@Jayhawker Soule
So you are a Jew, a believer of Judaism. Did you know that the Jews celebrated the fast of Esther in Nisan and not in Adar?
The fast of Esther occurred after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians during the seventh century BC. When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, Zechariah in chapter 8 verse 19 mentioned only four fasts as follows:
1. The fast of the fourth month (Tammuz 17, Shiva, ‘Asar be-Tammuz’),
2. The fast of the fifth (Av 9, ‘Tisha be-Av’);
3. The fast of the seventh (Tishri 3, Fast of Gedaliah or ‘Tzom Gedaliahu’); and
4. The fast of the tenth (Tevet 10, ‘Asara be-Tevet’).
The fast of Esther must have been instituted at a later date when the Jews returned from Babylonia after their exile there.
The first century historian Flavius Josephus wrote in Antiquities , Book XVII, Chapter 6, Section 4: “Now it happened, that during the time of the high priesthood of this Matthias, there was another person made high priest for a single day, that very day which the Jews observed as a fast. The occasion was this: This Matthias the high priest, on the night before that day when the fast was to be celebrated, seemed, in a dream, to have conversation with his wife; and because he could not officiate himself on that account, Joseph, the son of Ellemus, his kinsman, assisted him in that sacred office. But Herod deprived this Matthias of the high priesthood, and burnt the other Matthias, who had raised the sedition, with his companions, alive. And that very night there was an eclipse of the moon.”
When does a lunar eclipse occur? It occurs only when the moon is full. The full moon occurs on the 15th of the Jewish month. This full moon occurred in the month of Nisan. And we know that of the four fasts that Zechariah mentioned, nothing occurred in the Jewish month of Nisan and on the 15th. This fast of Esther must be that fast that Josephus was referring to.
The fast of Esther was held before on Nisan 15 (Esther 3:12, 4:16). When the Passover Festival was fixed on Nisan 14-21 during the Jewish reformation of the Jewish calendar in 358/359 AD, the fast of Esther was moved to Adar 13 to be with the associated Feast of Lots or Purim.