Who was Jezebel? How Bad Was She?
Who was Jezebel? For over 2,000 years, Jezebel, Israel’s most accursed queen, has been condemned as a murderer, a temptress and an enemy of God. Who was Jezebel, really? Was she really that bad? In“How Bad Was Jezebel,” Janet Howe Gaines rereads the Biblical narrative from the vantage point of the Phoenician wife of King Ahab. As Gaines writes, “To attain a more positive assessment of Jezebel’s troubled reign and a deeper understanding of her role, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen.”
Read Janet Howe Gaines’s article “How Bad Was Jezebel?” as it originally appeared in Bible Review.
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/scandalous-women-in-the-bible/