Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen

by Lesley Hazleton (Goodreads author!)

published	October 16th 2007 by Doubleday
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0385516142 (isbn13: 9780385516143)
pages	272
description	There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bibl...more [close] There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bible. Her name alone speaks of sexual decadence and promiscuity. But what if this version of her story, handed down to us through the ages, is merely the one her enemies wanted us to believe? What if Jezebel, far from being a conniving harlot, was, in fact, framed? In this remarkable new biography, Lesley Hazleton shows exactly how the proud and courageous queen of Israel was vilified and made into the very embodiment of wanton wickedness by her political and religious enemies. Jezebel brings readers back to the source of the biblical story, a rich and dramatic saga featuring evil schemes and underhanded plots, war and treason, false gods and falser humans, and all with the fate of entire nations at stake. At its center are just one woman and one man—the sophisticated Queen Jezebel and the stark prophet Elijah. Their epic and ultimately tragic confrontation pits tolerance against righteousness, pragmatism against divine dictates, and liberalism against conservatism. It is, in other words, the original story of the unholy marriage of sex, politics, and religion, and it ends in one of the most chillingly brutal scenes in the entire Bible. Here at last is the real story of the rise and fall of this legendary woman—a radically different portrait with startling contemporary resonance in a world mired once again in religious wars. [close]
date added	08-22-07 edit book

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Jason rated it:

12/20/07

Read in December, 2007

(The full review I wrote of this book is much larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So are you familiar already with the story of Jezebel? It appears in both the Jewish bible (Tanakh) and the Christian one (Old Testament, Books of Kings), based extremely loosely on the real woman who served as one of the queens of Israel back in ancient times. As the traditional legend goes, Jezebel was ori...more (The full review I wrote of this book is much larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

So are you familiar already with the story of Jezebel? It appears in both the Jewish bible (Tanakh) and the Christian one (Old Testament, Books of Kings), based extremely loosely on the real woman who served as one of the queens of Israel back in ancient times. As the traditional legend goes, Jezebel was originally a pagan Phoenician, married off by her father to Israel's King Ahab for political reasons; it was her meddling ways, according to Jewish and Christian scripture, that led the king away from worshipping the One True God (Yahweh) and to instead focus on the Phoenician "heathen" god Baal. Eventually, however, the power couple was finally confronted by one of the most important early prophets of the Jewish religion, the poverty-embracing, desert-roaming Elijah; it was he who predicted the downfall of Israel because of Jezebel's influence, he who first called her the "harlot queen." And thus, traditional lore has it, did Israel indeed fall to the Assyrians roughly around 900 BC, and thus was Jezebel's body literally eaten by dogs after her death, and thus has her name itself become synonymous over the years with the wanton heretic hussy, using her body and her wily sexual charms to ridicule everything that Good True Christians hold dear.

But there's a problem with this story, or so claims psychologist, Hebrew scholar and Middle East journalist Lesley Hazleton, which is that it simply isn't true; as she details in her new "speculative nonfiction" book Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen, the story itself wasn't even written until 300 years after her death, by a group of Judeans who had never even been to Israel, at a time when Judea itself was under the looming threat of extinction just like had been Israel's fate several centuries earlier. So yes, in other words, there was a political agenda attached to the writing of Kings, a plea from that generation's faithful to take heed of the pagan hoards at Judea's borders; and there was no better way to get that message across than through an alarmist retelling of the Jezebel myth, painting her as a singular creature of evil when in fact she was no particularly worse or better than any of the other Middle Eastern queens of her time. And not only that, but that the very definition of the word "harlot" has changed profoundly since ancient times, with the original authors of Kings meaning nothing sexual at all when first using it themselves. And not only that, but that the prophet Elijah was not really a savior but in actuality Judaism's (and therefore Christianity's) very first radical fundamentalist, the start of an ugly tradition in those religions that in our modern age has brought us televangelists, abortion-clinic bombers, and people obsessed with the Rapture and subsequent Apocalypse.

Yeah, I know, it's a lot of challenges to traditional Western religious thought that Hazleton is throwing out......less

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Lesley rated it:

10/21/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

It's a pleasure to read this hot-off-the-press, gorgeous creative work of nonfiction. Hazleton is a magical writer who brings long-dead women and men and cultures back to life with evocative, sensual prose and imagery that seems to breathe and flower like a garden. I wish I'd had history books like this - Jezebel and Hazleton's earlier award-winning Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother- when I was a young girl intrigued by the ancient world but repelled by the ari...more It's a pleasure to read this hot-off-the-press, gorgeous creative work of nonfiction. Hazleton is a magical writer who brings long-dead women and men and cultures back to life with evocative, sensual prose and imagery that seems to breathe and flower like a garden. I wish I'd had history books like this - Jezebel and Hazleton's earlier award-winning Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother- when I was a young girl intrigued by the ancient world but repelled by the arid, patriarchal tomes available then (including the Old Testament).
The research in Jezebel is erudite, far-reaching and - as far I can tell - impeccable, and it is enrichened by Hazletons' own knowledge and authentic feel for the land, where she lived in its modern version. Yet the details are never overwhelming, academic or dry. This secular book is aimed to entertain and titillate while it re-educates us and digs up long-buried and misundertood artifacts and characters. It is not propaganda or a spiritual tract. It is good, fun, sexy, sometimes shocking and gory history that sheds light on one of the most fascinating aspects of human culture played out time and time again: how a polytheistic, goddess-oriented society loses out to a monotheistic, patriarchal society and how this power play becomes reflected in a re-writing of history and a debasement of the feminine, of women, of goddesses and animals gods, and of ancient queens.
Not raised in any of the religious traditions originating in the Middle East, I'd had little exposure to Jezebel and the other characters in this vast cast,(however, I did gather that a "Jezebel" was apparently an "evil slut". Now I know where that term comes from). My lack of judeo-christian background didn't make this book any less intriguing; I appreciate it as I do any well-told epic story of any culture. I feel less ignorant now. I especially appreciate the retelling of history/myths from a nonstrident "feminist" viewpoint such as Hazleton's. (By "feminist" I mean from the point of view of a woman - or seeing women as fully fledged and important human beings, not mere stage props, vessels for ancient semen, son-bearers, or passive victims of massacres. And "feminist" as understanding the ancient female experience as one that is interesting and worthy of meticulous study.
I am going to put Jezebel on my book shelf next to The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time Volume 1,The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets,and The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future
By Lesley Thomas, author of Flight of the Goose
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Carol added it

11/03/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: all readers

With Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen, Lesley Hazleton has done it again.
Maybe she's succeeded even more -- it's hard to judge because both her recent books are so stunningly good.

Her last -- Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of The Virgin Mother -- looked beneath the myth
of "the perfect woman," discovering the reality behind someone that history re-crafted and cult-ified for a symbol of purity. Jezebel explores the other side of the woman-myth, the ...more

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