Morgan's review
Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen by Lesley Hazleton (Goodreads author!)
Let us thank Lesley Hazleton for bringing the logic of drama--character, motivation, plot--to the Bible stories of saints and sinners. The sketchy saga of Jezebel as we know it, filled with historical inconsistency, linguistic inaccuracy, and moral nonsense, swells with detail as Hazleton frames Jezebel's life and death in the religious and economic politics of her time.
Using impeccable scholarship and direct translation from Hebrew texts, Hazleton explores Jezebel as a political heroine of royal will and responsibility, the leading lady in bloody play with the prophet Elijah over polytheism versus monotheism. Jezebel's harlotry refers to her worship of the many gods and goddesses of her native Phoenicia in opposition to the one god of Israel, Yahweh (though her religious tolerance acknowledges Yahweh as well).
The scholarship necessary to pull off a credible revision of Jezebel's character from symbolic slut to virtuous wife and Queen might have turned overly academic, but Hazl...more
Using impeccable scholarship and direct translation from Hebrew texts, Hazleton explores Jezebel as a political heroine of royal will and responsibility, the leading lady in bloody play with the prophet Elijah over polytheism versus monotheism. Jezebel's harlotry refers to her worship of the many gods and goddesses of her native Phoenicia in opposition to the one god of Israel, Yahweh (though her religious tolerance acknowledges Yahweh as well).
The scholarship necessary to pull off a credible revision of Jezebel's character from symbolic slut to virtuous wife and Queen might have turned overly academic, but Hazl...more
