{"id":958,"date":"2007-11-25T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-25T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=958"},"modified":"2007-11-25T19:20:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-25T19:20:00","slug":"jezebel-the-polytheistic-princess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=958","title":{"rendered":"Jezebel the Polytheistic Princess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
I am reading Lesley Hazleton’s Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen<\/em><\/a>, which I picked up at the Doubleday booth at the AAR-SBL meeting.<\/p>\n

Somewhat as Robert Graves did in King Jesus<\/em><\/a> decades ago–but with better sourcing–she takes a familiar Bible story and re-tells it from a different perspective. <\/p>\n

Jezebel (Phoenician “Itha-Ba’al” — woman of the Lord) was a Phoenician princess united in a political marriage with Ahab<\/a>, who was actually one of the more militarily and successful Israelite kings of the Omride dynasty<\/a>. The Bible slams him for not being hard enough on polytheists, however.<\/p>\n

As queen and then as queen mother, she plays the political game as best she can before falling victim to monotheistic religious violence incited by the prophet Elijah<\/a>. It’s telling that Hazleton describes Elijah as issuing a fatwa<\/em> against her: He is nothing but a forerunner of the Islamic preachers of today, urging the young men to blow themselves up in the name of Allah. When the Bible speaks of “companies of prophets,” I see the Taliban.<\/p>\n

The story is told in the the Book of Kings<\/a>, which Hazleton supplements with what archaeology has since learned about the kingdom of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has been many years since I looked at 2nd Kings. It is supposedly a chronicle of Israel and Judah, but as Hazleton says, “It has the logic of a dream.” But I was reading Jezebel<\/em> with the Bible in my lap for cross reference (Hazleton provides ample citations.)<\/p>\n

Jezebel’s grandniece,known to the Greco-Roman world as Dido<\/a>, helped to establish the city of Carthage<\/a>, Rome’s military and commercial rival. But Dido’s real name was Elitha, which via the Carthaginian colonies in Spain became “Alicia,” or so Hazleton claims. Meanwhile, Jezebel–Itha-Ba’al–became “Isabelle” (or Isabella or Isobel) by the same route.<\/p>\n

Margaret Murray<\/a>, the English archaeologist who cast Paganism as the “Old Religion” in early modern Europe, claimed that “Isobel” and its variants (along with Joan) was among the most common names of women tried as witches. (Is that why Bj\u00f6rk chose it<\/a>?) But, really, I think that that was because it was a popular name, not because it was a “witch name.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am reading Lesley Hazleton’s Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen, which I picked up at the Doubleday booth at the AAR-SBL meeting. Somewhat as Robert Graves did in King Jesus decades ago–but with better sourcing–she takes a familiar Bible story and re-tells it from a different perspective. Jezebel (Phoenician “Itha-Ba’al” — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[57,40,12],"class_list":["post-958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-polytheism","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-fs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1302,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1302","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":0},"title":"What a Difference the Suffix ‘-ess’ Makes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Following a link from another religion blog, I dropped into today on Beauty Tips for Ministers (subtitled \"Because you're in the public eye, and God knows you need to look good.\")I read this:SO many of you have written to let me know that TLC will be airing an episode of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=846","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":1},"title":"Martin Brennan at Anubis Caves","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Boulder, Colorado, resident Martin Brennan is known for writing visionary books about ancient megalithic monuments, such as The Boyne Valley Vision.A new video clip shows him discussing the mysterious carvings that appear to be synched to the equinoctial sunset shadows at \"Anubis Caves,\" a site in the Oklahoma Panhandle. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=884","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":2},"title":"Pan’s Labyrinth –More Gnostic than Pagan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan blogger Jason Pitzl-Waters has written a great deal about the film Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno), praising it in words such as these:I believe \"Pan's Labyrinth\" presents a unique opportunity to discuss Pagan\/polytheist theology in contrast to the dominant monotheisms. Unlike \"The Da Vinci Code\", this film isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":687,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=687","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":3},"title":"The Da Vinci Code: A Pagan date movie","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"M. and I are not what you would call \"early adopters,\" other than perhaps when we bought a Jeep TJ right after they were introduced in 1997. (We still have it.) So this is not exactly a cutting-edge review of The Da Vinci Code.It is rated PG, which could just\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3651,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3651","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":4},"title":"Is ‘Urban Fantasy’ the new ‘Chick Lit’?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Clad in furs, Princess Tamara of the Realm of Snark rides in off the steppes, followed by her horde of sword-swinging commenters. They come to plunder the genre-fiction shelves. And to denounce the \"pussification of vampires.\"","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12010,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12010","url_meta":{"origin":958,"position":5},"title":"Neopagan Jewelry of 1951 and the Origins of the Tiki Bar","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in 1951, when Wicca was first being introduced to the world, largely via Gerald Gardner and Cecil Williamson's seasonal museum on the Isle of Man, a store in Arlington, Virgina advertised that \"the neo-pagan influence on fashion is one of the style news notes of the Spring season.\" Say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/neo-pagan-jewelry.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}