compares the Sanscrit bagadana,fortune- given; Sept. here also omits; Vulg. again Bagathan), the first named of the eunuchs (Auth. Vers. again chamberlains") in the court of Xerxes (Ahasuerus) 'who kept the door" (marg. "threshold," Sept. ἀρχισωματοφύλακες ); he conspired with Teresh, one of his coadjutors, against the king's life. The conspiracy was detected by Mordecai, and the culprits hung. B.C. 479. Prideaux (Conn. i, 363) supposes that these officers had been partially superseded by the degradation of Vashti, and sought revenge by the murder of Ahasuerus. This suggestion falls in with that of the Chaldee version and of the Sept. (which in Esther 2:21 interpolates the words ἐλυπήθησαν οἱ δύο εὐνοῦχοι τοῦ βασίλεως . . . . ὅτι προήχθη Μορδοχαῖος ). This person may be the same as the foregoing.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Big´than, an eunuch in the court of king Ahasuerus, whose conspiracy against that monarch was frustrated through the disclosures of Mordecai (Esther 2:21).